The two practices that I felt were the most
beneficial are Universal Loving-Kindness and Subtle Mind. For me these two
exercises tackle the most challenging aspects of life and I believe also have a
synergistic affect. The Subtle Mind exercise promotes taming the mind and
allowing us to gain control of our thoughts and emotions while the Universal
Loving-Kindness exercise promotes a compassionate and loving personality that
encourages a forgiving attitude and appreciation for life. In the past three
years or so I’ve implemented strategies such developing an awareness of my
emotions and thoughts and understanding why I feel the way that I do. When I
experience negative emotions I have learned to acknowledge them and dismiss
them as they do not contribute to productivity in my life and only clutter my
thoughts and were not a part of who I wanted to be, ie a person that harbored a
grudge or clung to situations that were beyond my control. I feel that
implementing the subtle mind exercise into my life has further helped me to
de-clutter my mind and gain a new level of focus and control. When it comes to
loving-kindness my journey toward developing this aspect of my life began about
two years ago through rededicating my life to God. In striving to be more like
Him I have developed the ability to more fully love others and have more
compassion and willingness to forgive while developing an increased sense of gratefulness
and appreciation for life. In practicing the Universal Loving-Kindness
exercise, I feel that I have increased my connection to others and developed an
enhanced level of love.
I too felt that Universal Loving-kindness and the Subtle Mind practices were most beneficial for me. They definitely have a synergistic affect, that must be why Dacher suggests we alternate and substitute interchangeably with these two practices. Your intention and openness to dynamically change yourself for the better is something to be proud of!
ReplyDeleteHi Lizzy,
DeleteThank you for your positive feedback. Change is a process and not always easy, but worth it once you can feel the changes you make impacting your life in a positive way.
I really liked the way you articulated how you handle negative emotions. I think the key to maintaining a positive attitude and mental health is like you said,"acknowledging the negative emotion and then dismissing it". That emotion has to go somewhere and if you do not acknowledge it and actively release it you will be holding on to it and it can build through other negative experiences and all that pent up negativity will come out somewhere. Great post!
ReplyDelete-Rachel Harris
I think it is great that you are letting go of negative emotions! It is very hard to do, but so essential to our own well being. That is something that I find important also, since I know that if I am upset about something, the other person may not know, or even care that I am upset and it is non-productive in helping anything. One of my favorite saying to remember is that you can not control others and how they respond or react, you can only control how you respond and react.
ReplyDelete~Jackie
Jackie,
DeleteThat is so true about how we cannot control others only ourselves. This is something that I think is really important for us to understand in our journey toward integral health. When we look inward for solutions instead of outward we have a better opportunity to correct and enhance our health. There may be others that can support our journey, but we need to rely on our own inner resources primarily. Thanks for your feedback!
Brandy
Thanks for commenting on my post. I was thinking about one of my staff members when I read your post. She is having a hard time dealing with the negativity in our work situation and no matter how many times I tell her to let it go she keeps holding on. Today at work she blurted out in our staff meeting how she felt like she was being mistreated other members of the staff. I told her that by constantly worrying and stressing over situations she can't control she is giving them more power. I plan to share the loving-kindness exercise with her and see if that will work. I connected to what you said about negative emotions not contributing to your ability to be productive. Thanks so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteTiffany
Hey,
ReplyDeleteI too found the Universal Loving-Kindness one of the best exercises that we did, because it helped us channel that compassion and love that we feel for our families and friends and had us project that onto others, and made us love others and look deep within ourselves to find that love. However, I found the Subtle Mind exercise difficult because it was very hard to control our thoughts, I think with more practice I can try to control the mindless chatter, but it was hard to do that in the couple times I have tried in the class. Great post!
Brandy,
ReplyDeleteI also chose the subtle mind practice because it helps me to control my thought process a bit more and it helps me realize that my thoughts just occur, they do not mean that I am a bad person or that bad things are going to happen. I tend to worry a lot and this practice helps me to put things in to perspective. It takes a strong mind to stop the negative mind chatter that most of us experience throughout the day. I have just started to realize how my negative thoughts affect how I interact with others and also how I present myself. Slowly I have begun to catch my negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones. The Loving-Kindness exercise was helpful when it came to feeling for my loved ones. I still feel that it is difficult for me to really connect with the rest of the world and send out my loving-kindness. It may come with practice though! Enjoyed your post Brandy!
Lindsey