Unit 10

My personal assessment is about the same except the for the personal time and psychological health. I would say that I have improved and have been able to reflect on my life and handle each situation in a more relaxed and less stressful manner with reflection. I have been able to take time for myself and allowed moments throughout my day to relax even when its about 5 minutes or less. I think my goals have paid off and that I'm staying focused on my inner health. Throughout this course I've learned about the effects of stress and the way it can impact your life when now managed corrected. With the tools from this course I have been able to manage my stress and take moments for myself and reflect. I really enjoyed the books and reading them, it helps to have an outside perspective of things.
The continued internal health and healing will continue along with my physical health and healing to make the most of my life and health and wholeness.

Unit 9

Introduction:

When a health and wellness professional develops psychologically, spiritually and physically they are able to first hand exchange knowledge to you regarding overall health and wholeness. This makes them a creditable source and firsthand knowledge is priceless. Since more people are looking into overall wellness and integral health they will be looking for practices from a specialist that acquire these skills and learnings into their own lives. To develop these skills on my own I need to concentrate the most on spiritual growth. This is something that has always been something I’ve worked on here and there and have never committed fully to this. Once a commitment to this goal is achieved the goal will be achieved.

II. Assessment:

If I were to assess my health in each area I would say that I’d score the highest in my physical health. I exercise at least 6 times a week and sometimes twice a day. I take this very seriously. I also eat as healthy as I can keeping in mind the nutrition of foods before I eat them. It’s important to splurge every once in a while but for the most part its balanced meals. Next on my list is psychologically. I’m overall happy with where my life is. I have a great daughter and an excellent job, I’m achieving my goals and finishing school soon. I’m surrounded with friends that I absolutely love and adore and feel the same about me. Support is always around me in many ways. The only thing I would change is finding a life partner that I can be completely comfortable with and share my life with. This will come with time. Spiritually as discussed previously is the one thing I would have to rate the lowest.  

III. Goal development:

Goals are important to stay on track with many things, its especially important for health because if you don’t do things everyday then you could lose your accomplishments quickly. To continue with my success with physical health I plan on eating healthier. I can sometimes slip with this or eat out too often. It’s important to keep portions low and keep all food groups in mind and avoid sweets. I love salty and sweet foods and need to restrict those. For psychological health I need to stop comparing my life to what others have. I need to be happy for others that have the same things that I want and most of all I need to express that happiness and really feel happy for them in the inside. I will continue to think of myself and my situation positively. Spiritually is a little more difficult but for a base goal I am going to accept that everything happens for a reason and that I can’t control every aspect of my life, others and the things that happen around me.

IV. Practices for personal health:

To implement this growth physically I will eat better and continue to exercise. Psychologically I will be happy with what I have and have a positive prospective on my life and others life. Spiritually I will take time to have peace with each situation and to meditate with breathing and focus.

V. Commitment:

To help stay focused I will put things in my calendar. If there aren’t events in my calendar I usually don’t do them. To help with my progress I will write notes for myself and place them on the mirror or refrigerator. If there are days where my focus needs to be completely rebooted I can turn to the book from this term, it has truly helped me this past nine weeks.

Unit 8

The two exercises I got the most benefit from and felt they were more useful are the loving-kindness and subtle mind. I've said it before that I don't know if it was because of the mind frame I was in or if it was actually more beneficial. The sound of the voice instructing me to breathe and to concentrate on different areas of my body and feeling the warmth in those areas was really an eye opening experience. The shutting off the mind to concentrate on exactly what your thinking about is a powerful thing.
To implement these in my life, I have and will continue to put some time away for these exercises. Concentrate on an area that is bothering me or sore, think warm thoughts and continue to heal. I've implemented more stretching, no necessarily yoga but still movements of stretch and breathing. This is implemented in my normal exercise routine. I do this for about 10 minutes everytime I work out.
I have felt this has benefited me and will continue. I already feel a sense of flexibility and peace.
Good luck to everyone and their benefits of exercise with mind, body and spirit.

Unit 7

This weeks mediation was to imagine someone with integral health and flourishing that can mentor you and to envision that person with beams of light coming from them toward you. You were to imagine that you are them and find what they have within them you can have within yourself.
I couldn't think of anyone in particular that could mentor me with this this exercise so I just thought of a general person with what I think wholeness, happiness and health will have been attained by someone. To continue to work on human flourishing its very important to live in the moment and find happiness from within. True happiness doesn't come from others or material things.

The saying "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" means that to teach someone or guide someone into something they need to have been able to accomplish themselves. They also need to be able to tell someone the tools that are needed to truly bring someone into something.
I think you do have an obligation with yourself to lead yourself with all around wholeness and happiness, physically and psychologically. Its important to know the steps that can lead you there and to be able to explain those first hand. With a goal in mind you will be able to make one step at a time to this flourishing.

