An Exercise in Loving-Kindness and Mental Workouts

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

I felt that I couldn't concentrate on the exercise this week. Maybe that is because as we explored last week my spiritual portion of the mind-body-spirit connection is the weakest. So far I have realized that a male voice seems to be more relaxing that a female voice to me. The sound of waves crashing I found more relaxing than music but I also found it slightly distracting this week. It could just be my personal stress level as well as I have had a lot less ability to practice “silence and stillness” that we've been learning about than I have in previous weeks. I tried the exercise multiple times throughout the week, at different times of the day, hoping that I would be less distracting and none of them seemed to work.

Regardless of the fact that it did not work for me and I received no benefit from it, I would still recommend the exercise to others as they may have a better connection with a female voice, or the sounds of the waves. Others may also have more time to relax their minds and practice “silence and stillness” than I have been able to do.

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?

What is a mental workout? In the same way exercise is a physical workout that helps strengthen your body a mental workout helps you strengthen your mind. Mental workouts have been proven to be able to increase clarity and focus and even increase a higher thought process which has been scientifically measured by the use of gamma waves. Not only can it have short-term benefits, thanks to a study by Antoine Lutz it has been shown that the benefits can be long-term as well. By applying the practices we are learning then we can do short daily workouts to help boost our own thought processes and mental health and wellness.

I apologize for coming in so late to my blog post this week, I am currently fighting the stomach flu and have been so sick that my entire body is sore. I hope to get an earlier start this upcoming week.

The Crime of the Century

The title of this exercise is definitely misleading! I was not expecting an exercise that would help relax and revitalize me.

I listened to it this morning before everyone else was awake and unlike the Journey On experience the music which I thought was initially too loud eventually was no longer the focus on my mind. I have done guided meditation successfully and non-successfully tried as well and the speakers idea to be in the moment – letting thoughts come and go without focusing on them helped me connect much better than the last exercise.

I am a visual person and I found the speakers use of color to be exceptionally relaxing and while I couldn’t focus 100% on what he was guiding us through I still felt relaxed and energized by the end. I think I will try this exercise when I haven’t just spent 9 hours working and can relax my mind, hopefully not as many thoughts will come and go and I will be able to focus more clearly on the colors of the rainbow.

Overall it was an enjoyable and pleasant experience and I plan to use it now and in the future if I need a guided meditation.

Body – Spirit – Mind

As we learn that our health and wellness doesn't just have physical elements it’s a good time to reflect on where we struggle and the areas we need to focus in order to find our own personal balance which will help lead us to a better overall wellness. What better way to do this than to do a self reflection and a grading scale?

So, we are to use a scale of 1 to 10 to reflect on three aspects of our health – physical, spiritual and psychological. Where do I rate myself?

Physically – I rate myself a six. I am slightly above the middle or average considering the average American is obese to morbidly obese with instances of diabetes, heart disease and hypertension (high blood pressure). I do not have any major health issues; I usually get sick about once a year when the weather changes and the kids typically bring it home to me. This year they brought home bronchitis and the flu and I was able to fight off the flu, but did end up with bronchitis; albeit a MUCH lesser degree than the other four in my household. I am not higher on the spectrum physically because I am currently obese even if I am taking steps to correct that, I am not “there” yet to physical fitness.

Spiritually – I rate myself a four. I am just below the average American in belief and faith. Since I was raised within a very restrictive cult/religion when I left home at 16 it has been hard for me to once again find faith in anything of a higher power. I have my own moral code, but beliefs are a lot harder to consider. I stay away from spirituality because it is very hard for me to find a balance in this aspect between still recovering from brainwashing and not being 100% where I find truth. I am not completely null and void spiritually because I do believe there is something larger than myself – I am not sure how to explain it and in my journey of the last 20 years, most religions have left a sour taste in my mouth. I am scientifically minded, so blind faith isn’t something I am currently capable of, but I am okay with that. Only time will tell where my spiritually truly lies.

Psychologically – I rate myself an eight. I would say that I am above average to my peers. I currently am an adult survivor of abuse, survived abuse in my teens and again in my twenties. I have been through a lot of things in life that many people could not handle and some of my classmates in the same situation are no longer with me because of taking their own lives. In addition to suffering from major depressive disorder, PTSD & panic attacks with the least amount of medication I can take (nothing for depression – and only sometimes for panic attacks) I am able to keep a household of six people (three of which are adults) almost entirely by myself while working two part-time jobs, one full-time job (on third shift), going to school full-time and caring for a three and a five year old without entirely losing my mind. This doesn’t mean I don’t have “down” days, or that I am never depressed or sad. It doesn’t mean I don’t have days where I feel like I’ve hit the wall and have no where to turn for help. It just means that despite my past, having two children I do not have with me, one miscarriage and all the dark shadows that occasionally haunt me in nightmares, I am a survivor not a victim. I choose to look forward instead of backwards and I choose to think there is still some good in the world when I’ve seen the dark and ugly side first hand more than once. I think the fact that I am not a complete cynic makes me fairly strong mentally, despite my occasional “bad” days.

