I try to incorporate as much meditation in my weekly routine possible. I think that I could always do more than what I am doing now. As of right now, I do some meditation, but mostly if I know I am going to have a stressful day or I am already at the point of being stressed.

At the beginning of the exercise, I was a little thrown off. The man's new york accent was throwing me off a bit. Then the same lady we have been hearing came on. I immediately started to think about my husband. Besides my son, I have never loved any man as much as I love him. He is my world, and I would do anything for him. I can truly say, he is the love of my life. Our relationship, the emotions have always been intense. I have felt this intensity since the first day we met. Thinking about him calms me, and I think this is why this exercise worked for me. The exercises with the crashing waves really help me to calm my mind and clear my thoughts. I really liked this exercise, and I want to try and foster it into my daily routine.

Meditation for me has always been a way for me to calm myself and clear my mind. This practice can foster psychological and spiritual wellness because you allow yourself to clear your mind. The mind can be plagued with thoughts that are poisonous. By allowing our minds to clear, we are also opening it. We allow ourselves to be able to reach certain spiritual aspects. We can allow ourselves to explore certain parts of our minds that we were unable to before.

I can continue this process by using meditative practices such as this one to help foster a greater sense of psychological and spiritual awareness. I know that this exercise made me feel a lot better than when I had first felt. I would like to be able to practice meditation daily regardless or feeling stressed or not. Maybe if I become accustomed to it, I will have days where I will not be stressed at all.

The saying, "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" means that how can we expect someone to do something if we do not practice it ourselves. Yes, we are professionals and know what we are talking about, but its that age old saying practice what you preach. To some clients, this may seem hypocritical. Though in our defense, our personal lives are none of their business and they are coming to us for help. It may be easier for us as professionals to practice these types of therapies so that we can use ourselves as an example to our clients. We can show them that we do this, and it could work for them as well.

I feel as professionals we do owe our clients a certain amount of obligation. We must keep ourselves healthy in order to be able to do our jobs. If we are upset or agitated while at work, how will this help our clients? It will start a domino effect, we are upset so in turn they are going to be as well. So yes, in a sense we have a certain amount of obligation to the clients about keeping ourselves healthy.

I can incorporate psychological growth by trying to always keep my mind clear, I know that I have a lot going on sometimes. I want to try and take some time out of the day to remember that I must keep myself healthy, and this will help tremendously in the long run. Spirituality, I am not quite sure yet where I want to be at when it comes to spirituality. I know I am some what spiritual, but I am not sure HOW spiritual I want to be yet. This has been an on going struggle, and I know that one day I will get there when I am ready to be.

--Sophie Crabbe

The exercise surprisingly helped a little. I was having a terrible week at work, I even had to go home from work early one day. Its been a very hard week with many manic episodes. It really has taken a toll on my "new" marriage, but hes a trooper and he stands by me. The exercise helped because I feel like that a lot of the time. I worry about others, and I have always put others needs before my own. I want others to be happy and flourish, and sometimes I need to put myself into that category as well. 

The assessment process was interesting. Some of the ideas and questions were things that I had never thought about. I know that my main points of distress is the fact that I am an Empath and I absorb others negativity and emotions. I know that I must put up my shield to be able to deal with others. My greatest possibility for growth would be to help those with negative feelings so that in turn I am helping them, and then it helps me as well. I realize that this is not an instant gratification, I know that this will take time.

So, I discovered that everyone has things that they need to work on. I have to know and believe in myself that I am not "crazy" and I have to find different ways with dealing with emotions and my stress. I find comfort in knowing that others experience this as well, and I am not alone in this fight. My area of focus and development will always be on my stress management. I must and I mean MUST find a way to not let stress and anxiety control my life. It will ruin my life and the lives of others around me. I know that Meditation will be a great factor in all of this. Another will be just to breathe, I think that taking time and with a breathing exercise will help in the long run. There is a certain level of relaxation you obtain just from breathing and concentrating on it. I want to implement Reiki into my life as well. I think that the energy pulling will help, and I can get an outsider's prospective on what it is they see when they look at me.

Its an ongoing struggle, but I am more than ready to do anything to help alleviate the stress and the pain I feel on a daily basis. 

--Sophie

                I think that I felt better doing the subtle mind exercise over the loving kindness exercise. I have incorporated listening to the subtle mind exercise when I have had a really hard time at work or with school, and even dealing with my personal life. I remember feeling stressed about my wedding, and the exercise helped with the stress. My eye started twitching again, and I listening to the exercise again and it helped a lot. My frustrations with the Loving Kindness exercise was first Dacher voice. It still bugs me to this day. I do not think it is a bad exercise, but I feel the subtle mind helped me more. The loving kindness exercise brings out thoughts in me that I would rather not share. Though, I know that is the point. So maybe in the future, I can try to work the loving kindness exercise into my regiment as well.

