Loving Kindness and Integral Assessment

Good afternoon,

I once again went and did the Loving Kindness practice. This time I knew what to expect in terms of where the exercise was going. I did however note that I either thought of other subjects or found myself zoning out. I am discovering that what I thought of as meditation actually involves some active mental training on the part of the practicioneer. For myself I find that I really need to focus on what I am supposed to be accomplishing. For this exercise I thought of the person that brings high levels of love for myself and as I moved through the exercise I kept having to re-think of this person as the feelings that I felt were to be going out to others. I strongly believe that what we put out into the world each day does come back to us and that like minded people are attracted to each other. If making others the focus of  your life is a goal than you will run into people that also have a serving mindset in giving to others.

The second part of this exercise was to look at areas within ourselves that we may need to spend time on healing or giving extra loving attention. For myself the areas that have been a struggle have been in finding time to exercise and to follow a well balanced diet. This weekend I started on this path by doing a cleanse - fast type structure. I limited my protein and did not ingest any processed foods. Friday was mostly focused on fruits and veggies with Saturday more on soups and broths. Today I am including protein. Yet on all three days there has not been any processed carbs. This is to help cut down on my cravings for sweets that we seem to be bombarded with during this time of year. Once this weekend is over then I will continue in limiting my carbs to complex and get back to some type of daily activity. I plan on walking at work during my breaks and doing yoga at home.

Jonathan.

The Subtle Mind Exercise take 2

For this exercise we were supposed to look within and take some time to quiet our minds by first focusing on our breathing. This allows for there to be a slowing down of one's self and to help with blocking out the external distractions. This was to replace the exercise of Loving Kindness that was discussed in earlier posts. I will admit that after the breathing part and when the guide stopped talking and all that was happening was the sounds of the ocean my mind wandered and I really had to focus. I went back to thinking about my breathing and about half way through the exercise I fell asleep.

I do think that there is a definite connection between a persons physical wellbeing and their mental wellbeing. Being able to meditate and take time out to slow down will have huge positive gains for a lot of people. I do however struggle with the spiritual aspect of these exercises. They are based in a lot of Eastern philosophy which speaks to finding your own salvation on the inside or reaching your own perfection. There were many examples given in the reading. As a Christian I struggle with this belief and have had to not let my own beliefs interfere with experiencing the class. My salvation comes from the change in my life that took place when I put my faith in Jesus Christ. I understand that when I feel struggles and do not fully want to love another person this is my opportunity to pray and ask for strength to give what is needed to help further the kingdom of God and to lead by example. Practice is very important in being able to find calm and to show loving kindness yet I do not believe that it completely comes from within. It starts with the change that knowing Jesus Christ can bring.

I strongly believe that the physical aspect of exercise such as running, practicing yoga or playing a sport can increase your awareness about yourself and how you fit into this world. Being able to express yourself through activity helps to calm the mind and get yourself ready for a time of quiet and reflection that these exercises can help you to accomplish. The key component is practice.

Jonathan.

Loving Kindness

I have to say that this exercise was a challenge for me. During the exercise I found that my mind wandered a lot and I struggled to stay focused beyond my breathing. I know that for myself looking inside and just taking time to slow down is a great blessing as for many of us, myself included seem to always be on the go. Stopping and taking the time to reflect on our inner thoughts can be very positive. I know that looking at ones actions and thoughts can help to bring about a better sense of who we are as humans and giving of ourselves to others. I am not sure if the actual practice of breathing in grief and suffering and breathing out joy and wellness were just a way to reflect on how we treat other people? Or if this was some actual belief in taking in real pain and suffering and sending out light and happiness. This is something that for myself I do not believe and so this may be why I stuggled in staying in the moment and focused. I think that any type of meditative practice is a benefit to others and finding quiet can do wonders to reducing stress levels. This practice I would not recommend just on the fact of how I do not believe in sending out positive thoughts and feelings into the universe make a difference. Practicing what you preach in terms of loving kindness helps facilitate change and fosters continued growth and development.
To me the concept of a mental workout is taking the time to stretch your thoughts by quieting the mind and working through difficult situations. This allows you to look and review actons and feelings so that you can learn and grow. Hopefully positive changes happen and this is an exercise that again needs to be practiced so that it is not lost. Benefits of mental workouts allow a person to think clearly and to act proactivly in situations and not to be in a constant reactive frame of mind.

