Unit 7

Meeting Aesclepius

This week I practiced the Meeting Aesclepius exercise. In this exercise I visualized a loved one, a man that I respect, love, trust, and strive to be like (my husband). I found the music relaxing and calming. I really liked this exercise in focusing on my husband and all of the characteristics that I truly appreciate in him. I found this exercise enjoyable and it allowed me to focus on all the positives of our relationship. I felt that I was connecting with my husband on a whole new level even though he was not present. Practicing meditation exercises like this can truly help you feel better about yourself, about others, and allow you to live a healthy and happy life. Mindfulness has allowed me to feel more positive in my daily life. It has allowed me to pray more and open my heart to the world. I plan to continue to apply these practices in my life by being positive, meditating, exercising, and eating well. All of these will help to reduce stress and allow me to feel wholeness in my life.

The saying, “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself”, is very true. If you have not opened up spiritually you will not be able to help others to do the same for themselves. As a professional you cannot teach someone to pray, meditate, forgive, or help them to connect their mind, body, and spirit if you have not done so yourself. If you do not meditate how can you explain to someone else how to do it, what they should be thinking, or feeling, if you do not know yourself. I feel that each of us being in the health profession is expected to develop our psychological, physical, and spiritual health so that we can help others to do the same. I think that by implementing meditation, exercise, prayer, yoga, and quiet time into my daily life will allow me to continue to develop my inner self and spiritual side. 

Unit 6

Universal Loving-Kindness Meditation

I practiced the loving-kindness meditation. I found it to be relaxing and stress relieving. The loving kindness meditation was easy to do. I sat in a quiet place and began to repeat the phrases:

May all individuals gain freedom from suffering.

May all individuals find sustained health, happiness, and wholeness.

May I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering.

May I assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness.

I practiced this for 10 minutes and this made me feel at ease. I felt that this meditation allowed me to feel that I had the power to help others. This exercise helped me to open my mind and heart to myself and others. I also liked this meditation because unlike a recorded meditation exercise you can truly use this meditation almost anywhere.

I also completed the integral assessment. I had to focus really hard to think about my life and it allowed me to put my life into perspective. I found that I am good with psychospiritual and biological aspects of my life. I however lack on the interpersonal aspect. I find that it is easy for me when it comes to nutrition, exercise, meditation, and prayer.  On the other hand I am really bad at community, family, friends, and work relationships. I have never been good at relationships and I have very few friends, but many acquaintances. I think for me to work on my interpersonal skills that I first need to work on my inner self. I need to work on having a positive attitude and behavior. This will hopefully help me to develop into a better communicator and friend. This assessment really helped me to evaluate my life and to see where I need to make some improvements. 

Unit 5

The Subtle Mind Practice

I liked how Dacher talked about our breathing, how when our breath is calm our mind follows. I find this to be true for myself. I liked this exercise better than the Loving-Kindness exercise because I felt more relaxed and calm right away. I could easily start deep breathing, feel relaxed, and stay focused on my breath and not my thoughts. The Loving-Kindness exercise I felt was harder to practice because my thoughts would wonder when I was trying to think of certain loved ones or myself and then my mind would continue in a different direction. While the Subtle Mind practice you can just relax and not think about anything other than your breathing. I also thought it was hard to relax with the Loving-Kindness exercise when we were to think of a loved one suffering. I again liked the waves and flute noises in this exercise. The waves helped me to focus on my breathing and I breathed with the sounds of the waves.

Spiritual wellness is important to our mental and physical wellness as they are all connected. As we are able to connect with our spiritual side we can mentally and physically feel relaxed and calm. As our mind, body, spirit, and emotions are slowly progressing toward the positive side of life we will improve our mental health, our immune systems, and our connection with ourselves and the world around us. The connection of my spiritual, mental, and physical wellness has let me become a more positive person and I feel better about myself. 

Unit 4

Loving-Kindness

I found that the sound of the waves during the Loving-Kindness exercise helped me to relax and feel at ease. I thought it was difficult to open my heart like the lady said and allow happiness to fill my heart and thoughts. As the exercise went on I felt that it was a little easier to let myself go and feel love, kindness, gentleness, and peace toward myself and others. I didn’t like thinking about a loved one suffering but I could see how this might help you to cope with a similar situation. I would recommend this exercise to others because you never know what people are going through and this would help them to feel better about their selves. You need to love yourself before you can share your love with others.  

“Mental workout” is the concept of exercising our minds like athletes workout their bodies to stay in shape. To evolve our psychospiritual minds as we work toward health, happiness, and wholeness we must put the effort in daily. (Dacher, 2006) Working our minds for an hour a day can help us to work toward our mind, body, and spirit wholeness. Research indicates that loving-kindness attracts loving-kindness and that we get back what we give. (Dacher, 2006) I think that you can use mental workouts to help calm your mind and allow you to have more positive actions and thoughts. This will allow you to grow your psychospiritual mind.

