Unit 5 Exercies

My unit 5 exercise was so much more in depth for me. It opened me up to being able to really focus on breathing and learning how to achieve the subtle mind. I don't know about any of you, but I noticed so many different faces that tried to deter my attention away from my breath of people I didn't even know. Does this happen to anyone else? Once the exercise was over, I felt so happy and lifted and relaxed, I slept so well that night!

I feel as though this exercise was much more easier for me than the previous one because it wasn't asking me to do something that I am not comfortable doing. I didn't have any frustrations but I definitely enjoyed listening to my breath move in and out of my chest more so with this one than the last one.

Since I have completed the subtle mind exercise, everytime I feel stressed, I just go back to that feeling that I had and it helps to relax me just a little more.

Loving Kindness

So I thoroughly enjoyed this week's exercise, as I do each week. Every time I listen to these exercises, it gives me this overwhelming sense of calmness, but then I go back to what I was doing and feel almost as if it wasn't enough. I guess that is because I am just starting out and I need to learn to put myself into that feeling and keep it there for as long as I can and use those feelings to push out any bad feelings that I may encounter. However, I would definitely recommend this and the other exercises to other people, in fact I have tried to get my husband to do these with me, but he has declined. During the exercise, it asked us to think of someone who is in a time of need right now. I immediately thought my aunt who is having a rough time financially, emotionally, and spiritually. This is the person I would recommend this to most. The concept of the mental workout is to teach the mind to think differently than it would normally think on an average basis. The benefits of a mental workout are being able to have a sound mind and to be able to think of others and show that self centeredness in a negative way is not healthy. Only a few minutes a day of outward thinking of others and their problems is one way of implementing mental workouts. Another way would be to see or feel the stress and hardships of others and take a moment to inflect on those feelings and help to push them out.