After taking a few deep breaths and focusing in
on the rising and falling of my chest and stomach, I felt myself relax into a
peaceful state of calmness. For a brief second, I felt as though I myself were
still there, but that everything else was slipping away, like I was elevated to
higher level of consciousness. I don’t know how else to explain it. I found
this exercise a bit more challenging than the previous one, because my mind
does tend to wander at times, whether it be to work, school assignments, or
family and friends; when this occurred, I focused in on my breath a bit more,
but I tried to observe how my mind would wander to different thoughts,
feelings, and images. Instead of feeling stressed or anxious about a certain
thought, I tried to analyze them with objective peace and calmness. Without
spiritual wellness, which cultivates loving-kindness, compassion, peace, and
calmness, we are unable to flourish with wellness of the mind and body, and the
same can be said for the others as well.
I'm so happy that you got to this point. I am practicing and practicing so hard because my mind tends to wander also. I have to have complete silence in the house or I'll snap right back to over thinking things. Thanks for the post!
ReplyDeleteHi Meghan,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you did pretty good even though you said it was more challenging. Especially if you reached stillness and felt as if you were at a higher level of consciousness. I, personally, loved this exercise and am using it daily. Even though it was more challenging in your opinion, how do you think it compared to the loving-kindness meditation exercise? Would you recommend this exercise to people? I would, and have already!
Meghan-
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you had a very good experience with being able to effectively experience the subtle mind exercise. Do you think that you found your mind wandering the longer you tried to focus? This exercise seemed long to me. It was good that you were able to refocus on your breathing and get back to relaxation. I wish that I was able to do good on these relaxation exercises like you did. Good post.
Hi Meghan,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about your subtle mind experience. Do you meditate regularly outside of the exercises for class? Do you think you will do this exercise after class is over? Did you see any changes in your experience as you did this several times over the week?
Meghan,
ReplyDeleteDo you feel that with breathing heavy and getting to a relaxed state of mind that you're able to control the mental chatter? I have problems with this when I try to go to sleep, thinking about the most random things and then I try breathing heavy and sometimes it's unable to work for myself. Hopefully relaxation techniques like this will help you and myself overcome all the mental chatter and we will be able to control our subtle mind!
- David