MP3 exercise and practice before you preach :)

Hello,

     This MP3 exercise was very beneficial and interesting for me this week. I feel as though there are two different sides of me after this exercise because what lives down deep in my mind is not always what I show and act on the outside. For example, I am a receptionist, so I try to be friendly, happy, and encouraging to all my patients. However, I do get stressed, worried, and have things that really trouble me even though I do not show it or talk about it. This exercise allowed me to dig deep, address these hidden issues and breathe it all out after I correct the matter. I do feel much better after this exercise and need to think like this more often since I do not really like to confide in other people about serious things. Writing has been my personal meditation because I feel so much better after getting everything out in the open without having to confide in someone about things that are very personal to me. I am also getting a Pomeranian puppy on Friday, and it is a proven fact that pets can decrease stress, improve the immune system, and make our lives healthier mentally and psychologically so with both of these put together, I hope that I can become much less stressed and look at life more optimistically.
     I also agree with the saying that one cannot lead where one has not gone himself because we must practice before we teach. To me, this is common sense because anyone would rather take advice from someone with experience regarding the subject compared to someone who may have knowledge, but no experience. This is very important in the medical field because we are trying to teach our patients to become healthy physically and psychologically. This is very contradictory if they can tell that we do not care about ourselves health and they will be less likely to truly listen to us and try to change.

Exercise and Discovery

      The universal Loving Kindness exercise really didn’t do that much for me. I repeated the four phrases for about five minutes, but it is just saying words. Instead I told myself to try and help people with their problems, ease their suffering, and lend a hand to those in need whenever I can. When I set small goals like this for myself, this is the best way for me to accomplish something and make a difference. I could have repeated those phrases for twenty minutes, but it wouldn’t have been as powerful as truly having a goal set with myself to help and love others more. I did discover that I do as much as I can to help my family and friends, but I really never stop and think about myself. I do not focus on what makes me sad and overwhelmed and how I can make it better and easier, so that was interesting to change my focus to me. This is the area I am choosing to focus on because if I am happier, then so will everyone who is around me and influenced by me. Exercises and activities are basically alone time so that I can relax and reflect certain areas and topics in my life and try to find the most optimistic and positive route to go.

Comparing Exercises and the Contemplation with Spiritual Wellness

Hello again class, 

 

        Both of the exercises allowed me to relax and feel totally peaceful and content. The Loving Kindness exercise did allow my mind to wander more and there were a lot of thoughts that crossed my mind in that short ten minutes or so. With the Subtle mind exercise, I actually almost got sleepy. To me, it was a little too much breathing and when I block the thoughts out, it made me feel very tired and almost hypnotic. This is probably because I do this at night to try and shut my mind off so that I can sleep peacefully. I did not really have frustrations with neither one; however, I do not think the second exercise really did that much for me. The connection from spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness is definitely existing.  I think if a person works out, eats healthy, has no medical complications, and is positive and encouraging, they could still be in better health with spiritual wellness. I also think this topic may be very contradictory because everyone believes differently. However, if a person has a basic spiritual belief, then they have something they may look forward to and have faith in. They can turn to this belief when they feel pain or they are in doubt and reassure themselves that everything will be ok. However, I also feel as though we can confide in friends and family and not pray to a higher power and still (if we have the right influence) become reassured and confident in a positive way. As I said earlier, this topic is very contradictory but interesting to think about.

 

Marissa

1.       The Loving Kindness exercise was very relaxing and soothing to me. It almost felt like a meditation to me and I enjoyed it. I feel as though there is never really time in the day to sit down and relax and just basically focus on our breathing in and slowly breathing all the stress out. I like things like this because I can go in my room and it is quiet and this makes me feel as though I am not on earth for a few minutes and I cannot feel any stress or bad emotions; just a calming feeling. I would recommend this to people because it cannot hurt and only help them.

2.       I think that mental workouts may sound doubtful at first because we cannot see physical results that we would see if we did a physical workout in a gym or something. However, I definitely do think that it works. My Journalism teacher in school would make us draw a chart or a web and sort our emotions and feelings. It makes us dig deeper into our thoughts and actually allows us to feel more organized and understand things better. Our minds become smarter when we think outside the box and use our mind in different ways than we normally do.

1.       Based upon my own reflections, my physical well-being would be rated a nine. I eat very healthy and exercise due to the military, and I have no medical problems. There is honestly nothing that I would wish to change about my physical wellbeing medical wise. Spiritual well-being is something that I am not really sure about. I am back and forth between atheist and believing in a higher power, but one thing is for certain and that is whatever happens is going to happen. We just have to make our time worthwhile and do all the good we can. I suppose I would rate this about a five because I do not stress about the afterlife or what will happen to me, but I also do not positively focus on what will happen neither. Psychological well-being would definitely be my lowest and I would rate that about a two. I think this is the only thing holding me back from being in almost perfect health. This is actually what interested me in this class because I know from experience that our mind can definitely affect our body and our health. Our body is a safe haven for healing so we need to have positive thoughts and emotions for a proper healing atmosphere.

2.       A goal for myself in each area would be to continue eating healthy and exercising for my physical wellness. Spiritually, I will not ever try to stress about dying or if I will go up or down and just live life my fullest until that day comes. Psychologically, I need to pull myself together and be more positive and try to sort everything that goes through my mind.

3.       Activities I can do to help these are to talk and open up more with my family and friends. This will help my weakest area because I bottle up my emotions and this allows me to feel stressed and tense at times. I can also set a strict schedule to work out so that it remains consistent.

4.       The relaxation video was very frustrating to me only because I could not get it to work. It would cut on for a few seconds then my screen would go blank. Usually soft music does help calm me and make me feel less tense. I like to listen to rock, so music I have heard from this class is definitely a relaxing change.