Practicing the "Loving Kindness" exercise

Unit 4 Blog Assignment:

1. Describe your experience. (Did you find it beneficial? Difficult?) Why or Why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or Why not?

Several time within the week I listened to the loving kindness guided audio clip assigned to this unit. Utilizing Dacher's meditation instructions, I sat in a "noble upright posture", witnessed my breath for a while and perform the practice the same time everyday. Embarrassingly enough I fell asleep every time I performed this activity. In hindsight, I now have a pretty good idea why I could not stay conscious with this particular heart opening relaxation technique.

Whenever I am having trouble sleeping I listen to an audio recording of beach sounds, I have done so for years. I rarely have insomnia but when I have it is always for the same reason, over active thoughts. In those times I have turned to my relaxation CD to help put my asleep and unlike the assigned audio recording there is no dialog. It seems that I have inadvertently trained my mind to respond to the sound of waves as a time for rest and sleep. Although, I genuinely enjoyed opening my heart to thoughts of those persons I cherish most in my life, the waves themselves have become a trigger to my parasympathetic system to take over and put me to sleep.

     2.  What is the concept of “Mental Workout? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a Mental Work Out? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

Using yoga as an example, if one continues practicing, the body (and mind) become limber. If the individual stops their yoga practice their flexibility fades more and more each day as the body's conditioning depreciates and tightens up. The same takes place within the mind. A mental workout is the concept of training the mind to stay in a neutral and contemplative state in hopes of obtaining clarity of mind. When one systematically workouts mentally, be it using methods of contemplation, relaxation or meditation, ones mind becomes conditioned. According to Dacher, "when we stop practicing, we will see a drop-off in our conditioning, weather physical or mental" (Dacher, 2006). Dacher recommends working out the mind an hour a day to keep it fit. Basically as my mother always says, "practice makes prefect".

Although I don't always have the luxury of sitting for my meditation practice an hour each day I do sit for a minimum of fifteen minutes to a half hour. During my practice, I follow my breath for the first five minutes or so and then move on to mentally recite a spiritual mantra presented to me by a swami many years ago. A mantra is a sound or string of words in any language (mine happens to be in Sanskrit) that is repeated out loud or mentally for the purpose of spiritual transformation. When I first began this mental workout years ago I would say the mantra out loud so that my mind was forced to stay focused. After several years of practice I can just say it to myself mentally because my mind is already conditioned to go into a place of neutrality during my routine.