Unit 5 The Subtle Mind Exercise
Hello Everyone! I hope you are all well and beginning to flourish :)
I just finished the Subtle Mind exercise for our 5th unit together. I was not sure how this exercise would go, as I am still having some difficulty with the Loving Kindness exercise. I am happy to say that the Subtle Mind exercise was very helpful to me. I enjoyed learning of the strong connection between my breathing and the activity of my mind. I did notice that as I became more aware of my breathing, essentially slowing it down, my mind was better able to focus on this exercise (I was even interrupted by my kids once too!). The Loving Kindness exercise focused on cultivating love towards others and myself, while the Subtle Mind focused on the relationship of my breathing and the activity of my mind. While the Loving Kindness exercise has helped me to better appreciate (gratefulness!!) the love I have for my family, friends, and on two occasions for people I have never met, the Subtle Mind exercise helped me to see the natural rising and falling of thoughts that seem to endlessly pour into my mind. Instead of focusing on these thoughts (like deadlines, tasks, and a whole list of 'shoulda's') I noticed them and then let them go. Although I did not find it easy to let all of my thoughts and feelings go and in fact spent most of the exercise doing this, I know it will become easier with practice. I just have to make the time to do this each day. I have already forgot about the Loving Kindness exercise twice because my attention was needed elsewhere. I haven't fallen off the bandwagon yet though! I need to practice getting the 'shoulda's' out of my head too. One of my favorite authors, Dr Dwayne Dyer, writes the affirmation 'I am a human being not a human doing. Don't equate your self-worth with how well you do things in life. You aren't what you do. If you are what you do, the when you don't.....you aren't' (Dyer, 1995). I guess I just need to remember these words more often and then focus on the exercise at hand. Wish me luck and know that I am wishing you all of the best luck too!! 
I feel the connection between our spiritual wellness and our mental and physical wellness needs to be one of awareness, as we focus on our ability to heal our bodies by being intentional and holistic. Anxiety and stress play a huge role in developing illnesses and diseases in our lives and taking an integral mind/body approach to our wholeness is my goal as a health care professional and as a human being. I learned in Kaplan's Stress Management class that between each stimulus and response, there is space and within this space we have the capacity to choose our response. This goes hand in hand with the concept of spiritual wellness were we are guided towards developing our witnessing mind. We can run miles a day to be physically fit and have good communication skills with the people we have relationships with but this does not necessarily mean we are achieving our best possible life. Dacher has taught me that in order to reach the human flourishing we all deserve and have the ability to self-cultivate, nourishing our spirits with mindfull, contemplative practice is an essential component to integral health (Dacher, 2006).
I just finished the Subtle Mind exercise for our 5th unit together. I was not sure how this exercise would go, as I am still having some difficulty with the Loving Kindness exercise. I am happy to say that the Subtle Mind exercise was very helpful to me. I enjoyed learning of the strong connection between my breathing and the activity of my mind. I did notice that as I became more aware of my breathing, essentially slowing it down, my mind was better able to focus on this exercise (I was even interrupted by my kids once too!). The Loving Kindness exercise focused on cultivating love towards others and myself, while the Subtle Mind focused on the relationship of my breathing and the activity of my mind. While the Loving Kindness exercise has helped me to better appreciate (gratefulness!!) the love I have for my family, friends, and on two occasions for people I have never met, the Subtle Mind exercise helped me to see the natural rising and falling of thoughts that seem to endlessly pour into my mind. Instead of focusing on these thoughts (like deadlines, tasks, and a whole list of 'shoulda's') I noticed them and then let them go. Although I did not find it easy to let all of my thoughts and feelings go and in fact spent most of the exercise doing this, I know it will become easier with practice. I just have to make the time to do this each day. I have already forgot about the Loving Kindness exercise twice because my attention was needed elsewhere. I haven't fallen off the bandwagon yet though! I need to practice getting the 'shoulda's' out of my head too. One of my favorite authors, Dr Dwayne Dyer, writes the affirmation 'I am a human being not a human doing. Don't equate your self-worth with how well you do things in life. You aren't what you do. If you are what you do, the when you don't.....you aren't' (Dyer, 1995). I guess I just need to remember these words more often and then focus on the exercise at hand. Wish me luck and know that I am wishing you all of the best luck too!! 
I feel the connection between our spiritual wellness and our mental and physical wellness needs to be one of awareness, as we focus on our ability to heal our bodies by being intentional and holistic. Anxiety and stress play a huge role in developing illnesses and diseases in our lives and taking an integral mind/body approach to our wholeness is my goal as a health care professional and as a human being. I learned in Kaplan's Stress Management class that between each stimulus and response, there is space and within this space we have the capacity to choose our response. This goes hand in hand with the concept of spiritual wellness were we are guided towards developing our witnessing mind. We can run miles a day to be physically fit and have good communication skills with the people we have relationships with but this does not necessarily mean we are achieving our best possible life. Dacher has taught me that in order to reach the human flourishing we all deserve and have the ability to self-cultivate, nourishing our spirits with mindfull, contemplative practice is an essential component to integral health (Dacher, 2006). 
Hi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI too found that by having the subtle mind exercise focus on breathing it allowed to be more success and relax during the exercise. I'm glad to hear that you are trying to stick with the loving kindness exercise. That one was a bit more challenging for me to stay focused on so I haven't really kept up with trying to practice it. I do believe that each of these exercises do have the potential to improve our mental and spiritual beings if we are able to remain dedicated.
As a side note, I really enjoyed reading your blog, you have done an amazing job with your profile. Having pictures through out the postings is a nice touch :)
Hi Jennifer!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that the subtle mind exercise helped you! Any type of exercise that helps us focus on our breathing is a great way to focus and reevaluate our thought process. Oddly enough I woke up from a nightmare just last night and could not get rid of my anxiety! Finally after trying everything else I remembered our exercises and tried to just focus on my breathing and go back to sleep. I guess it worked because I woke up this morning feeling much better
I love your last point in your post. We can be physically fit, great relationships and everything else but if we are not happy without own inner self then there is no way we will reach our full wellness potential. We must be willing to recognize problems, address them and make changes.
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like I respond to your blog every week. Ha ha. But there aren't many posts done when I log in. Beside that reason, your blog is always so accurate and thorough that it's hard not to enjoy it and reply to it.
So the affirmation quote you shared... it definitely has truth to it but then there is another side to those same words- "You aren't what you do". To that, just for the sake of opposition, I have to say that there are two sides to this comment.
The first side is what you shared-"When you don't, you aren't." That gives a person hope and a warm fuzzy feeling. Ha ha. But the other side that came to mind, is that we ARE what we do, BECAUSE what we do defines who we are. Does that make sense? Of course it does. You're a bright girl. :) Sooo, we need to understand that the things we are doing will tell others what type of person we are. Thanks for the other side of enlightenment; it made me feel better about my short comings. ;)
Tara