unit 8

A christian form of loving-kindness and compassion practice starts with the mind. The mind can observe and let the crazy stresses of life take over, at which point one needs to realize it is regroup time, slow down time, or stop time. 
Practice a fun visualization exercise to get the mind off problems and current stressful encounter. One can do many things to help destress like sing, or choose to laugh, listen to music, meditate on something good, etc. The mind becomes more in tune with what is going on in the outer world. 
Creative Visualization of a calm beautiful place or time, and meditation helps stop the craziness and helps one calm down. To practice this kind of self control one can help become in-tune with the signs of the body. The body could be showing signs of high-blood pressure, signs of diabetes, signs of stress, heart pain, or mental confusion; to realize and become aware of a better way to handle everyday struggles could save our lives. We cannot hear high-blood pressure, we cannot hear diabetes symptoms, but, we can hear our mouth getting louder or talking fast or talking angry, or crying or moaning and then we can stop and remember we have a choice. Knowing there is an alternative, like immediate deep-breathing to calm down our nerves can help us stay in control and focus on what is important again. Doing a 20-30 minute visualization exercise can remove the body for the moment and act as a good mind-body-emotion stabilizer.
Personally, I have found that visualization has a helped a lot in healing my body. I have noticed that it helps me stay calm and not stress or get frustrated. I actually just had an encounter that I used this exercise and breathing as well. I am currently on vacation and while walking my dog to have her pee, we ran into bees. I am deathly allergic to them. We stood there and slowed my breathing and visualized the bee landing on me and leaving. When I finally ended this session there were no bees around us and we continued along.