Loving Kindness Practice

Beginning the Loving Kindness Practice by, Dacher (2006), seemed similar to other meditations that I have done in the past.  I have not gone through any practices of taking on other peoples suffering and transforming it before.  I’ve sent other people loving-kindness in the past but not taken on their suffering for transformation.  That part was interesting. Pre-reading the loving-kindness process helped me to understand that this new experience was not going to injure me and that in itself gave me the confidence to make the full attempt that the guidance instructed.  Evidently during the segment of taking on more people’s suffering and transforming it, I fell asleep.  Most interesting!  In other meditations I’ve been told that this is particularly good because I needed exactly that, in that moment.  So, I’m not sure if that means my first attempt was successful for the other people that I was working with but it helped me out with something that I evidently needed and I do feel quite refreshed.  This will be interesting to see the developmental stages.  I'm looking forward to it.

References

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Loving Kindness Practice. On The path to human flourishing [CD].

About Mental Workouts

In psychospiritual flourishing, the term “Mental Workout” takes into account the exercise of deeply quieting the mind, using intentional focus, developing new awareness, replacing negative thoughts with positive ones, and introducing new ideas and ways of thinking, that contribute to an improved sense of well-being and an interconnectedness with all things (Dacher, 2006).

Research indicates that in as little as one hour per day spent in the practice of a mental workout, accumulative beneficial results are seen and well-being is enhanced.  And just like any training regime when the practice is stopped, the benefits recede as well, thus it is very important to establish a regular life affirming routine.

I can implement mental workouts by setting aside 30 minutes in the morning and evening.  It’s not necessarily the length of time spent in a mental workout but the consistency that will bring about the desired results.  In organizing my daily events, it is much better to start my day with a mental workout because it will contribute positively to everything else that goes on during the day.  It is also beneficial to end my day with a mental workout because it will contribute to a peaceful nights rest.  How great is that?!

References

Dacher E S 2006 Integral health: The path to human flourishinDacher, E. S. (2006). Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Development Proposal

I propose the following to assist me in moving forward toward my physical, spiritual and psychological goals:

Physical goal activities:  Swim, walk, strength training, stretch, and eat healthy foods each week.

Spiritual goal activities:  Mindfulness meditations – deep breathing exercise, visualize myself as expansive white energy without a body, and allow myself to become open to inner guidance and dialogue. 

Psychological goal activities:  Start using my left hand more (I’m right handed), exercise my mind by playing memory games (there are lots of fun memory games available), and attempt to learn something new each week.

Self-Reflection of Being

     My personal ratings:

          -        Physical Well-being rating:           6

          -        Spiritual Well-being rating:           7

          -        Psychological Well-being rating:  6

The above ratings have actually risen in the past two years due to a slow unwinding process of detoxification from being out of work from doing something that did not bring me joy, for almost 30 years.  I am very happy to report these ratings and look forward to the increases yet to come.


Personal goals for myself in each area:

   Physical           - lose 25 pounds, exercise regularly and eat healthy

   Spiritual           - further develop my awareness of my connection to source

   Psychological  - learn new mental fitness routines and explore ways to 

                                    continuously stimulate motivation

"The Crime of the Century" - Relaxation

With this relaxation technique, it did take a little time getting into the swing of the meditation.  It was actually right up my alley, using all those colors.  I loved it!  I didn't fall readily into picturing a window in each of the areas, but just the deep brilliant living colors of the chakras.  Right after I finished, I went to work on a project and it flowed fabulously together and I was finished in no time at all.  Wow!  Maybe I should meditate just before all projects!!!!  I am going to do this just out of curiosity.  Hope everyone is doing well with all of their work for this week.

Building NrLight

I must say that building this blog was not as challenging as I thought it was going to be.  I'm sure that starting out without any knowledge on how to do it made me feel more scared than I needed to be, but with my understanding of how to step through the learning process, I moved that scary feeling into "exploring" and I began to find some interesting items like my fish tank.

Once I figured out how to access the color settings I was a happy camper!  I just "love" working with colors!!!!! 

I still don't know what many options are but as time allows I'll discover them.  It kind of sets up the possibility of having more fun down the road.  I like that!

"Journey On" - Relaxation Experience

After listening to the "Journey On" assignment, I experienced the ability to change sensations in my arms and legs from what was considered normal to me to what felt like heaviness, and this was quite interesting.  Just the idea of the mind giving commands to body parts and those body parts responding to those precise commands with immediate response was quite fascinating.

I wanted to find out more about this autogenic training technique.  It is actually a type of therapy that was developed in the 1930's for relaxation and stress reduction in an effort to stimulate natural healing in the body.  It has also been used to reduce anxiety, manage pain, reduce fatigue, and lower irritability (WebMD, 2011).  I'm also reading that in order to master Autogenic Training (AT), you need to do it regularly, and then because you always have it with you, you can use it anywhere at anytime.  How convenient is that??  This seems like it would be a nice personal tool to have around.

References:
WebMD (2011). What is autogenic training. Retrieved from

http://www.webmd.com/balance/tc/autogenic-training-topic-overview

From my Inner Light to Yours

Hi there! Welcome!! Ready your keyboard and let's see what's happening!  All this is very new and very interesting and I'm sure there will be many discoveries and oopses to go through, so "let's do this!".  We are all here together.