Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s blog on Loving
Kindness.
This week’s experience was much different from the exercises
in the past. Rather than focusing on me
and my mind, body and spirit, I was asked to take in the pain and suffering of
those around me and transform it into loving kindness and give the loving
kindness back. I found this exercise
difficult because I am experiencing issues with myself lately. I have explained the problem to my counselor
of being overwhelmed because I feel like I own the world and all of her
problems. This is a terrible burden for
anyone to carry around. My Counselor has
asked me to relax my arms and see that the world will exist without me there to
hold her up. Now, I know you all think I
must be crazy but I would ask that you all express loving kindness to me as I
surely need it J. I am sure if I were no experiencing my own
issues with just giving myself loving kindness, I would appreciate this
exercise more and could recommend it to others.
But right now, I cannot
The concept of a mental workout is interesting to me. It is said that exercising your brain with
mental challenges and tasks will build new neurons and neural pathways in your
brain (Diranian, 2011). Keeping the brain healthy and building new neural
pathways is thought to delay the aging of the brain and “reduce the risk of
cognitive decline, age-related memory loss or loss of motor skills” (Diranian,
2011). To foster my psychological
health, I have built my own Personalized Training Program at lumosity.com. I would encourage anyone who wants to boost
their memory or cognition to try it.
Thanks everyone!
Rufus J.
Reference
Diranian, S. (2011). Mental Exercises. Livestrong.com. Retrieved from
http://www.livestrong.com/article/464192-mental-exercises
Hello Rufus,
ReplyDeleteThere is no shame in having trouble showing yourself loving-kindness. We all go through problems with ourselves and it can be a challenge, but I truly think that each of us can get past those challenges and show ourselves that loving-kindness that we would show to another. Now, for me, showing that kindness to an enemy is a challenge, but I try to remember the phrase 'kill them with kindness' and knowing that if I don't let them bother me and treat them with kindness, I'll win out in the end.
I think when it comes to loving-kindness for ourselves, I think RuPaul (the drag queen) said it best when she said 'if you can't love yourself, how the hell are you going to love anyone else'. Don't beat yourself up over the problems you're going through. Be confident in yourself, don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it, know that all of us in this class are behind you, and you'll do just fine.
I have seen so many people mention Lumosity for mental workouts. I have many games I play that give my mind a challenge, but after a while, they get a bit on the boring side. Something new would be a nice change of pace. I think I may have to check out this site and see what it can do for me.
Hang in there, Rufus. Things will get better. It's just going to take some time. Don't give up and you'll be fine.
Hi Rufus,
ReplyDeleteI too had a hard time with that part of the exercise. I had difficulties turning that much love toward myself and really feeling it. It alarmed me a little to hear the narrator say that you can't show others loving kindness if you can't love yourself first, because this was a bit of a struggle for me. One of my goals has been to try to reach out more to others and show them loving kindness, people beyond my family, who I love unconditionally. When I came to the step of taking suffering away from strangers I had a harder time as well, maybe because I couldn't get through the step of loving myself enough first.
Good luck to you Rufus! Hopefully this class can help all of us to dig a little deeper into ourselves.
Many people also feel the same way as you do feeling as if you own the world and all of her problems. I often feel that same way as well, where I feel that it is my obligation to deal with all the problems surrounding me. But, the truth is it is not. Dean Ornish made a statement that “stress is not what you do, it is how you react to what you do.” Whatever problems we might have in our life is should not be taken as a punishment or a mistake we’ve caused to ourselves, but we need to learn how to carefully make a choice on how we react to it. The loving-kindness exercise showed me that instead of taking in the negativity, I can use that negativity as an opportunity to allow myself to grow as a person and flourish. I can use whatever challenge I have in my life and see it as a chance to become stronger and wiser.
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