I can honestly say that I am a huge skeptic when it comes to the powers of meditation on a person’s life. I took part in the “Loving Kindness” exercise and I was very surprised at the effect that it had over the way I felt while taking part. I began to feel a lightness that I have now experienced in a long time. I do not think that I have felt this freedom and burden free since I was a child. I was able to forget all of the things that were weighing my heart and spirit down. I swear that I actually felt like I was experiencing a beer buzz but without the negative after effects. I think the reason that I do not put much stock into these types of exercises is because of the difficulty that I experience when I try to clear my mind and sit in the quietness. It is so hard for me to silence my mind and the outside world and my to do list for the day. I have massive problems sleeping nightly. I really do think that if I would take part in this type of relaxation, mind clearing exercise each night before I go to bed I would experience the kind of quiet needed to enjoy a worry free sleep. So yes I did find the exercise very beneficial. I suppose that I would recommend exercises similar to the one we took part in to others. You don’t have anything to lose by trying something new. It doesn’t cost you anything and there isn’t a great penalty that you have to pay if you are not successful in the endeavor. That is the beautiful thing about this there isn’t any competition to be won and lost. It is just you and your mind. Nobody is around to judge you or the outcome of the practice.

The main goals to me of the mental workouts is to help cultivate your mind into a fully functioning mind that is connected to your soul and your body. The workouts are designed to help you silence the world outside of your head and look inward to find solutions to your problems. This will help you be the source of your own happiness instead of having to rely on medications, food or other crutches that we may use to fill the empty parts inside each of us. When we do the exercises we are able to find happiness within in ourselves. We are able to accept things that we may not have been willing to accept before we began the exercises. We begin to be able to reduce the anger, doubt, confusion and depression that we once felt and replace them with feelings of love, peace and calm. We can literally transform the way we think and the way our minds work by completing exercises like the one we were assigned. I think that I would benefit most by taking part in mind clearing and soul calming exercises before I go to bed. Dacher suggests that we take part in the exercise at the beginning of the day to enhance the beginning of our day. I literally believe that I would probably have to shut myself off from the rest of my apartment in order to benefit fully from the exercises. I have the hardest time focusing on things that do not require movement.