I have learned a lot in this class and every exercise has challenged me, but there were two that stood out from the rest: LovingKindness and Meeting Aesclepius. The first is helping me to be more loving to people I don't care for. It has made me more aware of moments when I have mentally criticizing someone. Once I do acknowledge it, I make my thoughts switch to more positive ones. I have noticed some improvement in my opinion of people already. Jesus told us to "love one another as I have loved you." (John 13:34) Obeying this scripture has become easier with the lovingkindness exercise.
Meeting Aesclepius was good too, because it quickly improved my spiritual connection to Jesus. It reminded me of the scripture, "come to me all you who are heavy burdened and I will give you rest" (Matt 11:28). Visualizing the exchange of my darkness and burdens for his peace and light; my weak health for his strong... the list goes on. The white light is also found in scripture. These three points make this exercise my favorite by far because I have been longing for a closer walk with Him than I was getting through reading scripture. The bible still imparts wisdom, but this exercise has allowed me to piece all the knowledge of Jesus I have into a person in a way reading scripture alone has not been able to do.
As I have mentioned in previous posts, practicing these exercises can be done while I am on the bus riding to and from work. The evening ride often lasts 30 minutes or more, which is plenty of time to work on these methods of meditation. Because Jesus is lovingkindness personified, flowing from one to the other would be effortless. The lovingkindness is first so I can eliminate all negative from my thoughts. Once my thoughts were cleared, I am better able to receive whatever Jesus shares with me. I anticipate leaps occuring in my walk of faith over the next few months.
Angie
I really enjoyed your post. Two things especially stood out to me. First was your increasing awareness of your own thoughts. It's crazy how sometimes things happen in our own heads and we hardly even notice them, let alone take responsibility for changing them! Also - I really like how you are integrated what we're learning in this class into your faith walk. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Angie,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I really enjoyed reading your post. Whenever someone refers to The Word of God I get excited! Taking these exercises and reflecting on Jesus is wonderful. I am glad that your walk with Christ is growing stronger. The more time you spend with God the more enlightened you will become.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteGreat job on the blog. I too really enjoy the loving-kindness exercise. I find myself being very critical of others and really dislike that I do that so this is why I enjoy the loving-kindness exercise, I love being positive and putting this positive energy out into the world makes me feel better, like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Great ideas on how to keep implementing these practices while you are on the way to and from work on the bus, perfect time to take and reflect I think.
Great post!
Megan
Angie,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post. What really caught my attention was you mentioning how these exercises helped you to be more loving towards the people you didn't really care for. This stood out most because I myself am currently experiencing this. I just mentioned to my male friend how I have been criticizing a particular person a lot lately because I am not very found of this person. I have been so critical that I realized that this person is not really as bad as I see them. I realized that sometimes people need guidance or to be told what they look like or how they are appear to others if its not a good look. How else would they know if you are so focused criticizing rather than helping them. If we spend more time focusing on loving, forgiving and happiness then we are practicing loving kindness.
Thanks for sharing your post.
Lori
Personally those were the two most difficult for me. Loving kindness was doable because I think of myself as naturally loving and kind, but it was harder to keep having to switch gears. Aeslepius was hard because I wanted to think of my sister whom was very wise, but died three years ago. The fact that the anniversary of her death just recently passed is why I believe it was most difficult.
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