Unit 5 Subtle Mind exercise

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I hope everyone has had a great week. I have had “Life” happening this week, the highs and lows. My niece had her baby, full term, but complications had her airlifted to UCSF Medical Center. All is well. But two days later I hear that the 8-year-old little boy from my hometown lost his battle to cancer. I don’t know him but I am overwhelmed with sadness for this family. The week followed with a migraine and hot flashes that have increased with intensity. The worst thing is that having a migraine kills the time that I need to be studying. But the week ended on a high note with my granddaughters first birthday.

Amidst all the craziness I had some time to do the meditation exercises.I found the Subtle Mind practice worked much better for me than the loving kindness. I think it is mainly because most of the meditation practices I do are focused on the breath and in yoga I focus on my breathing. I like the idea of an anchor to the breath. I noticed the chatter cleared much more quickly than the loving kindness.

 With the loving kindness I had to go through a list of people I love to decide who I send love to. What? There goes my mind.. Why that person?, but what about this person?…oh I wonder how their new job is going…..and off goes my mind. It is much easier to just focus on the breath.The other thing with the loving-kindness is that it brought up a lot of emotions. This time of year I miss my family, especially my mother, who passed away two years ago. I am still moved to tears at the thought of her or something that reminds me of her. Today is an example of that. We had a holiday lunch at work and I said to someone, “Save your fork, the best is yet to come” My mom would say that from a story she had read. It brought up gut wrenching tears.

Maybe I am the one I need to send loving-kindness to. But the subtle mind exercise is just observing thoughts that come up with no judgment. To me it is much more peaceful.I’ve listened to the loving-kindness exercise several times now and still the woman’s voice startles me. I have not experienced that with the Subtle Mind exercise.

The connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness is that by developing a fit mind helps us to clear the mental chatter and even change it by replacing negative with the positive. By cultivating spiritual wellness we thrive emotionally and physically.

Cheers everyone. Be well.
Sarajane