Unit 8

For me the best exercise where the first and the last.  I really enjoyed the one that we would feel the heaviness and the blood rush to certain areas in our body.  This particular one will help me a lot since I have sore muscles often from working out.  It so happened the day I first did this one I was really sore and it helped me recover quicker.  So to do that every evening would help me recover from all my hard workouts.

This last visualization was a great one too.  I really did feel a lift in my spirit when I was focusing on my happy time.  Which I chose to be my husband and I dancing.  We always have so much fun when we dance.  After the visualization I had a little extra skip in my step, I liked it.  This one will help to do it often so that I can keep a positive attitude when things get difficult.  You can accomplish more when your thinking is positive.

Unit 7

Well the meeting Aesclepius was a bust.  It was relaxing but I must be too much of a skeptic or not good at visualization.  I chose the person to be Jesus Christ but when I started to visualize myself to be Him my mind just said "this is not the way you do it."  The reason that alot of this is hard for me is because I know where exactly my strength, peace, love, joy and hope comes from and that is Jesus.  It is inside me because the Holy Spirit lives in me.  I become more like Him when I learn more of who He, live the way He wants me to live and develop a deeper relationship with him.  Not by imagining myself becoming Him.  I have to say that it lost me once they named the healer and the healing god Aesclepius.  There is only one true healing God and it's not Aesclepius.

"One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" means that you can teach something that you don't know yourself.  I can relate to this in my relationship with God and any ministry I am involved in.  I cannot guide someone through a struggle using knowledge of God that I don't have myself.  I believe that is why God allows us to go through things so that we can help the next person through.  This is extremely important in the profession I am going into.  As a personal trainer I will know first hand the struggles of getting healthy.  Most of the time they are not physical struggles but mental and spiritual struggles that keep us from it.  I have been through those too.  Helping someone know who they are and what they are capable of is important for success.

Unit 6

The Universal Loving-Kindness exercise was different.  I would have to say I didn't really get anything from it.  It was relaxing because at first I was focusing on my breathing but the whole reciting things doesn't really work for me.  

The Integral Assessment was eye opening.  I think that psychospiritual is the area in which need growth and development for me.  I was focusing on my I am lazy or will procrastinate everything. This will cause me stress because when I have to do things last minute, on a deadline I am stressed out and will find myself with neck and shoulder pain or forget to eat and then get headaches.  It's a vicious cycle.  I realized that I am lazy not because I have a lack of drive but it's because of fear of failure.  I want to be perfect at everything I do (which I know there is no such thing).  If I don't think I have enough time or the ability to do it perfectly I just won't do it.  Or I will put it off until I have to.  I kick myself in the but every week and wish that I was more organized but I am not.  I used to be major competitive and that would keep me driven but I know that's not very good for you either.  

I think the exercises I am going to implement to help me is one reading my bible every day.  My strength comes from God, not me.  When I keep my focus on Him I can accomplish anything.  I am also going to do the breathing exercises like the subtle mind one, I like that one.  I NEED to train my mind to be quiet.  I think since I am constantly thinking about all the things I need to do, I overwhelm myself and give up before I start.  I also want to try running without my Ipod and just focus on my breathe and prayer while I run.  I used to do this when I went for walks and had wonderful conversations with God.  Don't know why I stopped.   

Unit 5

The subtle mind exercise was a lot more enjoyable than the loving kindness.  I found the loving kindness one to be kind of weird but this one was relaxing.  It was very difficult for me to keep my mind on what I wanted it to.  I would often start thinking about the 50 million things I could be doing instead of just sitting and listening to my breathing. lol  I also had to fight off thought off...."This is boring" and refocus.  My noisy kids and the phone ringing didn't help either.  I never realized when you are trying to focus that everything itches! lol! I was trying to figure out a time when my house would be quiet and that only time would be when my kids are asleep.  They get up before I do so it can't be in the morning and if I try to do this in the evening I will fall asleep.  I enjoyed the exercise though.  I think I only flirted with the witnessing mind and could get to the rest.

Unit 4

The Loving Kindness exercise was different.  First I was a little freaked out by the voice of the lady.  It sounded mechanical and a little scary.  Once I got past that then I could focus.  It's hard for me to find a time to have peace and quiet in my house.  It's also hard for me to turn off my brain to focus on things like this.  I found it difficult to do the breathing in suffering and breathing out health.  It made me just want to pray for these people I am thinking about.  Since prayer is usually were my focus is.  I did feel more relaxed at the end of the session.  I will continue to try it more and more and see if I get better at it.

A mental workout is doing just what I did.  Making you mind focus on what you want it to not just dealing with the random thoughts that always come in.  Research shows that those that tame their mind or strengthen it with mental workouts use more of their brains.  Doing these exercises on a regular basis would help me to focus better.  The first few times it's always difficult to do new things but just like anything, the more you practice the better you get.