Unit 4: Loving Kindness

Hi Everyone,
I have finally found a moment to myself to complete this exercise. It's amazing to me how I can tell everyone in my house that I am going to sit in the bathroom alone for 15 minutes and that is all I need and to go play out in the yard. Every minute on the minute I sware someone was banging on the bathroom door "mom, mom, mom, he did this, he did that, he said this, he said that" then finally when I think I have handled it in comes my husband "honey where's my cover, where's my boots, do I have clean socks?" And wow at that moment I could've really used that loving kindness, because I was not feeling any love or kindness.

So finally I did it. I think that the voice was soothing and relaxing and at the time I sat down to do it my house was so quiet. I immediately was calmed. Reading this exercise in the text made me feel good because I feel that it is something I need to do. I found this exercise to be very beneficial. I think this one was easier than the "Crime of the Century", that one I couldn't focus on the colors. With this exercise I thought of my son because I love him so much and it was so simple to surround myself with the love I feel for him and to put it out into the world. The difficult part was thinking about someone I know that is suffering. I don't know but it was hard because there are people all over that are suffering that I don't know and it was hard to not focus on that. Also it was diffifult to not focus on me in that instance. But once I was finally able to focus and finish the exercise. After the exercise I felt great, better, happy. I felt less stressed, and very free. I feel good today and can not wait to start my day.

I would recommend this exercise to others. I think it is simple and easy to do and we can all take a little time to do an exercise like this. The concept of "mental workout" is to basically workout the brain. If we spend time each day to use our brain to meditate and relax we can give it the exercise it needs which in turn helps all of the aspect of us. I can implement the mental workout in my own life for my own psychological health by just dedicating a meere 5 minutes a day for some meditation. If I can dedicate more time than I will. As for now I will start off small.

I look forward to the next blog exercise. I am learning alot of ways that I can improve my mental health just by sitting at home. However I think I may have to sit in my car far from home, with a fully charged lap top for some alone time.
Melinda