Unit 8 Post

-_..-*TWO, MOST BENEFICIAL PRACTICES*-.._-

Out of the various exercises that we have completed throughout the span of this course, I believe that meditation and visualization have become the most beneficial to my life. I say this for many reasons. First off, this class has showed me what integral health is, and exactly how to reach it. I now feel like I am well on my way to living a more wholesome life that I can enjoy day to day.

Meditation is something that I now like to participate in during the mornings after I wake up and evenings before I go to sleep. Even if I don't complete the same exact meditiation the book taught me, I can still get into the same zone, which makes me feel in close contact with my inner self. Visualization has helped me to calm down in times of distress. Whenever I feel like my world is crumbling apart into a million peices, I take a few minutes out of my day to find a quiet place. In this quiet place I use visualization to escape from reality.

-_..-*FOSTERING MENTAL FITNESS*-.._-

Implementing meditation and visualization has already began to foster mental fitness within my life. I know this because I now catch myself doing things that I have never done in the past. Instead of letting something small take control of me, I use mental fitness to take control of the situation and look at it with a positive attitude. Instead of letting the endless problems of our day to day activities make a mark in my health, I now use meditation and visualization as a balance to keep my mind, body, and spirit in check!!!

Unit 7 Post

~*Meeting Aesclepius*~

Through this practice I encountered the emotions of the subtle mind, loving-kindness, calm abiding and eventually unity consciousness. However, I did not encounter the untamed mind.

Visualization helped me find my inner healer (Aesclepius or subtle mind), which was at the source of my being. It helped guide me to the integral process.

It was so easy for me to think of a wise man who is very close to me, and whom I feel passion between. I say this because I have had a boyfriend now for 7 months, and we are very close. We know everything about eachother, and do almost everything we can together. I actually felt his presence because he was in the other room (lol). I really imagined the light and beams at my focal point, and felt it as it entered my mind. This made me feel still and pure. I have felt inspired by my boyfriend because he is much older than me, and has been able to experience a lot more in his life than I have. Therefore, he is constantly teaching me things about life. I have felt like I am becoming one with him because of the knowledge he shares with me. I had a past boyfriend who I dated for almost 6 years, and I already feel closer to my present boyfriend within only 7 months of time.

It is amazing how our mind can take control and make our body feel so calm and loving. I really enjoyed this practice the most because it has combined all of the practices into one. I felt especially relaxed because I took my laptop out to my porch, and all I could hear was the wind blowing the trees around, with birds chirping in and out. This is how meditation has fostered an increase in my psychological and spiritual wellness. I will continue to apply these practices through out my life by taking time out of my day every once in a while to sit in a relaxing environment like my porch for example and reply the thoughts, feelings, and words I heard through this CD from my memory. These practices and meditations will help me foster a greater health and wellness for my body, mind, and spirit.

~*PAGE 477 of Consciousness & Healing*~

"One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself"

This quote directly applies to health and wellness professionals. I mean this because in order for us to practice as professionals in the health and wellness field, we must be able to relate to what our patient is trying to overcome. If we know where they want to go in their life spiritually and psychologically, then we are therefore powerful enough to lead them down the right, enchanted path to a greater sense of being. I feel that we as health and wellness professional do have an obligation to our patients for all aspects of our health. I say this because me must practice what we preach. If someone comes to us for help, we must set a great example for them so that they are inspired by our ways of life. Consequently, our patients will want to be like their teachers. I can implement spiritual and psychological growth in my life by continuing these practices that I have learned through out the extent of this class. As well, I will continue to be one with my church and attend mass because this makes me feel closer to God.

Unit 6 Post

<---UNIVERSAL LOVING-KINDNESS--->

Description: This exercise made me feel exceptionally happy, and equal among everyone else out their in this huge world. I enjoyed the fact that I am not able to open my mind and my heart in oder to alter my focus from personal love to a now more universal standard. Within this univeral loving-kindness, I will wish freedome from suffering to everyone that I encounter in my life (friends, family, people I don't really know, and even enemies). Along with this, I will also hope that everyone may find stustained health, happiness, and wholeness while I can try my best to assist all people in gaining freedom from suffering and finding this unity within their lives.

What I discovered about myself: I have now came to the realization that forgiveness in one of the most important things in life that can make you feel at peace with yourself. Whenever I overcome a personal issue of my own within another human being, it makes me feel overly glad to accept that these things will happen and I will get over them to move on to reach overall happiness with everyone around me!

