Unit 4: Loving Kindness & Mental Workout

Hello Class!

I found my overall experience to be very relaxing and was able to calm my mind.   Though I will admit that the man's voice in the beginning was far from relaxing!  Thank goodness a women's soothing voice soon took and talked me through the Loving Kindness exercise. 

Without a doubt, this experience was very beneficial and was relevant to some specific situations currently happening in my life.  I found the once held resentment I had for some certain individuals in my life slowly started disappear as the exercised continued.  I started to feel nothing but love and kindness toward everyone in my life no matter if it's someone I love deeply or not on good terms with right now.  After the exercise I felt calm, relaxed, and love in my heart.  It truly was a great feeling!

Moreover, it's important not only to ensure we get a physical workout but to also a mental workout that will lead to a road of health, happiness, and wholeness.  There are two practices that make up the mental workout such as showing loving-kindness and having the subtle mind.  The first practice teaches up to open our hearts to everyone and the second one teaches how to have a mind that is calm - abiding, witnessing, and unity consciousness.   The way I can implement mental workouts into my life is by following the Loving-Kindness exercise daily for at least 5 minutes and work my way up to 30 minutes.  I find that each time I finish the exercise I have a completely different out look on life and on the people around me. 


Teri :)

Unit 3 Blog...

Hello Classmates & Professor,

 

1) After taking some time to reflect the following is how I would rate my physical, spiritual, and psychological well-being on a scale from 1(low) to 10 (highest) and why. 

 

Physical well-being: 9- My physical well-being did not happen overnight and took several years to finally make physical activity a part of my everyday life.  5 – 6 days a week you will find me either doing a kickboxing class or doing a 5 mile run.  I know that when I am taking care of my physical well-being it is also taking care of my psychological well-being.  The two really go hand in hand for me.  I am healthier and more physically fit now at the age of 37 than was I was 20!

 

Spiritual well-being: 5 – This area could use some focus and work on.  On a regular basis I will not just sit and do a relaxation video such as The Crime of the Century.  I feel I always need to go a 100 miles an hour and if I take 10 – 20 minutes to do this video I could have used that time to do something else such as dishes.  In the past when I was going through some troubling times I would often listen to videos on how to clear your Chakra’s and found them to helpful.  I need to dedicate at least 5 minutes a day to start building my spiritual well-being not matter if things seems to be going good or bad in my life.

 

Psychological well-being: 8 – I truly believe that since my physical well-being is high on the scale it closely correlates to my psychological well-being.  I know my mental thinking is much clearer and able to deal with my daily stressors in a much more productive way when I am taking care of my physical well-being.  However, there are those days when my psychological well-being is in the left field!  In those cases I call a friend who is able to look at things from a different direction and gets my thinking back on track.  I believe I can still work on my psychological well-being and do with reading and nutrition.   If I eat too much sugar my moods are out of control and not much fun to be around.  On the other hand, if my diet is full of goods such as veggies, fruits, and whole grains my psychological well-being is much better.

 

2 & 3) The goals and activities I have set for my physical well-being is to keep up with working out 5 -6 days and to make sure to throw new activities so stay way from becoming bored.  Without a doubt, my spiritual well-being needs some improvement.  My goal in this area is to spend 5 to 10 minutes a day meditating or listening to relaxing videos and slowly building my time up each week until I have reached 30 minutes daily.  Lastly, my goal for my psychological well-being is to make sure I am eating a well-balanced diet.  I have found that the days when my eating not well-balanced neither is my mind!  This has only became apparent to me recently and will continue to strive toward eating a well-balance diet.

 

4) Watching the video The Crime of the Century was timed perfectly!  I was feeling extremely frustrated and stressed out when I decided to listen to this video.  I went in a quite place, closed my eyes and put on a head set to block out all outside noise.  As soon as he started talking about the rainbow’s colors and how it relates to different regions of our bodies I knew he was talking about Chakra’s.   I have some reading and several other video’s related to my Chakra’s and always feel more relaxed and calm afterwards.  This video was extremely beneficial and will be used over and over again.

 

 

 

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome my my blog! I have always enjoyed blogging and found it to be very therapeutic in whatever I am going through no matter if it was something negative or positive. I truly have a passion when it comes to health and wellness! I am on my last year at Kaplan and will be graduate with a BS in Health and Wellness in the early part of 2013. I look forward to helping others in obtaining optimum health and know how difficult is can be once you throw work, kids, chores, and exercise into the mix.

However, six years ago I was able to lose and keep off 75 pounds while still managing to working full-time, going to school full-time, raising kids, and still finding time to get in my regular exercise. I love sharing all the new information I obtain in my classes and by the end of each semester I have so much more knowledge to pass on so others can start achieving a healthier lifestyle too.

You only have one life and I am living it to the fullest!

Teri :)

Reflective Statement

I always enjoy listening to relaxation video's!  When I started to listen to the Journey On Relaxation exercise I was feeling stressed out and could feel that stress all along my back and shoulders.  Even though I had a million things going through my mind I made it appoint to put my head phones on and truly throw myself into this exercise.  As I closed my eyes and listened I started to feel the tension in my back and shoulders disappear.  My breathing was controlled and I became more focused in the present moment.  At the end of the exercise I felt energized and my stress level had gone down quite a bit.  I now felt mentally ready to continue in my day and was ready to tackle just about anything!  

Teri :)