Loving-kindness exercise

So I sit with my eyes closed and repeat in my head:

May all individuals gain freedom from suffering.

May all individuals find sustained health, happiness, and wholeness.

May I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering. 

May I assist all individuals in finding health , happiness, and wholeness. 

I got through the first five minutes of this exercise before my mind wandered onto other things. However, the first five minutes was awesome. This made me feel so good. If I could really take away everyones suffering that would make me very happy. I am a person who loves to help others and that is why I am going to into nursing. This exercise is an awesome exercise an I will incorporate it into my every day. 

As for the integral assessment the area I need to work on the most is biological flourishing. The areas of biological flourishing are fitness, nutrition, and self-regulation. I really need work on the fitness and nutrition. I am trying to do this as we speak and hope to have it mastered soon :)  I am still 30 or so pounds over weight and we eat out way too much. Once I can get those under control I think the area of biological flourishing will be great. Then I can move on to the next area of the assessment to work on. I think each area needs some improvements and this class is helping me make those improvements. 

Subtle Mind

Hello everyone! Sorry for the late post this week, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer on Friday and so I have been with her and my family.

This practice was a little different than the last one. With this exercise they ask you to pick a focal point and if you go away from your focal point to acknowledge what distracts you, but slowly go back to the focal point. I love the waves crashing in the background! It was very hard for me to picture my mind with an anchor because my mind ALWAYS travels away and it seems no matter what I do it over powers me and thinks about what ever it wants. This would be a great thing for me to practice over and over again to try and keep my mind for wandering off. The loving-kindness exercise has you focus on someone else and their pain, this one focuses on keeping your mind clear and free.

Prayer is such a powerful thing and right now we are doing a lot of that! I think that if you have a good relationship with God, or whoever you pray to, is a powerful one! Spirituality is very important to healing and feeling healthier all around. Praying and being able to release everything to God can help the worrying mind be at ease and keep clear.

Loving Kindness

I LOVED this exercise this week. I really enjoyed listening to it and it actually helped me relax and think about things. The beach makes me relax and I used to love to listen to CD's with beach sounds so hearing the waves crashing in the back ground was awesome. This exercise really makes you think about what loving kindness really is and how to accomplish this. I would recommend this exercise to anyone and everyone. I think it could help a lot of people realize exactly what loving kindness is and how it should be carried out. I am so glad that I finally found a type of exercise that actually helps me relax and keeps from laughing.

 A "mental workout" is training your mind and expanding it. It is training to mind to accept stillness and quietness, this does take practice. Being able to train the mind can open up different levels of wisdom, compassion, peace, wholeness, and happiness. Mental workouts are so important and can really help a person in their lives.

It is actually funny because this class is going along with both of my other classes. We are learning the same types of things, yet different things and each thing I am learning is helping me in each of my classes not just one.

Crime of the Century

Rating my physical well-being, spiritual well-being,and psychological well-being is hard for me. I would have to say that my physical well-being is probably like a 6 out of 10 right now. I am in the process of losing weight and have lost 16 pounds so far, but I have more to go. I am not as active as I would like to be right now either. So I would say that I have improving to do with my physical well-being. My spiritual well-being I would have to rate at 8 out of 10. I am a very spiritual person, however I do have some improving to do here as well. I need to remember that God is in charge at all times and know that things happen for a reason. I do meditate and pray daily which helps me become better spiritually. My psychological well-being is a 10. I do not have any mental disorders that I am battling with right now. I am free from depression and other disorders. 

To better my physical well-being I will become active at least 4 day a week. Being active for me means taking the dogs for a walk, riding my bike, or doing physical exercise. My goal for bettering my spiritual well-being is to go to church at least once a month, and remembering to turn my problems over to God and quit worrying so much. 

Once again I turn on the relaxation exercise and there is that voice again. All I can do is shake my head and chuckle. This was another exercise I had to complete in my stress management class also. I cannot stand the fact that there is a pause in between most of the words. The ___ color____ violet_____ it is really annoying and does not help me relax in any way. I understand the need to speak slowly and calmly, however to pause in between every word is a little much. These are nothing but frustrating to me....