My area of focus of growth and development: I now know how important it is to forgive someone as soon as possible for whatever they have done to offend me. In order to do this, I can remind myself to engage in a universal loving-kindness practice every other day or at least once a week.

<---INTEGRAL ASSESSMENT--->

Description: I began by focusing in on the four quadrants of development; psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, and worldly flourishing. Within psychospiritual flourishing, I thought of my emotional state because my boyfriend and I have been going back and forth a little bit lately, even though I know we both love eachother dearly. As for my biological flourishing, I concentrated on my fitness because I have been slacking as for exercise lately. Within my interpersonal flourishing, I thought of my family because it has been since Christmas since I have visited home (Pennsylvania) now that I live in Florida. This brings on intense emoitions because I am not used to being away from my family for such along time and I miss them greatly! Lastly, for my wordly flourishing, I experienced thoughts from my work because I know that I must try my hardest to get along with everyone and be nice to all customers no matter how nice they are treating me. I believe that the line of developement that is most pertinent in my mind right now would have to be my interpersonal flourishing.

What I discovered about myelf: Through this experience, I found new ways to improve my attitude and actions. One thing that I realized was how I am going to encounter people differently at my work. Sometimes customers get fussy because you are taking longer than expected to get their food due to being busy, and I have decided not to let their attitudes affect mine. Instead, I will continue serving them with the best attitude possible so that they can hopefully enjoy their meal at Boston Market to the fullest.

My area of focus of growth and development: My area of growth needs to be thinking about my actions before I make my moves. At times, I am eager to let another person's actions upset me, but I have realized now that this is not getting me anywhere. Consequently, I am going to try to stay positive no matter what the situation is.

<---EXERCISES I CAN IMPLEMENT INTO MY LIFE FOR GREATER WELLNESS--->

I can implement both of these exercises into my life atleast once weekly if not more in order to achieve greater wellness. I can already feel how different of an outlook on life they have given me thus far. As well, I am also going to integrate meditation into my daily routine for at least 10 minutes in the morning as soon as I get out the shower.

Unit 5 Post

....REFLECTION....

ThE sUbTlE mInD eXpErIeNcE:
Personally, I enjoyed the loving-kindness exercise more than that of the subtle mind. I have had lot of unexpected financial burdens that I am dealing with lately. Therefore, during this exercise of the subtle mind, I kept found myself worrying about my money situation whenever we were given a chance to let our mind find random mental movements. Consquently, the subtle mind exercise was a bit disturbing for me.

However, I did not hate the subtle mind exercise all together. I enjoyed the part where we tried to focus our mind on nothing or "stillness". I also practice this whenever I do yoga. I like trying to clear my mind completely of all stress and focusing in on simple things like my chest moving or my breathing. My feelings seemed real once I released my mind and allowed it to float freely. I am quite the realistic person. In fact, I even hate watching movies that you have to use your imagination for because I constantly find myself saying, "that wouldn't really happen". I think this may have something to do with the fact that I am the youngest of three kids and I quit watching cartoons and doing little kids things before most of my friends, due to my strong influence of activities from my two older brothers.

tHe CoNnEcTiOn Of SpIrItUaL tO mEnTaL tO pHySiCaL wElLnEsS:
Physical Wellness is easily defined as the facts of our biology within the human body. This wellness connects with mental wellness through a more subtle level. Mental training allows us to shape our biology (physically). Spiritual wellness then connects to mental wellness through finding the deepest layers that lay within our souls and mind, not just our body. The interconnectedness makes us feel wholesome and one with ourselves.

Unit 4 Post

1. Describe your experience. Why or Why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or Why not?

I definitely found my experience of the loving-kindness exercise very beneficial. I believe it was beneficial because it opened my heart to others—not just ones who I do share love with, but also people who I do not know and people who I may consider my enemies. The only thing that I did not like about the CD was the author’s tone of voice during the introduction (Track 1). His voice made me feel annoyed. It was not a very calming voice. Yet, I was glad to see that he chose to have a female with a much more peaceful tone of voice read the exercise of loving-kindness.
I would most certainly recommend this exercise to others for their own experience. My recommendation would be given because of how different my body felt overall after I completed the exercise. Before I began I was extremely frustrated because I haven’t seen my boyfriend in over a week, and he was supposed to come see me tonight. Yet, something came up and now I cannot see him again. After I was done with the experience, I felt much stronger emotionally like everything is going to be okay. It made me think of the situation in a positive manner. For example, I just try to keep it in my head that distance makes the heart grow fonder.

