Interpersonal Flourishing

   Well, I tried really hard to do the loving kindness meditation, but, it did not work out so well. I just cannot relax with my eyes open, reading the same 4 sentences over and over. I do not like this mediation, as it does nothing for me. Lying back, relaxing with my eyes shut and listening to a meditation works so much better. In practice, I would never give a client a mediation like this to do, and would not expect them to do it well. 
    I practiced the assessment, which was not easy to get into, either. The only area that came to mind is that sometimes I can be a bit overreactive. It varies from day to day and I wonder if it goes along with the menopause thing. I am going to start volunteering as a way of giving back, so I thought about that too. This assessment was one I could not do for very long. It was too boring. Again, this would have to be something I could listen to. 

Spiritual Wellness

I really did not enjoy the Loving Kindness exercise, but the Subtle Mind exercise was wonderful. I had the most blissful sensation of calm. This exercise made it easier to calm my mind, focusing on my breathing with the ocean waves in the background. The Loving Kindness exercise did not do this to me. It was not easy to calm my mind and the lady’s voice was annoying. Right off the bat this exercise was just not for me. I love the Subtle Mind exercise and plan on doing it again tomorrow.

Spiritual wellness is what keeps me grounded. There are times when I get too emotional or angry and I need a way to settle my thoughts and my blood pressure down. Some of the time I can calm myself down by self talk, but not always. Spiritual wellness is so connected to the mind and body. When I am upset or stressed and I have not tried to clear my mind and calm down my thoughts, I start feeling nauseous and can feel my heart racing. I really think that spiritual wellness and being able to have a subtle mind can really prevent stress from affecting you physically.

Loving Kindness

I listened to this audio and had a really difficult time getting into it. My mind would wander, which it did not do during the other 2 meditations. The speaker’s voice was not one I could really relax to. The best part was the ocean waves, which always bring me peace. I could not listen to the whole meditation, as, honestly, it completely bored me.

When I think about mental workouts, it means taking time every day to practice concentrating your mind and ignoring everything else around you. Beginning with loving-kindness was a wonderful choice and one I think we should all begin our day with. It really is the Golden Rule, isn’t it? Taking the time every day for a metal workout meditation session can help you in so many ways, be they psychological or physical. It is also known that the more loving-kindness you give out, the more you get in return. I plan on starting my day with this meditation every day. I really need to show more loving kindness, as my fiancé’s daughter has moved in with us and showing this every day is a challenge.

Another Relaxation Audio

I listened to the relaxation audio and found it interesting to imagine the colors of the rainbow individually coming out of different points of my body. The guy's voice is soothing and the most beneficial part of the audio was that I did indeed relax. It was good for me to do after a busy day filled with frustration. I am now feeling lots better and I hope I sleep better, too.

Is All Really Well?

When we begin to really think about our wellbeing, how deep do we go? Usually our answer would be “I’m good.” But, are we? I’m going to take a minute to think about three things, my physical wellbeing, spiritual wellbeing and psychological wellbeing.  Rating them on a scale of 1 – 10 (with 10 being optimal wellness) isn’t easy. I’ve really got to think about this.

Here we go…I would rate my physical wellbeing a 7. Why not a 10? Who’s a 10? 7 is a good number for me because I am a work in progress. I’ve just lost 7 pounds and started going to the gym. I physically feel better and am committed to getting back to the “old” me.  I’ve turned this “getting in shape” thing into a challenge and I usually never back down from those. Check back with me in a couple months and I’m thinking I’ll be an 8.

I would rate my spiritual wellbeing an 8. Why not a 10? Because there is always room to grow. My relationship with my Lord, or higher power, is a good, strong one.  We have long talks every day and there is nothing we cannot talk about.  Yet, I always feel like I can get closer to him, thus the rating of 8. I need to take special time out of my day to work on my spirituality, I used to, but you know how sometimes you miss a day, then you miss two and before you know it, you’re not doing it anymore.  But, you want to. So, my spiritual goal is going to be taking time every day and getting back into it again.

I would rate my psychological wellbeing an 8 or a 6, maybe a 7. It depends on the day.  Menopause does that to you. And it happens many times a day without asking your permission.  So, I am not the best judge at this point in my life to honestly rate this area. I could set a goal for improvement today, but, tomorrow, I might not feel like it.  I have learned to take things one day at a time and when my mood turns and I want to scream out loud or rip someone’s head off, I go to my room and shut the door.  It’s working so far.

You know, it’s always good to do a little personal inventory and thing about these things. We don’t do it often enough. Because when we do, and can think of things to make our wellbeing better, the healthier in mind-body-spirit we will be.

                                                                                                                                                              

Relaxation Audio

I've heard a few relaxation audio's before and was looking forward to trying this one. The guy's voice was very soft and smooth and relaxing. Following his instruction to make myself comfortable was really easy. As he talked of mentally moving our blood from our stomach to our arms, I was thinking to myself that this was impossible. Turns out I was wrong. I felt every word he was describing, from your hands and arms getting warm and heavy to trying to lift them up. This is one relaxation audio that I am going to hang on to and use on a regular basis. I am going to look for a few more of these and post them on this site for you all to try, as we all know we need to de-stress and take a few moments for ourselves.

Hello Everyone! Creating this blog is something I always wanted to do, but, never thought I could really do it. Thank you Professor Aguilar, you pushed me into it! I am from Southern California, lived in Australia for 5 years, Germany for 2 and have visited China and Japan. I think the world and it's many different types of people have a lot to teach us. I joined the US Army out of High School and liked it way more than I thought I would. It felt so good to "belong" to something that was bigger than myself. I have 2 children who are all grown up now and 2 grandchildren...wow, am starting to feel real old now! 

I would like this blog to become a place where women veterans can come to relax, get good information in areas that interest them, to include the mind-body-spirit. These 2 things are joined together as one and we should never forget that. one is not more important than the other. I also might be throwing in a few giveaways and contests I find out about along the way. So, this blog is a work in progress and any suggestions will be most welcome!

                                                                      May this find you well,
                                                                                     Kristy