Meeting Aesclepius

Since the beginning of this class I have been trying to incorporate some meditating on my own and using the exercises we have in doc sharing for class. I am still very new to this and having a hard time connecting to my inner self, like these exercises we have for this class. I think some more time practicing will help me really connect with these exercises. This practices can benefit my health and wellness by helping me relieve stress, relax from the day/week, connect with my inner self and improve my psychospiritual side. The saying one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself means that someone like me that is new to meditation cannot coach someone on it because I don't know everything about it, know what they will need to expect, etc. A health professional needs to be current on all the health and wellness practices to coach their clients on. They need to be a product of their product, but in their line of work areas.

Loving Kindness/Integral Assesment

I didn't really like or find any benefit from the universal loving kindness exercise. Repeating four lines for ten minutes really didn't do much for me at all; I found it boring and not helpful but maybe it's because I am still new to connecting to my inner self.

The integral assessment was interesting; I chose psychospiritual as my aspect of my life that is lacking. I chose this because for one it's one of the most underdeveloped areas that we have read about in our book and similar to that I have not explored that side of myself too much and am just starting to. I have meditated a few times; still working on it, I finally went to my first yoga class too. It was actually hot yoga; I enjoyed it and would like to keep both those up.

The Subtle Mind practice

I enjoyed the subtle mind practice I think a little more than the loving kindness practice because we had more time with the soothing sounds without someone talking. I like the sounds of both the exercises, the ten deep breaths were a bit much but it was my first time doing ten deep breaths so I will practice this a few times this week to improve. I am still having a hard to incorporating the peoples voices and to do what they say while how relaxed I get with the nice sounds. Spiritual, mental, and physical wellness I think all runs together because to reach "wellness" overall you would need to have a good amount of each of these. If only two are good and one is lacking I think it can have an affect. For myself, my spiritual wellness is the lacking one and I will improve on this by practicing with these practices we are doing.

Loving Kindness Practice

I thought the loving kindness practice was interesting. I really liked the ocean sounds and the Indian whistles. When I was younger I have bought C.D's with ocean sounds, waterfalls, ran, thunderstorms, etc. and I would listen to them at night or whenever I would like to relax. I am still working on the meditation so the talking of it was a little difficult for me, but I will get there. I would recommend this to others because it is relaxing and beneficial to anyone that will try this. The concept of a mental workout is to do something that works the mind; like a workout in the gym would train muscles. I workout at least 3 days a week in the gym lifting weights and I could incorporate mental workouts with my own by focusing on my mind with my workouts. To train the mind I will focus on my breathing, visualize my workout before I do them with perfect form too.

Wellness Reflection

On a scale to one to ten I would rate my physical well being at eight, spiritual well being at 6, and psychological well being at 8. I rated my physical well being at eight out of ten because I am only 24 and am very active in sports and working out. I rated my spiritual well being at a 6; spiritual well being is about finding meaning and our purpose in this life and our place in the greater universe. From this definition I would say I have some improvement in finding my place in the greater universe. I feel like I am starting to find out my meaning in life with this career path switch; started going to a traditional college for nursing just cause they made good money but health and wellness is what I am passionate about. I rated my psychological well being a 8 because I wold say I am pretty comfortable with who I am, where I am in life, being happy for what I have, etc.

A goal for myself with my physical well being is to train for the half marathon I have been wanting to do for some time now. A goal for my spiritual well being is to reflect on my purpose in life and look at the bigger picture. My goal for my psychological well being is to try not to stress as much as I do now. We all have busy schedules and even though I don't have a wife and kids doesn't mean I don't. Between full time work as a service plumber never knowing what time my day will end, full time school- we all know how much time consuming all the homework can be, working out- which is very important to me, then just trying to enjoy life like everyone else.

Some activities I can do to work towards my goals can be: running, training, and book a date for the half marathon I want to do, take time for myself alone in the quiet to reflect on my life, meditate, etc. and work on time management to stress less.

The relaxation exercise was interesting; I have never done something like that before. It was beneficial in the sense of relaxation. A sort of frustrating feeling was not getting what he was talking about feeling grounded, centered, loved, etc. I have never meditated before either so maybe that is similar to it but I don't know.