Loving Kindness: Practing Mental Fitness

I thought the both the loving kindness and subtle mind exercises concentrated on loosening my grasp on the happenings around me, so that I could just observe rather than react.  They both asked me to find a focal point and gave me time to move from my outer mind into my inner self.  Both exercises focused on specific goals and took the listener through the process one step at a time.  However, the loving kindness exercise helped me to reach out with loving kindness toward not only myself but to others.  The subtle mind exercise, on the other hand, worked specifically on using my breathing to help me calm and still my mind and bring me back into focus when my mind wandered.  Ultimately I will be able to maintain the stillness and focusing so that I can release my mind to unity consciousness.

I think this is a good exercise, but I have trouble with focusing, so it took me awhile to really focus on my breathing.  However, focusing on my breathing eventually helped me to bring myself back from distractions.  It was a little frustrating, because my mind is very busy, and I found that I really had to focus on my breathing in order to get back on track. For awhile it was a constant back and forth process.  Eventually, I was able to calm my mind for awhile, but it never lasted very long.  I have to say that when I was able to get to the point where my mind was calm, it was a very restful feeling.

Spiritual wellness completes our integral health by complementing our mind and body health.  It has been proven that praying for someone can make a difference in his/her recovery.  It is also the area that is opened up to us, as we are able to work though the levels of the subtle mind.  I have been involved in formal religion off and on in my life, but I have always maintained a spiritual connection through prayer.  It’s interesting for me to have a better understanding of the spiritual side of wellness, because when people have said that they would pray for me, I really didn’t understand how powerful that could be in my life.