Unit 4 Exercise - Loving Kindness Exercise

Definition:  Tender and benevolent affection ("Loving-kindness," 2012)   

Exercise #4 is a mental workout, a contemplative practice.  While it can be used to provide stress relief, sharpen focus or deepen self- understanding the main goal is to “help develop personal goodness and compassion, and to awaken an awareness of  the interconnectedness of all life”.  ("What are contemplative," 2000-2011) 

The loving-kindness meditation is a “meditation of care, concern, tenderness, loving kindness, friendship – a feeling of warmth for oneself and others”.  ("Loving kindness meditation," 2000-2011)  “. 

Research has shown that when practiced in the workplace, employees “experience less stress, more job satisfaction and productivity” ("Practice in the," 2000-2011)   Contemplative practices need not take long, about 15 minutes like this weeks’ exercise.  

My experience with the loving kindness exercise: 

This was not a difficult exercise to do.  I loved the ocean sound in the background, it’s my favorite relaxation sound.  I experienced a sense of relaxation and calm.  However as a religious person, loving-kindness is already a concept that is familiar to me because I practice it all the time.  I don’t feel the need to practice meditation to learn it.  

Reference:

Loving-kindness. (2012).  Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/-kindness

Loving kindness meditation. (2000-2011). Retrieved from http://www.contemplativemind.org/practices/subnav/kindness.html

Practice in the workplace. (2000-2011). Retrieved from http://www.contemplativemind.org/practices/work.html

What are contemplative practices. (2000-2011). Retrieved from http://www.contemplativemind.org/practices/

Unit 3 Exercise - Optimal Wellbeing

My optimal wellbeing has a lot to be worked on at the moment.  I would rate aspects of my life as below:

A.    Physical Wellbeing – Rating 7

B.     Spiritual Wellbeing – Rating 8

C.     Psychological Wellbeing – Rating 6

Unfortunately, the past 2 – 3 years have been full of stress, some family related, some financial and some job related.  It is my ultimate goal to bring all of these aspects of my life back to normal or back in balance.  I’m sure that by scheduling more “me” time, finding my “go to stress relieving strategy”, and incorporating more exercise in my life, I will progress toward reaching my goal.  

The relaxation exercise for this unit was both effective and frustrating.  In total honesty, I had to do this exercise three times!  During my first attempt , all of the deep breathing relaxed me so much I fell asleep while listening to the exercise.  I didn’t make it past visualizing the color Orange.  (LOL).  My second attempt, ended pretty much the same way, except I think I made it to the color Aqua?  The third time, I just listened to it instead of trying all the breathing and visualization.  This exercise required a lot from my mind.  It was difficult to breathe, visualize little windows, then colors and say the affirmations that went with each color.  I need something a bit simpler, I would never remember each color and what they represent.  (Yawn – and yes, with the third attempt I’m sleepy but I made it through the whole exercise this time).   ;-)

Unit 2 Exercise - Autogenic Relaxation Technique

Welcome to Mental Break! 

This blog will be a documentation of my journey through the Kaplan University’s Creating Wellness-Psychological & Spiritual Aspect of Healing.  The course is an exploration of meditation, mindfulness and transpersonal psychology.  

The first stop in the journey is the Autogenic Technique.  “Autogenic means self-regulation or self generation”.  ("Autogenic relaxation technique," 2012)   The goal of autogenic relaxation is to relax parts of your body by just thinking about it.  You are able to achieve deep relaxation by relaxing muscles of the body which also allows the mind to relax.

As I listened to the narrator on the school link for the autogenic relaxation technique, I suddenly found myself feeling like I had a one track mind.  Initially it was difficult for me to listen to the narrator describe what was to be done and to do it.  I found I had to block the narrator out for a minute as I did the exercise.  I wasn’t sure I was doing the exercise correctly, as I tried to visualize the blood flow from my abdomen up my chest, across my shoulders and down my arms, but after a few moments I realized that the mental suggestions were working because I was beginning to feel the arm heaviness and warmth as was described.  About this same time, I also noticed that I suddenly felt a tingly itchy sensation on my arms and my face and it was difficult to keep still.  This secondary feeling broke my concentration a bit.  Was this a reaction to the  increased blood flow down my arms?  I don’t know – maybe.  Fortunately the sensation didn’t last too long after my concentration was broken and I was able to finish the exercise.  

This was an interesting technique, I liked the idea of being able to relax the body by just thinking about it, but I’m not sure this could be an exercise I can stick with.    I was able to locate a website that gave instructions and suggestions for mental phrases to relax other areas of the body.  The website is Stress-Relief-Tools.com and the link is below in references.

References:

Autogenic relaxation technique. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.stress-relief-tools.com/autogenic-relaxation.html