Unit 10...Ya Baby!

Hello Everyone!

After reviewing my personal assessments from week three I must admit I do see progress. In week three I set my scale at 9 for my physical assessment and I am going to say I am still at 9. I believe there is always room for improvement and the point is to always stay focused and moving forward which I am. I have been meeting the goals I set by tweaking my diet and extending my training for a century ride on my bicycle. My spiritual assessment in week three was at an 8. I think I have made it to 8 1/2 now. I am working on developing formal meditation skills and this will take time. However, I see improvement. As for my Psyche well I scored an 8 in week 3 and I think I will give myself an 8 1/2 now because I am feeling quite good psychologically at the moment. I am sure it is because I am getting closer and closer to accomplishing my BS in health and wellness and I have the ball in motion for starting my MA in health education. However, we must accept that it is normal to move up and down the scale from day to day as life is always dynamic and never really stable. But this is ok. Change is good. We  have to keep our eyes on the prize (integral health) and continue to move forward.
During this course I have learned new skills. Some of which I really liked others not so much. However, these skills now hold a spot in my tool box for the future. Therefore, giving me more tools for continuing on my own path for integral health and also for helping others find there path. It has been rewarding learning to discover my inner being. Deeper than I have known before. It was also rewarding to discover that I have practiced many of these techniques all of my life without really putting a name on my techniques (yay me). This helps me believe that I truly am on the right path and I have been for a long time. Now, I can move in the direction of integral health with the knowledge of where I am going.

Thanks again to all of you! It has been a pleasure!

Unit 9 My Integral Health Plan

Hello  Everyone! Thankyou for partaking in my blog this term. Your comments have been awesome!https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FzyGcvKOXz42up6VuKHXMTqAjPSQaBmq3-PNnAGAgvg/edit?hl=en_US#

What is most beneficial to me?

If I must choose between all of the practices we have learned then the subtle mind and visualization are the two most beneficial for me. Both of these practices lead me to positive thoughts and ,therefore, improved mental fitness. Now, this is not to say that I did not find benefits in the other practices because I have. For instance, my experience with the loving kindness practice led me to places I have not been. However, the subtle mind exercise I use quite often to develop a calm mind. I have found that breath focus is beneficial anytime and for many reasons such as to calm emotions, lower blood pressure, focus energy, and even to move better. Practicing the subtle mind allows one to access the subtle mind quickly and readily whenever one needs to focus their energy. I find I often need to refocus and this is a great way to do it.
I will reiterate. I believe that ones spiritual, mental, and physical wellness are one, therefore, all of these practices nurture the whole being. Visualization is also a technique I use regularly to gain my focus, calm my mind, and to gather and direct my energy. Visualization can also be done anytime anywhere. I also use visualization to help me sleep better and to summons up positive energy. I chose these two practices as most beneficial to me because I can have access to these tools without necessarily having to find a quiet place to sit and meditate. I feel the goal of all of these practices is to develop the inner self in order to train the mind and focus our energy. Sounds like a good plan to me!

A Personal Perspective

The universal loving kindness exercise is quite exciting. This type of meditative practice helps us develop a loving kindness which spreads to all not just those we love. This helps us practice kindness, love, and understanding to all people. Not to mention, this practice helps us to become non-judgemental and to look for a connection with others. Universal loving kindness should become a way of life in order to develop integral health. Besides, developing a universal loving kindness will also help those on the receiving end develop loving kindness as well. This is a win win situation if you ask me!

My personal assessment is an activity I do regularly. This allows me to continually change and adapt my lifestyle to meet current needs. My goals are to create a balance to nurture all aspects of my health and wellness including mind/body/spirit development. During this practice assessment I did not really discover anything new about myself because I often reassess my world. However, right now I am working on self-regulation and tweaking my nutrition (these go hand and hand....man who invented chocolate anyway?). I am also working on the aspects of my inner being using the tools I have learned in this class. Through this practice I will hopefully develop more skills to add to my arsenal for continued health and wellness and to nurture my path to integral health. I cannot give you specifics yet because I am still discovering what will work for me. For now I am doing he practices we have leaned. I am also practicing behavior modification techniques for the self-regulation part.

Mental Fitness PP

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AdMZ62Gx4BN0ZGR3ZHd0c2ZfMHFiN3RmMmY2&hl=en_US

The Subtle Mind

Breathe in Breathe out breathe in breathe out......breathe in breathe out....

I often use my breath as a source of focus. This works for meditation, physical exercise, and even simply calming my emotions. Like the loving kindness exercise the subtle mind exercise had a focus. However, in loving kindness the focus is outward towards others and pushing my energy towards a goal. The subtle mind took the focus inside to me, my mind, and the energy flow of my thoughts and feelings. Interestingly, no images. This is strange for me. My mind typically loves images. Anyway, I was pleased with this exercise. The color spectrum was purple, yellow, and briefly some blue. When the speaker wanted me to let go of my mind and thoughts the purples turned to pink and gray powder puffs blowing outward...really no joke! It was rather impressive. Interestingly, I could then understand the point. My mind was clear, quiet, and dark...Calm...Waiting...yes waiting.