Jenni

Unit 6

With this weeks first exercise and saying the four phrases over and over again for ten minutes, which by the way I didn't last ten minutes was helpful. It almost makes you feel at peace with whatever is related to with these phrases. I think to myself that I can help people as long as they want help. You can attempt to help others with freedom from suffering and with health, happiness and wholeness but if they don't truly seek this then your efforts will come on deaf ears.
For the assessment I chose to focus on interpersonal life, because I just recently went through a tough breakup and need to focus on myself and my views of the people around me. I wouldn't say this is the most essential but it is the one that light is being shinned on the most currently. I hope to aim for trust within myself and with others. I hope to gain confidence in my decisions once again and only wish good things for others. The area that I need growth and development in is the same as what I need growth in. Waiting to spend my life with someone on a personal basis who is right in every way for me. I hope with time and healing this will happen for me. Until then I will wish nothing but good wishes for others.
Jenni

Unit 5 Blog

I have really embraced these exercises and started to really enjoy this peaceful self reflecting time. There is really no comparison to unit 4 Loving Kindness and this weeks Subtle Mind practice. The part that said to bring your self to your thoughts and visual images I did not do, I tried to only concentrate on my breathing and my eyes were closed. I really zoned into the sounds. They were both enjoyable to me and I'm really loving the waves in the background. I'm starting to wonder if they changed the background sound would I feel as relaxed and enjoy these exercises as I have. The concentration on breathing was very useful to me and this brings me into the physical fitness side of things. Whenever I exercise I have to make sure that I'm breathing, it helps bring oxygen to the muscles and improves your performance. When doing kick boxing its especially important to breath out and in during kicks and punches. Hope everyone is enjoying this as much as I am.
Jenni

Feeling Relaxed

I don't know if it was the stress of this weeks events or if I'm just so overtired that I was looking forward to this exercise today. There was an enormous amount of focus I had today during the Loving Kindness exercise, I felt very heavy when done and relaxed. I actually took a nap when I completed it.
For a mental exercise or any exercise it is important to do it on a constant basis. Just like any muscle there needs to be strength building, rest and nutrition. If you have been following my posts to this point, I make a very big effort to exercise my body and realize that it needs to be often to stay in shape and build the muscle I wish to build. Because of this class and learning about wholeness I have taken it upon myself to take time for my brain, emotions and self at different periods of my day. I don't put as much time as I do my physical strength but its a starts.
With mind exercising it is possible to focus on the inner self and have concentration in the direct tasks at hand. If properly trained there is an ability to have an overall happiness and self worth that only comes from within. Research shows that if this is done on a normal basis then there could be long term effects on you inner self and future life as well as short term effects. This can reduce stress as well as find inner peace.
My goal is to let these exercises effect my life in this positive manner by completing this exercise once a day.

Try to relax...not quite

I have always been able to rate my physical fitness at a high rate, there is always room for improvement in that department but I would put myself at about an 8. The reason why is I work out at least six days a week for about 30-60 minutes each time sometimes more. If there is something that can be done physically I do try and take my body to the next level to achieve that. I love to run and always think there is an improvement in this department that I can do. Longevity with speed is always a goal and even though I try to improve that, its a slow process. To continue this improvement I will workout the same as I do with the goal of increasing my speed and longevity. There is a need to push myself to run harder and to continue to push myself to my limits to achieve this goal. Spiritual health has always been something I haven't taken time to advance. There isn't much time for me personally and relaxing is me sitting on my coach while I write this blog, because I'm sitting. To gain a more spiritual self I think I would need to speak to someone who is more knowledgeable then I am in this subject and learn how this would benefit me and my life. Psychological health is something that comes in waves, overall I would rate myself at about a 6 but can dip down to a 4 and can rise to about a 7. To improve this I am honest, loyal and morally sound. I stay on the right track with that and hope for the best. Things that would improve this is to have comfort in my life, have a personal relationship with a life partner and have support from a constant source. Personal relationships help keep me together, knowing that others care and support me and my decisions is a good feeling.
For some reason this relaxation exercise was not as enjoyable as the previous one. The rays of light that I was to imagine I found myself doing an eye roll at. I don't want to imagine the rays of lights coming from different areas of my body, I guess I didn't get the point of the colors and why I was being instructed to do that part. I couldn't fully relax like I did with the previous exercise.

Journey of Relaxation

Being custom to yoga, message and relaxation, I've done this type of exercise in the past. Having my first yoga class being a prenatal yoga class, exercises like this relaxation exercise is very effective. As I listened to the words and music, I was first annoyed by the voice coming in from a long day I wanted it to be quiet. It took all but a minute for me to feel more comfortable with the voice and listen to the words that he was saying and completing what he was suggesting me to do. Everything that he said I did and I felt the warmth and felt relaxed within moments. Because I tend to carry much of my tension in my upper back, neck and jaw I focused on these areas rather then the legs and arms. After this exercise was complete I felt refreshed and ready to complete my day. If this is something people can do just once in their day, its for your benefit. Just like many I love messages and you are able to tune out the rest of the world and just be present in what is happening to your muscles and body while being manipulated. I will leave you with this, one of the best messages I've ever had where every part of my body felt heavy and relaxed was when, the therapist was speaking to me in a soft tone of voice commanding my body to relax. Truly an amazing experience and one you feel like you don't want to leave. I hope others can enjoy these experiences at some point in their lives. Enjoy.
Refreshed mind and ready for the rest of my day, Jenni