Unit 10 My Experience

It has come to the end of the term and time to reflect on what we have accomplished in class. When started this class I rated myself a 6 or 7 due to needed growth but having the knowledge and understanding of where I should be. I now believe to be one step closer to the goals I want for myself. I am back on track with taking time out for quiet time to calm my mind, started my workout schedule to get back physically where I need to be and attending church more regularly for spiritual growth. I set these goals and have implemented them into my daily lifestyle and make it priority to stick to them. This class has been beneficial in every way. I wish I only took this class so I could have focused directly on this class. My life contains many daily obstacles of getting things accomplished but now understand the need for self reflection and self improvement so I can not only help others but help myself become more balanced, healthy and whole. I wish everyone the best in future classes and wonderful week off until the next term.

Self Reflect Project

I Introduction:
Achieving health and wellness spiritually and physically is the ultimate responsibility of any professional when teaching others about wellness and health. Without the self-training and understanding of what health and wellness is about, it is hard to pass on the teachings to others. In my own personal life I need to focus on meditation and calming the mind. The day to day life can become overwhelming mentally, physically and spiritually and without the skill of knowing how to calm the mind it can lead to other health related problems that can occur due to mental stress.

II Assessment:
Health and wellness has always been important to me in life. However, like anything else in life there is a growing process in any area. Spiritually, physically and psychologically I feel I have a long ways to go. If I had to score myself at this time, I would score myself a 6 or 7 from a scale of 1-10. Overall, I believe I have passed the halfway line to knowing what I need to do in my life to have balance, peace and happiness through spiritual, physical and psychological training but have not reached the ultimate goal I should be at.

III Goal development:
The one thing I don’t have problems in life is setting goals. I believe without goals you have no future. Physically, I set a goal to improve my overall muscle tone of my body and focus on strength training to improve myself so it can help me not only physically but with dealing with others in my job and completing physical activities around the home and with my children. Psychologically, I struggle with this area due to hormone challenges. Hormone problems are directly connected with mental health and my day to day struggle with calming my mind challenges me to address sensitive issues with a clear and straight mind. Spiritually, my goal is to grow closer to what God wants me to be in life and the path he wants me to stay on. This spiritual path will also help me mentally and I believe when I accomplish that goal it will help me accomplish my psychological goal as well.

IV Practices for personal health:
Achieving my goals is pretty simple if you have a plan. Sticking to the plan is something that needs to be done to achieve each goal. Physically, I can only grow if I plan a routine exercise program that I stick to weekly and progress as the weeks go by. Psychologically, I need to take time out to calm the mind and meditate on a weekly basis and work my way to a daily routine. Spiritually, I attend church weekly on Sunday but need to take it to another level by joining a worship group or group study to have a better understanding of the things I don’t know in life.

V Commitment:
Assessing my progress for the next six months is very important. The one way I plan to track my progress is by writing things down. I keep a monthly calendar on my wall and in my purse. Every week I write down what I need to do and what I accomplished. This easy step might seem time consuming for some but not having something to look back on only makes it hard to see where you were and where you are now and what changes and accomplishments you have accomplished or progressed in.

Unit 8-The benefits of taking time out

There are many things that benefit us in life. However, the two things that we practiced in class that can be beneficial and helpful in my daily life is visualization and meditation. I believe these two things go hand in hand. As we take the time out to calm our mind and spirit we can focus on visualizing one thing to help us remember something that brings us peace, calm, loving thoughts that helps us get to the state of peace and calm within our mind, body and soul. It is easy to focus on the negative and bring negativity into our life but I believe daily reflecting on positive thoughts can help us learn to train our mind to grow to think positive on a more routine basis instead on thoughts that don't bring us peace.

The focus point

The first thing that comes to mind when focusing and trying to find that focal point is my fiance. His loving and kind ways and beautiful features makes it easy to view him. I know I need to learn to be more patient and loving and when surrounded by positive people who continue to show love even when love is not given, makes you have to change your view and actions yourself. I continue to need to learn to meditate and take the time to focus but it is not an easy task due to my daily routine of work, kids, school and home.

I always believed that one can only lead another to a certain point if they have not walked the walk due to needing to know and experience for themselves what they are teaching. We can study to a certain point but experience is the best teacher in my view. I want to teach others about nutrition and being healthy but at the same time I can not live an unhealthy lifestyle and then teach others to not do as I am. Health to me is a daily lifestyle not just a diet that you do for a couple of days or weeks and then back to your old self, it is a change. The change has to first start in your mind and then your body will follow. I loved the saying in the book about how we should view everyone as they were Christ. This is an interesting point because we do treat others differently when we know they are of a certain status, so if we look at everyone as important than we would treat everyone kind, loving, attentively and respectfully. I will try this for myself when dealing with people for now on.

Loving Kindness Exercise

It is funny that I did this exercise when I was actually angry and having a bad day and the book says it can be helpful when dealing with anger or hatred. After completing the exercise I can understand how training the mind to think positive things and speaking positive things can alter you emotional state. I tend to say at least one prayer when I go into work that I am a blessing to whomever I touch or come in contact with before I start my job but I guess it would be best to say this prayer before I even get out of bed. Daily stressors and problems can build up and if not addressed quickly can lead to negativity and other problems. I will continue to say and think these words for the rest of the night to help me get through my situation and help the people around me.

Loving kindness and mind exercise

As I laid in my bed listening to track 3 and trying to practice my breathing and do the relaxation exercise my CD went to a loud static sound and disrupted the relaxation exercise. However, before the CD was interrupted I felt the practice was very helpful and I felt my mind and body relaxing. Breathing helps you stabilize and calm the body. I recently used ear plugs just to try them out to see if it made a difference when sleeping and when I put the ear plugs in my ears it was like I slipped into a whole new world, the outside world was suddenly calm. The ear plugs enabled me to listen to my own breathing and hear the steady rhythm of breaths which relaxed me and helped me fall asleep. If you anyone hasn't tried this technique I highly recommend trying it one time and see the difference. As far as the dysfunctional CD, has anyone else had problems with the CD they got from Kaplan? I guess it is too late to return it and ask for a new one.

Unit 4 Getting Started

As the week goes by it is hard to take time out to get started and relax. Getting started and practicing the home exercise for loving and kindness it makes me realize that I should take the time to to practice these techniques more often. Sitting calmly in a peaceful state and opening my mind to experience loving thoughts makes me shift my inner and outer emotions to be more loving and kind to others. A mental workout is being able to control our thoughts and train our brain to function in a more clear stable way. This is an ongoing exercise that we all should practice on a daily basis because it doesn't just train our minds but it also trains our bodies to function properly. It has been proven that health begins in the mind, healthy mind can mean healthy bodies.