“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” Dalai Lama

Comparing/contrasting Loving Kindness practice to Subtle mind practice:  I find that I do better with guided imagery meditations.  The Loving Kindness practice keeps me more focused since I am concentrating on more instructions and have more concrete visualization for the task at hand.  It narrows my train of thought to love and kindness as I allow myself to feel this, direct it to my inner self, breathe in suffering to permit a transformation toward healing as I breathe out.  This makes me stay on task.

Loving Kindness practice incorporates a witnessing mind when the meditation directs me to let go of my thoughts.  It seeks the calm-abiding mind that intentionally works on love and kindness to deepen the relationship to my inner self as well as to others.  Breathing out healing doesn’t feel functional in reality but it does raise my awareness of pouring out the love and kindness from my spirit through the vessel of my body.  Working in a caregiving profession of Physical Therapy allows the spirit-mind-body connection to manifest itself often in service to people with acts of compassion, consideration and helpfulness.

The subtle mind practice is more challenging to me in that I keep falling asleep with the amount of time allotted to practice the skill of witnessing consciousness to calm-abiding to unity consciousness.  I have developed my method of detachment from my thoughts by visualizing a Rolodex where on any given in-breath a thought or image appears.  The card gets turned over on my out-breath and there is the blankness until the next card appears.  Once I become centered with breathing and thoughts stop bombarding me I like the place of stillness as a retreat from the world.  As of this writing I have not been able to progress with this practice beyond this point.  Both practices are helpful tools for me to work toward my integral health.

“Man’s mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimension.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

Beginning the journey with the contemplative practice of Loving-Kindness initially found me struggling with staying on task to truly nurture the emotional sense of love and kindness.  Each day I listened to the tape while getting ready for work and again at the end of the day as I drifted off to sleep.  What I have discovered is that I need to not multi-task or be tired to do this contemplative practice.  I would be distracted or I fell asleep.  Making a conscious effort to allow myself to release emotions with my eyes closed while seated in solitude brought a new awareness to my being that there are areas in which I harbor resentment, disillusionment and cynicism that blocks me from adopting loving-kindness to let it flow from within to the world around me. 

I do find it challenging to commit time to developing my inner self but I agree with Dacher’s text in that my diligence should reap a benefit to help me expand my consciousness to evolve my integral health to a new level of healing and well-being.  Time management feels crucial to allow myself space to pursue this new level of entry into my inner being.  I need to consciously pencil out a daily time to pursue this practice.  When I have met other people who are at peace with themselves and the world around them it has made a positive impression on me.  Seeking the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galations 5:22) brings wholeness.

Well-Being Self Assessment 0->10 Scale

1) Physical - 7/10:  I am proactive in my healthcare.  I feel healthy, am well-nourished, work to maintain my weight but lack routine in exercise.  I have a physically active job that helps me to stay strong.  Aging gracefully is challenging.
Spiritual - 8/10:  I am a Christian and have a strong faith in God.  I appreciate His presence in my life and rely on my Christianity to give me inner strength and wisdom.   I have a daily inner dialogue with the Lord and want Him to direct my steps.  I am often sensitive to the "kindred spirit" between believers in ordinary daily encounters.
Psychological - 6/10:  Being more of a Type A personality gives me a mindset of practicality that seeks to find order out of the chaos in my lifestyle.  Worry creates insomnia as I try to solve problems.  Emotionally I struggle as I seek to travel through life on the other side of divorce and transitioning into the empty nest stage with grow children.

2) Goals:  Physical:  Incorporate exercise 1 hr after work 2-3 time per week.
Spiritual:  Pray for someone at every stoplight.  Seek solitude daily 10 minutes minimum daily to read or purposefully meditate.
Psychological:  Acknowledge an area of concern (name and not blame) to try to overcome worry which produces insomnia.

3) Proactive choices:  Physical:  Go for a walk, go to the gym at least 1 hr 2-3 times per week.
Spiritual:  Shut my bedroom door to seek solitude and detach from the world to seek God.
Psychological:  Practice relaxation techniques at bedtime to produce a peace and release of the cares of my day.

4)  Rainbow Meditation:  I enjoy visualization and found this meditation peaceful as it helped me identify areas (chakras) with associated colors of the rainbow.  I thought of teaching my children Roy G Biv to remember the color spectrum of the rainbow.  I have more to associate those colors with listening to this meditation.  Red(base of spine)- grounding, Orange(abdomen)- centering, Yellow(upper abdomen)- being loved, Green(heart)- loving, Blue(throat)- meaningful purpose, Indigo(forehead)- balance, Violet(crown)- connected.  All colors combined Brilliant White- purity.  In my life I remember the lesson of "after the rain, the rainbow" and enjoyed the imagery of this meditation.

Journey on Relaxation

It took 3 attempts to actually listen to this and not fall asleep!  Autogenesis to me is mind over matter and imagining with total focus on how the blood in this exercise was moving in the vessels to penetrate my arms.  I was seeing the color red as I was visualizing what was happening.  I did feel relaxed although I found it hard to get up and get moving in my day again.  I need to practice the rejuvenation piece of this instead of just wanting to drift off to sleep.