Loving Kindness

This week we had to do the exercise Loving Kindness from Dacher. I did not really find this exercise beneficial. This one was hard for me to do and concentrate on as it was more of making yourself feel a certain way, and I am just not good at feelings. I guess it is just my personality. I am generally a pretty mid range person, it takes a lot to make me upset and it takes a lot to make me feel badly. I don't get too excited over things either. I am normally happy and laughable, I just stay mid range pretty much all the time. Someone sitting there telling em to feel love and feel kindness and project those feelings just did not work for me. It was easy to find the person in my life I have loving feelings for, I used my Grandmother who passed away in Feb of 2010, but I just could not get into the mindset of the exercise.
I don't know if I would recommend this exercise to others due to the difficulty I had with it. I don't think this is for everyone, I think you have to be of a certain mindset to begin with for something like this to work.
Mental workouts are simply what they say they are. Working out your mind using tools, exercises and different techniques to achieve a certain level of mental capacity or well being. Like those brain trainers you see all the time advertised. Those are a form of mental workouts. You are training your mind to see things a certain way and to be able to respond quicker to numbers, pictures and letters. Just like a mentally disabled person, they continually do "mental workouts" with them to improve their cognitive skills as well as simple skills like reading and writing. You can implement mental workouts to assist your mental health by practicing relaxation techniques, meditations and feel good exercises like the one we tried this week. Granted, they will not all work for everyone, but I do believe that the right workout for the right person can probably produce some awesome results.

Reflections

Rating my well being is not an easy thing to do. There are so many things that affect your well being on a daily basis, from family stress, to work stress, to everyday aches and pains whether it be from surgery or just getting old. My physical well being right now would have to be a 4 or 5. This is simply because I am still recovering from surgery and with it being winter, I have a lot of aches and pains due to arthritis in my joints from years of gymnastics and various other sports. My spiritual well being is probably a 5 or 6 as I have not been a regular churchgoer since 200 when I was told by a Catholic priest that if I had killed my husband the church could have forgiven me, but since I divorced him, I was no longer welcome or allowed to participate in any masses. My Psychological well being is probably an 8 or 9 on a regular basis. I have my days as we all do where I am down in the dumps or life gets me down and I would rate this about a 2, but normally I am a pretty well adjusted confident person with who I am, where I am and how I deal with everyday problems as well as those life changers that always seem to come out of left field at the most inopportune times.
The main goal I wold have for myself in all three areas would be to increase all of my well being in all three areas. I aim to heal 100% form my surgery and get back to my normal physical activity which includes my 3 X a week Zumba with my daughters. I have also been starting to attend a new church with my daughters where they make you feel welcome and open and are of the belief that your spirituality is inside you and how you relate to God vs. some archaic belief that some crotchety old fart deems as correct. As far as psychological well being, this area can always use improvement. In the way we relate to each other and handle problems, no one is perfect and we can all learn better ways of dealing with what life hands us.
I am going to start physical therapy to assist me in my physical goals of healing, have started attending church to assist me with my spiritual side, and have started going to counseling with my daughters to work on the psychological aspect of my life and to have a better relationship with my daughters.
When completing the Crime of the Century Exercise, I was a little frustrated. I think overall it was a good implementation of a relaxation technique, but I enjoyed the Journey on Exercise a bit more. I think this was due more to the length of time it took than anything. When you have children in the house, it is hard to find 10 minutes to sit and breathe to yourself, let alone 20 minutes to sit and relax with peace and quiet. The color usage also made it more difficult for me to follow the relaxation exercise. I am not sure why this is, maybe it was too many aspects at once to try and implement, or maybe I was just privy to Journey On and was expecting a replay of that.

New Experiences

Well, I just finished the Journey On Excersize. I have to say, Initially, I was kind of hesitant to even attempt this. I am generally not one to buy into the spirituality or head part of medicine. BUT..ALAS...this is why we are here..to learn about new things and better ways to help ourselves as well as patients we will deal with in the real world.
Honestly this relaxation exercise could not have popped up at a better time. I just had a huge fight with my oldest sister about an hour before logging on here to do this. Also, as some of you  who have been in previous classes with me know, I recently had spine surgery in Nov. I had a 2 level fusion due to 2 fractured Vertebra, a separated spondila, and 2 degenerated and protruding discs. They fused L4 & L5 as well as L5 and S1, placed 6 screws in, 4 rods and 2 cages. Needless to say, I was down for the count for a bit. I have been dealing with wicked muscle spasms since the surgery, and nothing seems to help. Not medications, not Physical Therapy, food therapy..nothing.
Well..Lo and Behold! I never thought I would say this..but this exercise actually worked. Normally if I sit in a chair for longer than 5 minutes, it about takes a crane and the will of God to get me out due to the pain and stiffness in my back. I am here to tell you, I just did this exercise, and not only was the tension gone from the fight with my sister...but I just got straight up out of the chair, and the muscles in my back were actually more relaxed than they have been in over 2 months.
So..O.K.. guys and gals....you have converted me..I am now a believer in the power of suggestion and the mind.....so Bring it on! and Keep em coming! I can hardly wait to see what is next!

Test Post

Just making sure I did not forget anything. I will be adding all of you as soon as I figure this thing out a bit better. I look forward to gettign to knwo you all better, and getting through these experiences, helping each other along. See you all in class!!!