After practicing the Loving Kindness exercise over the past couple of days, I have come to enjoy it. I must admit, the first few days of practicing this exercise was a bit difficult and didn't really seem to be too helpful, however, after continuing it over this past week, the last few days I felt like I definitely got more out of it. I think it's because I never really tried to do this type of practice before, so in the beginning it's quite hard for me to really focus and concentrate, especially since I have a three year old who is home with me all day, so I don't get a lot of time to myself. So I also had to adjust the time down to 5 minutes the first couple of days because I was constantly interrupted and I just couldn't focus. I did get up to 10 minutes the last few days which is a great feat for me. I think it really is a beneficial and helpful exercise because being able to think and concentrate on a particular loved one (I chose my husband), made me feel very happy. I want only the best for my husband, and I want to be able to think of everyone in a loving, kind manner, even people I don't know. I think that being able to reduce our self-centeredness, so we can think about others is a great thing to be able to do. I think this really benefits everyone and I would recommend it to others.
I think the concept of "mental workout" is being able to practice and train our minds, which help us to open our hearts to others, getting rid of the self-centeredness, and also open our minds so we can delve deeper into them. The benefits include we grow compassion for other people's well-being and we gain wisdom by training our minds. We can reduce our meaningless thoughts, feelings, and images if we practice on a regular basis.
I think mental workouts help in our psychological health because it gives us a stronger sense of others. It also helps us to address and tame our busy mind. It will help us to progress to ending up with a calm and stable frame of mind.
Thanks for reading!
Kristin Croake
Kristin,
ReplyDeleteI commend you for your diligence in this relaxation exercise. It seems like even though it was not natural for you, you went for it. I bet that the dedication you seem to have for exercise helps you to muster up dedication for other aspects of life….you probably have good self efficacy. It’s interesting how one aspect of health can carry into other aspects of health. Nice work!
Sacha