Unit 4: Loving-Kindness

I really enjoyed the loving-kindness listening exercise this week. I felt very relaxed and I liked that is was a decent amount of time and also liked the calming music at the end. I found it to be very beneficial in a way that I got to understand that I cannot share these feelings of loving-kindness with anyone until I experience them with myself. I feel that I am able to share this with my Husband, which is the person I thought about that I love with my whole heart. I feel at peace when I think about the love we share. On the other hand, I felt that the part of this exercise that was difficult was thinking about a person who is suffering and breathing in their pain and breathing out peace and health. I was unable to complete this part of the exercise without becoming emotional. I understand that this exercise was not meant to heal that person, but it was difficult to stay focused when I know how much pain and hurt they are in and how much I would love to make it go away. I would however recommend this exercise to everyone because I found it to be very beneficial and calming...made me understand a lot.

Without training the mind there will be no improvement, just like physical fitness. Without working out and hard determination you will never gain the muscle you were hoping for by summer. Mental workouts will take time, not everyone has tons of time during the day to practice so as long as we are taking 30 minutes or so a day to practice we can enhance the mind daily. No sense of trying to overdue it because then you will get burnt out or no follow through and like anything else once you get out of practice it's tough to get back in and it's tough to gain what you have already learned back...it's like starting from square one.

Amanda