LOVING-KINDNESS:
I
can breathe in suffering and breathe out health and happiness for a loved
one. When I try to do it for
myself, however, it feels uncomfortable.
But again, I can do it.
When the voice in the exercise asked me to do it for people I consider my enemies, I
almost shut down completely. Wow,
that is hard...apparently impossible for me right now. I feel like it will
weigh me down and strengthen them.
Does anyone know how I can handle this in a healthy way? These are not just people that I have
disagreed with or something like that.
When I think “enemy”, some people who have done some pretty horrible
things rush to my mind. How do I deal
with this?
PERSONAL ASSESSMENT:
I
have completely my personal assessment. It includes all four areas of
development as well as the rings of body, mind and spirit and the lines of areas
to develop within each of the four areas.
Completing
an assessment such as this one is quite a strange and foreign sensation. How can it be that looking this deeply
and critically into oneself is not only strange, but also unsettling? With this exercise, I have learned what areas of my development I am comfortable
with and what areas are unnerving. I am
thankful for the comfortable areas, not because they are rather developed, but because they just feel good, they feel healthy. The other areas that make me feel uncomfortable, I will take
as a sign of a need for improvement.
The
areas I want to improve are the psychospiritual and the interpersonal. In the psychospiritual, I feel I could
improve on all areas in my everyday life.
For example, I should assess my relationships. Some of them cause me great stress. I could find ways to either make them
healthy or eliminate them from my life.
There are a few people I need to have serious talks with. I also need to be strong and make the judgments
I need to without being dependent on the other persons reactions. Interpersonally, my family is a major
concern. I feel the need to help
them with some issues and be more involved but it feels like closed doors all
around. I need to do some
out-of-the-box thinking and soul searching to find a way to move it all in a positive
direction.
I have mapped out my thoughts on a poster board and uploaded a picture of it below. I thought it looked pretty whacky to see myself exposed in all honesty on paper like this. But, it was kind of cool too, so I wanted to share it…
I have mapped out my thoughts on a poster board and uploaded a picture of it below. I thought it looked pretty whacky to see myself exposed in all honesty on paper like this. But, it was kind of cool too, so I wanted to share it…
Thanks for reading!
Stephanie Peterson
Hello Stephanie!
ReplyDeleteVery nice job on this post and kudos on the poster! I agree with you about becoming uncomfortable with the ability to breath in suffering and breathing out happiness for yourself, especially if you are a giver instead of a receiver. I too feel a bit goofy about the whole thing but I did do it. Also, it is odd to think that a person can naturally reduce the suffering of an enemy. This would take a lot of forgiveness before this could happen. I think that the exercise is getting at is that people that do wrong are likely missing something in their life that can be filled with love and happiness. It is a hard concept to grasp but it makes sense to me. Loving others and spreading kindness can only make this world a better place! Thanks Stephanie!
Bradly Leis
Hi Bradly,
ReplyDeleteThank you for that comment. You make an interesting point. I think you are right, that breathing out loving-kindness is to heal and make a person whole in an attempt to create something better in the world, even in our enemies. That really does help me. I was thinking about it on a much shallower level, as if I were making them stronger and fueling them and their hatred right along with them. You are right, though. It is about spreading and growing love, not giving it away like something we will never see again. "What goes around, comes around" right?
Thank you,
Steph