Crime of the Century

To start off I am not really sure why this exercise was called Crime of the Century. It was a relaxation exercise that focused on the shakra's of the body and realizing that our bodies are like a prizm. This exercise focused on those areas and had us imagine a colored light eminating from the body. This was in addition to thinking or saying out loud a phrase of affirmation. I found that going through the exercise and trying to relax at the beginning was a bit difficult. We had just eaten dinner as a family and my oldest had his girlfriend over to the house. I also had a slight tickle in the back of my throat to I was coughing a bit at the begining. There were a couple distractions from my children in asking me questions yet once this was past I was able to finish the exercise. I am not really sure how much of the actual visualization or affirmations I accessed on a deeper level yet I do know that at the end of the exercise I was very relaxed and took a small cat nap. Taking time out of our hectic lives is often forgotten and doing more quiet times like this can have a profound positive affect on our psychological well-being.

Jonathan.

Reflections on my Integral Health

When a person looks at their overall health they must take into consideration three areas, physical, spiritual, and psychological. These three make up the whole. For myself currently in my life if I were to rate these areas from one to ten they would look as such:

Physical - 6
Spiritual - 7
Psychological - 7

For the physical aspect of my well-being I feel that this number represents where I am at currently. I am not really finding time to exercise yet I am still trying to play on a tennis league during the weekend and I always do things like walk the stairs at work and park further out to walk. For these reasons I feel that I sit at a six. A goal for me would to start going back to the gym. I pay for a membership yet have not been to the gym in over 2 months. I would want to try and go Saturday and one other day during the week. Combining this with tennis on Friday and Sunday I am now exercising 4 days a week.
For the spiritual aspect of my well-being I have not been taking the time out each day and pray and read my Bible like I used to do. I also am not currently a member of a church and this is missing and something that I want to change. I plan on making one of my goals to find a new home church that I can start to attend and be able to fellowship with other Christians.
For the psychological aspect of my well-being I feel that this number represents where I am at currently. I have all my life struggled with my weight and this is something that as I get older weighs more heavily than in the past. It stems from the fact that I have been able to lose weight yet have not been able to keep it off. I currently weigh in at 250 pounds and even though this is not super heavy, I am a personal trainer and the fact that I let myself be persuaded to not eat the most healthy foods and to limit my exercising by others makes me feel that I am not fully leading by example. It is getting harder to believe that I can make a long-lasting change. One thing that I can do that may help to start to keep a jounal of my actions and feelings in relation to how I approach food and see if this helps me to build more consistency in watching the calories that I intake.

Jonathan.

Relaxation Exercise

This afternoon I tried a relaxation exercise and found that it put me into a better mood once I was finished. I had come home from grocery shopping and was about to prepare dinner (taco's for those that are interested). I was feeling a bit stressed by my youngest how happens to now be 12 years of age. I sat in my chair and started the exercise. I closed my eyes and followed along. I do have to say that I was half hearted at first because of all that I had going on today. By the middle of the exercise I was feeling the stress leave my body and was really focusing on my arms and hands pulling the blood from my core and moving it to my extemeties. I felt warmth and heaviness and I began to relax. As I continued to focus on my breathing I felt my stress leaving as I began to relax. After the exercise I stretched and felt like I had a second wind. Taking time out to take care of ourselves is extremely important and sometimes in our busy, hectic lives we tend to forget to show a little love to ourselves. This is a great exercise and one that I will repeat.

Jonathan.

Welcome

Good evening everyone! My name is Jonathan Carney and I created this blog for my Creating Wellness class. I am a certified personal trainer and a licensed massage therapist and Bear Down Training is the name of my company. I currenly train and massage part-time and work full-time for a non-profit housing counseling agency. I am in the home stretch and have only 3 classes remaining including this one until I graduate with my Bachelors in Health and Wellness. I am excited about this class and what I can learn and share with my peers. I look forward to reading my classmates blogs as we journey through class together. Good luck everyone!

Jonathan.