Unit 5 The Subtle Mind Exercise

Hello Everyone!  I hope you are all well and beginning to flourish :)

I just finished the Subtle Mind exercise for our 5th unit together.  I was not sure how this exercise would go, as I am still having some difficulty with the Loving Kindness exercise.  I am happy to say that the Subtle Mind exercise was very helpful to me.  I enjoyed learning of the strong connection between my breathing and the activity of my mind. I did notice that as I became more aware of my breathing, essentially slowing it down, my mind was better able to focus on this exercise (I was even interrupted by my kids once too!).  The Loving Kindness exercise focused on cultivating love towards others and myself, while the Subtle Mind focused on the relationship of my breathing and the activity of my mind.  While the Loving Kindness exercise has helped me to better appreciate (gratefulness!!) the love I have for my family, friends, and on two occasions for people I have never met, the Subtle Mind exercise helped me to see the natural rising and falling of thoughts that seem to endlessly pour into my mind.  Instead of focusing on these thoughts (like deadlines, tasks, and a whole list of 'shoulda's') I noticed them and then let them go.  Although I did not find it easy to let all of my thoughts and feelings go and in fact spent most of the exercise doing this, I know it will become easier with practice.  I just have to make the time to do this each day.  I have already forgot about the Loving Kindness exercise twice because my attention was needed elsewhere.  I haven't fallen off the bandwagon yet though!  I need to practice getting the 'shoulda's' out of my head too.  One of my favorite authors, Dr Dwayne Dyer, writes the affirmation 'I am a human being not a human doing. Don't equate your self-worth with how well you do things in life.  You aren't what you do.  If you are what you do, the when you don't.....you aren't' (Dyer, 1995).  I guess I just need to remember these words more often and then focus on the exercise at hand.  Wish me luck and know that I am wishing you all of the best luck too!!

I feel the connection between our spiritual wellness and our mental and physical wellness needs to be one of awareness,  as we focus on our ability to heal our bodies by being intentional and holistic.  Anxiety and stress play a huge role in developing illnesses and diseases in our lives and taking an integral mind/body approach to our wholeness is my goal as a health care professional and as a human being.  I learned in Kaplan's Stress Management class that between each stimulus and response, there is space and within this space we have the capacity to choose our response.  This goes hand in hand with the concept of spiritual wellness were we are guided towards developing our witnessing mind.  We can run miles a day to be physically fit and have good communication skills with the people we have relationships with but this does not necessarily mean we are achieving our best possible life.  Dacher has taught me that in order to reach the human flourishing we all deserve and have the ability to self-cultivate, nourishing our spirits with mindfull, contemplative practice is an essential component to integral health (Dacher, 2006). 

Unit 4 Loving Kindness Exercise CD Thoughts

Hello Future Wellness Professionals!

Well, I just listened to Dacher's Loving Kindness exercise from the cd and I have to say this was really hard for me.  As I listened to the woman talk me through the exercise, I had no problem envisioning a loved one whom I had a great deal of love for but when she asked me to turn this love towards myself I could not help but think of all of the things I was not being in the last few weeks instead of the love I do have for myself.  I started thinking about how I should have spent more time with my kids during the days of their summer vacation instead of working on my homework, bills, laundry, etc, how I should have volunteered to help with the vacation bible school at our church but didn't, or how I should have called my Grandmother before she went into the hospital and it was too late; the list could go on here.  I do love myself and think there are many things that are good about me so I tried to turn my focus to these qualities but kept waffling back and forth.  From this point on, trying to project loving kindness towards another and towards strangers just wasn't working.  I am not giving up though, as practice does make perfect and I intend to do as Dacher suggests and practice this exercise twice daily for the first week (maybe a few more times if it still doesn't work---hey, it can't hurt right? lol).

I believe the concept of the 'Mental Workout' is the idea of contemplative practice daily.  Just as improving our physical wellness means working out our bodies with exercise that focuses on endurance, flexibility, and strength by dedicating at least 30 minutes daily to a routine, improving our mental fitness will take the same dedication and practice through exercises such as Loving Kindness.  According to Dacher (2006) current brain research is now also exploring how contemplative practice can have a positive impact on attention, memory, perception, imagery, and a myriad of other mental functions.  Clearly, mental workouts can transform the mind by reducing disturbing emotions that cause anger and fear, the two most damaging negative emotions to our health (Dacher, 2006). 

