Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Unit 5

1. Loving Kindness and The Subtle Mind are practices I have begun incorporating into my daily routine. The first practice Loving Kindness is based on breathing exercises and using the love and kindness to work in daily life for you and others. These two practices are similar in that they both require concentration and are centered in breathing while practicing them. The difference is in the Subtle Mind practice the breathing is a focal point. In loving kindness you calm your mind once and breath through out the entire session. In the Subtle Mind breathing is the focus and it is what keeps you from the distractions of thoughts, and outside noises. I hope to accomplish both of these completely. The subtle mind practice as with the loving kindness practice have obstacles for me. It will be very difficult for me to let go of the fear of the unknown, but I will practice this hopefully to succeed.
2. Spiritual wellness is vital to mental and physical wellness because you are not fully healthy and your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors will manifest illnesses and diseases in your body and mind without it. Personally I have difficulty with stress, it manifests itself and because I do not a full awareness that spiritual flourishing provides I am not capable of dealing with or being unaware of the stress created for me. I need to practice the abilities to calm, sooth, and find peace within myself to prevent the daily stress from making me ill.

6 comments:

  1. Hey Andrea,

    I was so glad to hear that you have begun to incorporate these concepts into your daily routine. They are so beneficial and important, even to mom's like us who so rarely focus on ourselves. I liked your views on how the spiritual, mental and physical aspects of ourselves are intertwined and influence each other. I completely agree and try to live my life by these beliefs as well. I look forward to reading more of your blog!

    Linda

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  2. Since you have been incorporating these practices into your daily routine have you noticed a difference? I should incorporate them into my daily routine even if I feel they will not help me, that way I can be well versed in them and help my clients more efficiently.

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  3. Kevin,
    I do notice a difference in my stress level and ability to parent my chidlren. I am also working on quitting smokin and I think instead of smoking I may try any of these exercises when I feel I need one. This may help relax me enough to make it through to the next one. We will see.
    Andrea

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Hi Andrea,
    I am posting at 1:20 a.m, so it is hard to formulate a coherent response, as you see I deleted the first one.
    Congradulation on starting the breathing and the subtle mind exercises. I am sure they will work on the long run, but in a time when we look for a short fix solutions, it is hard to make the shift to better slower ways.
    Both you and Kevin statred to do something and I am encouraged, may that will help me with my diet.
    I know diet is bad, but I really need it right now, lol.
    Good luck with your new activities.
    Fatima

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  6. Hi Andrea,

    What do you mean fear of the unknown? If you can’t see it then why are you afraid of it? I’m not trying to be judgmental at all because we all have something that we don’t like. I just really want to know what do actually you mean by your statement.

    You stated: Spiritual wellness is vital to mental and physical wellness because you are not fully healthy and your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors will manifest illnesses and diseases in your body and mind without it.

    Andrea this is so true; our thoughts can bring on hidden anger depending on the situation and the then headache follows or leg pains or back pains, and heart palpitations. Unhealthy thoughts come in many forms and they can really drain on your entire body; it messes up your focus as well; so you are right very nice blog.

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