The loving kindness exercise took my mind to a place filled with beautiful
memories replacing the thoughts which brought stress to my life and the kind,
peaceful thoughts began to bring peace to my mind. Being a parent is a
difficult job and your mind always seems to be going in so many different
dirrections….so being a parent of a child or children with multiple special
needs your thoughts are moving at an accelerated speed allowing little time to
shut your mind down and turn off the mental chatter. The days of caring for
your child’s special needs are long filled with doctors, therapies,
medications, and adaptable equipment and there is little time to train your mind
much less start Olympic training of the mind (this is where spirituality balances
my life).
At the beginning of the subtle-mind exercise I was very anxious and I could
not turn my thoughts off. My breathing was rapid as the exercise began. The
further into the exercise I got the better I was able to focus; gradually
turning down the volume of my mental chatter. As the exercise progressed I was
able to pull away from the distractions and free my mind of all of the chaos.
This exercise was a little more difficult than the loving-kindness exercise,
but I do see the benefits of freeing your mind of distractions in order to help
you focus. I hope to work towards this goal adapting a way to train my mind and
turn off the mental chatter. If I am able to tame my mind it will bring the
witnessing mind into stillness, creating a stable mind and reach the final
level of psychospiritual flourishing called unity consciousness.
Daphne
The loving kindness exercise took my mind to a place filled with beautiful
memories replacing the thoughts which brought stress to my life and the kind,
peaceful thoughts began to bring peace to my mind. Being a parent is a
difficult job and your mind always seems to be going in so many different
dirrections….so being a parent of a child or children with multiple special
needs your thoughts are moving at an accelerated speed allowing little time to
shut your mind down and turn off the mental chatter. The days of caring for
your child’s special needs are long filled with doctors, therapies,
medications, and adaptable equipment and there is little time to train your mind
much less start Olympic training of the mind (this is where spirituality balances
my life).
Hi Daphne,
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you 100%. I am a single mom who has the kids 24/7, their dad never sees them. I completely understand where you are coming from when you say being a parent is difficult and your mind is always going a mile a minute. I don't have children with special needs but being the only parent I am the one they rely on for everything which puts a lot on my shoulders. I have not had much luck relaxing to the exercises. I can't seem to rid my mind of the many lists of I have to's that goes through it even as I work on other things. I will keep practicing and hoping I can relax because I know it would help me be a much calmer person. Good luck to you in training your mind and acheiving some inner peace.
Great way of expressing what you felt Daphne. The Loving kindness exercise was wonderful for me and I could imagine every point that the lady was sending me through. The subtle mind exercise was rather harder for me because I had to find a focus point and there was a lot of time for me to go back to the mental chatter. It was a little more of a challenge, but it also gave me a sense of relaxation. I am not a mother with special needs children, but I am a mother of 6 and one on the way. I think that we all need to be able to find a sense of relaxation at some point and time. I am going to keep on doing these exercises until I receive the full benefits that they have to offer. I know that time will be hard for you to focus on this, but I hope you can find time to receive the most of it as well.
ReplyDeleteHello Daphne,
ReplyDeleteI really do enjoy ready your blog every week. You have so much going on in your life with your girls and applaud your ability to get to where your do in the exercises. I was happy to read that when you did the loving kindness exercise you were able to replace stressful thought with loving peaceful thoughts. Even with the subtle mind exercise you seemed to have started from such a restless state that the fact that you were able to calm your mind even a little bit and become somewhat free from the chaos of your mental chatter is wonderful. The best part is that you have set yourself a goal because you recognize that taming your mind will help you to achieve psychological flourishing.
Kelly W