I think the best way to implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health is to set some s.m.a.r.t. goals.  For example, you could start with setting aside ten minutes twice daily to practice the Loving Kindness exercise once in the morning and perhaps once at night.  Keep a journal of your feelings, thoughts, and emotions each time to track your progress and evaluate your progress in one week, making any changes that would seem likely to help you keep practicing.  I shall take my own advice here and keep trying the Loving Kindness exercise in the morning after my run.  Perseverance right! (I shall now take off the headphones that have been on my head pinching my ears while I was writing this even though the exercise I was listening to has been over for quite some time now, lol!)

Good luck to all of you this week with the Loving Kindness exercise--hope it works for you! :)

Peace Out!

Unit 3 Blog -The Crime of the Century

Hello Wellness Fans! :)

For this week's assignment we are evaluating our physical, spiritual, and psychological well being (oh dear!) so, here I go:

1)  I give myself a 7 on my physical wellness because I do get cardiovascular exercise every day by doing a mix of power walking and running for about 45 minutes however, I could really improve my strength and flexibility through yoga or some moderate weight training.  I give myself a 6 on my spiritual wellness because I do go to church every Sunday and this does help me to quiet the ubiquitous chatter that goes on in my mind and feel more connected to a Higher Power than myself.  Still, I do not take enough time every day for silence or stillness and am confident that I will improve on my score of a 6 with the help of this class!  I give myself a 6 on my psychological wellness because I do believe my life is wonderfully blessed with loving people and that I am worthy of the best life has to offer me.  Still, I often keep some emotions inside for fear of upsetting certain people in my life and this is not healthy and something I need to work on.

2)  Some of my goals would be to improve on each of my scores listed above by:

-Registering for a yoga class this fall (registration deadlines are today so I am going this afternoon to sign up!) to help me improve my strength and flexibility and physical wellness.  Specifically, I will register for a yoga class today!

-Scheduling a time for reflection each morning after my run to help me improve my spiritual wellness (going to start with ten minutes of just meditating or listening to one of the great CD's we have been given in the Stress class and in this class).  Specifically, I will set aside 10 minutes every day this week to appreciate the silence or for some relaxation techniques and will re-evaluate this amount of time to see how it is going at the end of one week.

-Practicing more self control in my responses to my environment and the people I interact with everyday to help me improve my psychological wellness.  I have learned I can create the kind of day I wish to have instead of just spending the whole day reacting to whatever potential disaster might be lurking in the shadows for me.  I used to journal at night and have forgotten to do it for awhile so I am going to get it out again and write down the affirmations that apply to my growth and anything else that I might have forgotten to get off my chest during the day.  So, specifically I will journal at the end of my day before I drift off to sleep, taking care to write down at least three affirmations and/or thoughts.

I just finished listening to the Crime of the Century cd and I must say, I do like this guy's voice, lol!  In fact, I think that is a large part of why I can really feel so relaxed and have these exercises work for me.  Once again, I took notes first and then listened to it a second time to see what would happen.  I could easily identify with the colors of the rainbow and the seven areas of the body they corresponded to.  I even asked my husband to try it with me but that did not go the way I expected (even though it was still fun!).  For me, the best time to do these exercises is right after I exercise because I am feeling rejuvenated and ready to face the day and these cds make it easy to transition into the excitement and business of my day.  I tried it once around the noon hour (after I ate, and well duh, that was not such an opportune time ---got sleepy, lol).  Anyway, loved the cd and look forward to more just like it. 

Good luck on relaxing this week everyone!  Take a little time for yourself and even if the exercises don't work for you at least you got some time to slow down and appreciate the little things in your life! :)

Until next time, peace my friends.

Unit 2 Blog Journey On Relaxation Technique Thoughts

Hi Everyone.  Just finished listening to the Journey On CD for our Creating Wellness Class and wanted to share a few thoughts on it with you.  I am new to listening to these types of relaxation techniques and am learning to really like them.  I ususally need to listen to the CD twice before I can really appreicate its content, first to take notes on what technique is being used and what the intended outcome is, and then a second time to actually try it.  Journey On was really calming and interesting.  I found it fascinating to learn 80% of our blood is in our abdominal cavity and GI tract in a relaxed state and by just thinking we can encourage the flow of our blood from that area to another part of our body.  Although I did not feel a great deal of heaviness in my arms as the narrator suggested I would, I did feel like my arms got warmer and even tingled a bit near my elbow.  From listening to this CD, it is so apparent to me just how powerful our minds can be, even on the smallest of scales for improving your mood or degree of relaxation.  Love the power of the mind!! Now, if I could just think my way into wealth, lol!

Take Care All!