I found that when I thought from my heart about an individual that I love deeply that my heart rate increases and gets very happy and I feel very warm all over. Showing him loving kindness and turning that same toward myself allows it to expand in me to overflowing. I made it a habit to open my heart of compassion to as many as I met from this overflowing. It causes me to feel wonderful whenever I give love to others.
Once I met a woman in the nursing home who was just sitting there in a wheelchair looking out the door as if she were waiting for someone. It wasn't that I pitied her, but I went up to her, this woman that I didn't know and asked her if I could give her a hug. She said yes and when I embraced her a tear fell from her face and she said thank you I needed that.
I recommend that everyone should reach out and extend a hand love to someone they or know or just met. It makes the world of difference inside of your own heart and mind.
Giving yourself a good mental workout is a practice of two different techniques. The first is loving kindness and the second is the subtle mind (Dacher, 2006). These stem from the contemplative practice of the mental workout. When training your mind, research shows that the results are long lasting and sustained by daily practice. By showing loving kindness and making it a habit to do it daily will foster health and wellbeing in me.
Dacher, E. (2006). Integral health: the pathway to human flourishing. Basic Health
That is a good story, and you really made someone's day. More people should be like that and be nice to people, especially if they are alone.
ReplyDeleteI definitely experienced the increased heart rate and warm feeling when I did this exercise too! Its interesting to personally experience and be newly aware of these physical responses to the change in my mental state. It totally supports what we are learning in this class, that our mind has a LOT of power over our physical state of being!
ReplyDeleteHannah
I love that feeling of warmth you get when you think about love. I feel the same thing and I feel like my body temperature actually rises. I think it may be that the blood is flowing all the way to the surface of the skin. It is amazing what we can be aware of in our bodies when we try and how fast we can lose touch with that in this information age of computers and cell phones with text messages. I think face-to face experience with others is very valuable in our health and wellness.
ReplyDelete