Choices, Choices, Choices

Oh my so many choices, so much to choose from.  Ahhh, when I go back over the exercise from our class, I can say I have no problem implementing all of the practices, each of them can be helpful to me on any given time.  I must say that I have 3 for certain that I am implementing.  Meditation is a given for me.  I is one of the easiest, quickest ways for me to unload some of the chaos from the day.  It is easy to do, I can do it almost anywhere. It does not require a lot from me...I have many tapes or cd's that can offer me a few moments to get my spirit quiet.  I can also do it without a prompt, it is a matter of closing off the world and breathing until I find a place.  Now visualization is also a great one for me as well...What it does for me is pull me out of a place where my mind is running all over the place and allows me to focus on a particular moment, a particular thing and that things seems to open up so much for me and sometimes provides a conduit of physical healing.  I actually have experienced feeling physically better after visualization exercises.   Thirdly and most important to me is the subtle mind exercise. This one is my challenge...the calm abiding mind is my goal...I am so not there yet.  This one is hard for me. I am still dealing with the chatter in my mind.  I have a hard time staying focused and allowing myself to look at my thoughts and not be overtaken by them.  It is the one practice that I so look forward to incorporating and developing.  I believe this one is the one that will open the door for me to integral health.  I don't look at these practices as just opportunities to escape my routine. I look at these practices as ways to gain maximum health, to be balanced mentally, physically and spiritually.  I know that incorporating them into my daily practice has helped because I can already see the changes from the beginning of this term.  I have experienced a sense of calmness and clarity during very troubling moments.  I have seen a heighten sense of awareness in so many areas. I believe that these practices are essential to my mental fitness.   I have managed to see how they can help control pain, alleviate a cough, calm down the mind to the point that I could gain clarity and peace about some things going on in my life.  Through these practices, I was able to remove some of the chaos that would have kept me from making wise decisions.  I was able to critically think my way through some difficult dilemmas and therefore with a full understanding make a successful decision that brought peace to me.  Sometimes we can be so caught up in life, so stressed physically and mentally that our state of mind will make us vunerable to bad choices and terrible decisions.  I must say that I have had some difficult moments in the past few weeks but because of the exercises and the state of mind that was created I made very good sound decisions and I am very happy about that.