Hey all, hope everyone is having a great weekend. This week we are talking about the loving kindness exercise. I myself sat through the exercise twice and while I felt relaxed, I could not get my mind to feel calm, so I could not really visualize or feel the words. I think I will need to practice this one a few more times, I have been really stressed lately and kind of mad at the world. So that is probably interfering with the exercise and the calming of my mind. I think I need to up my candle ritual to a couple times a week of instead of just once a week. Candle ritual is where I light a candle and whisper all my stresses, hurts, failures and anything else I need to release and then I watch it get carried away from the smoke of the candle (for anyone who missed my blog last week, I wanted to share what the candle ritual is). I would recommend all of these exercises to people, even if they were to never work for me; that does not mean that it cannot work for others.
A mental work-out is just as a physical work-out is, we need physical work-out to keep the body healthy and we need a mental work-out to keep the mind healthy. Research shows that a mental work-out can reduce negative emotions such as anger, hate, worry, fear and doubt. It can also help improve happiness, love, memory and and an overall well being. We have to each find the best way for each of us to work-out our minds, for me it really is my candle ritual. I am clearing my mind of the things that I do not need and inviting all the good things in to my life as I sit quietly watching and eventually I will need less and less time to accomplish my goals. I am training my mind to let go! Be well everyone and I hope your journey is going as well as mine is.
Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral Health, The Path to
Human Flourishing. Laguna, Beach: Basic Health Publications.
I'm sorry to hear you are mad at the world. We've all been there and I find myself there more often than I'd like lol. I hope you find some way to still relax and ignore it all soon. But I know how hard that really is. Maybe you can find some time to do an activity you enjoy like sewing, painting your nails, woodworking. Just because you are busy doesn't mean you aren't relaxing :)
ReplyDeleteI think we are sharing in the collective consciousness of discontent with the world this week! Finding time to reflect and reminding yourself to be kind and loving is a great start to minimizing the hurt of the world.
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI think your candle ritual sounds amazing, there are many purposes that candles are used for when it comes to healing. Another type of ritual similar to the one you described is writing fears, worries, the name of someone you need to forgive, or even cleansing after a relationship or anything else weighing on your mind, you write it out and then you burn it, this is significant because it clears the air but, you can actually see the smoke carrying your troubles up to the heavens so it is as if you are letting what ever high power you believe in take them away from you and take care of them. I am going to try your candle ritual though thank you for sharing
Jennifer, I completely understand about not being able to quiet the mind...I commend you for trying the exercise twice! I could hardly get through it once. I do remember you talking about your candle ritual, and I think it's fantastic. It probably would be a good idea for you to do it more than once a week, especially if you are not in a great space in your life right now. It's strange how when we need these "rituals" and exercises the most, that always seems to be the hardest time to implement them for some reason. I hope you feel better, I know you can do this! Kara
ReplyDeleteI think the loving-kindness exercise can be difficult when you are angry. I have also found that it is helpful to help let go of that anger. This exercise was hard to follow for me too because there was too much space between the leading that the speaker did... too much time to let my mind wonder. I must say though, from someone who also deals with a lot of anger from time to time, I have come to the conclusion lately that sometimes anger is there to tell us something. Sometimes it is not letting it go that we need to do, sometimes it is there to lead us to take action against being wronged. I have found that when I cannot let it go, there is a reason why. In my anger, sometimes I get things done for myself that I would not otherwise be able to do... like set a boundary regarding how I am going to be treated. I don't know what your problems are, but I thought I would share for some food for thought.
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