The love and kindness exercise was teaching how to love yourself through loving others. I found that a bit odd because I always thought you had to love yourself first before you could love someone else. This exercise shows you how to tap into what is really in your heart then share it with others. This can be good or bad but either way if you are being true you can not go wrong. One should be able to take on some suffering from loved ones and friends. I guess it is similar to hearing people tell others that they will pray for them in a time of need or that they will keep them in their thoughts. The subtle mind allows you to focus on your breathing to use it as a part of fulfilling your love and kindness deeds to others. Often we take a deep breath to re-group and finish what we are trying to accomplish. Sometimes that deep breath allows you to reconsider what you were about to say or do to someone. The focused concentration technique shows how to bring your mind back in tune with your immediate thoughts when the mind begins to wander. We know very little about the mind and these exercises give an opportunity to learn about the mind. They were very taxing for me because they required so much thought process. Again this exercise was a bit frustrating simply because it required you to still your mind. My mind naturally races all the time and to still the activity in my mind takes a lot of concentration.
The spiritual wellness and physical wellness connect the mind and body. Your spiritual wellness concerns your inner life. Your inner life needs to be in complete harmony to feed the body what it needs. Your physical wellness allows the outer frame to stay healthy and strong. The mind has to be strong to allow the body to maintain strength. Your spiritual wellness works with the body to push you to limits you thought you could not achieve. My personal life shows manifestation in my physical workout regimen. When my workout appears to be very difficult I listen to my spiritual and inner life to continue on and it allows me to achieve a much better physical workout. I really notice this working during my training for my first 5k run/walk this fall.
