Unit 5 Wandering Mind

I really enjoy the meditation exercises although it is hard to explain to my family how laying on the couch with my eyes closed was actually homework.  This weeks Subtle Mind exercise was a lot more difficult for me then the Loving Kindness exercise.  I found that instead of a witnessing mind that I tend to have a wandering mind.  It is going to take a lot more practice before I get this exercise down.  I do better with constant instruction during the exercise.  This one had a lot of time with out narration and I kept thinking random thought and kept starting to compose my blog in my head.  Geez, who ever thought trying not to think would be so hard! 
I am really learning a lot in this class.  I had always focused on my biological wellness and I am super fit and eat a really healthy diet.  I now see how biological, mental and spiritual wellness are connected.  They all have to be in balance or you will not get to the higher level of human flourishing.  Before this class I thought I was at the top level of fitness.  Now, I see I am just a beginner and have several areas to cover.  I guess it is good to always be growing as a person.  This class has helped me do just that.

Unit 4 Assignment-Loving Kindness

I enjoyed the loving kindness exercise.  I was relieved once the women started to narrate.  I do not think I could relax with Dacher speaking.  His voice is not exactly calming.  I thought about my handicapped sister who has some addiction problems when it asked me to think of someone close that was in need of healing.  It was a bit more difficult to think of a group of strangers since I kept giving them my friends faces.  I see how this exercise is a mental workout since it took a lot of concentration to keep thinking of the subject matter for the period of time that was directed.  I was getting really sleepy at the end.  I really need to devote at least 20 minutes a day to the loving kindness exercise or something similar.  I do not see how I could do an hour as the book suggested.  I would definetly fall asleep then!  Maybe it is something I need to work up to doing instead of trying for the hour right away.

Burning all sorts of new neural connections with this class.

Unit 3

It would have been nice if there were some surveys we could fill out to rate ourselves in these categories.  I feel this would give us all a better reference point.  Anyway this is where I rate myself.  I rate myself an 8 on physical well-being.  I am 39 years old but I am the same size as I was in eleventh grade.  I work out at least three times a week and eat a healthy diet.  I would rate myself higher if I was more flexible.  I tend to take classes that are high impact like kick boxing or circuit training and these do not do much for your flexibility.  I would rate myself a 7 on my spiritual well-being.  I attend church but do not feel that I pray enough.  I just recently started to make daily prayer a priority.  My psychological well-being would also be rated a 7.  I feel like I am a well-adjusted and well grounded.  I am kind and loving to my family and friends (except for that one week of the month when I tend to lose patience).  I need to work on incorporating integral health into my life to be able to raise my score in this area.

My goal to increase my physical well-being is to add yoga to my work out routine.  I have a yoga DVD and I need to make it a priority to do it at least 3 times a week.  I would like to add more prayer to my life to increase my spiritual wellness.  My goal is to pray nightly before bed.   To increase my psychological wellness I would like to start incorporating the three steps to preparation to integral health into my life.  Loving-Kindness, skillful action and silence and stillness are the steps that Dacher outlined in the reading.  Adding these to my life will help eliminate some of the negative junk.  “Cultivating what brings us happiness, health and wholeness and abandoning what keeps us stuck in stressful and unproductive life patterns (Dacher, 2007)”.   

I just finished listening to the relaxation exercise The Crime of the Century.  What a weird name for this exercise.  You wonder who comes up with these names.   I had also heard this exercise in another class but it was very relaxing.  I almost fell asleep several times even with the dog scratching the door to get in and the phone ringing.  It was a bit strange to imagine windows in your body.  I found it interesting that during the exercise I felt really sleepy but once he said that you would not feel sleepy then I no longer felt at all tired.  Wow the power of suggestion really works.  Maybe I am just getting the feeling of relaxation confused with sleepiness.

Reference:

Dacher, Elliot. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health.

Unit 2 Assignment- Warm Hands, Cold Feet!

 I started to listen to the relaxation exercise and  I realized I have heard it before in my stress management class.  I had in fact uploaded it to my old mp3 player in the past along with some other meditation exercises.  This was during my short phase of trying to incorporate meditation into my life.  It lasted a couple of weeks but I grew bored of the handful of exercises I had uploaded.  In listening to the exercise again I was reminded of how relaxing it is to do these exercises.  It also is amazing how much power the mind has over the body.  I truly felt my hands get warmer as the blood moved to them.  I wonder if this type of exercise has been done while thermal imaging was being performed at the same time.  It would be interesting to see if those areas actually showed the blood moving to different areas of the body.  After the exercise was over I noticed my feet were kind of chilly.  Could I use the exercise to warm my feet?  It did actually work but only for the time that I was focused on moving the blood.  Once I stopped my feet became chilly again.  Guess I better put on some socks.  I know meditation and relaxation exercises are something I need to add to my life.  This was another reminder.  Maybe I will load some of the exercises on to my new mp3 player. 

Trying to figure out this blog thing.

I have never created or participated in a blog before.  I have heard lots about blogs and know that some people even make a living from blogging.  Seems like a pretty cake job if you can get it if you ask me.  You get to work from home and just write about what interests you.  I am currently pursuing a BS in Health and Wellness and I created this blog as an assignment.  Nutrition and exercise has always been an area of interest for me so, I am looking forward to learning more in this class. (Geez, I hope I am typing in the right box, lol.)