Goals

Now that I have defined my strengths and weaknesses and the areas that I need to focus my attention and redirect my energy to strengthen, how do I do that? I create goals, small attainable goals to lead me to the place I desire to be in all three aspects of my life that will affect my well-being. (We won’t touch on financially here since that’s a tangible and another topic entirely.)

Physically – This goal is simple and complex at the same time. I plan to continue making the changes I started January 1^st to make this year my most successful at staying the course. I will continue to work out 6 days a week using either P90X as I am now or the exercise plan that my friend and author Abby created in order to work on both cardio and strength training. I plan to not only work on my personal fitness level, but also my weight and strength. Once I have attained a healthy weight level I will continue to work out, but I will change the routine and intensity I work out at to either maintain, or achieve a different goal (such as muscle definition). I plan to read my newest book by Abby Campbell and change my nutrition as well. The last time I followed her plan I saw a weight loss of 18 pounds in 4 weeks without the addition of exercise.

Spiritually – I plan to continue my exploration of religion and belief until I find what I feel “fits” with my personal moral code and belief system. Until then I will continue to use what I have such as meditation to take much needed “time outs” for reflection.

Psychologically – I will learn to put myself first sometimes, and I will seriously reconsider having a full time and two part time jobs right now with school and two small children. In addition to spiritually, the personal “time outs” will help me psychologically. I will make better use of the hours that I have when I am awake and work on scheduling so that my time-management is better than it has been in the past. When I use my school book to schedule what days I do what homework and what activities I have each day I feel a whole lot less “frazzled.” I will continue to work on living the Serenity Prayer daily, changing what I can, and giving up what I cannot and attempting to determine which is which in life. I will continue to work on meditation and living in the moment which is dual purpose – spiritual and psychological as well.

Guided Relaxation with Journey On

I decided that my most quiet time of the day happens to be at night, when I am working so I listened to the Journey On relaxation recording found at http://www.kushs.net/kaplan/HW420/JourneyOn.mp3 during the first part of my work night. I telecommute so I was able to get into relaxing clothing and sit in a relaxing position to listen to the guided relaxation.

I found the initial instrument that was playing in the recording to be the opposite of relaxing, it actually seemed to irritate me and it felt “sharp” when listening to it, which did not assist in relaxing me. I found the speakers’ voice to be low, but not monotone or boring. The music that was later along during the process was much “warmer” feeling and much more relaxing than the initial music.

I noticed throughout the entire recording the music changed and the most relaxing portion was in the middle when we were supposed to have heavy and warm limbs. The beginning music and the ending music were not as relaxing, which I am sure is important as they are trying to invigorate you at the end of the recording.

I attempted to follow along with the “autogenic technique” in which I should be able to make any part of my body be comfortable by suggesting it be relaxed. I tried to relax, and follow along. I even closed my eyes during the process to shut out additional environmental distractions. I found that instead of warming my arms and hands that my fingers and toes did the opposite, they became cold. I was not able to relax my arms and hands enough that I was not unable to lift them. Unfortunately my arms also did not feel heavy. I was able to relax my breathing, but not to relax my hands and arms. It did not give me an overall feeling of calm or relaxation.

I have been able to do guided meditation previously where I relaxed each area of my body during classes and while playing Leela on the xbox 360. I’m not sure if the difference was the music or the speaker or the differences in method being used. 

My preferred and most successful form of meditation continues to be “normal” in which I am not guided through the relaxation process by a speaker but often use music that has no lyrics to relax. I used to attempt to relax with no music, but I find that my mind is more “busy” unless I use music or a sound to “drown out” my thoughts. 

Welcome to my World!

Good Morning,

Thank you for stopping by. This isn't my first blog, but it is my first blog for a college course. It is my understanding that over the course of the remaining nine weeks in this term we will explore health and wellness and healing using a mixture of both Eastern and Western philosophy and methods.

While I have kept blogs in the past, they have mostly been located on another host site (Wordpress) and so I am new to the Blogger universe. In addition, I tend not to post very often on my regular blogs, other than the pages I keep on facebook.

As an exceptionally busy mother of two small children at home (3 & 5) I end up finding very little time to sit down and journal anymore. I go to Kaplan University full time, work full time on third shift, have my children during the day with the exception of my son being at school and I do two part-time direct sales/marketing jobs on the side as well as being involved in my local community. People ask me how I do it. My response is that I have no choice. I am in school to change careers and to make a better future for my children. Often I don't get more than 4-6 hours of sleep and more than often I get less.

I look forward to taking this journey with my professor and classmates and hope we can all have fun and learn during this term!

Sandy Lacey