Reviewing Meditation Practices

After practiceing all of the exercises for meditation, even the ones I did not like as much I found that my two favorite were the Loving Kindness practice and the visualization meditation.  Loving kindeness took me a little while to settle into but once I did I began to understand that I could change my perception of the dynamic surroundings and relationshiops in my daily life. I could understand how to cope without anger and stress.The loving kindness exercise will allow me to learn patience not just with close relationships and interactions I have with others but my self as well. I can learn how to be patient with the expectations I have for myself. At times I can be very hard on myself and this often increases stress and anxiety.  The visualization meditation practice was my favorite and it brought me incredible peace and calmness. My mind did not wonder as much as it did during the other practices and I was extremely focused. Even for hours after the exercise I remained mellow and my mind still. i think that  visualization meditation will become a daily practice and be a huge part of my journey to integral health. This exercise will help me to maintain a daly sense of true happiness. It will remind me of the things in my life that make my soul happy and to forget about the things that have no true substance in my life.

My Psychological & Spiritual Wellness Thus Far

Since this class mindfullness and meditation has helped me find a part of myself that I  never knew or understood before. The health of my mind. I have been able to understand what stressors in my life make me feel overwhelmed and anxious. Instead of bundling everything up into one thing and saying to myself "oh its just stress" as a generalization. I have now been able to carefully examine each stressor as an individual. I can now be aware of what it is that makes me feel unhappy and anxious. I can then take that knowledge and focus on removing these thoughts as individual units and carefully replacing each one with positivity and happiness. I no longer feel the need to brush off everything as stress. I can actually take a closer look at my spiritual and psychological well being and condition my mind to block out negative and bring in positive. This is a great way for me to examine other things in my life and helps me to do the same in my physical wellbeing and health.


The saying"One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" means that you must be aware of your own integral health journey before you can beging to help other on theirs. I think that this can apply directly to the health and wellness field as a professional because it is very important that we understand the road and journey that our patients will be traveling on their journey. I feel as though I do have a veyr important obligation to maintain and continue developing my health psychologically, physically, and spiritually. This is so that we may teach other about the hardships and obstacles that they may come across on their journeys. We can be a mentor to them and prepare them for what they may experience. We can relate to them much easier and have a better doctor patient relationship.

Thoughts on Unit 5

 

Loving Kindness VS Subtle Mind

 

Both exercises emphasize the importance of relaxation and the clearing of your mind. The Loving Kindness exercise seemed to be a bit more technical and the instructions were somewhat complicated and distracting. I had a difficult time on this one. I was trying so hard to concentrate on the directions that when I didn't understand them I became frustrated and anxious. The second exercise, Subtle Mind was very much different in that its instructions seemed to be much easier to understand and follow. Unlike the Loving Kindness exercise where you explore your many levels of consciousness, the Subtle Mind exercise focused primarily on your breathing and a focal point during the relaxation. This kept much of the distraction out of my head and helped me focus much faster and longer a well.

 

The Importance of the Spiritual Wellness Connection

 

The connection of spiritual wellness between mental and physical wellness is so much greater than most of us realize. For me personally it connects my heart and soul to my mind and body. Without these connections our life would possibly be without faith or hope, without love or grace or compassion. These are just a few things that I would be left without if I had no spiritual wellness.  It is different for all of you I'm sure. But there is undoubtlably an importance of spirituality in all of our lives no matter what belief you have.