Integral Assessment and Universal Loving Kindness

The universal loving kindness exercise I found fairly easy to do.  It felt very powerful during the meditation and I felt stronger when I finished.  The assessment process was a little tougher for me to complete.  Although it was very obvious to me which part needs the most work, fitness.  The first reason for this is to improve overall health. Another reason for this is that I will be graduating with my Bachelor's degree in Nutrition next spring, and need to improve my fitness to show that I can apply all that I have learned.  The ways that I will use to implement this into my life are to keep up with my good eating habits, and to make sure that I get to the gym as often as I can.  I work at the YMCA, so I always have access to a gym, a pool, and any exercises classes that they have.  This should make it much easier to obtain my goals and put my life in better balance.

The Subtle Mind Exercise

I found the Subtle Mind Exercise to be more difficult than the Loving Kindness Exercise.  For me it is much easier to do more visualization during an exercise than it is to have the long gaps between instructions.  I realize that this time was to be used to practice watching your thoughts without grasping for them, so this exercise will be challenging for me.  I will keep practicing and as I get better at it, it may not feel like such a long pause between instructions.  I am still enjoying the Loving Kindness Exercise, I really feel the benefits of this one.  After my first experience with The Subtle Mind I did not feel many benefits, only some frustrations, however I will give it another try tomorrow and see how it goes.  Practice makes perfect!

Loving Kindness Exercise

I found most parts of the loving kindness exercise to be fairly simple. There was one part that was difficult for me, it was where you were supposed to turn the "faucet" on yourself. I did find this exercise to be very beneficial and I will definitely use it again. Part of this exercise reminded me of a conversation that I had with my Great Aunt. She had told me about one of her friends that would heal her friends by "breathing in their illness". I wonder if this was the practice that she used? I would definitely recommend this exercise to others. It was fairly simple and I did not drift off.

The concept of a mental workout is to stretch the brain as we do our physical muscles. It has been shown to reduce disturbing emotions and enhance positive ones. A recent study shows an increase of gamma waves when individuals develop a compassionate mental state (Dacher, 2006). I am going to try to implement these mental workouts in the 20 minutes in the morning after my daughter leaves for school and before I have to leave for work.

My Well Being

Based on my reflections I would rate my physical well being as a 6 on a scale of 1-10. I chose a 6, as I consider myself fairly healthy, however I do have some minor health issues. I don't exercise as much as I should, so I could definitely exercise more to improve my muscle tone, strength, flexibility and shed some unwanted pounds. My goal for physical well being is to reach a body weight that is in the "healthy range" according to my BMI. I am also going to make the goal of increasing my flexibility and increasing the strength in my upper body. I will work toward this goal by making sure that I am making healthy food choices, and spend more time at the gym. I would rate my spiritual well being as an 8. I chose an 8 as I am very comfortable with who I am in a spiritual sense. I believe in God, I pray often and I am strong in my beliefs. My goal for my spiritual well being is to spend more time in prayer. I am going to achieve this by more effectively managing my time, giving me more time to spend in prayer. I would rate my psychological well being as an 8 as well. I am very comfortable with who I am as a person, and find myself to be a very strong individual. I have been through many difficult situations which have strengthened me greatly, and for that I am truly grateful. My goal for improving my psychological well being is to find a way to teach my daughter more effectively. This should improve my understanding of how her mind works and how we can get along better. I am going to do some extra reading and research to find different methods that I can use to work with her.

I found this week's relaxation exercise to be very relaxing. Once again this week, I was very close to falling asleep. I would definitely use this again in the future.

My Take on the Journey On Relaxation Exercise

My Take on the Journey On Relaxation Exercise

I found this Journey On Exercise to be...well...relaxing! I actually had to go back a couple of times, as I actually found my mind start wandering towards sleep. I backed up the audio a little bit and started where I remembered leaving off. I could actually feel what the narrator was talking me through. I found his voice to be very calming and relaxing. This exercise would be great for a person to use on a bad day, where they need a break and a refuel. This is definitely something that I will use again in the future, on those super busy days (that we all seem to have) when we just have to keep moving at mach 10. This would be a great wind down exercise to use after we finally reach the end of that day. That is My Take.

Welcome!

Welcome to My Take!

This is my little place in the world where I will be posting weekly blogs about different exercises that I complete in order to create more wellness in my life. I hope that you will find these interesting and helpful in your own journey towards a better life.