Meditation and the Psychospiritual Aspect

The meditation exercise was a little surprising.  I started in a bad mood and overwhelmed with the day.  When I completed the exercise, I was no longer angry or stressed out.  It reminded me that stress is a choice and I can change it.  I did at the end. 

Psychospiritual is the aspect of my life that I have chosen to be my first growth and development.  I have a hard time dealing with stress and my reactions to it in the world are not who I want to be.  I am emotional, stressed and sometimes angry.  I hate that I have these tendencies and what to change them.  This takes work on myself learning to control my stress level and reactions to situation that I dislike.  I am getting better, but have a long way to progress to be whom I really am.  Meditation is a practice that I will continue to get a grasp on.  I think this will help me a lot once I learn the skill.  I might even try to mix it with yoga to help still my forever-moving mind.  I also need to work on finding the source of my anger and try and change it. 

The Subtle Mind Exercise

The subtle mind exercise was a challenge for me much like the love and kindness exercise.  Finding the still mind is not an easy task, much less exploring it.  Every time I seem get a grip on my racing thoughts and ignore the outside environment, I lose my focus because the outside environment breaks my concentration.  I have to be louder than the physical environment. Sometimes I have a hard time comprehending reading materials if there is a lot going on around me. I have to read aloud to really read and comprehend something new.  I have yet to accomplish really getting a grip on the still mind and that proves to be a little frustrating. Mental and physical wellness are closely connected and play off each other.  The spiritual wellness follows and is connected to mental and physical wellness just the same.  Each come together to create a web of interconnectedness leading to human flourishing. I think that spiritual wellness is the development of the mental and physical being.  The spirit of a person is based off the individual person and their experiences with mental and physical wellness, developing the spirit of a person.

Love and Kindness Practice

Upon completion of reading chapter 6, review the section ‘Getting Started’ (p.66). Begin practice 1: Listen to the Introduction mp3 and Loving Kindness mp3 (both located in Doc Sharing). Practice the Loving Kindness exercise this week. In your journal (blog), record your reaction to the exercise.

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

I found that the experience was a little difficult.  To begin with, I kept getting interrupted and started off with a bad day today.  Because of this I believe why it was difficult for me.  I did not feel anything different and wound up falling asleep before the recording was over. 

2.              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?  

The concept of mental workout I think is much like a physical.  The first time you work out, it is a little choppy and you are not quite sure what to do.  Sometimes it may even seem that you are trying too hard and tend to over work it or strain.  Continuing with the practice of the mental work out, it should seem to become much easier to begin and the session will start to smooth themselves out.  Continuing with the practice will prove to be the most difficult obstacle.