Two Mental Practices That Work For Me

The two mental practices that I found to work best for me and create a lasting effect were the Loving-Kindness and the visualization practices. The Loving-Kindness practice is such as peaceful and fulfilling engagement. Practicing this on a regular basis helps me to have and keep love in my heart and radiate it towards others. I dislike my conditioned thoughts towards others sometimes, so by practicing Loving-Kindness, I can change my initial thoughts to pure love. An example of how this positively effected me was a recent train ride I took last week. On this train were so many "gross-looking" and "gross-acting" individuals (the train runs through many poor areas of the city of Chicago) who either littered out the doors when they opened, cussed at their children, or who just smelled really bad. I had poor thoughts of them all but then suddenly the love I remembered from practicing this Loving-Kindness meditation knocked on my door and budged its way inside. Love took over and I no longer held in these negative feelings towards these people or towards my inner self, more importantly. I was able to completely transform my emotions by allowing love and kindness to fill my heart, mind, and the place that I was physically in.

The visualization practice is another wonderful meditative act that has allowed happiness to fill my soul; to fill my inner core. I can at any time, any place, through any situation close my eyes for a minute and visualize a calming scene; a happy scene; a peaceful scene. Whatever it is I need at that time and place, I can create it in my mind which gives me the emotions I'm after. This changes my whole aura which changes those around me too. This has helped me specifically when dealing with my wild three-year-old son: he is always pushing the limits, my buttons, and the dog (literally). I take a few moments to close my eyes to gain calmness and love back into my heart and mind and then I am way more able to deal with the situation in a calm way. My son truly benefits from this, as do I.

These are true ways of strengthening my mental fitness as long as I practice them both on a regular basis. They keep my mind and thinking fit by staying positive, calm, kind, peaceful, and loving.

Integral Assessment

The universal loving-kindness meditation exercise from page 93 of our Dacher text was very enlightening. My mind willfully accepted the words I said as I imagined all people rising above their suffering and floating on clouds of health, happiness, and wholeness. It was truly a divine experience for me. I discovered how easy my mind allowed me to believe these words; how much my whole being wanted this for all people.

From our Dacher text, the Integral Assessment meditative practice allowed me to discover that within the worldly aspect of my life is where I have always had the most difficulty. Within any job I’ve had, it has been out of survival. I have worked in many restaurants as a server and had recently worked in a technical support department; all of which has service responsibilities. I want to give my service, which is the highest level to achieve in this realm of life. But I must “choose” it, not “put up” with it in order to make money and survive. So this is also the area that I want to focus my growth and development on. After reading chapter 11 on Flourishing in the World, my view of this aspect completely transformed; it slapped me awake. I want to turn my life into a service of myself; taking each opportunity to practice strengthening my inner self in order to reach my highest potential. It doesn’t matter what one does to make money, it only matters if what one does is able to use it as leverage for reaching integral health and flourishing.

I am not currently working right now but I am out in the “world” everyday: running errands, waiting in lines, dealing with people over the phone and in person, etc. I run into many angry people on the street and in stores and they usually are able to light a spark of madness within me. I want to realize these opportunities before that spark ignites and reach deep within myself to practice my loving-kindness in order to find an inner peace. Diffusing all situations that stem from anger or frustration will be the goal of such opportunities.

I enjoyed both the Loving-Kindness exercise as well as the Subtle mind exercise we did this week. I know many of my classmates stated they did not like the loving kindness part of “inhaling” other’s pain and suffering but I did not have any problem imagining that breathing it in would disintegrate from the love of my heart and allow my body to breath out health, happiness, and wholeness back into the person I was focusing on. The Subtle mind exercise was just as calming and rewarding as the loving kindness exercise. I enjoyed this one very much because I had in mind the benefits I of calmness and stillness I wanted to experience so badly. I hate mental chatter, which is why these exercises are so wonderful because they help my mind to witness, not hold onto and accept and love, not criticize.

There is a connection between spiritual wellness and physical wellness by one’s ability to use their mind and body as one. This is accomplished through mindful and intentional practice. This connection has begun to manifest in my personal life more than ever before since the beginning of our Creating Wellness class. These exercises and readings help to understand a deeper meaning to life and the interconnectedness of these different aspects of our life. My mental wellness plays a role on my physical wellness and vice versa. When one is lacking, it can pull down the other as well. There has to be an effort to maintain both aspects in order to keep on the path of wellness as a whole.

Loving Kindess

For the time it took to complete the Loving Kindness practice, I truly felt the diminishing of self-centeredness; just as it said it would. I understand I will have to practice this twice a day for the next week in order for it to be a more natural state of mind, though. This was without a doubt a beneficial exercise because it gave me the chance to feel the tenderness and love that I hold for my son and my pets to others; to channel that dense loving kindness to people that I know are suffering, strangers that I do not know, and to “enemies.” I do not label anyone in my life, past or present, an enemy by the way. Instead, I think of the people who have wronged me or my loved ones who I know hold much pain and suffering inside. I have realized these people are who need someone like me to breathe in that dark cloud that surrounds them and to then release my positive energy that is filled with health, love, joy, peace, and happiness towards them. I recommend this exercise to others because we all need this opportunity to realize a greater potential that Dacher speaks of within his book, Integral Health, and his audio CD.

The concept of a “Mental Workout” is exactly as it states: exercising the mind in order to reach its full potential. Just as one exercises their muscles at the gym in order to become more fit, strong, toned, etc, our minds need a good workout just as often in order to keep it healthy, strong, fit, and efficient. The research surrounding the benefits of mental workouts indicates that a developed compassionate mental state “increase[s] [the] synchronization of gamma waves and organization which suggests a higher order of mental integration” (Dacher, 2006, 63).

I will implement mental workouts in order to foster my psychological health by dedicating certain time periods within my day that I can devote to this practice. Dacher recommends 5-15 minutes, twice per day (2006, 66). I will begin with the Loving Kindness workout for the next week and will progress to the other exercises as our course progresses, too.

Reference

Dacher, E.S., M.D. (2006) Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA. Basic Health Publications, Inc. ISBN-13:978-1-59120-190-8