Unit 4 Loving Kindness

I just finished the Loving Kindness exercise and I found it to be a bit difficult for me. I am not sure if it was the distractions and interruptions that kept occurring during the exercise, but I am pretty sure that they had something to do with it. I tried to choose a time when I would not have these issues, but it seems that I have been unsuccessful thus far. I do plan to try to get through this exercise again later without interruption tonight. Maybe it will be easier with the family in bed. I would recommend all of the exercises so far to family and friends because I feel that with practice they can all be beneficial to myself as well as others.

I feel that the mental workout concept can be successful in training the mind for clarity and focus. These exercises that we have been working on for the past few weeks is a good start. These things can help us to be more involved in the training of our minds and to have more control of our thoughts and feelings. Research has shown that participating in mental workout exercises can be beneficial mentally, physically, and emotionally in the long run. I feel that if I continue to practice and include these exercises in my daily life that they will only continue to help me in all of these aspects as well.

Stephanie

Unit 3 Goal Setting

Hello again. Well, this week we are talking about optimal well-being and goals. I would have to say that when it comes to my physical well-being I would rate it an six on a scale from one to ten. Although I do not struggle with weight issues on a regular basis, I have recently experienced some weight gain. I believe that the reason for my sudden weight gain is because after 20+ years of smoking, I finally quit. I have decided to start walking regularly in my neighborhood to help lose the extra weight I have accumulated and prevent more from adding to the problem. As far as spiritual well-being, this is an area that has been seriously neglected. I would say it is probably a two on the scale from one to ten. I do not put much effort into this aspect of life. The only way I know to work on this and attain my goal of becoming spiritually satisfied is to start by going back to church on a regular basis. It has been close to 15 years since I have gone to church regularly. My goal is to return to church and continue to go. My psychological well-being is about a five on the scale from one to ten. I would say that there is definitely room for improvement. The relaxation exercises we have been learning have really helped. My goal is to try other relaxation exercises and find the ones that I find most helpful and implement them on a regular basis. The relaxation exercise for this week (The Crime of the Century) was nice. I think I liked this one better than the last.

Unit 2 Relaxation exercise reflection

I have to say that when I first started listening to the relaxation exercise I thought it would put me to sleep before I got half way through, but the truth is after listening to the whole thing and following the directions as I went along, by the time it was over I felt refreshed. I believed that the tone of the voice of the man speaking would relax me a little too much, but it seems that it was just what I needed. As a matter of fact, I saved the file to my desktop so I can easily find it and use it in the future.

Stephanie

Welcome

I would like to welcome everyone from Kaplan who is joining me in this adventure of blogging about our experiences during this term. I have had to participate in this type of communication for a previous class and it was a good experience. I hope that everyone feels that it is as painless as I do. We can work together to make this class a success.

Stephanie