Loving Kindness/Visualization

What I find to have been most effective for me is the loving Kindness, I find that is allows me to open up my heart, to increase my selflessness to others and myself.  I have the need to want to give more to the people around me and my community and some how I feel it is from the time I spend in this meditative state.  That when I'm conscious what once was hesitation for me is no longer.

Visualization is another method I like to use.  I have a lot going on in my life now and what I find myself doing when I'm winding down and taking time to meditate I'm visualizing the things I want.  I'm taking the time to see my self in these new places hoping to foster up the motivation to keep striving to reach my goals.


 

Cleaning House

This week has been very productive.  I have had a "To Do List" that has needed my attention and this weekend I started marking things off.  I started with dusting, I waited until everyone went to bed to begin.  I never can get anything done when everyone is awake and running about.  The next day I enlisted my husband in my cause and we began to take my daughters bathroom apart.  I've lived in my home for about 7 yrs but its 20 yrs old and it needs to be updated.  It felt so good to do something so physical, and we were able to get it complete with out WWIII starting between me and my husband.  LOL.  I polished my hardwoods in my living room and redecorated.  I feel so at ease and accomplished.  I did not get to do much meditation done this week but this was so therapeutic.  It was just like clearing of the mind.  The things on my list were like having a bunch of thoughts in my head and I needed them out.  The practice of training the mind, help me understand that I needed to stop putting this work off.  It was causing me anxiety and how much was not realized until I finished what I started.  There is more to be done but now I'm looking forward to the work, being creative and spending time with my husband.  A negative has become a positive.

"One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself."  This reminds me of a saying in church, "you can not have a testimony with out a test."  Some things in life have to be experienced and lived.  It is one thing to read text and regurgitate the information out to someone but its totally different if you have person experiences that can be shared to express how something has worked or effected your life.  So yes I think life experience is the best practice if you are a health and wellness professional.  I think that if you have experience, that when a client has a pit fall you will be better equipped to understand and help them recover.

With the help of this class and church, I'm working on my walk in integral health.  There is not just one place that I put these practices to work.  I try to be more giving, do more in my community, spend quality time with my kids, find time just for me, pray and listen to my inner voice and work at curbing my tongue and temper. 

This week was Universal Love and Kindness.  It is the Love and Kindness exercise on a larger scale.  Instead of mediating on healing for my self and my love ones we were asked to focus on the world.  I spent about ten minutes doing this exercise.  I was first asked to go to a quiet place and get in a comfortable position.  Then to clear my mind and repeat mantra for healing of the world.  I always enjoy these exercises.  They relax me and then energize me for my next task. 

Now that we have done these types of exercises a few times I've noticed that it is easier each time for me to allow myself to go to a place of submission in the exercise.  I also realize that I have a great need to do more.  This week I went to our voter registration office an got registration forms and this Sunday I tried to aid people in either registering for the first time or helping them update there information.  It was such a good exchange of energy and information.  I would like to continue to do more service for my family, community and church.