This was the exercise I needed so badly today! My mind has been racing with all the things I need to get done before I move to Portland this weekend, so it was nice to quiet the mind and bring it back to its peaceful center with this exercise. I enjoyed this exercise much more than the loving kindness exercise for a few reasons. First, I was feeling much better, so it was easier to focus on the mind instead of only on the physical body. Second, I am very familiar with this exercise since I've been practicing this technique for the last few years. And lastly, this exercise was easier because it was all about my own energy and mind and not working with the energies of other people. Let me explain a bit since that makes me sound very selfish. For the last few years since my divorce, I have done nothing but give everything I am to everyone else including family, friends, and perfect strangers. After three years of that, I hit my breaking point and had a complete emotional and physical breakdown that left me wasted, weak, and exhausted. My whole life I've been a giver instead of a receiver, so I've been working on shifting that energy to more of a balance. Life is more fulfilling when you give, but you have to receive in order to keep your cup filled as well. Today was not a day where I slipped into the unity consciousness, but I have many times in the past. However, I did reach the calm abiding consciousness where my mind was still and peaceful. There was a brief time towards the end where I focused on some loving kindness energy towards myself. I find that it's also very important to thank yourself for all the wonderful things you do, so I did some of that as well.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Unit 4 Loving Kindness
This was a very good exercise, but I had to stop it a little more than half way in. Although I am physically feeling better, my body quickly and efficiently told me that this exercise was too much at the moment. I took in the dark cloud from a friend and it constricted my chest and threw me into a coughing fit until I released the rest of the cloud, with love and light, back to the person. After that, I took time to breathe and re-center myself while still listening to the exercise, however, once I was instructed to take in stranger's clouds, I knew it was too much and I stopped the recording.
I have done and continue to do loving kindness work both on myself and those I come into contact with every day. Part of my work has taught me to honor my own sensitivities and my body. My body lets me know if it's able to take a task on or not. In this case, it wasn't healed enough to expand much beyond itself.
The beginning of this exercise reminded me a lot of Eckhart Tolle's work. If any of you have read his books, hopefully you found them as wonderful as I did. In the past, I have had real issues with staying in the present moment and aware. I used to live most of my life disconnected because I was living in the illusion of the future or the pain of the past. There was a lot of life that I missed. This exercise reminded me again that I need to stay connected to my body and my present awareness.
This exercise was a mental workout. I think mental workouts consist of expanding your mental capacity, just like an aerobic exercise expands your oxygen capacity. Guided imagery is one that I like quite well, but I also do meditation to give my mind that needed stillness and quiet time. Many times during meditation, I expand my consciousness as far as I can to see what I can sense. It is quite spectacular at times.
I have done and continue to do loving kindness work both on myself and those I come into contact with every day. Part of my work has taught me to honor my own sensitivities and my body. My body lets me know if it's able to take a task on or not. In this case, it wasn't healed enough to expand much beyond itself.
The beginning of this exercise reminded me a lot of Eckhart Tolle's work. If any of you have read his books, hopefully you found them as wonderful as I did. In the past, I have had real issues with staying in the present moment and aware. I used to live most of my life disconnected because I was living in the illusion of the future or the pain of the past. There was a lot of life that I missed. This exercise reminded me again that I need to stay connected to my body and my present awareness.
This exercise was a mental workout. I think mental workouts consist of expanding your mental capacity, just like an aerobic exercise expands your oxygen capacity. Guided imagery is one that I like quite well, but I also do meditation to give my mind that needed stillness and quiet time. Many times during meditation, I expand my consciousness as far as I can to see what I can sense. It is quite spectacular at times.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Overall Wellness - Unit 3
At this very moment, I am fighting a bad case of the flu which is affecting all areas of my well being. It really is true that one area, like biological, being out of balance will throw all other quadrants out of balance. I'm having a really hard time focusing on anything so let's see if I can post anything sensible. :)
Physical well being - right now is probably a 3. I've been sicker, but not much and definitely not often. Normally I would rate myself about a 5-6. There are personal goals that I have in place for bringing this area back up to the 8-9 that it was a year ago.
Spiritual well being - I have been working hard over the last several months to help bring myself into balance in this area. I have always been a spiritual person, but as I get busy my spirituality generally got pushed to the back seat. I would rate myself about a 6-7 normally in this area and am working on increasing that number.
Psychological well being - I have also been working very hard in this area over the last few years. It has been a long, hard road, but I have come a long way. I would rate myself a 8-9 in this category on most days. I try to stay present and focused on positive intentions.
