The Benefits of Practice

 

 

 

Out of all the meditation practices introduced through this class and through the book by Elliot Dacher, I chose loving-kindness and follow that with calm abiding. I like to keep it simple and learn to understand with new material. Visualization is in my introductory stage and really cannot be judged as most beneficial.

Mental fitness is about directing your mind into a balanced and positive path. Earlier in the blog I wrote that repetition is a key point and makes my mind ready and available to help itself on a regular basis. I believe that the reason behind a mental workout is commitment. This is beneficial with loving kindness as I can practice healing others by accepting the negatives and allowing them to dissolve into nothingness. I enjoyed finding my inner self and finding that time in the loving kindness exercise where I felt powerless to more physically but I was so comfortable that I didn’t need to move and once I woke up I found the journey to be almost like a reset button allowing to restart with a balanced and alleviated mind. Reaching back to the science of Olympian mental fitness, Dacher explores the limitless development and how we train our minds. The conclusion is in the prefrontal cortex. “Olympians of mental fitness have levels of activation of the left prefrontal cortex, the site that correlates with positive emotions, which are way beyond those of the ordinary individual, (Elliot S. Dacher, 2006).” As you can see, this is beneficial and the idea is to practice and activate those levels to a positive mind as an olympian athlete would by using visualization techniques.

Loving kindness is a building block for calm abiding. We move from our heart and mind to witnessing our minds thinking patterns. This is a remarkable practice once achieved and allows me to redirect my mind towards a focal point. This is usually my breath and I am still mastering this technique in order to reach unity consciousness. I like the idea of allowing thoughts to exist but to really just acknowledge them and just let them dissolve away allowing a sense of strength over the mind. This strength can increase with practice and I can see a difference every time I practice. I notice there to be a fading effect as well as if I don’t practice I lose that strength. When frustration is high, I usually can overcome it with accomplishing something, so it may take a clear and rebooted mind in order to achieve this. I will practice redirecting my mind towards positivity and step foot in the right direction.

 

Reference

Elliot S. Dacher, M. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach: Basic Health Publications, Inc.