Unit 4 Loving-Kindness

1.            Describe your experience. Did you find it beneficial? Difficult? Why or why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or why not?

To find a peace within myself I learned this exercise can help and benefits daily. Taking the time to really just relax and take in the negative thoughts and dissolve them is a real confidence builder. I feel I have a power to help others by helping myself. I want to not only seek inner peace but to spread that help to loved ones and even those I just think of, this is where I feel confident I can spread happiness. It is like pressing reset and just rebooting every sensation and clarifying all negative setbacks.

I found this exercise beneficial to fit into my healthy lifestyle. It is part of an integral approach and helps me push away a lot of the negative perspectives and allows a great focus on myself. The main feeling I get is the ability to be open and get rid of the self-centeredness, growing my mind to an advancing development.

This is not difficult, it is of ease and it is a matter of taking the time each and every day to focus on certain things. Repetition is key and makes my mind ready and available to help itself on a regular basis. This is effective and it can be added into anyone’s healthy planning. Once you have the mind set, you really can build the confidence to do anything. I do want to recommend this to others, because it can help them find inner peace and opening up to spread their good vibes to others as well. Negativity is extremely easy to focus on, but its exercises like these that can help bring an inner health.

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?

The reasoning behind a mental workout is commitment. As we all know it takes time and practice to be good at things, but it takes even more time and practice to be excellent at them. Our mental workout only takes a little effort and it is a fact that there is a positive growth in our inner development and flourishing through these practices. I can’t expect to pass an exam without the time and preparation and commitment to succeed, just as it is for a mental workout to succeed. Listening to simple directions and allowing inner thoughts to escape and be controlled are practices that need to be mastered. In these simple efforts, we can all learn a thing or two about each other and ourselves. As Dacher explains in his book, we know this from our own lives, from personal testimonials, and from research studies. There is also a negative aspect, if we stop practicing and deny out commitment, then there will be a drop off.

“What is Psychological health? Psychological health is about doing things that give you a sense of enjoyment and achievement, holding helpful and balanced attitudes toward life, and building satisfying relationships.”

http://www.kumarmahi.com/

I can easily see that it is important to take the time to help our psychological wellbeing. You can easily follow the practice of Loving-kindness, and also the subtle mind which are in the book written by Dacher, Integral Health. Life is good, and this simple exercise can help you not only love yourself but to help and love others.

Unit 3 blog post

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: I am a 7/10 because of my injuries in my wrists. The doctor says I have stiffened carpals which cause extreme pain. This is a significant effect on my push-ups as I cannot do most chest exercises. I can use bands and this allows me to focus on stamina so I can still score a 7/10 on this category. I am also setting up an appointment with the chiropractor who also specializes in carpal tunnel patients.

B-spiritual well-being: 9/10 I do not want to rate this perfect as I always see there is room for improvement for what I do not know or human error. I find that my spiritual well-being is optimal as I am taking care as much as possible recently, and taking in positive vibes and blocking negative ones. I find that I can find a way to freedom and control outside the boundaries of stressors caused from my external environment.

C-psychological well-being: 9/10 relevantly, the idea is in personal autonomy. I can make my own decisions and I can make responsible ones that can help my well-being. Well-being is a multidimensional singular perspective. Comprehensively, the idea of well-being has many different aspects that lead to human flourishing as a whole.

2.           Develop a goal for yourself in each area (physical, spiritual, psychological).

Physically I have many goals. 1 goal that is more important is to develop ways to work-out without re-aggravating my injury but at the same time effectively improving my physical well being. This is completely relevant because of my physical training demands for an upcoming test in the US navy.

Spiritually I am achieving. I need to continue my awareness of spiritual well being and to find certain applications to grow upon. The relaxation techniques and alone time allows me to hear myself and where I am at. I can tweak and exercise my mind to the right direction and understanding that I am a higher being than just my physical outer boundaries. There is a safe zone that rises above the one dimensional perspective.