     I truly, 100%, believe (for as long as I can remember) that ones spiritual, mental, and physical wellness are like one. I cannot find a way to separate the concepts and I am not really sure I want to. If one aspect is unwell it will have a ripple affect on the other two AND  the other two will try to compensate for the upset. This is fine, however, only for a brief time. Long term this will wreak havoc on health and wellness. To me it is important to nurture all three, mind/body/spirit. Sometimes together and sometimes individually in order to balance the whole me! In my world balance is crucial!

Loving Kindness

Hello everyone! I found the loving kindness exercise enlightening. I totally got into the nature sounds, however, when they added the music to the waves in the backround I found the music distracting and had to work hard to ignore it. Before that however, I found the practice quite Awesome! Interestingly, as I inhaled suffering I saw a wave of black behind my eye lids....When I exhaled health, happines, and well-being I saw a deep beautiful  ~purple~ it was very intense and it felt really, really good! When I saw the ~purple~ I really felt like it was working. When the instructions started at times I would be a little startled like someone was lightly waking me from sleep. I have not had great luck with the relaxation practices so far so this expereince was a bit of a surprise. I think it was the nature sounds that pulled me in because this is what I use to meditate normally. Funny thing, kitty, came over during this practice and fell asleep on my feet! Yes I woul recommed this to others.
A mental workout is what I just did. Mental workouts can calm the mind and expand your psychological and spiritual health, of course, this also leads to physical health as well. The research shows this to be true. Taking time each day to expand your mental workout is a great way to foster a good health lifestyle! 
I am so very excited about the color visions!

My Optimal Wellbeing

Hello everyone! When considering my wellbeing and rating it one a scale of 1 - 10 it is difficult because I feel there are many factors which contribute to wellbeing. In some areas I am stronger than others, however, keeping this in perspective this is what I have decided. My physical wellbeing is about a 9 because there is always room for improvement. For instance, I would like to lose a few more pounds and I need to train for a century ride next fall. In order to reach these goals I am trying to be more disciplined in my eating habits. My training for the winter is going to change slightly to include more riding on my trainer, perhaps, 2-3 sessions per week designed to strengthen different biking skills. My spiritual wellbeing is about an 8. I do consider myself to be spiritual, however, I would like spirituality to fit better into my daily routine. I am working on this by making an effort to center myself daily. My psychological wellbeing is also around an 8. Over the past 2 years I have had major upsets in my world. However, I am good at getting a grip on these things, as well as, putting them into perspective and moving forward. Even still the ups and down can take there toll. I make an effort daily to keep my psyche in check by taking care of my physical and spiritual being. A healthy diet and daily exercise does wonders for keeping my head straight so to speak! I have also developed a great peer group who are like minded for the necessary social support that everyone needs! Nurturing these aspects in life will help me move closer to that 10....AS for the relaxation exercise this week, well, I am not finding these relaxing really. I prefer silence and my own thoughts to someone talking to me and giving me directions on how to relax. I find the voices distracting. See you all on the boards!


Kelly

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog. This is the first time I have blogged aside from facebook, however, I find the concept simple and interesting. Here we can share some of our own health and wellness experiences both good and bad. Perhaps, we can learn a little from each other. So, welcome into a little bit of my life. As you can see I enjoy meditation, exercise, and adventure in my own special ways! I hope you enjoy some of my pics as well. I look forward to hearing some of your perspectives!

Kelly

Relaxation Journey

Hello Everyone! I tried something a little different on my relaxation journey. First I listened to the guided mental imagery while I was writing my weekly post. I wanted to see how my mind would react. Low and behold, even though I was not concentrating on relaxation and I was studying instead my mind was clearer and more engaged. It was as though part of my mind was chilling out and the other side of my mind was well aware and in full concentration. (I hope my weekly post makes sense, ha). Of course, this defeats the purpose of the journey. However, I did go back after my homework was done and put my focus on the relaxation journey. Considering I had a day where a couple of things really, really got under my skin I needed a little relaxation. I must admit it was a wonderful feeling. I have for as long as I can remember naturally practiced visualization and imagery techniques to focus my mind and body, therefore, this was an easy natural transition for me. My point being I highly recommend taking a relaxation journey either through guided imagery or any other way your personal being prefers! It does a body good (and mind)!

stole this from a friend....

“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”—John Wooden

Here is an adventure I am going to try!

Yes this may seem crazy but oh so fun! I will be a warrior with group of my friends and relatives. Why not?

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