Friday, February 4, 2011

Week 8

The loving kindness and visualization are for sure my two most beneficial exercises.  I prefer them by far.  I think because I am a beginner I need the thought process each offers to fallow in order to benefit.  I can't not sit still in my mind yet, but these help me a little more each time to feel as though I am learning how to gain control of my thoughts.  I think this will eventually lead into being able to use the subtle mind exercise and meditation (chants and clearing the mind type of exercises) with more success. 

I have it on my to do list each day to make the time to "meditate" (mostly I mean to use some form of mental relaxation practice) and most days I take at least a few minutes.  Overall I would like to completely improve this process and have 15 minuted when I first wake up and 15 minutes before bed to use these kinds of exercises.  It takes making it happen, so I need to work harder.  I do think making it a daily event for myself will help me to foster mental fitness in an even more successful way. 

4 comments:

  1. Courtney,

    I have been told that to make things easier turn them into a habit. I feel the same as you, I have a busy mind also. Sitting for 15 minutes to me would be harder than running a marathon. I would either be asleep in 5 or so bored I would walk away. Practice makes perfect and it will benefit us in the end.

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  2. Hi Courtney,
    It is very hard to sit still and focus for any amount of time these days, but I notice that even without the formal meditation I just remember when things start getting crazy to bring my mind to the moment. Simple as that take a few deep breathes and refocus to the very moment you are in. It really helps to close down all the other blah, blah, going on in your head or around you. Take a few minute to just shut everything and everyone out and BE in the moment, because really as we live nothing else matters except what we are experiencing in this very moment of time. Think about it yesterday doesn't matter, it's gone, tomorrow doesn't matter because we are never guaranteed it will come, so right now is all that counts, enjoy it!

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  3. Courtney,
    I agree that the visualization exercise is one of the easiest and I have been using it just to get into the habit and to practice focusing. I used to do my Bible/devotional reading first thing in the morning and have gotten into just reading it "sometime" during the day when I can make time, but I do think it was more beneficial when I actually made the time first thing in the morning to clear my head and recenter through focusing on God's word. I agree that we need to keep practicing and schedule our mental exercises into our day.

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  4. That is great to have a plan and to have already been doing the exercises. I am afraid if I were to wake up and do the meditation I would fall back to sleep. If I did them right before bed it would make me go to sleep. Which would not be at all bad I guess. But if that were to happen it would be more of a relaxation technique instead of mental fitness.

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