2. What is the concept of “Mental Workout? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a Mental Work Out? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

The concept of mental workout is very similar to physical effort an Olympian gold medalist exerts, except in a psychological manner. During a mental workout, you engage in a contemplative practice that deals with loving-kindness and the subtle mind. Proven benefits of a mental workout can be a feeling of decreased self-centeredness and openness to others. As well, you will feel calm, open-minded, and intelligent. I can implement mental workouts to foster my psychological health through scheduling a 15 minute time slot in order to practice my exercises of integral health. During this time I will listen to the CD, and feel stronger mentally, physically, and emotionally.

...-*AWARENESS*-...

Where am I located within my "country" of awareness--regarding the "states" of physically, psychologically, & spiritually.......................???

1. If I were to rate myself on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being optimal wellness on my various well beings, where do I stand?

a. Physical Well-Being: 8

WHY? At this point in my life, I do not have and have not had any life-threatening diseases or illnesses. I am physically active, and have been my whole life! In addition, I rank my physical well-being as an 8 because I have always maintained a "normal" weight according to the BMI calculations.

b. Psychological Well-Being: 7

WHY? At this point in my life, I believe that my psychological well-being is a 7 because I have never had an major mental problems. I have been blessed with a healthy body and brain, and have always been able to achieve really high grades and make Dean's List. The reason why I don't give myself a 10 is because I have had times lately when I feel kind of depressed. My boyfriend works in the music industry so he is constantly gone, and I don't get to see him that much. Therefore, when I am home alone and missing him, and I tend to feel a little weak mentally. However, I am working my hardest at becoming a stronger person mentally.

c. Spiritual Well-Being: 7

WHY? I chose the number seven also for my spiritual well-being because I am Roman Catholic, and have always felt like I have a strong connection with god. However, since I was younger I have began to slack with attending church like I used to every single Sunday faithfully. Since I live in a new city, and didn't have anyone to go with I lost the importance. YETTTT...today I went back for the first time in a looooong time because I found a friend to go with!!! It felt so good to be back. Throughout the time that I did not attend mass, I did keep a strong relationship with my faith and spiritual side of well-being through prayer and worship.

2. My goals--->

a. Physical goal: I will keep my weight where it is now, and never allow myself to weigh more than 120lbs since I am only 5'2''. As well, I will keep up my high level of physical activity going in order to maintain my current weight.

b. Psychological goal: In order to keep myself sane, I will learn to deal with the fact that I can't see my boyfriend everyday.

c. Spiritual goal: I will continue to go to church every Sunday, even if I have to go by myself.

3.

***For my physical goal, I will take part in yoga more often, and work on my cardiovascular fitness at least 3 times a week.

***For my psychological goal, I will make certain to keep stress management tools close to me so that I can effectively deal with stress and life obstacles through learning to look at things differently with a positive interpretation.

***For my spiritual goal, I will continue with prayer, and force myself to go to church even if I cannot find one of my friends to come with me.

4. After I completed the listening exercise "The Crime of the Century", I felt both inspired and fustrated at different times. I felt ispired and relaxed during the beginning when the music was smooth and the breathing exercise was uplifting. I began to get fustrated a little bit when the author told me to think about various colors. Specifically I thought of blood when he told me to think of something's red, which gave me an off feeling.

My mind's reactions...

Hey hey everyone! How is everyone's Unit 2 unwinding?

**Anyway, I would like to take the time to explain how my mind reacted to the relaxation exercise that we listened to for this week!**

As I was instructed, I found the most comfortable place I could in order to get the most out of this exercise! My choice was nothing less of my bed! So, I took my mini Dell Inspiron (who is like my best friend, lol, just messing!) into my room, propped a pillow up underneath my laptop, and sat back late a night in order to enjoy my time while completing this homework assignment!

After I was done listening to this music and man who spoke, I could truly tell the difference in my stress level especially since I suffered a long, busy day of work! After it was done I just wanted to close my eyes, and fall asleep right there without moving my laptop or even brushing my teeth before I decided to really hit the sack. Anyway, I forced myself to get up and go do all of those things before I got some shut eye. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience with this listening exercise for relaxation!