Monday, March 29, 2010

Mental Fittness Practice.

Hello Friends,
It is my pleasure to share with you my recent mental fitness activity, and I wish you can enjoy discovering my findings and inputs about mental fitness practice. First, I need to write my comment regarding the title of the mental fitness practice. For example, during the last two weeks, I was supposed to call the activity I did for this blog a "meditation". This term has changed into "Practice". That is why I really felt like looking up two important words"meditation and practice". The term meditation which i found in my alternative medicine book suggested something to do with healing. Most meditative practices have come to the West from Asian religious practices, particularly those of India, China, and Japan. Others can be traced to the ancient cultures of the world. Although western meditative practice a contemplative form of meditation, there are also many active forms of meditation, such as the Chinses martial art, t'ai chi, the japanese martial art aikido, and the walking meditation of Zen Buddhism.
Meditation is thus a technique used to calm the mental activity, the endless thoughts, and ways of reacting to our circumstances. as long as these accumulated impressions linger in the inner recesses of the mind, nagging for attention, it remains difficult to experience an inner state of peace, calm, and health. Fast-paced Western society, filled with external stimuli, has conditioned us to push our minds and bodies to the point of exhaustion, often to the detriment of our own well-being. To be still, to experience the peace and contentment from this external materiality. Meditation is the process of calming and releasing the distractions from the mind for the purpose of opening up and awakening to our true inner natures(Micozzi,2006).
After I looked up the definition of "meditation", I realized that the meditation I performed last week had helped me released all the negative feelings. As a result of releasing the negative energy I had in my mind, both my mind and body experienced peace and serenity. I agreed with the author's definition of"meditation', because the meditative technique i did had absolutely calmed my inner recesses of the mind(Micozzi,2006). For example, for the first time in my life, I am starting to look at the past with an optimistic way. In other words, I really stopped blaming myself for my mom's death.
I think that three techniques I did so far in my blogs' assignments required healthy breathing. For example, when I started performing the rainbow meditation, the loving-kindness meditation, and the mental fitness practice; I took a deep breath. In addition, the three techniques required spending some moments focusing on the breath I took when I started the technique. Breathing was required in all the techniques I did so far.
The mental fitness practice enabled me to prepare my mind and clear mental chatter. As a result of doing the mental fitness practice, I was able to increase my attention span and both my short and long term memories. For example, my memories started retrieving old memories, positive thought, and deeds I have done in the past. I can definitely perform this kind of mental fitness practice before having any school assignments including tests, quizzes, and projects. However, I think that the best time to practice the loving- kindness meditation is before bed time. I read in the past that when people become depressed or angry at themselves, they tend to suffer from insomnia. That is why I really recommend the loving- kindness meditation for people suffering from depression or post- traumatic stress disorders including anxiety and chronic headaches.
Over all, I think that all the techniques I di so far were very beneficial and productive. For example, experincing loving- kindness meditation techniques helped me getting in touch with the sufferings of all the loved ones in my personal life. In addition, the last mental fittness practise I did this week helped me clear my mind from all kinds of mental chatters. I am looking forward to do similar activity in the near future!. I am very willing to boost my spirits and enrich my spiritual well- being when i keep an open mind to all kinds of therapies, metal practices, and meditative techniques.
Reference:
Micozzi, M.S.(2006).Fundamentals of Complementary And Integrative Medicine.(3rd ed.). Mind- Body Modalities: Meditation. St. Louis: Elsevier.(pp.293-294).

2 comments:

  1. Barbie, All this has sure opened up my mind to new experiences. I even did some research on Tai Chi and have tried. I was a little sore the day after due to not exercising regularly, but it did help decrease the stress, open my mind up to the inner self, and provided stengthening. Great Post!

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  2. Hi Barbie,

    I agree with you in what you said, "Fast-paced Western society, filled with external stimuli, has conditioned us to push our minds and bodies to the point of exhaustion, often to the detriment of our own well-being."

    If we as a society can get a grip on this calm abiding, we will enter Unity Consciousness, and I know our health will vastly improve.

    You have a great blog here, and I really enjoyed reading it.

    Paula

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