I'm not too sure how I feel about the loving-kindness exercise. I felt more like I was trying to win a beauty pageant than open my own heart and mind. I did feel a sense of appreciation for what I have been given in life by the end, but I didn't have that feeling of love for all like I did with the first loving-kindess exercise we did two weeks ago. Ehh not feeling this one, definitely liked the other one better!
The integral assessment on the other hand was much more interesting and eye opening for me. I think this is something we should all do continuously so we can see where we have been lacking in life and try to build up our experiences. I am all set in my biological aspect of life, I put a lot of my time and effort into this, but the other three areas I am not so set with. I am not too in touch with you psychospiritual self, and would like to work on ways to really find out who I am and what I want to get out of my life. My interpersonal aspect is pretty developed with my personal and family life but I would like to do more for my community. This also flows into my worldly aspect which could also use a lot of work, outside of the first part, work itself. I have always wanted to find ways to volunteer and do things on the side, and I think I will put more effort into finding ways I can do this. I have a tight schedule with school and work and its hard to make time for other things but I will utilize my break time to find ways to volunteer around my community and ways to give back to the world. I will also be done with school in March and that should free up some time!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
The Subtle Mind
After completing the subtle mind exercise I almost felt more frustrated than when I started! I have a hard time calming my mind and letting go of thoughts. The loving-kindness exercise was easy for me to focus and concentrate on because we were supposed to lock our mind onto a specific thought, but the subtle mind exercise wanted us to witness without grabbing onto thoughts. I am able to focus on my breathing and keep my mind clear, but once I start to relax my mind and stop focusing on each breath I start to grasp at different thoughts about my day and what I did do and what I need to do. The stillness would come and go a few seconds at a time and I never got past that part. I feel that if I tried to do this for 10 minutes everyday I could eventually train my mind to be quiet and still.
Spiritual, mental, and physical wellbeing are interconnected. You may be strong in one category but one cannot exist without the others. In my opinion, mental wellbeing comes first. If you can focus your mind and thoughts then you can focus other things in your life. Like our mental fitness reading, using your mind and exercising it regularly will increase its strength. Having a strong mind can help you achieve your physical goals. Physical wellbeing can be influenced by our mind and thoughts so healthy thoughts lead to healthy bodies. The spiritual wellbeing is also important for accepting that you are a part of a whole. It lets you see that something bigger than yourself does exist, and the more you nurture it, the healthier it becomes. A well balance mind, body, and spirit can lead to true happiness and wholeness.
Spiritual, mental, and physical wellbeing are interconnected. You may be strong in one category but one cannot exist without the others. In my opinion, mental wellbeing comes first. If you can focus your mind and thoughts then you can focus other things in your life. Like our mental fitness reading, using your mind and exercising it regularly will increase its strength. Having a strong mind can help you achieve your physical goals. Physical wellbeing can be influenced by our mind and thoughts so healthy thoughts lead to healthy bodies. The spiritual wellbeing is also important for accepting that you are a part of a whole. It lets you see that something bigger than yourself does exist, and the more you nurture it, the healthier it becomes. A well balance mind, body, and spirit can lead to true happiness and wholeness.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Loving-Kindness and Mental Workouts
After reading chapter 6 and doing the exercise on loving-kindness, I felt more relaxed and that I had a more open heart. I have a tendency to have negative views about the people around me (working the desk at a dry cleaners for 10 years, and handling membership accounts at a gym with automatic billing will do that to you!) regardless of if I know them or not. I have a very small group of close friends and I do not make much of an effort to expand on that, partly because I never have free time, and partly because I just don't have the energy for it. With that said, and this may seem contradicting, I am one of the most helpful people you will every meet. As strange as that sounds, I will rarely if ever say no to helping anyone with anything, and it is not a forced effort but my knee jerk reaction. I almost wish I was able to say no thanks or no I'm sorry sometimes but I always am happy with my decision after the fact. I think that the loving-kindness exercise allowed me to take a deep look inside, and feel emotionally the way I act physically. I suggest anyone that has 5 free minutes should try this and see if it has the same calming heart affect as it did for me!
Mental workouts!! yay!! Being a group fitness instructor, workouts are my specialty. And as a group fitness instructor, you learn quickly how to deal with other workouts, like patience workouts and motivational workouts. One of the classes I teach is BodyPump, a strength and endurance barbell class that goes to music. Its 5-6 minutes straight per muscle group, which as you can imagine, is a true test of endurance. I can get through them with my eyes closed, motivated or not, because I am so used to being the instructor. But days that I am not motivated to teach I need to workout my acting skills so that my participants are motivated and pumped up. At the same time, there are always the participants that come all the time and make no real effort to give it all they have (hey, going to the gym and just being there doesn't mean you went to the gym and exercised!) I then get my workout in patience when they as week after week, how can I get rid of this, or how can I do strengthen this, and then proceed to smile, nod, and ignore everything I just suggested :) Mental workouts can come in all shapes and sizes, but working out your mind to benefit yourself, to achieve that integral health, of happiness and wholeness, can be one of the best things you can do. If you can workout and train your mind to function in the way you want, you will never go back to letting it go back to laying on the couch useless and lazy!
