When I
first read about the loving-kindness meditation exercise I thought it’d be
simple enough. However, when I tried it, it was a whole other thing. I found it
not so easy, but not hard. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to force thinking of
a loved one at first, or just let it come naturally. Eventually after a few
days of doing it, I just let whomever pop up naturally in my mind. Then when it
was time to just feel the body then mind and accept all “sensations”, pleasant
or not, I felt nothing and was thinking this meditation was just weird or I was
doing it wrong. When I had to do the loving part on myself, that was not hard,
it was easy to follow.
Next when
I had to picture a loved one suffering, I pictured that person and tried to
feel the hurting that they feel, I did the breathing in and out to make the
suffering disappear and also repeated the mantra in my head. When I was to
picture strangers, the first time I did it I thought of the homeless, the
second time I did this meditation I thought of cancer patients, then I thought
of children in the children’s hospital, and more… basically just people I don’t
know personally that might be suffering daily. Then when the exercise from the
MP3 in doc sharing said to picture a field of enemies but to continue to
practice loving kindness, I thought at first it was weird. It was actually a
really good part to me after a few days of doing it though because even though
there may be people I dislike and that dislike me, I learned from the
meditation that it doesn’t matter about our dislike for one another when there
are people suffering out there, and may not even live long. It made my feelings
of dislike lift while I focused on love for others.
Anyway,
would I say this exercise is beneficial? Sort of, but mainly just the last
part. Would I recommend it? Sure. I may not like it, but just because I don’t
care for the entire exercise doesn’t mean someone else won’t enjoy it.
Personally,
if I am going to practice loving-kindness meditations I have my own way of
doing it that I prefer. I also like to practice daily even when out and about.
Once I start feeling frustration with a situation or how someone is acting… I
just repeat, “Love them, love who they are, accept what they’re doing, it’s out
of your control. Loving-kindness is what matters”. I am trying to do this with
my neighbors above me, but it’s not working so far. They are really loud,
stompy, and inconsiderate. I will work on trying to feel loving-kindness for
them, but with every stomp and slam… my skin crawls (thank goodness I am moving
May 1st into a house!).
The concept
of a mental workout is just practicing meditation exercises daily. If one can
practice loving-kindness, calmness, patience, or more in their mind, they are
exercising the brain and making it work to shift to a more positive thought
process. People would essentially be “training the mind” by doing a mental
workout.
Heather,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post! I'm like you when it comes to this exercise. I found some of the visualizations hard to accomplish at first and if you are forcing something then it isn't very relaxing. I found picturing strangers and enemies difficult and once again not very relaxing. There were some good aspects to the exercise and overall I think I would recommend it to someone else to try but it would be difficult for me to want to do it over a long period of time repeatedly.
I completely understand where you're coming from with these thoughts. I found this weeks exercise to be more difficult than the others. Maybe it was just the day or something but it was hard to become relaxed and focused on the task. I'm glad you'd still recommend it even though you might not have loved it. Sometimes things we didn't really enjoy were things that actually really helped us.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy looking at your blog and think you make excellent points. I really like your version of the loving kindness exercise and am going to try it! Thanks for the idea.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post! In life's ups and downs, it is important to recognize your limits. I think the main focus in my experience with this exercise was compassion. I had to learn that compassion is great when spread to others, but must also flow within you. In order to forgive another and to help others, one must also do the same for themselves. This exercise helped to make me realize that the majority of my problem is that I am far too hard on myself.
ReplyDeleteHeather I enjoyed reading your blog and thought it was very informative. Sometimes I say Hello to someone that may look down and out or just in general, but not all the time. I have learned that person may be going through something and when you smile at them or say Hi that might uplift them.
ReplyDelete