This exercise was truly a blessing. A large part of my vision for this year is to find that peace and serenity which exists beneath my surface and cultivate it. Participating in this exercise made me realize that I do not always extend love to myself on a deeper level. I may show 'love' to myself by taking care of my physical body but I don't think I have ever taken the time to show 'love' to the inner me. I am not saying that I hate myself or anything like that but I realized that I do not acknowledge the emotion of 'love' in relation to my inner most being. I know I feel happiness and contentedness within but love never crossed my mind. I know that I love others around me but does this mean I am not giving them all the love that I really can? I have always held the belief that you have to learn to love yourself before you can love others, I guess I didn't really think about the spiritual self so much.
If I had the opportunity to share this with others I would do so as much as possible. In fact I might just start with my partner. Who knows where our relationship could go if we both learned more about this profound level of love and kindness.We have a beautiful relationship that is based on love, trust, and respect, but everything has room for improvement, right? We have often commented that maybe we really are soul mates, but discovering more about our inner selves may help us realize how deep our connection really goes.
The concept of the mental workout supercedes brain teasers and Mensa puzzles. A mental workout is developing the ability to process the negativity of our environment and either turn it into something positive or flushing it away and not allowing its negativity to become a part of our being. It is not something that we can find a manual for or a website giving us step by step demonstration. It requires a personal decision and choice to stay focused on what is going to bring about 'authentic health, happiness, and wholeness'. It is about developing all of the levels of our inner being, psychological, emotional, and spiritual, and finding our connectedness to the world and people around us. Putting all of this into practice is a life long journey that will never be perfect, but we can begin by taking the time to find stillness and quietness that will enable us to begin the filtering process. We can begin by showing love and kindness in place of anger and revenge. Step by step, little by little we can begin to respond to different situations in different ways. In doing so, we are cultivating that inner being without even realizing it; by the time you sit down and reflect upon past events you will begin to see that subtle changes also change the subtle mind.
I like reading your blogs. I think we have much in common, you and I, and our analytical sesnses think much alike, so I can understand where your comming from.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your comment on my blog, the moment my life took a pivotal turn was the day I rode my first wave and came to realize the true existence of God; and my love and appreciation for the world he made for us skyrocketed. I always saw the beauty of the natural world, but never to this level. From this point I looked at myself and realized that God loves me and also gave me some really good qualities that I am really really grateful for. One of the things I'm most grateful for is one of belief: I believe that I can do, and achieve anything as long as I have God, in a physical sense, in a psychological sense, as long as my spiritual sense is high, I've learned that everything else follows.