unit 5~ The Subtle Mind

1.        Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.

Again I found this to be a waste of my time but I did try, as I do each and every week. I really want one of these to click for me thus making me still hopeful. Again I was not impresses with the voice of this person, and was hopeful for the greater patience that was talked about in the start, and on to breathing I can do this one (maybe). I do not think I have time in my day to add this practice as well as the loving-kindness one, but I will keep going. There was a lot of waiting time that was very frustrating to me, I do not like to do the thinking/mediation/whatever and I just felt that again my time could have been better spend on the project that is due this week along with all of the reading for this section. Again I do respect mediation as a whole but it is just not for me. I am happy to read about others experience as well as how it is or is not working for them.

2.        Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.

I think that each person connects their spiritual wellness and their physical wellness in different ways, although some people might like the same thing it is usually two different experiences. For my I like to run and lift weights, I also like to work in the yard as well as take walks with my family. All of these things for me are not only for my physical wellbeing but for my spiritual as well. I can remember when I was running my first half marathon and being so thankful that I was able and strong enough to do this when there are so many people who would like to do it yet are not able due to illness.  I do hope that everyone is able to find something that helps them to connect their spiritual and physical wellness.

Unit 4- Loving- Kindness

First let me say if I had 5-15 mins each day to do this stuff I should be doing laundry or something that would benefit my family as well, but I do read my homework so page 66 here we go!

1.            Describe your experience. Did you find it beneficial? Difficult? Why or why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or why not?

Beneficial is something that is not the same for everyone, with that said no I do not think there was a benefit for me, unless anger and frustration is a benefit. I did not like the voice; the first two were much more calming. But overall 17 mins of my day I would be able to get laundry done or lift some weights. The pauses were too long and then there was background noise as well which was weird to me. I was not able to focus at all on this one and I would not recommend this to anyone, it was not worth the time to load it on the computer.

2.            What is the concept of "mental workout"? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a mental workout? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

 Mental workout to me is making the mind work, in several different ways. With this being said there are several ways to do this and there are benefits like increase attention and decreased stress, as well as help the person gain understanding for a more integral health perspective.  

I know there are several things that can be done to help “workout” the mind but for me it is still about going for a run or lifting some weights, laughing with my son and husband and going for a walk with my dog in the am with a cup of coffee.  These activities remind me why I work so hard and what is really important, as well as what I want to teach my son about life.

Unit 3 -reflect on your own level of wellness

1.           Based on your reflections, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being optimal wellbeing), where do you rate your A-physical wellbeing, B-spiritual well-being, C-psychological well-being? Why?

Okay let’s start with my physical wellbeing, today it would be like a 6 because I was not able to run and that is not good for any part of me. Although I am married, I have a 4 year old son that I am the primary care giver for. I also go to school full time as well as work full time so there is very little time left for me to do anything. I am lucky that I have my mother, father and some close friends that are able to help me with my son and I am able to get the majority of things done each day. As for spiritual wellbeing that is more like a 4 or 5, again I would love to go to church yet there are only so many hours in a day that is already jammed packed. I would love to be able to care out that small amount of time to go to church but those are precious minutes that I could be working on a project or doing the laundry.  As for the last topic of my psychological well being it is better on days that I am able to run yet today it is a 7/10. That is because I was able to ride dirt bikes with my son tonight, see some friends as well as eat dinner on the porch, again with my son. I know overall how blessed I am and that makes me very happy as well as making the hard stuff in life not so bad.

2.           Develop a goal for yourself in each area (physical, spiritual, psychological).

Goals to me are things that I would do if there was time. As for the goals for my physical well being I would really love to run the ½ marathon faster than in the years past. It seems that I always have so much going on that I do not have the time or energy to train. My goal for my spiritual well being would be to make the time to go to church each week, okay really I will be more realistic and go for once a month. I know that I have a crazy schedule but I really (really) want to start going again; I am going to try very hard this week to make that happen. I also try very hard each day to talk to my son about our faith, just in case we go to church I do not want him to be lost on the whole idea. As for my psychological well being, I have great friends that I am able to call as well as hang out with that make me feel like very thing is going to be okay. My friends and my parents (along with my brother and his wife) support me in going back to school and are there to help in ways that mean so much. My goal is to let them know how special they are and how much I really do need them.

3.           What activities or exercise can you implement in your life to assist in moving toward each goal?

 If I could just make more hours in a day than I could run more, just kidding because I do not think I would run more I would do more homework or something crazy like that. There is a new training program that I read about today, it is training for a ½ marathon by running only three days a week. I think that might be the way to go, that way I would be able to dedicate three days a week to a running program and schedule other events (like the job shadowing that I am doing to apply to a Master’s program) around the running that is set.

4.           Complete the relaxation exercise The Crime of the Century. To hear this exercise, click here. Describe your experience. (What it beneficial? Frustrating? etc.)

Really I need to try this again, but okay I am going to try this meditation thing again. (Is this the same guy as the last meditation??? Just wondering)

A rainbow, really.. During this I was working very hard to think about the body but then I started to think about my back pain from working a 18 hour day yesterday and the people I had to lift up today at work. Again I found it very hard to stay on task, or at least mentally on task. I did not feel grounded at all, I felt like I wanted to sleep, this voice is very soothing. There were several other colors again I did try to focus but I had several others thoughts going on, mostly about the people I had seen in the ER last night, it was like going back to each patients when he was talking about the different body parts. That was kind of neat.

Overall again I found this to be very frustrating~ not only because I could of been doing something else but I do not see the point of doing this meditation over and over if it is not something a person likes or gets anything out of. I think it just makes me less likely to try and focus.

reflective statement- Journey On relaxation -unit 2

For anyone who knows me, even a little bit they know I do not stop. I have a full time job take full time classes, raise a son, am a great wife who has dinner on the table most night when my husband gets home from work. For me relaxation is a run on the treadmill at 10 pm when everyone else in my house is sleeping.
I have tried to do yoga, guided image as well as meditation yet do not find them to help, but hay I am hear to learn so I will try this exercise and see what happens.

Okay itunes this might not be so bad- was my first thought so I was willing to "really try" this time. I will say that I did try but again I found my mind thinking about other things the blood flow, although I am sure most of the blood in my body is in the abdomen, which again got me thinking about different body systems. I did find myself trying to stop my thoughts and go back to focusing on what was being said but it was very hard for me. I did not feel warm or heavy with the breaths, but I did like the tone of this man's voice and think for some people it might be helpful.

welcome statement

Hello all and welcome to my first blogging experience!
I am a 29 year old who has been married for 7 wonderful years, we have a 4 1/2 year old son and 8 year old dog both keep us very busy and we love it. I am very lucky that I have a wonderful extended family and a lot of friends too.
I enjoy going for a run as well as baking, riding my dirt kike, watching my husband race on of the two race cars we have and doing pretty much anything else my husband or son can come up with to keep us outside and not watching TV.
I am almost done at Kaplan and will have my BS in Health and Wellness, I will be applying to a master program for next fall, which I am very excited for.
Wish everyone the best of luck in this class and well as in the future~
Steph