Looking Back

The exercise Meeting Aesclepius and the Subtle Mind exercise were my two favorite this course and proved to be beneficial to me.  Of the practices these were the two that I either made it through the whole exercise or at least was able to pay attention to my thoughts and work on controlling them better.  I would like to work on adding meditation into my weekly regimen in order to train my mind.  The practice Meeting Aesclepius I think would be good for this just because this exercise worked the best for me and I was able to actually visualize a person, though I didn't see a face, I could still sense a strong presence.  The Subtle Mind practice I sometime use daily even not during an actual meditation practice.  When negative thoughts and feelings flood in, I concentrate on my breathing and sometimes just repeat the word "breath" and they slowly dissipate and I become more aware of the fact that I am in control and I can improve my out of control mind.

Meeting Aesclepius

I am finding that performing these practices are slightly easier, but my mind still wanders frequently though I am better at bringing my attention back to my exercise.  I did have a difficult time creating an image of a person and their image changed a few times during the practice.  I did make it through this practice the whole way even though it is still hard to keep my thoughts focused.  These exercises are currently just making me aware of what aspect of my psychological and spiritual wellness that I am needing to work on and how I am able to achieve these improvements.  I plan to continue practicing these exercises at least once or twice a week until I can get into a specific routine and can improve controlling my thoughts at which point I will increase the amount of times I practice.

I think the saying "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself", simply means that we cannot help those in need if we ourselves have not experienced it, but also we will not help them if we haven’t learned the techniques that are beneficial to improving our health and wellness.  I think being able to teach and help others is more efficient when the teacher has experienced what they are preaching and can have some real life experiences.  As a health and wellness professional we should be confident that the steps we are encouraging to take and the practices will actually be helpful to the individual.  I do think that a wellness professional should always be working on improving their health psychologically, physically and spiritually as personal experience can sometimes hit home better instead of reading something from a book or a pamphlet.  I think that we should also be practicing what we preach otherwise others may not be inclined to follow in our footsteps.  We can have growth in our life by continuing practicing meditation, calming the mind, and learning loving-kindness.  Simply following these exercises in a normal routine can help you grow in learning to remove negative thoughts and feelings and improve from the inside out.  

Integral Assessment

The Universal Loving Kindness practice took me a second to remember the phrases, but once I did I felt a sort of calming effect when I was thinking about sending these feelings out in the world.  Any anger or anxiety sort of diminished because I was trying to have improved thoughts and feelings.  With the Integral Assessment I was slightly upset, though shouldn’t be surprised, that I probably need to work on all areas as they need some growth and improvement.  The area that I would like to work on the most would be my psychospiritual and Interpersonal areas.  I think that if I can grow in my psychospiritual health it will spill over to other parts of my life and improve other areas.  Though all areas are important, for me this is the root of my problems and struggles.  I need to work on more meditation and yoga practices to help ease my thoughts, emotions and feelings in order to relieve the stress I have.          

The Subtle Mind

Again this was another exercise that was just a bit too long for me.  The Loving Kindness exercise had you thinking of individuals and specific things.  I did enjoy this exercise in that you weren't specifically thinking of something, but allowing your thoughts to somewhat flow and making sure you were concentrating on one main thought or feeling.  I did catch myself sort of repeating “breathe” in my head in order to make sure I wasn't catching on to a thought and that I was paying attention to my breath instead. I would think this can be of benefit to me but I would shorten the exercise some.  I am slightly frustrated in that I feel as though my mind never shuts down and I am sure others feel the same.  But I am anxious to see if these exercises can work for me as I would love to not feel like my mind is constantly racing.   I think that if one is able to achieve spiritual wellness in runs over to all aspects of their life including their mental health and their physical health.  It’s sort of the same when one begins to exercise on a regular basis, their eating habits usually soon follow as you are wanting to improve all areas of your life.  The connection of my spiritual, mental and physical wellness is probably slightly off balance and needs some adjusting which shows itself in how I stress and get anxious and angry sometimes quickly.  Though I am somewhat physical and stay active at home and for work, my spiritual and mental wellness falls by the wayside I think because of the fact I have such an active mind that is hard to shut down at times.     

Loving-Kindness Exercise

At the beginning of the exercise I felt relaxed and was able to focus my mind on what the narrator was saying and the sounds of the ocean, which were very peaceful and relaxing.    About half way through though it became difficult as there were long pauses and my mind would begin to wander and then I had a hard time getting them back to what I was suppose to be doing.  I would recommend this to others as I think that these techniques can be beneficial once you get used to doing them on a regular basis and can control your wandering thoughts.

The concept of mental workout is basically the same as exercise.  The more you participate in these techniques regularly your mind begins to become accustomed to the relaxing affects and it can become easier and something you want to do daily and need to do.  The benefits of working your mind on a daily basis helps to improve our psychospiritual life and access all its possibilities.  Daily "workouts" help to get your body in a routine of these techniques and helps to improve your integral health.  These mental workouts can be done when and wherever is comfortable for the individual.  It is best to decide on your own when you want to practice your exercises because you know yourself best.  A quite, comfortable place is usually a good place to start until eventually you might be able to practice them anywhere.    

  

Relaxation Exercise

These relaxing techniques have been very beneficial to me.  The music, background sounds, and the narrators voice is calming and soothing and helps to relax you even more.  They sometimes make me slightly tired which I am not sure that is the goal of these exercises, but I am normally doing them at the end of my day as it's the easiest time.  After a long day of work and coming home to my boys, these are nice to sit back, relax and listen to.  

My Personal Reflections

I currently rate my physical well-being at a 6.  Though I work out at least five days a week, I think there is always room for improvement and I would like to improve my cardiovascular health.  My goal would be to increase my stamina when it comes to cardio.  Some activities I could do would be to increase my speed on a treadmill or elliptical.   My spiritual well-being would be about a 6 as well.  Again, I think there is room for improvement and I would like to be more in tune to the world around me.  I used to be a spiritual person when I was younger and would like to improve on this.  My goal would to be a more spiritual and open to the many interpretations of my purpose.  I would like to attend church on a more regular basis and realize the power of prayer.  My psychological well-being would be about a 5.  I tend to stress easily and also experience anxiety and frustration more than I should.  I usually have problems controlling my mind from unneeded thoughts.  I would like to practice with meditation and learning to clear my mind in order to eliminate unnecessary feelings.