Loving-Kindness

    
     My experience with the loving-kindness exercise was a good one for the most part. I felt something start to open up inside me that I have built a wall around over the years in order to protect myself from whatever it was I thought I needed protecting from. I feel like I really need to re-connect with the tiny glimpse of a much better me that I saw. I am going to continue this loving-kindness practice in the following weeks. I found the very end, where we are sending out loving-kindness to strangers and taking in their suffering a bit challenging. I hope this will become easier as I learn more about loving-kindness and practice the exercises. I would highly recommend this exercise to others because of my own experience with having a glimpse of how amazing I could feel all the time, instead of just when I am focusing on it. I believe that the more people that learn loving-kindness, the less useless suffering and heartache we will have in the world.

     A mental workout is when we take the focus off of outer things and work on our inner development. Some research has showed that a major benefit from mental workouts are actual physiological and structural changes in the brain to reflect a specific mental state (Dacher, 2006). Something as formless and immaterial as a thought or image can change the physical make-up of our body (Dacher, 2006)  Mental workouts have been proven in certain ways to change our bodies in positive directions. Doing daily mental workouts of some form or another can reduce negative psychological thoughts and emotions that hold us back in our daily lives. For example, I have a plan of setting aside time before and after work for mental workouts so I can feel prepped for the day, and then relaxed afterwards. My job is one of the biggest stressors on my psychological health.

Self Reflection

A. Physical well-being-5-I rate it this because my body-fat ratio is not where it should be and I know it is part of the reason why I have less energy and other issues. I am not 'overweight' but I am not at a healthy level either. My endurance and cardiovascular health could use some improvement as well.
B. Spiritual well-being-5- I rate it a five because that is where I personally feel I stand in the journey I am on to reach the spiritual goal I have set for myself.
C. Psychological well-being-6-Maybe I am being hard on myself but I don't feel I am as psychologically healthy as I could be. I think its because my mind races alot and causes me to think random things that don't even make sense. I need to learn to control what I call a 'monkey mind.' A mind that jumps from one place to the other, never holding still.

Goals

A goal that I have set for physical well-being is to work out twice per week. I always seem to have an excuse of why I don't have the time to work out. I just need to do it and stop making excuses. I will do a combination of cardio/strength training.

My goal for spiritual well-being is to not give up on the meditating that I started. Its been a challenge but I feel that meditation will get me past the barrier I feel (whatever that is).

My goal for better psychological well-being is to find a way to "step back", think, and observe the thoughts that are going through my mind a choose the ones I want to focus my energy on and discard the rest...So much easier said than done :)

Activities

I tried to think of some realistic activities that I could try to help me reach my goals. I am open to new ideas and suggestions so feel free to comment! I chose yoga, and Pilate's and tae bo for the physical well-being. I chose meditation for the spiritual since I am new to it and need to focus on actually sticking with it to see if it helps me. For psychological well-being, I am not sure of an activity that will help me with that. I think just flat out practice, and acknowledgement of the situation is where I need to start.

The Crime of the Century

This exercise was definitely more difficult for me than the last one. I think it was because I kept trying to memorize the colors that I was beaming out. Even though the exercise was difficult, I can see myself getting better at it. I really liked it overall. There was a point in the exercise where I started getting a little emotional for no apparent reason, but I felt refreshed and more connected afterwards. I found it fascinating that the colors that were chosen seemed to really represent what the speaker said they were to represent.

Relaxation Eercise

I am posting this post literally after I did the exercise. I feel somewhat disoriented, but in a good way. I am new to relaxation techniques, and I am glad that I did this particular one. It opened up a whole new world of relaxation to me. I think this will help me to sleep at night since I have always had a hard time clearing my mind and falling asleep. I find it absolutely amazing that a single suggestion/thought can redirect a person's blood flow! I could actually feel it working like the speaker said I would. I was a little skeptical at first, but now, not at all. I feel more clear-minded, not so worried, and less stressed out. I hope everyone had a good reaction to this exercise as well!

welcome everyone!

Hello everyone!
    
I am new to the blogging world. I saw that many of you were as well. Hopefully we can help each other out! I am REALLY looking forward to taking this class with everyone. Your feedback and comments are appreciated and welcome! I will check in on my blog at least every other day.