Meeting Asciepius

I have been rushing through these practices lately, letting my schedule get the best of me. I did deep breathing while frustrated at work the other day, but have not really done a well focused meditation all week. I can feel the tension building up from missing my meditation time. It is amazing how quickly it all comes back and you lose what you have been working toward. Noticing that, that is how this works is somewhat of a motivator in it's self.
The statement "one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" is much like practice what you preach, you cannot try to get someone to the highest levels of human flourishing if you have not been there yourself. It makes it very hard to direct someone to a place you have never been, it is like giving directions to a tree in the woods that you have never been to, you just can't do it accurately. As a professional you should always be an example of what you teach. I am a personal trainer and I would not expect to get any one to take me seriously if I was overweight and did not exercise myself. It ruins your credibility. I truly believe that everyone should have to opportunity to complete health and wellness and so it would be my responsibility to teach my clients how to achieve that kind of wellness through all aspects of health, psychological, physical, and spiritually. I personally need to take more time to slow down, meditate, and learn more about the scriptures. I am constantly a work in progress.

Loving Kindness and Assessment Exercises

I do not know if I got all that I could have out of these exercises this time. I feel a little flustered and rushed after having technical difficulties this week. I like the idea of having something to think when working on loving kindness, I will try to remember those 4 lines so I can do that whenever I want to spread the joy, I like doing that at work. The assessment was interesting, I really do need to work on controling my stress and what I let stress me. When I start to feel behind on things I let it all pile up and I get really stressed out which leads to my being crabby and tired and after that it all leads to affecting my health. I need to work on the mind on the emotional line in the psychospiritual area. What is also frusterating is that I know I need to work on this, but at the same time I do well sometimes, but going back to that "dark" area is like my comfort zone, yet it is distructive. I know I need to make my life slow down, I try to plan ahead, yet be flexible when things do not workout. That is what I need to workout.

Classes- Is anyone else having problems?

I do not know how else to let people know, i cannot get into the kaplan website. It will not let me even get to the classroom page with my e-mail. I have tried contacting the tech service and I have e-mailed my academic adviser, but I still have not gotten anywhere. I have not been able to get in since last Friday! :( I am a little stressed about it and I have done everything I can think of, but nothing is happening because people are not getting back to me. Is anyone else having problems?

Breathing Meditation (guided for beginners)

Poem- Mind Weeds

My mind wonders to and fro,
It never knows which way to go.
It's hard to focus, hard to stop,
it seems, mind weeds are my crop.
They start small, but set their roots,
and all my plans go kaputs.
I want my mind to be calm,
and so I get mental weed balm.
When I feel them set in,
I search deep within.
I tear them out and stop them quick,
before they start to make me sick.

SuBtLe MiNd

When doing the subtle mind exercise I found it much easier to keep my focus, since I was instructed to focus on my breathing when I would get off track. I actually found that very helpful even compared to all the other exercises because I always have a tendency to get off track and so then I need to find a way to refocus. With the subtle mind exercise being told to focus on the breath was very helpful. I do not know that I have ever felt such stillness, with no thoughts. At first it was like my mind thought it was missing something so I got hit with a ton of thoughts to try and fill the emptiness. Then it was nice to feel the calm take over and be able to go longer without thoughts popping up. I had a hard time with the loving kindness because I was distracted trying to focus on groups of people, but I found little distraction in this exercise of the subtle mind.
I can see how this would be a great practice because if you can master the calmness you will be able to control your stress and that will effect both mental and physical health. I am very excited to try and implement this exercise into my life. For me when I am in-tune with my spiritual wellness I can feel the calm and reassurance in my mind, and I my body feels energized and renewed. I feel this the most after in nature by myself and after church. I am now hoping to find a way to carry it within me and keep it longer. :)

Loving-Kindness

I found this exercise to be more difficult han that last. I tried to do it after work this morning, and before my son got up for the day. He got up about half way through it, and I was having a bit of mental chatter from the day, I would also find my mind wandering when thinking about the groups of people we were supposed to think about. Instead of fully focusing on loving-kindness and healing I would be thinking about the person, or people and would try to refocus. It will definitely take practice to get this exercise down, now I see why he has us focus on this for a week instead of reading. Getting the mind to focus and stay focused and to be able to maintain such focus is a mental workout. I can see it being very beneficial when controlling your emotions. For me fighting my negative thoughts would be much easier with a well trained mind. I will continue to do mental workouts. I also think it would help with things like memory because you would be able to concentrate your focus much better and more deliberately. Right now the exercise felt a little long and tedious but I will continue to practice, because I want a well trained mind, and I want that to lead to psychospiritual growth.