At first, I thought we had already practiced The Universal Loving Kindness exercise which I was wrong. This was a different type of exercise with meaning and intention. It took me a few times before I could close my eyes as I kept forgetting the words. Once I had it memorized them and I kept saying it over and over again, I started to believe in what I was saying. It almost felt like a prayer in asking that all individuals from everywhere be helped with suffering, health, happiness and wholeness! It gave me a good feeling.
After reviewing the integral assessment the area in which I need to work on is psychospiritual flourishing; conative, cognitive and emotional areas. Conative refers to the source and character of motivation, cognitive refers to changing reactive, conditioned and self-protection to reasoning cognition that seeks the larger truth. And the final is emotional, recognizing uncontrollable emotions such as anger, fear or other reactive emotions and for me it would be controlling them.
Some of the exercises that can help me with this is the Universal Loving Kindness Exercise, Yoga and meditation exercises. Does anyone else have additional suggestions?
Hello Lil,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to take the time to respond to your post because I can relate to much of what you stated. It was a challenge at first with the reciting of the meditation. It took me several tries to get the words down and even then I would check back to make sure I was saying the lines correctly. Do you feel that took away from your experience?
The second part was to review the integral assessment?. "When quiet, ask yourself, "What aspect of my life-psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, or worldly-is the source of difficulty and suffering?" (Dacher, 2006, p.115). For me this week it was interpersonal aspect. I have had some tough times with work, family and being able to balance all of them. I find that when I get stressed my family tends to pay the price. I need to work on that and build my relationship with my family. Do you ever feel that when you have a hard week your meditation tends to pay the price as well?
Let me know.
Emily
Reference:
Dacher, E.S., (2006). Integral Health. The Path to Human Flourishing. Basic Health
Hey Emily, yes I am in the same boat. Sometimes there seem like there is not enough hours in the day and then I tend to wonder if that is really true, am I wasting time or am I an overachieve that packs 30 hours into a 24 hour day.
DeleteI think the answer is all of the above. I like to be busy and sometimes expect others to be busy too. My personal life sometimes takes a hit too. I am a single parent, I work 55 miles one way and get up at the crack of dawn and come home when its dark. My son is 14 and sometimes I feel like we are room mates.
I am trying harder to work only 8 hours per day and get home for dinner time and also do things together to spend more time even if it going to Wal-Mart
Thanks - Lil
Thank you so much for your post. I just completed the loving kindness exercise myself and was amazed by the feeling I had afterwards. I really felt like I had let go of a lot of negative feelings that I had for some people. I was left with an incredible feeling of peace. I also struggled with the closing your eyes and relaxing and reading words part of the exercise. I do suppose I like it better when the words are on audio. Thank you again!
ReplyDeletePamela Johnson
That is wonderful that you were able to find such peace in the loving kindness exercise. I was not so successful in doing so. You have a good idea to memorize it and then try. I don't think that I was as patient with this exercise as I needed to be. It was hard to visualize for me. But now that I think back, it is a frame of mind.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Brandie
Hey Brandie - what was a bit weird is that it felt like a prayer for others vs myself or people I know. There is so much distress in this world that it made me recognize that I am fortunate and that there are others that are less fortunate than me. So it just made me think about other people.
Deleteweird huh?
Lil
Lil,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that I thought we had already worked with the loving kindness idea and I struggled with it but after a few times enjoyed the exercises and being open and ready accept and love someone. However I was wrong the universal loving kindness threw me for a loop, I was not really ready and soon as I read the words “bring to awareness the presence of all humanity…” My emotions turned up and my mind lost focus, it was tough. I have tried it several times and I really struggle to take down the walls and allow everyone to see me, this makes me feel vulnerable. I like your idea of doing yoga or meditating when trying this, I have done only small amounts of yoga but I think it might help if my body was relaxed. I can try again and see what happens.
Corban
Hello Lil,
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean by saying words to a prayer over or poem over and over again you start to believe them and as I part Native American I believe in a lot of prayers and I also have the "Gift" to know and see when loved ones are passing or protecting from harm. My oldest daughter also has it too. My daughter and I have several guardian angels that stay with us all the time 24/7 and we almost never see them unless we are close to being in accident or something else happens. I can go to a cemetery and feel the spirits speak to me as well and that is kind of weird but, I know that they think I am their relative. We can drive by a house where something happened or building and I feel the death or murder that took place there. I'm not the paranormal powers just the "Gift" of innocent people taken away. As for the assessment, I have a hectic life and things get so chaotic in it that time never stops for me it just keeps moving and then I am left to move with it and miss out on things I really want to do like be with everyone or do what I want to do and there is also pleasing everyone too. I really need to work on the last one and take time for myself. Have a bright and warm day.
Jennifer