I would have to say the two meditation practices I like best are Subtle Mind and Universal Loving-Kindness.
I love the Subtle Mind because it is teaching me how to relax my whole body and mind, bringing them into sinct with each other making them one unit. As Dacher says, I am to allow myself to settle into the natural ease of my mind and body, breathing while maintaing firm concentration on your chosen focal point. My chosen focal point is listenting, listening, listening to my body, focusing on learning what it is saying through my breathing, my heart rate, and muscle reaction (how long it takes to relax them). I have been working on this exercise since we learned about it, and I am getting better at listening to my body. Relaxing everything about me bringing all my sounds together as one unit. I have not reached the full experience of this type of meditation practice yet, but will definitely be working on reaching the last step, which is to be firmly stabilized in stillness. I want to feel this step, to accomplish it, mastering myself! What an accomplishment that will be. I will be so excited, and then I will be able to soar to different heights of my being, I will have more insight and realizations of many things.
One of the things I have experienced lately is seeing a haze or a shadow around both hands and fingers. Every way I move my fingers that shadow is there. It is really weird!! I spoke with my message therapist and she told me the more I keep practicing the meditation practice, the more this will come to be because I am calming myself expanding my abilities. When I first saw it, I wondered what it was, why am I seeing this and what does it mean? I do not see this everyday, only some days, and seems to be when I have no stress (stress from school work).
The other exercise I really enjoy is the Universal Loving-Kindness. This practice gives me a sense of purpose and accomplishment for others. I am able to do something for those I cannot physically help or those whom I do not know. To me, this exercise is the same as praying for those in need. To implement this practice into my life to accomplish "mental fitness" is simply doing this exercise everyday when I pray, or blocking out a different time in the day for this practice, or just saying this as a prayer, or implementing this practice when I am stressed about something. There are many ways I can implement this that would be helpful for accomplishing mental fitness, and realizing that life does not just revolve around me. There are many other people in the world that need help in many areas of their life and if I can pray for those in need, I am accomplishing alot. There are many who feel know one knows they exist or cares for them. If I could meet those individuals and let them know we know they exist and care for them, they would feel loves. Can you imagine how many people do not feel loved and are sick from that lack of emotion? I used to see new babies 2 and 3 months old coming into the hospital with the diagnoses "failure to thrive", and it was because the mother did not love the baby. Right there is actual proof all people need to be loved!
Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, California: Basic Health Publications, Inc.
Anita "Yvette" Clark
Hi Yvette! The Loving-Kindness exercise is one of my favorite one's too but I didn't choose it for this project. But when I do this exercise I too imagine people out there that do not know the feeling of being loved and it is a very sad thought! It really hit home when you talked about babies coming into the hospital with a diagnosis of "failure to thrive". That is almost unimaginable, I know it happens all the time but I don't understand how a mother can NOT show her baby love and affection. That just breaks my heart!
ReplyDeleteThe Subtle Mind exercise is still hard for me to do but the more I do it the easier it is getting. I try to do it when I have a moment here and there of quietness but that doesn't happen very often.
Have a good day!
Monica
Yvette,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. I'm wondering if what you're seeing around your hands is your aura? I would love to be able to see people's auras, I think it would be fascinating! I haven't spent much time learning about how you develop the ability to see auras, but your experience reminded me of that.
I agree with Monica that seeing babies that have been diagnosed with failure to thrive is heartbreaking. I'm sure it's not just the babies that need the loving-kindness, the mothers must be struggling themselves with their own problems.
Good luck to you!