I listened to the Loving Kindness Meditation Exercise Again and found it to be even more beneficial than the last time I listened to it. I love focusing on the four sentences from this exercise and I think that I am going to place them at random places around my house so that I can see them, and meditate on them whenever possible. The four sentences that I find most beneficial from this exercise are:
"May all individuals gain freedom from suffering.
May all individuals find sustained health, happiness, and wholeness.
May I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering.
May I assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness."
While reading Notes from a Fellow Traveler in our text, I was able to also benefit from the exercise because I already had myself in the right frame of mind from listening to the first exercise and I was still in a meditative state. However, if I would have just had to read this assignment and not be able to listen to the meditative voice instructions along with the background music or ocean waves playing, I would not have been able to have reaped as much benefit from it. When I have to hold a book and read what I am supposed to be meditating on, it is distracting to me.
What I discovered about myself is that I am falling back into an easy state of meditation. I had gotten away from it for a while and I didn't realize how much I had missed it and how ungrounded and uncentered I had been feeling lately without it.
The area that I have chosen to be a focus of growth and development in my own life is my own emotional development. Because there has been a lot of negativity around me lately where I work and even in my life in general, I have been letting it get to me and cloud my mental and emotional judgment. I have forgotten to put the protective coating of white light and peace around me. In the process, I have fallen into some negative patterns as well. I will choose to focus on positivity, joy, and peace in the midst of this struggle because I want to move into new higher levels of consciousness and not backslide as I work towards integral health.
The main exercise or activitie that I can implement to foster greater wellness in this area is to continue my meditative practices as well. My husband and I are redoing our back yard (1/2 an acre) and have started a trail down to the woods and put some meditative stones at the center of it. I hope that this will become my peaceful haven and my zen garden of sorts where I can go to meditate, reflect, worship the earth, my creator, and the universe, while I continue to grow and learn to fill myself with light.
Kris,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I do also think that it was hard to read something from a book and try to relax with it! I would rather listen to some calming sounds and drift off into a state of peace and relaxation :) I find that gentle music and the sounds of the water are much more calming to me then reading it out of a book.
I also find that it has brought more meaning to my life as well because I do need to find more time to relax and meditate. I need that time to let go of anger and just enjoy life!
I enjoyed your post!
Sara DeSanto
Hi Kris,
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a wonderful project that you and your husband are undertaking. I really love your idea of placing meditative at the center of the trail that you are developing. I am sure that it will become a serene and peaceful haven for you.
The home that I recently sold and moved away from, set on an acre of land and always found it to peaceful and relaxing there. The home that I have moved to in a different community is quite different from the one that I moved from, but I find it peaceful and relaxing here, too. My boyfriend and I are also doing some work in our backyard, which I feel will make it into a peaceful haven to just go to and enjoy the peacefulness.
I think that it is very important to work on my emotional area, too, as it seems that try as I might; there is also negativity around. I would like to get back to the place where I can just allow the negativity to just leave and not give it attention that I could be giving to more positive ideas and things.
Cherri Looney
Kris
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job responding to all the questions. I too really liked the four sentences. I instantly felt like running into work and exuding loving kindness to everyone in my path. It reminds me of A Buddhist mantra I used to repeat.
"At this very moment, for the peoples and the nations of the earth, may not even the names of disease, famine, war, and suffering be heard. Rather may their moral conduct, merit, wealth, and prosperity increase, and may supreme good fortune and well-being always arise for them."
There is definitely a different feeling creating with this prayer, than with the loving kindness words, but both of them give me the since that the power of my thoughts really can make a difference.
I wish you luck at work. I have personally dealt with very toxic work environments and understand the struggles. I commend you for taking this on as an opportunity for emotional growth. I believe in you and your abilities to overcome the negatively.
Sacha
Hello Kris,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the exercises this week also. I cannot believe how relaxing they are. Loving Kindness really makes me want to help people. It makes me want to be nicer to everyone and find time to help someone in need. I think it is great that you chose to focus on you own emotional development. Having negativity around can make it difficult to feel and at ease and peaceful. It is easy to fall into negative patterns when there is negativity around you. It is great that you are going to choose to focus on positivity, joy, and peace. Continuing meditative practices will definitely help you achieve your gaol. Great job with your blog this week and I hope you succeed with your personal growth.
I would love to have a real zen garden to have any meditative practices I have. I want to physically create a place carefully chosen with all objects personally adored fo what they will bring to the space. The meditative practice of putting toghter such a speciall place would add so much good energy I think I would have a much easier time placing myself into a meditative state to begin with.
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
ReplyDeleteI too have let fear and negativity dictate how I feel and how I react. I have let it affect me at home and work. It is time to refocus! It is time to focus on meditation and prayer. It is time to focus on what I have and not what I don't have. It is time to focus on compassion at work.
Hello Kris. Like everything, being in the right frame of mind is essential to everything. I have found out this is true especially for exercises like the love-kindness exercise of this week. It is impossible to feel the sensations that I felt if I was not in the right frame of mind. I know this because the feelings and sensations that I felt about helping others were never felt before in such a great magnatude. I really enjoyed the exercise, and at the end just said "WOW"!!! It was great and has me pumped up and thinking totally different, and I found out that there is more to me in the area of love and kindness than I ever thought!!
ReplyDeleteHi Kris, thank you for visiting my blog. I have been blessed just by reading yours, it's amazing! I believe you have great insight on how to move yourself into a higher state of consciousness. My observation of people is that they are generally negative and this makes me sad. I commend you for taking action to make a change within yourself and I know that just by your improvements you will be able to touch your coworkers and prayerfully inspire them to make a change. I love that you have the opportunity to create a path leading into a place of serenity and its even more special because you are doing it with your life partner. I do believe that your practices that you will add to your routine will help your clientele whom you have the opportunity to work with because you are setting the example that creating a space that invites calmness and gratitude will lead to healing in many areas of a persons life. Thank you for sharing this with us :) Kanisha Washington
ReplyDeleteI agree with you wholeheartedly regarding the distracting feeling that came from having to read the words out of a book during the meditation.
ReplyDeleteAfter I memorized the sentences, however, it was easier to concentrate, quiet my mind and focus on the practice itself.
I would agree that doing this practice would be more successful directly after the Loving-Kindness Practice. I made the attempt, but some quarreling kids decided they needed Mommy for mediation.
You would have probably laughed if you'd seen the confused looks on their faces when I tried to explain, "Mommy needs to focus on her homework and it means I have to have quiet uninterrupted meditation." LOL - I giggled and gave up.
Tomorrow will be better, I'm sure. Especially since I'm getting up even earlier in the coming mornings to try the exercises then. Hopefully, they won't keep waking up at the same time. haha.
Have a blessed week!