I feel that in both exercises utilizing relaxation and mind were difficult for me. I find a quiet spot and there is no noise except the dialogue, but it is hard for me to concentrate and focus only on the activity. It appears that when everything gets calm and I get relaxed, the more clear I make my mind, the more I begin to think about the tasks I need to complete for the week. From my school work to my job to things for the kids. I am able to relax with the music iin the background, but after about 5 minutes in, I lose focus on what I am supposed to be doing. I know after reading in each unit that practicing is the only way I will be able to begin to release other thoughts and focus on the importance of the activity, but I guess I will have to improve the time I submit to doing this.
The connection between spiritual, mental, and physical awareness is that the mind and body are connected as one. After reading how the activities of martial arts relates to the mind so well, I realized that maybe I need to take a martial arts class. I have never engaged in these activities before and I enjoy exercise, so I believe that partaking in such an activity will cause me to be more in tune to the way my mind works with physical activities. The mind and physical activity cause a relaxation when one is able to focus and relax, causing a calming effect over oneself and relax the body.
A lot of people experience the same thing as you’ve described. Between our family, work, home, and all other things that complicate our life, it can be very hard to have silence and stillness in our minds. It becomes necessary sometimes to constantly have to think about our problems and over-analyze them to ensure ourselves that we can make it through. However, it works quite the opposite way, the more we think about our problems, to harder they actually seem to overcome and learning the techniques of having a calm-abiding, witnessing mind is essential to give ourselves some peace. Did you have any preference on which exercise you actually enjoyed better or thought was most beneficial to you?
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