Psychologically I am adapting. The idea of modifying me to reach optimal personal development is a comprehensive movement and takes time. My goal is to be able to adjust and adapt myself faster and more efficiently without confusion.

3.           What activities or exercise can you implement in your life to assist in moving toward each goal?

Physically all I have to do is initiate/follow through. I have certain techniques to complete my exercises effectively until training day, so my wrists heal in time and I can get them looked at as soon as possible. Although they have been inspected, I have to follow up on my own due to the fact of reoccurring pain and inability to do physical activity.

Spiritually I have to go beyond the education and actually do a spiritual exercise. I would like to categorize the relaxation techniques as a spiritual exercise, as well as taking the time to allow myself to gather my thoughts and follow through.

Psychologically I have many resources to help configure a healthy exercise. As indicated in health and yoga.com, here is a simple exercise I can start with:

·        Lie flat upon the floor, arms extended above the head. Raise the arms and the head and the shoulders as far as possible from the floor contracting the muscles of the abdomen. Relax, and lie again on the floor. Raise the hollow of the back from the floor, drawing the hips up towards the shoulders contracting or tensing the muscles of the back.

o   http://www.healthandyoga.com/HTML/misc/psycho_exercise.html

4.           Complete the relaxation exercise The Crime of the Century. To hear this exercise, click here.

Describe your experience. (What it beneficial? Frustrating? etc.)

This exercise is really relaxing and comforting once again. I definitely feel rejuvenated and energized after this exercise. Beneficial, and really felt different sources of energy from being centered, grounded and positive as well as sharing a positive thought to my wife, and give her a symbolic thought of happiness and encouragement. Sharing allows a sense of relief that as I share with other, I can expect others to be as caring and giving as myself. There isn’t any frustration; there is a lot of stable thoughts through each color and body region and a powerful and even accomplishing purpose in each awareness.

There is a sense of relaxation as soon as I allow myself to just listen and escape my external boundaries. I agree with this, because I know I need a relaxation time every now and then , as I feel everyone does, but are they willing to accept and educate themselves about these techniques? As I get older, I also have more appreciation for these techniques because life doesn’t get any easier, but more complex, continual learning and forever changing and adapting to our surroundings and relationships.

 Church is something I think of after one of these sessions, that I may have taken for granted for such a long time. I know that a connection with these thoughts are important and it is hard to realize this when it is so distant. I thank the class session for helping remind me of this.

The question I get is, am I just a form of existence or am I actually living life to its full potential. The day in and day out experiences can give someone a really redundant situation, where you think and feel and predict and know how the outcome may be. This is a bad thought, and to steer away from that, sometimes it takes a relaxation exercise or a guidance recording to help redirect a tired and troubled mind into a rejuvenated and healthy perspective.

Reflective Statement

As I was dosing off for bed the other night, I decided it would be a good idea to listen to the blog from my iphone. Well, not the blog itself, because it really doesnt make any noise, but the clip included in the blog tab in the course website, lol. So, I relaxed and relaxed some more and then after listening to the instructions I could not believe that this was actually working. As soon as I thought of my limbs and hands I felt the warmth, I felt the blood movement, and I felt it leaving myn core. It was amazing and all during the session I was more and more relaxed and felt as if I may have reached REM, but eventually I knew I could not even move my hands, my body told me to leave my arms there, because my muscles were content with the blood level. I have been relaxed like this before once when I woke up, and I was so content I felt as if I was paralized, but I was merely more comfortable laying there rather than moving. So, reflecting back from this exercise, I am eager to try some more, and possibly use this again and even share it with family. Did is work for anyone else?

Welcome

Welcome,

As you all might not know, I am currently active duty with the Navy and live in California. I have had a myspace, and currently love social networks like facebook, google+ and even twitter, but I have never owned a blog website. I plan on using this tool for fun and also possibly to network and channel new ideas with friends, families and even new people who can contribute to the posts. Well, thankyou for entering the informal realm of Life Is Good! I hope this is a neat experience for you and that you can share all of your wonderful ideas and perspectives as I know I will.

Thanks again, chow!