Reference

 

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach: Basic Health Publications.

Unit 3

Self-Reflection/The Crime of the Century Exercise

Question 1

A- I would rate my physical well-being as an 8. I try to run, hike, do yoga, or go to the gym at least three times a week. I try to eat healthy by having a fruit smoothie most mornings, cutting out all soda, staying away from processed foods and foods with added sugar, as well as eating foods that are non GMO. I think that my physical well-being is pretty good, although I know that there is always room for improvement.

B- I would rate my spiritual well-being as a 7. Up until recently I would have probably said a 4. I was not good at connecting with my spiritual side at all. Recently I started going to church, praying more often, reading scriptures from the bible, meditating, and giving myself quiet time. I found that I was too stressed all of the time and needed that spiritual connection for self-healing. I think that I still have more room to improve in this area but I think that I am headed in the right direction. I can feel a difference by the changes that I have made.

C- I would rate my psychological well-being as a 7. I know that my attitude can be influenced by stress; I have gotten better at knowing what stresses me out and how to cope. I think that more importantly I have learned how to better communicate with others so that I can express my emotions and not create stress that could harm my health. I think that I try to find the positive in everything. I believe that yoga and meditation help in keeping me relaxed and psychological well.

Question 2

A-  A goal for my physical well-being would be to exercise more often and to eat less pasta and bread. Although I exercise at least three times a day I don’t always exercise very long.  I also feel that I don’t exercise on days that I work. I would benefit from some exercise on these days as well. Carbohydrates are not good for you but I love pasta. I should cut down on the amount of pasta and bread that I eat.

B- A spiritual goal for me would be to believe in myself and the things that I am capable of. Putting my faith in God before all else and allowing myself to see the good in the world will help me to bring my mind and body together.

C- Psychologically I think that my goal would be to make more of the negatives in my life into positives. I think that I try to always look at the positive side of things but it can be hard. So if I can make negatives into positives it will help me cope with things better. I also think that I should spend more time a week doing yoga and/or meditation because it helps me to relax and ease my mind.

Question 3

A- To reach my physical goal I could set an alarm on my phone to remind me to exercise that day. I could do more physical activities on my days off like hiking, biking, canoeing, walking, playing tennis, or fetch with the dogs. I might have to set a specific time during the day aside just for exercise, especially when I work. Also in order to reduce the amount of carbohydrates that I eat I will need to shop better. If I don’t buy the food I won’t be able to eat it.

B- To reach my spiritual goal I think that meditation could help me. I think that if I meditate more that I will be able to put God first and allow a sense of completeness in my life. Praying more and reading more scriptures from the Bible will also allow me to feel the connection to God and myself. I think that by reading scriptures it will allow me to have more self-confidence.

C- To reach my psychological goal I need to be able to think more positively. Finding ways to deal with my stress will help me to see the positive in each situation. Relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation I think will help me to feel the positive energy that is in the world and allow me to carry that with me throughout my day.

Question 4

 

      The Crime of the Century was a great exercise. I think that it helped me to relax and feel calm. The use of colors helped me to visualize my different thoughts and allowed me to focus on different parts of my body. This exercise was very soothing and was great in helping me to think positive thoughts. This exercise seems good for building self-confidence and yourself worth. I would recommend this to anyone that wants to focus on their selves and to be more positive in life. 

      To do The Crime of the Century Exercise here is the link : http://www.kushs.net/kaplan/HW420/TheCrimeOfTheCentury.mp3

Introduction

Hi everyone and welcome to my Blog! My name is Jennifer and I look forward to speaking with you. I made this Blog in order to share information with others about Health and Wellness. I hope to be able to share my knowledge of health as well as learn from each of you. Thank you for taking the time to read my Blog and I am excited to hear from you.

Unit 2 Journey on Relaxation Exercise

Journey on Relaxation Exercise

The Journey on Relaxation exercise is very relaxing and soothing to listen to. The music and the instructor’s voice in this exercise are very calming and relaxing. The autogenic training technique, where you can actually suggest how your body feels, can really help you to relax. I wasn’t sure if this was going to work but after putting my headphones on and sitting in a quiet place, this exercise really helped me to relax. I could feel my muscles relaxing and my mind begin to let go of my troubles of the day. Once the exercise was over I felt like my mind was in a better place and my body was not as tense. The stress just seems to go away. I would use this exercise again to help me to relax. Just by thinking that you are relaxed can increase the blood flow to those areas. I feel that this exercise would be great to listen to after a long day at work, or just a stressful day in general. The mind is a powerful tool that we can use to help heal and keep our bodies healthy.