                There is a major connection to spiritual wellness to mental to physical. If you feel great physically then that helps your mind feel great and in turn you can reach that level of spirituality. I have different struggles when it comes to the three of these things. I know that I have low self-esteem because of the way I look. This then affects my mental state, and then in turn I cannot reach any level of spirituality. I am in a nutrition class now, and I am taking what I am learning to eat better and choose my foods wisely. I am starting to feel better about myself, and with that I can now clear my mind to help with my meditation. I have yet to reach the level of spirituality I want to accomplish, but I have done a lot of reading on crystals and different types of rock that can help with different ailments I am facing. I feel drawn to learning more about crystal healing and carrying these rocks with me. I hope to find out a lot more and be able to share the results with my classmates. I am a newly diagnosed empath. I say newly, because I never knew there was a word for it. The rocks have helped me deal with my own feelings as well as other negative feelings.

--Sophie 

First and foremost, I was very annoyed when I was listening to the Introduction and the beginning of the Loving Kindness exercise. I felt like I would not be able to participate because of Dacher's voice. I felt uncomfortable, and almost just stopped listening until the next voice came on. Her voice was very soothing, and I felt comfortable while listening to this exercise. I thought of my son, when she instructed to think of someone you hold close to your heart. I almost broke down in tears, because I have raised this little boy on my own for quite some time. I have sacrificed many things in my life to be able to make sure he had food, clothes, and a roof over his head. It also makes me sad because he feels I am mean to him because I cannot give him everything that he wants. His father is able to do those things, and I cannot. Its a constant struggle I have with him. This exercise helped me to relax and concentrate my focus on myself for a moment. The roaring waves in the background helped tremendously. I have a hard time concentrating my thoughts, and being able to hear those crashing waves. I concentrated on the facts that I am a good mother, and I give him much more than materialistic things. He is only 6, and at the end of this I hope that one day he will realize how much his mother went through to be able to take care of him. It was difficult for me because I had to concentrate on myself, and I am not used to that. I would most definitely recommend this exercise to someone. It helps you concentrate on yourself while still thinking of others as well.

A mental workout involves the same principles as a physical workout. You conduct exercises like the one above to help strengthen your mind. The mind and the body work hand in hand, and a strong body with a strong mind can be anything. When one is weak, the other can suffer as well. Research indicates that a mental workout can increase brain function, concentration, memory, and how the brain processes information.

I have always loved to read. I have become very busy with work, my child, my new marriage, and numerous of other things. I want to try and read at least one book a month. I know that reading can help strengthen the mind. It will also help me to escape reality and my life, even for just a moment in time. I also want to play more magic the gathering. This is a trading card game that was created by a math teacher to help his students understand the concept of math. Ill post a link at the bottom in case those reading are unfamiliar with this game. I want to research and implement more of these daily exercises, if I can find them and download them onto my phone so its mobile. I think all of these things implemented into my life will help me with a mental workout.

--Sophie


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering

My personal optimal well-being probably is not where it should be. Physical well-being I would rate at a 7. I for the most part feel pretty healthy, but I know that I have issues I need to work on. I could always eat better and exercise more. This is a long time struggle I am having, but everyday it gets a little bit easier to get where I need to be. Spiritual well-being I would rate a 8. I am agnostic and I feel perfectly fine where I am at spiritually in my life. I rated myself an 8 because I feel I can always learn more and do more to be able to achieve more spirituality in my life. Psychological I would rate myself at a 3, maybe a 4 on a good day. I suffer from PTSD, and I have stopped taking medication and have not been to therapy in quite some time. This really affects my personal life, especially with my husband. Everyday is a struggle to get out of bed and live my life. I am currently trying to get myself back into therapy, and see what I can do about not taking medications. I do not like my judgement feeling clouded, and that is how I feel when I am on medication.

My goal for physical is to pick one day to eat whatever my heart's content is and also to implement at least two days of walking into my regiment. My goal for spirituality is to educate myself more on different types of religions and spirituality to see where I may fit. My psychological goal is to not let the darkness take over me, its my mind and my body and I am in control of it.

For my physical goal, I am going to try to take some fun classes that involve exercise. Maybe a belly dancing class or yoga. I am keeping a food journal and that is really helping me with making better decisions about eating. Spirituality I want to implement more mediation. I also do a tapping process sometimes that helps calm my mind of unwanted thoughts. Psychological, I am keeping a journal. My journal helps me to gather my thoughts and once they are on paper, I feel they have left my body.


Exercise:
I found this exercise to be VERY helpful this week. This week was very stressful for me, I was married on Halloween. It was stressful because I had to leave out of town for work, and I had to leave the rest of my wedding planning to others. I have had a headache everyday this week, and my eye will not stop twitching. When I returned from out of town, I had what I call my "mini breakdowns". I cry profusely to the point of where I start to hyperventilate. The stress of the wedding is over, but I still have my emotional dealings with my PTSD. My favorite parts of this exercise were the beams of color. I imagined this as I was laying on the floor and participating in this exercise. It reminded me of a the shield I put up daily to deal with my emotions that come from being an Empath as well. It was just a relaxing, yet informative way to gain knowledge on what the colors meant.

I am excited for next week and to see what exercise we have next.

--Sophie