Review the exercises and practice sessions you have completed in this course. (Loving Kindness, Subtle mind, Visualization, meditation etc.) Choose two practices that you have determined to be most beneficial. How can you implement these practices in your personal life to foster “mental fitness”? Provide specific examples.

Out of all the exercises and meditations we have done through-out this class; my favorites have to be the Loving Kindness and Subtle Mind. Those two types of meditation have really helped me learn to focus my thoughts, and to put the knowledge I learn about myself to good use. I have learned how to calm my mind, more than I ever expected to be able too. I have ADD so I am a constant ever moving train of thoughts, and meditation has really helped calm that down and I am so thankful, because I hate to take medications for it.

You can really achieve mental fitness through meditation by learning to calm yourself when situations get tough, or when you are down on yourself. I have learned that when I get upset I start to really put myself down, but with meditation I take a few minutes out and just focus my mind, and I can calm myself down and really turn my attitude around. It has also helped with headache. I use to get stress headaches very badly, but recently I realized I have no had as many and I think meditation is the reason!

Complete the Meeting Aesclepius mp3 (located in the Doc Sharing area). Describe your meditative practices for the week and discuss the experience. Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness. How can you continue to apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness?

For this week’s meditation I listened to the Meeting Aesclepius, it was an interesting yet difficult thing to focus my mind on. The person I picked to be my wise teacher was my father. He passed away about a year ago and he was such a caring and compassionate person, so wise and friendly. This mediation really helped me however, foucs on myself and really helped me center myself. However, I kept finding myself going back to other meditations like the loving-kindness meditation.  These meditations are getting easier to focus on each week and its becoming something I look forward to participating in.

Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" (p.477). How does this apply to the health and wellness professional? Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not? How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?

I think the phrase “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself “is a very true statement. I think as humans we can learn to empathizes but if we have never ourselves been in a position to understand the circumstances, then we cannot really lead. This topic really applies to health and wellness because, when working with clients they are going to be in situations that you may never has been in.  The best thing you can do is to listen and give them steps to help themselves worth through issues that they are having. Meditation can help them pull their thoughts together and help make them realize what they need to do.

Integral Assessment & Loving Kindness Meditation.

Loving Kindness meditation was interesting, I found myself trying to repeat those phrases over an over, and I ended up mixing up the phrases and spent most of the ten minutes looking back at the book and making sure I said the right phrases! Haha!  Now when it came to Integral assessment I really enjoyed doing. It was peaceful, and it helped me think about things in my life that I wanted to focus on, and what I want to change and how I want to grow in the future.

 It made me re-evaluate my goals now and help me think about new ones for the future.  I have decided to focus on the interpersonal. I want to learn more about myself, and learn about my interactions with others.  There are activates that I can participate in to help with my growth and development could be something as simple as spending time and listening to a friend, exchanging ideas and creating a deeper relationship. 

Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.

I had a very difficult time, just focusing on my breathe alone, I would be doing very well for a few moments and then my mind would wonder to something that I needed to be working on or a task that needed to be completed or even some random thought, or idea that I had no idea where it came from.

The exercise really showed me that I have too many things going on in my life and I might need to try and work on a balance between work, school, and family.  It made me realize that the balance I thought was working is actually not, because if I cannot get myself too focused for longer than 30 seconds without worrying about something, there needs to be a change made.

Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.

All of these concepts are intertwined into my life , in ways I never really thought about before. From this class I have learned that you really need to be able to find a balance with all these concepts to really have a truly happy life. My physical and mental wellness is certainly tied together because when I miss working out I kick myself mentally and talk down to myself, where I should try the opposite and tell myself I will do better next time.  Spiritually, it’s difficult I believe in a lot however, I have a hard time incorporating that into the rest of my life anymore. I have been so angry and that effected my spiritual wellness without a doubt, and with that it has affected my mental wellness because I let myself be angry with a situation I can’t control. It really amazes me how closely related everything really is!

Loving-Kindness exercise experiences!

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

When practicing the Loving-Kindness, at first I felt a little silly. I like I said before had doing things that are like a relaxing technique. However, this was different. It really made me feel happy when I was done with it. The feeling of silliness was gone and I felt good after. It’s an interesting idea, and I would keep doing it to see where it takes me. I would recommend this to others because if it made me feel good then I can imagine it can make others feel the same ways.

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?

A mental work out is something that strengthens your mind, it’s a way to not only open your mind more, to help keep you sharp and well in tuned with your body. Research states that there are many benefits to a mental workout, it stimulates parts of the brain and it can help with memory retention, thought processes, and understanding. You can implement a mental work out that helps your psychological health by doing brain workouts, games to stimulate and help create new neuron passage ways.