A Lesson in Loving / Kindness

This week the lesson is all about loving / kindness and how we “deal” with situations that make us … well … angry.

Imagine this scenario … you are in a family restaurant with your small child when he/ she decides they have had enough of the crayons and bread basket and they want OUT. An all out tantrum ensues, while you are trying to calm the child to finish your meal,  avoiding the scoop and run … the person next to you sneers “why don’t you shut your kid up?”

Pause for reaction …..

Mine? …. Call the person a colorful name along with sarcastic remark about their wonderful demeanor, take my child and leave. All while stewing on the situation for days.

Here is where the “loving / kindness” comes in. I certainly do not intend to tell you to give this person a hug say “I am so sorry we disturbed you” and pay for their meal. However, showing kindness and understanding to someone who might not deserve it is a powerful thing. It changes your mental state and helps preserve your overall health and it might just teach them a lesson in the same.

Say I said to this person “I am doing my best, how would you suggest I calm him / her down?” I have reacted kindly and put the person on the spot to do the same or to simply be quiet.

By reducing negative emotions like hate, anger, fear, confusion, and doubt, and increasing positive emotions like happiness, patience, acceptance and loving-kindness. Research indicates that we can transform the way we use our minds. Mental transformation and changing the way we view things also enhances our resistance to physical disease and mental distress while enhancing our healing capacities (Dacher, 2006). I feel as though over time you could train your brain to react in a certain way in situations. Like when your instinct might be to react negatively and get “spun up” you could possibly train yourself over time to react more calmly.

Mental Workouts are designed to “train” your brain. They could be as mentioned above where you consciously train yourself to react differently in situations training your spiritual brain or scenarios that train your cognitive brain. Believe it or not your brain actually craves learning and challenge. Ever feel so bored you can stand it? Cognitive brain training involves puzzles, games or problem solvers that incorporate memory usage and speed. Such as remembering word lists or matching. Using your brain makes you sharper, expanding your capacity to learn in all other areas.  It improves memory and recallability skills. And some research has shown that keeping your brain active may actually ward off conditions like Dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. 

This is a fun one I found for strengthening brain memory

 http://www.braintraining101.com/path-memory/

I made it to Level 7 ;)

Meditation Track - I did not find the Loving / Kindness meditation track helpful. I believe that love and kindness need to be physically implemented in someone’s life to have an impact. I think for the purposes of accepting and applying loving / kindness methods the meditation track would not help at all. It might however, help someone understand the idea of loving / kindness in order to apply it and possibly calm themselves from any anger feelings. To me this track was no different than other guided meditations.

Try to apply “loving / kindness” in one scenario in your life this week!

Thank you for reading my post, as always comments, questions and opinions are welcome!

Pursue!

Michelle

Source

 

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA. Basic Health Publications Inc