Subtle loving

This weeks exercise was the subtle mind exercise. I happen to like really enjoy this particular type of exercise, in my yoga classes I always teach breath as a focal point and do guided meditations around the breath  because it is an easy thing to focus on. This experience for me was very nice it was quiet in the house and I was able to really observe the things going on in my head. I avoid being in my head sometimes because it can be a bit scary and there is always so much going on that it is hard to look at each thing. Today I was actually able to weed out the muck and actually see what truly was going on in my head. My body was relaxed and breath was easy. This was different than the loving kindness because in that exercise you focused on physical person be it yourself or another person, this the focus was on the breath and the inner workings of the mind. I like both equally because they both create a different sense of peace and quietness within thy self.

The connection between spiritual wellness and mental and physical wellness is that there is a connection. In our text books, and research studies it shows how all three pieces are connected and without one the others don't function as well. This is manifested in my own life by the choices I make, the books I read, the food I eat and the path I choose to walk down in my life. For example I have had a skin condition since before Christmas, I have been to a conventional Doctor and their treatment didn't help, it actually made the condition worsen, I have been to an acupuncturist and his treatments have been a little better but not still right, so today I spent over an hour with a naturopath. We looked at my stresses, my environmental surroundings, emotional things I have had to deal with and after looking at all of these she ran a major allergy test and an ANA blood panel to be done to try and find a starting place to look to try and help me get rid of this skin condition. It has all been a process but it has been the process that I created.
Have a great week everyone
Blessed be

Loving kindness

Hello all,
I hope this has been a peaceful weekend for everyone.  In this blog we were asked to listen to the introduction to loving kindness and then practice the loving kindness exercise, and then answer these questions:

1. Describe your experience. Did you find it beneficial? Difficult? Why or why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or why not?
2. What is the concept of "mental workout"? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a mental workout? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

Answer: 

1. My experience with this exercise was nice. I felt very warm and light inside while doing the loving kindness exercise. I have done this exercise a couple other times before in my life as it was something we learned in my 200 hour yoga certification program. Each time has always been a different experience as far as whom I chose to in each category but the feelings of peace and warmth that radiate through me have always been the same.  The speaker was much better through this exercise making it easier to focus on the act of loving kindness. I think this can be a challenging exercise for people because of the part about offering loving kindness to those we don't necessarily care for and this exercise could bring up some old emotional ties to those people making it difficult to follow the exercise. I also think though that if a person can get past those emotions that this is a great way to let go of past hurts forgive yourself and others opening the door for healing.

2. The concept of " mental workout" is to train your mind to be in shape as if you would train your body to be in shape. Benefits of mental workouts are: hanging the emotions from anger and fear to emotions of peace and happiness (Dacher, E. 2006). Things I could do to implement mental workouts to benefit my own psychological health would be, putting others needs above my own, truly being a friend when someone needs me and even when they don't. Reaching out and helping others for me decreases my own mental chaos and makes me feel better, it also makes me realize my life is not  bad and my troubles are not so great. I can also implement mental workouts by allowing down time, for me it is a 30-45 minutes bath daily, in this I picture all my stresses and worries melting away with the bubbles, the lighting is soft so my eyes can relax the music is low giving me a little distraction blocking out the noise in my head. Finally before bed I say positive affirmations about myself, about the people in my life, about my life repeatedly so that I fall asleep in a state of happiness and joy. there are many things people can do to implement mental workouts into their lives these are just some of my own personal mental exercises that get me through daily and keep me from going completely insane. 

Have a great week everyone

Namaste  

Part two

This is the second part of my blog post the part after completing the exercise crime of the century. I found the title to this exercise to be a little morbid. It should never be a crime to be give yourself 15 minutes of relaxation. The exercise as a whole for me was okay, I still have a hard time with the speaker. he does not have a great voice for guided relaxations. I did find that about half way through this exercise i totally blocked out the speaker and focused on my own techniques for relaxation. I also found that once I made this shift I was able to completely disappear from my surroundings and almost drifted off. I also found that when I came out of my relaxed state that the speaker was still talking so I just listened to him with out judgement. I think the colors were a nice touch and I liked how he worked from the chakras with the colors. However I just don't care for him as a guide.
Have a blessed day
Ramsie

Digging deeper

Hello, 

This week we were asked to answer a few questions for our blog as well as complete an exercise.  I have to say I have actually been enjoying the bog and reading the blogs of my classmates. Here are the questions we have to answer:

1. Based on your reflections, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being optimal wellbeing), where do you rate your A-physical wellbeing, B-spiritual well-being, C-psychological well-being? Why?
2. Develop a goal for yourself in each area (physical, spiritual, psychological).
3. What activities or exercise can you implement in your life to assist in moving toward each goal?

Answers:

1. On a scale of one to ten I feel physically I am about an 7.5 or and 8, spiritually I think I am about an 8 and psychologically I think am about an 7 or an 8. I feel I am at these numbers because no one is perfect and there is always room for improvement, I do the best that I can to live a healthy and a well rounded lifestyle and try and focus on wellness being one of the most important things but, I am human and "to be human is to err."  There are always things I can do in my life to improve my numbers in each category and some days are better than others.
2. A physical goal would be to increase my cardio exercise on a weekly basis, I get some now but I know I need to increase this, my goal will be to add an hour more of cardio to my life a week . Spiritually- I can pray more often and give thanks for all of my blessings more regularly, my goal will be to give thanks daily. Psychologically I need more quiet time, I allow myself a bubble bath every day but I don't usually give myself quiet time to meditate or reflect on my day. My Goal will be to add either meditation or reflection into my nightly routine, I will aim for 2 days of meditation and 3 days of reflection. That is more than I am doing now.
3. I think that the activities I can do to implement my life are more simple, I already do loving kindness towards myself and towards others, I practice this on a daily basis. I am lacking simple things that are mostly a matter of time and doing. If I allow a few extra minutes a day before bed nothing crazy but an extra 10-15 minutes daily I could achieve these goals. 

I have not done the exercise yet so once I do i will do another post to show my experiences in that.

Have a great day

Ramsie Mather

Reflections

Today I went  through the guided relaxation for unit two. This was a nice little exercise though at times the speakers images were a little distracting. It is nice to go through a guided relaxation on my own, I usually teach them and find other ways to quiet my mind and relax the body but very rarely do I actually get to experience guided relaxations. The time went by fast and I was able to let go of my surroundings but that comes with the two years of yoga training I have had. I feel a bit more refreshed afterwards and am ready to teach my next class here shortly. I think this is going to be a really neat part of this class by having to do these types of reflections.
Namaste

Welcome to my blog

Hello Class and Professor,
Welcome to my blog. Please bear with me as this is my first experience with blogging. I think will be a really neat project and hope that you all enjoy my posts.
Have a great day
Ramsie Mather