Loving kindness and new sensations.

     This week one of the exercises we did was to listen to an audio clip of a guided meditation called loving kindness. This meditation guided us through working on self love as well as shared love. I really enjoyed the exercise this week. While doing the exercise when it came to the point of asking you to think of someone you loved dearly I thought of my friend who recently lost her son and focused on taking some of her anxiety and sadness she has been feeling the last couple of days and I was amazed at how tired it made me feel. It was almost like a physical activity had been done and as the exercise continued I felt more relaxed but by the end I actually had to sit a few minutes in silence because I was mentally very tired. It was definitely a new sensation for me but as I repeated the exercise over the next couple of days it became less tiring and more just relaxing. I would recommend this to others to do simply because of the release that it can bring.

     The concept of a mental workout is similar to the concept of a physical workout, we are exercising our minds. There are two types of contemplative practices we can do to help expand out minds one is the exercise I mentioned above while the other is known as subtle-mind. Research indicates the proven benefits of a mental work out results in awareness and experiences of the mind and the development of the qualities of human flourishing which are health, happiness, and wholeness (Dacher, M.D., 2006). To help implement these mental workouts in my lifestyle I would need to set aside a specific amount of time a day to focus and do these exercises and over time I would be able to find happiness and peace and be able to continue on this journey of mind and body health.

References

Dacher, M.D., E. (2006). Integral Health The Path to Human Flourishing. Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Distractions and Self Evaluations

    When I sit and think about these three different areas in my life I tried to think about how my life has changed over the last several years and how I have grown. For my physical well being I would give myself a 6 our of 10 I am on my own journey in this area to lose about 100 pounds and while I have many steps to go on this path I am daily making improvements in my eating and increasing my level of physical activity. So a goal for me for this are will be to commit to working out 5 days a week and not making excuses or talk myself out of it by saying I am too busy when I know if I work hard enough I can make the time to do it. My spiritual well being is something that I am proud of, I would give myself an 8 our of 10 in this area. I am strong in my faith and this strength of faith helps me to keep a positive outlook on life and my daily challenges. One goal I would like to work on is to read more in my bible to help continue to strengthen this area of my life. My psychological well being can be very scattered at times I think in the overall scheme of things I would say a 5 our of 10. I am an optimist by nature and always find silver linings but there are many times that stress over whelms me and I tend to stuff it inside and it builds to a point of eruption. One goal I am working on is finding time to just breathe and process emotions more regularly to avoid having such hard lows when they do hit.
     I will be honest with this weeks relaxation segment I did not enjoy it, I do not know if it was the style of the audio or the way it was delivered but it quickly became more boring than relaxing to me I found my mind unable to focus on what he was saying to do. I know that we all relax in different ways and this for me is not a style that works for me I seemed to think more about the colors and how he picked them to go with what areas of the body. I just was not able to relax while listening and I did try it at different times of days to see if it was that as an issue. I do hope that it helped some of my fellow class mates to find some peace in their week.

Until next time my friends.

Reflections and Meditation

      The concept of guided meditation is one that has been around for a while. Many who are at least partly familiar with it may think of the semi cheesy sounding  voice guiding you to your happy place or the scene from the movie Fight Club where the main charcter is guided to his inner cave to find his happy animal.
      For me this exercise in guided relaxation could not have come at a better time, the past week and I half I have been supporting my best friend in dealing with the sudden loss of her son to a drug overdose, there were many days spent in the hospital hoping and waiting that things would improve and then the harsh news that it would not and we had to say goodbye. Being someone who is a very emotional person and hates to see others in pain and suffering the week was trying for me not only physically but emotionally and spiritually as well.
      Taking the time to really sit listen and follow the soothing voice of the audio and not just halfway listen as I did other things, I was surprised to notice how I could actually feel each part of my body relaxed as I focused on calming myself and listening to the directions. It was a very serene few minutes and also allowed me to release a lot of emotion as well. I am a firm believer that when we are over tense that a good few minutes of meditation or relaxation can release a flood of purifying tears. when the exercise was over with I felt almost renewed, my body did not feel fatigued and my mind did not feel clouded. This is an exercise that I will listen to many more times in the future.

Welcome to My Peaceful Corner of the World

Welcome! This blog has been created as a part of a project for a class I am taking on spiritual health and wellness. I look forward to exploring the mind body connection more and more over the next several weeks and learning from my fellow classmates as we learn about this part of healing that many have begun to embrace. I hope that you will enjoy this journey with me and perhaps we can all create our peaceful place in this busy busy world!