My goals to increase my harmony in all areas of my personal wellness are to start dancing again, find a group of like-minded individuals to spend time with, and move to a more forward-thinking community. Dancing is such an important factor in my life that I struggle in all areas when I'm not doing it, so getting back into it now that my body has had some time to heal is a definite must. Moving and surrounding myself with like-minded individuals is also important for my personal growth and development. Being in a community which is depressed and negative doesn't do me any good. I am already in the process of moving to Portland, where I think I'll be able to explore many facets of my own life and the world around me. Not to mention that a change of scenery always does the body good. :)
In response to the relaxation exercise, this time I was very frustrated because I couldn't breathe and was coughing which completely ruined the relaxation. Bummer. I'll try it again later when I feel better.
Physical well being - right now is probably a 3. I've been sicker, but not much and definitely not often. Normally I would rate myself about a 5-6. There are personal goals that I have in place for bringing this area back up to the 8-9 that it was a year ago.
Spiritual well being - I have been working hard over the last several months to help bring myself into balance in this area. I have always been a spiritual person, but as I get busy my spirituality generally got pushed to the back seat. I would rate myself about a 6-7 normally in this area and am working on increasing that number.
Psychological well being - I have also been working very hard in this area over the last few years. It has been a long, hard road, but I have come a long way. I would rate myself a 8-9 in this category on most days. I try to stay present and focused on positive intentions.
My goals to increase my harmony in all areas of my personal wellness are to start dancing again, find a group of like-minded individuals to spend time with, and move to a more forward-thinking community. Dancing is such an important factor in my life that I struggle in all areas when I'm not doing it, so getting back into it now that my body has had some time to heal is a definite must. Moving and surrounding myself with like-minded individuals is also important for my personal growth and development. Being in a community which is depressed and negative doesn't do me any good. I am already in the process of moving to Portland, where I think I'll be able to explore many facets of my own life and the world around me. Not to mention that a change of scenery always does the body good. :)
In response to the relaxation exercise, this time I was very frustrated because I couldn't breathe and was coughing which completely ruined the relaxation. Bummer. I'll try it again later when I feel better.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Journey On Response and Welcome!
Hello, classmates and fellow bloggers! Hooray for our first blog posts! Now we have another skill to add to our resumes! :)
This class, Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing, has been enlightening so far. I have already found myself wandering down the paths of my own psychological and spiritual wellness and I'm excited to see what changes occur throughout this course. In addition to this blog post, I've also been journaling about my own wellness and the events that may be affecting it. I felt as though a separate, personal journal would be better than opening all the closet doors of my mind to my classmates. I need my personal space even in a world full of so much social media.
Since it seems relevant to the relaxation exercise we were to do, I will mention that today has been a challenge because I have been in a high level of pain due to acute muscle spasms in my upper back. This has in turn given me quite the headache as well. Before you say it, yes, I've been paying attention to my body and have been doing some self care this afternoon and will do some more tonight including a hot bath with epsom salts and stretching. The Journey On exercise was part of my self care today. I used the techniques in the exercise to release tension and pain from my neck, shoulder, back, and head. This was the second relaxation exercise I have done today, and it did have some noticeable effects. I did feel the warm, tingling sensation in the muscles I was focusing on. Because of my experience in massage therapy, I went deeper into the body and focused on individual muscles and single muscle fibers at times. When I was complete, they did feel more relaxed and seemed to have less pain, so I would say it was a success! Hopefully all of you had pleasant experiences as well.
This class, Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing, has been enlightening so far. I have already found myself wandering down the paths of my own psychological and spiritual wellness and I'm excited to see what changes occur throughout this course. In addition to this blog post, I've also been journaling about my own wellness and the events that may be affecting it. I felt as though a separate, personal journal would be better than opening all the closet doors of my mind to my classmates. I need my personal space even in a world full of so much social media.
Since it seems relevant to the relaxation exercise we were to do, I will mention that today has been a challenge because I have been in a high level of pain due to acute muscle spasms in my upper back. This has in turn given me quite the headache as well. Before you say it, yes, I've been paying attention to my body and have been doing some self care this afternoon and will do some more tonight including a hot bath with epsom salts and stretching. The Journey On exercise was part of my self care today. I used the techniques in the exercise to release tension and pain from my neck, shoulder, back, and head. This was the second relaxation exercise I have done today, and it did have some noticeable effects. I did feel the warm, tingling sensation in the muscles I was focusing on. Because of my experience in massage therapy, I went deeper into the body and focused on individual muscles and single muscle fibers at times. When I was complete, they did feel more relaxed and seemed to have less pain, so I would say it was a success! Hopefully all of you had pleasant experiences as well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)