UNIT 8 Blog, S. Gillmore

Review the exercises and practice sessions you have completed in this course. (Loving Kindness, Subtle mind, Visualization, meditation etc.) Choose two practices that you have determined to be most beneficial. How can you implement these practices in your personal life to foster “mental fitness”? Provide specific examples.

I have so enjoyed each of these, yet two have stood out in my own mind as being more successful than the others.  I would like to share how I feel about each of them before I answer the questions stated.

Loving-kindness makes so much sense to me and I couldn't agree more with the concept.  It seems the equivalent to "turn the other cheek" in the Bible.  I have tried and tried  the whole loving-kindness concept and find this one most difficult.  I am a loving person, calm and true to those that I love, always helpful (to a fault) and willling to share your pain and yet the loving-kindness factor changes when I am thinking of the person or people that have hurt me the most.  I presume I practice loving-kindness without realizing that I do so.  Regardless of others actions, I find myself simply keeping my voice unheard and praying for that person.  I guess I am getting the concept with struggles.

The subtle-mind, oh my goodness, this one is tough for me.  No matter how many times I try to clear my mind, I feel like my mind is a major highway with stuff driving all over it.  I keep trying and trying to get my mind to be totally free of the chatter that we all kep talking about.......not too succeessful, but I will keep trying!

Visualization is the one that I can get.  My mother used to tell us as children,' don't keep saying you are gonna do it, see yourself doing it, and it will happen!"  Very true words.  I can actually make myself be very still and calm and allow myself to visualize being somewhere or with someone to the point that I feel like I get taken away from reality.  When we did the visualization piece for class I could feel myself in the presence of my dear friend that crossed over.  I could actually smell his cologne.  I am sure to continue to use this great technique to get to where it is in life that I am heading.  I am tryng hard to 'see myself' there. 

Meditation is one that I am still practicing yet feel as though I can master on some level.  I think that visualization and meditation go hand in hand.  If you can meditate you can visualize and vise versa.  I use meditation thoughout my day and don't even realize it.  My job (like most) is very stressful and frustrating to say the least, at times.  When it becomes too much to handle and my neck begins to tense up and my palms begin to sweat and my heart begins to race, I go to my office, turn on my ,ittle fan, turn off the overhead light and place a "do not disturb, conference call " plackard on my door.  I take about 5-7 minutes to JUST SIT and breath.  Yes all the 'stuff' rolls in and out of my head but I find that if I saty very focused on my breathing that the time slips by without notice and the symptoms that casued me to shut my door start to dissapate.  I will continue to use htis practice as it seesm to get me through the hard days. 

So for me, visualization and meditation are the two exercises that best suit me personally.  I would like to master the suble mind and get better at loving-kindness.  I will keep trying!

Sharon