My two most beneficial exercises

Of the two exercises I completed during this course, I chose Loving Kindness and Visualization as the most beneficial. When I did the loving kindness I remember the feeling of complete freedom. I say freedom because after I allowed myself to be filled with love and compassion, I shared that love and compassion with a suffering loved one. Once that was done, I further shared my love with those that I didn't know, and even to those that I didn't care for. Being able to breathe in their suffering and spread my peace and wellness was liberating. It let me know that I have the ability to spread peace to others in the hopes that they will do the same and we will continue to share this path to wellness.

The visualization exercise allowed me to look at parts of my past that made me feel happy, whole, connected, and exuberant. I thought of two experiences where I was at my highest level of happiness and peace.  The experience where I was my most happy was when I was with my children when they were younger, about 5 years ago. I was carefree and relaxed, and even though I was pregnant, I had a lot of energy. Because it was springtime, I was in heaven as I smelled the fragrant flowers and listened to the birds sing in the morning. I would get off work at 5 o’clock when there was still 5 hours of daylight left and my boys and I would go swimming or go to the park and walk around. We would take long walks and look at the spiders that hung outside of the lighted marquis in front of the Walgreens. We’d have “sleepovers” on the weekend where we just laid on the couch all night and watched Disney and Nickelodeon all night. I had to be in the middle because both of my boys wanted to lie near me. I remember one time we even ate ice cream for dinner, that’s how happy I felt!

The time when I was most whole, connected and exuberant was when I spent the day at the beach by myself. It was early spring or late winter. The sun was bright and the sky was completely blue but it was chilly outside, like 40 degrees…and very windy!! Despite the wind and cold, I felt completely connected with the sand, the sun, and the water. I sat outside all day and wrote poetry and took pictures. The beach was empty so I felt like it was MY sand, my salt, my birds, my sun, my sky, and my wind. I felt like the perfect day was just for me.

I loved reliving those moments, and even though they’re gone, they’re still very much in my heart.  Mentally, the visualization exercise proved to me that I don’t need to have a lot of money or fancy trips to be at one with nature or be truly deeply happy. I don’t need to go around the world to find beauty and I don’t need to take a long vacation to come back relaxed. If I continue to think about that I will be able to transform myself to those places in an instant. Hopefully I'll have many more memories to tap into as time goes on, but for now, I'll enjoy the moments I have now.

Hanan 

~Seek Peace~