Mental workouts!! yay!! Being a group fitness instructor, workouts are my specialty. And as a group fitness instructor, you learn quickly how to deal with other workouts, like patience workouts and motivational workouts. One of the classes I teach is BodyPump, a strength and endurance barbell class that goes to music. Its 5-6 minutes straight per muscle group, which as you can imagine, is a true test of endurance. I can get through them with my eyes closed, motivated or not, because I am so used to being the instructor. But days that I am not motivated to teach I need to workout my acting skills so that my participants are motivated and pumped up. At the same time, there are always the participants that come all the time and make no real effort to give it all they have (hey, going to the gym and just being there doesn't mean you went to the gym and exercised!) I then get my workout in patience when they as week after week, how can I get rid of this, or how can I do strengthen this, and then proceed to smile, nod, and ignore everything I just suggested :) Mental workouts can come in all shapes and sizes, but working out your mind to benefit yourself, to achieve that integral health, of happiness and wholeness, can be one of the best things you can do. If you can workout and train your mind to function in the way you want, you will never go back to letting it go back to laying on the couch useless and lazy!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Rainbow Meditation
After completing the rainbow exercise I felt more relaxed but I don't think it had anything to with the rainbow visual. I think it was mostly a result of distraction from my typical thoughts. I have done this exercise before and each time I wasn't that impressed with it. I am much more of a fan of the visualizations I can relate to, like the mental visits to a tropical beach or other relaxing places I have been before or would like to go. I don't know if it is just me or not, but the guy that does these recordings is a little distracting to me. I know he is supposed to sound relaxing but I feel like he is talking to me as if I am a kid. He has that "Here you go hunny, don't spill it" tone in his voice, and I think I start focusing more on that than the actual exercise for awhile!
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Wellbeing- Physical, Spiritual, and Psychological
Based on a scale of 1-10, I feel that I am around an 8 in physical wellbeing, a 6 in spiritual wellbeing, and a 7 in psychological wellbeing. I am in great physical shape since I am a group fitness instructor and enjoy exercising, but I am great a cheating on my healthy lifestyle diet and go through phases where all I eat is junk. I am not much of a spiritual person and while I don't feel there is anything wrong with my spiritual wellbeing, I do believe it can be enhanced and made of more importance. My psychological wellbeing is for the most part solid, but I do have periods of time where I am way too over stressed for no logical reason and it makes me anxious.
To improve my physical wellbeing I can work harder to limit the junk I eat. I don't mean eliminate it completely, but learn that a serving size is not a whole family size bag of chips at 11 o'clock at night. I enjoy too much of a good thing, and if I can just have a little and be satisfied it would greatly improve my physical wellbeing. Spiritually I can make more of an effort to see things beyond myself. I work a lot of hours and come home to a lot of homework so the few seconds I have outside of that I am usually self about. I can start saying yes to a night out occasionally with friends to open my mind and time to others and enjoy the moment. Psychologically, I can start a journal of when I feel the most stress to find a pattern and try to lessen the impact of whatever keeps getting under my skin.
We could all use some adjustments to our lives to make it more enjoyable and improve our overall wellness.
My opinion on the relaxation exercise will be coming soon! The last one I did was at night and I got a great nights sleep, I am going to try the same with this one!
To improve my physical wellbeing I can work harder to limit the junk I eat. I don't mean eliminate it completely, but learn that a serving size is not a whole family size bag of chips at 11 o'clock at night. I enjoy too much of a good thing, and if I can just have a little and be satisfied it would greatly improve my physical wellbeing. Spiritually I can make more of an effort to see things beyond myself. I work a lot of hours and come home to a lot of homework so the few seconds I have outside of that I am usually self about. I can start saying yes to a night out occasionally with friends to open my mind and time to others and enjoy the moment. Psychologically, I can start a journal of when I feel the most stress to find a pattern and try to lessen the impact of whatever keeps getting under my skin.
We could all use some adjustments to our lives to make it more enjoyable and improve our overall wellness.
My opinion on the relaxation exercise will be coming soon! The last one I did was at night and I got a great nights sleep, I am going to try the same with this one!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Welcome To My Blog!
Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog. This is the first time I have ever done one so ignore any beginner mistakes I am sure to make. I think is this a fun and interesting idea to help us open up to our selves and others about health and wellness in our own lives. I am sorry for my first post being so late, but I am part of Northern New Jersey that got hit hard by the snow storm on Saturday. I was without power for 2 days and working crazy hours to cover for my boss who had no power and many trees fall around his home. BUT I am back on track and hope to stay there!
I just completed the relaxation exercise, and I am not going to lie, I think I fell asleep for a minute or two during it. I was very interested from the start when he talked about moving blood to different parts of the body. My room is cold and just mentally willing my arms and hands to get warm, I actually felt warmer. His voice is very soothing, which is probably why I felt so sleeping, but like he says at the end, I do not feel fatigued, but relaxed and calm. I love trying these types of exercise, and anything I can find to help me relax is worth a shot in my book.
I just completed the relaxation exercise, and I am not going to lie, I think I fell asleep for a minute or two during it. I was very interested from the start when he talked about moving blood to different parts of the body. My room is cold and just mentally willing my arms and hands to get warm, I actually felt warmer. His voice is very soothing, which is probably why I felt so sleeping, but like he says at the end, I do not feel fatigued, but relaxed and calm. I love trying these types of exercise, and anything I can find to help me relax is worth a shot in my book.
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