Trying to calm a part of my life

  This weeks exercise of the subtle mind practice was a little hard at first, in contrast to the loving kindness exercise. The loving kindness exercise used visualization and thoughts to project love and healing to others. This I can do easily, and I try and do it often. The subtle mind practice... Trying to get feelings, thoughts and pictures in my mind to stop, this is a bit more difficult. My mind is always going 100 miles per hour. I did however, get my mind to calm down quite a bit. It was very nice to be still. I now find myself doing this throughout the day. I focus on my breath and let things just blow by. I find that when I do not cling to things, they tend not to stay long or they lose impact. Especially with the negative garbage that I do not like. I noticed after doing this practice for just the past few days, I feel calmer.
  I think that this exercise is making me very aware of just how awesome it can be to have a flow of health between mind, body and spirit. I feel more calm and way less stress. I notice I am observing more and reacting less. I have been really putting a lot of effort into this class and over the past 5 weeks, I feel like I am maturing in a way that I did not know about. It feels nice. At the same time, I asked myself yesterday "What the heck is wrong with me!!". As I am opening up parts of my mind and trying to become a better and healthier me, I am finding "garbage" all over the place. Things that we do, then sweep under the rug so we don't think about them again. I have a lot of healing to do. In the meantime, I will continue my journey with all of you and hope that I can continue to grow. I am not afraid of cleaning up this mess. I am excited to do it now.
Blessed be!

Loving kindness

I found this exercise to be a difficult one at first. Once I got used to where the prompts were and could almost do it without having to listen to the audio, it was way easier. I chose different people every time, as I wanted to share the love I was feeling with everyone! Yes, I am a hippie...
I would recommend this exercise to anyone that wants to spread loving kindness and to everyone that needs to feel some of that loving kindness. Turning that onto ourselves and really feeling it, is awesome. Not very many people truly love themselves. That is a shame. You HAVE to live with you everyday. Why not love you!
Mental workouts are important for growing in our psychospiritual lives. Praying and Contemplative practices are great ways to still and train the mind. This practice can help to achieve the ultimate in human flourishing by helping to train our mind to stay away from negativity, keep the body free from stress and the spirit in touch with God. Thus, we are treating ourselves kinder and this will manifest outward. Isn't that a great thought?

Reflecting on my wellbeing

     To be honest, my life has been total chaos most of the time. I have tried several times to "clean up my messes" but, there was no time for cleaning.
     These past few months, I have been redirecting my thoughts and efforts to making my life, MY LIFE. I do have children and a husband but, I have been making time for me and getting myself on track. I want to succeed in my education, my spiritual health, my psychosocial health and most of all, my physical health. I have started working out again. I am meditating on a regular schedule and I am working on my unhealthy habits of negative thinking and some social habits. All of it will come in time. And, for once in my life, I am allowing this time to manifest.
     I think that on a scale from 1-10, my physical wellbeing is at a 7. I take pretty good care of myself. The thing that I really let get me down in this area is the stresses of trying to make everyone happy, and not giving myself the relaxing time or exercise time that I need. I am feeling better physically now that I am allowing this time for myself. My spiritual well being is at an 8. I have my faith and I follow it well, I do not devote enough time to my studies, and I think that I could always use a bit more of nature time in my life. My psychological well being is a 6. I know that there are a lot of issues about my past that I am working through. I am very hard on myself for not being able to just let some things go. I know that eventually, I will be able to move past some of the things that keep me from being a normal person without open wounds to care for. My ego keeps them open for what ever reason. I dislike this very much. So, with that said, I am working on that too. My husband is my best friend, and he is my biggest supporter and a great listener. I know that in this case, time will heal all wounds.
     I have set goals and have a plan for developing in these areas. First, I need to stop worrying about little stuff. Then, I need to quit smoking. I try! I don't smoke very much. Just do it when I'm stressed. My doc tells me he can not believe that as much as I work out and as well as I eat, I smoke. So, that stresses me out too! I am checking out alternatives. I need to spend more time with nature and read spiritually growing materials. I am making more time for me, so that is being accomplished. I have also decided to volunteer at the animal shelter and I start this week! I would also love to make a little more time for meditation and my yoga. I am such a better person when I can get that 20 to 60 minutes a day. I have made time to meditate almost once a day for the past 3 months. I would like to make it absolutely everyday.
     Speaking of meditation. The relaxation exercise this week in my opinion, was awesome! I have done it several times. The first night, I did it before I went to sleep. I was up for 2 hours after I completed it. I had so much energy! I have to do it earlier in the day. I feel so relaxed and "away" from normal life, its like a mini vacation. I have this exercise saved on my computer and will be using it everyday. I love the visualization of the chakra's and the channeling of each one with the color. Awesome stuff. I have another one that I enjoy that is similar to this.

Blessed be, Angela

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog. I hope that we can have a wonderful learning experience together, and have fun discovering the beauty of health and wellness.

I have been playing around with this weeks exercise. I have tried this exercise with other extremities and in quiet and not so quiet situations.

I found that after practicing it for a few days, I was able to sit outside during my break at work and truly relax. It is nice. The only thing that I had a problem with was doing this exercise after I had a meal. I do not know if I am weird or sensitive, but I had a bit of tummy upset when I did this in the evening after dinner or after lunch.

I hope that you all had a great time with this weeks journey, and I look forward to reading your blogs!