Unit 4 Mental Workout

Hello Everyone,

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 felt more relaxed and enjoyed the sound of the ocean waves that made the session better than the last meditation.  The waves also focused away from the narrator’s voice which was kind of annoying to listen to.  I found this exercise beneficial in training the mind-focusing on stillness.  The difficult part for me was diminishing the thoughts, feelings, and images that entered my mind and having to refocus on my breathing so those thoughts, feelings, and images will go away.  When it was time for me to focus on a person I loved and cared the most, I thought about my mother which brought me great happiness. As I have gotten older, our relationship seems to get better with each passing day.  I don't have too many enemies that I can think of so I focused on strangers /passer-byes on the streets and thought about his or her situation, let it go, and refocused.  This exercise was too long for beginners and I would begin with 5 to 10 minute sessions and then gradually increase my minutes.  I would recommend this meditation exercise to others who want to reach and experience the highest level of consciousness.  I think this exercise would be difficult for people who have not listened to or practiced to any type of meditation exercises to remain focused.  The more I participate in the different meditation exercises the more I appreciate the benefits from using its practices.   

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 is reaching the road to happiness, health, and wholeness with daily exercise and commitment.  The proven benefit is the progressive development of an expanded consciousness and its healing capacities (Dacher, 2006).  This mental workout will allow us to open our minds and heart to others that will reveal the truth about our life and existence.  To implement mental workout for myself, I will make it a priority to set aside 10-15 minutes a day and practice daily using the meditation exercises provided until it becomes natural. I definitely want to feel and experience peace, calm, love, and kindness for the rest of my life.  It is like exercising, if you want to feel great and have more energy, you’ll exercise daily incorporating various exercises for each body part.   

Marivic

Unit 3 Level of Well-Being and Crime of the Century

Here are my answers after reflecting on my level of wellness in physical, spiritual, and psychology.

1.  Based on your reflections, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being optimal wellbeing), where do you rate your A-physical wellbeing, B-spiritual well-being, C-psychological well-being? Why?

I rate my physical well-being a nine.  Physical fitness is very important to me since elementary school.  Exercising daily is important to me because of the all the benefits that exercises provide me such as energy, weight loss, and reduce disease.  My regiment includes riding a stationary bike, weight lifting, and running afterwards, in addition to morning and evening toning exercises, sit-ups and crunches.  I have always enjoyed physical and sports activities for fun and competition and how exercising has made me feel afterwards.  I notice a difference in attitude and body change when I do not get the exact amount of exercise and sleep daily that my body is use to completing so I try to exercise faithfully or make up my exercise routine during the weekend.

I rate my spiritual well-being a six, on a much lower scale, because I know that I have not taken the time to include spiritual awareness like I plan and want to.  Spiritual well-being is important to me because I feel that a person needs to have faith, belief, and connectedness to a higher being.  As a child, I attended Sunday school and regular church service; as I got older, I have not found a church service but keep promising myself that I need to locate a church that I would really enjoy listening to the word of God.  I have not prayed regularly like I use to but will resume prayer every night like before.  I feel better about myself after talking with God about situations I cannot trust or confide in others and he has on several occasions answered and listened to my prayers. 

I rate my psychological well-being an eight.  I feel my physical and psychological well-being is connected because if I am not physically and mentally prepared then psychologically I am not well prepared. Overall, I feel my life has purpose and meaning and I am happy in my current situation.  If someone would have asked my years ago, I would have given myself a much lower score because of personal situations I was experiencing such as divorce and work.  I feel I have matured more as a person and do not allow anyone or any circumstance take control over me.  I have to learn how to accept things I cannot change or control.

2.          Develop a goal for yourself in each area (physical, spiritual, psychological).  For each of the following areas in physical, spiritual, and psychological, I would maintain the current level of readiness in physical activities by avoiding not missing too many days of workout; I attend to church on a more regular basis and pray a more often than I am now; psychologically, I need to continue to grow as a person and expand my knowledge like I am currently doing.

3.          What activities or exercise can you implement in your life to assist in moving toward each goal? Exercises or activities I need to implement to assist in moving toward each of my goals is include meditation, yoga, and massage therapy for my total well-being.

Crime of the Century.  Normally, I enjoy the relaxation/meditation exercises and after several early morning and long days from attending my son's basic training graduation ceremony, this relaxation exercise would have definitely place me at ease.  However, I could not imagine relating my body parts to different colors of the rainbow.  It felt like I had holes going through my entire body. My preference of meditation is listening and hearing nature sounds, being on a secluded beach or outdoors.  I think there was too much things going on with trying to relate colors to different body parts.  I do not think the relaxation exercise was frustrating but I did not find it relaxing so I focused on the background music and on the narrator’s voice.   I will attempt listening to this relaxation exercise later. Hope ya find more relaxing.

Marivic

Unit 2 Reflection

The relaxation exercise was exactly what I needed to loosen my muscles.  The narrator's voice was calm and soothing as well as the background music.  I was completely in another dimension.  I enjoyed participating in those relaxation exercises in my last course and found them interesting and fun.  There were a lot of mental imagery and deep breathing that made each one different to experience.  

I usually exercise or run for relaxation but sometimes hearing the narrator's voice during the relaxation exercises seems more comforting.  I think more people should include some type of relaxation exercise for stress relievers.  I hope you enjoy the relaxation exercise.

Well, this is our second week.  I'm kind of glad I only enrolled in one course for the summer because I wanted to spend time with my family.  Normally, I would tackle two classes at a time but I was getting burnt out from reading and studying and just decided to take a small break.  I'm enjoying the extra time I have either with family or with myself.  

Marivic

 

Traveling into the unknow

Welcome to my blogger's page.  This is the first time using blogger.  Even though I have a Facebook account, I hardly ever use it except to in touch with friends from school and friends I have lost contact with.  Because I utilize the computer all day at work and school, I will only check my account if someone writes on my Facebook account.  So this should be interesting for the rest of the course.

My page is simple because I haven't had the opportunity to navigate the webpage.  At first I was skeptical because this is all new to me.  I've read that other people have used blogger.com in previous courses, so I am definitely behind the power curve.  Please be patient with me :-).  

Marivic

Hello

Hi Everyone,

Blogging is a new experience for me and should be fun and interesting to read other people's blogs.

Marivic