Meeting asciepius

The meditative practice for this week was meeting asciepius. This practice had you focus on a person that is wise and you respect a healer. first you focus on them than on kind wisdom speech and a kind heart at the end of the meditation you turn yourself into the wise healer and focus on yourself. This exercise was very relaxing i did get distracted with thoughts several times but was able to refocus i still have quite a bit of mental chattering going on. These practices i can continue to use in life as a stress reducer they calm me greatly.
       the saying "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself"  Applies to health and wellness in the spiritual sense if you are not spiritually mature how can you show or lead someone else to spiritual maturity that is why it is important to practice spiritual wellness to help others attain this goal to be physically, spiritually and mentally healthy.

          The universal Loving-kindness exercise is used to expand your heart and mind. You close your eyes  and for a minute or two rest into the natural ease of your mind and body, and repeat the following phrases for 10 minutes:
May all individuals gain freedom from suffering
May all individuals find sustained health, happiness, and wholeness.
May i assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering
May i assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness.
This exercise was easy for me to relax and concentrate on. I had just got into an argument with my roommate right before this exercise and honestly the last thing i wanted to do is wish for her happiness and wholeness but after this exercise i just didn't care anymore. So it did help me relieve stress. The only difficult part about it for me i couldn't keep my eyes close and remember what to say to myself. I kept having to open my eyes to read what i was supposed to be telling myself.
          The second exercise you are supposed to ease into a still mind and ask yourself what part of my life spiritual, biological, interpersonal, or worldly is source of difficulty. then think of what area is more essential for you at this point of your life and concentrate on that. My focus was on my spiritual aspects of my life it is so hard to be spiritual in the place i live and the friends i have. I almost don't know where to start when it comes to spirituality.

Subtle mine exercise

I found the subtle mind exercise to be more relaxing and easier to do than the loving-kindness exercise. The reason for this was the focusing on the breath every time you get distracted. The loving kindness exercise had me think of to many people that gave me a lot more things to be distracted by my wondering mind. With the subtle mind exercise all you had to concentrate was on your in breath or out breath just much simpler for me to stay focused or to refocus after my mind would wonder. The connection between spiritual, mental wellness, and  physical wellness. Is you cannot have one without the other. If you are sick spiritually you probably will not have the drive to work out physically. You probably will be searching for something to fill that void drugs, alcohol, sex, addiction is not the breading place for a mentally healthy mind or a physically healthy body. In my own life i feel mental health every time i go to church with my mom to fill my spiritual health when i feel this way usually i work out which is good for my physical health.

Experience of love and kindness

I was very relaxed with the loving kindness exercise. It let me reflect on loved one and myself and brought a calm over me that was very beneficial to my soul and body. I had some distractions with an inch or a pain shooting through my body but was able to quickly refocus. I would recommend this to others it is very nice to get in touch with ones self and really puts into perspective the important things in life instead of getting distracted and stressed by the small things in life that are really of no consequence.
the concept of a mental workout is exercising the brain and really concentrating on the spiritual and mental side of our human selves. Research definitely supports a stress reduction and physical health benefits of a mental workout. Mental workouts can help with stress and just make your day better. As i said before puts things in a positive perspective.

reflections

On a scale of 1 to 10 i would rate by physical well being on an 8. The reason i give myself an 8 is i keep active and try to work out at least 5 times a week. On a scale of 1 to 10 judging my spiritual well being i would put myself at a 5 the reason for this is i am pretty much entrenched in this physical world and its vices. On a scale of 1 to 10 i would rate my psychological well being an 8 the reason for this is I'm laid back and take most things in stride not really stressing on the small stuff. My goals for my physical well being is to keep doing what i am doing maybe eat a little better but hey sometimes you need to enjoy the naughty little snacks in life. My spiritual goals is to get some as i said before this is the least developed in my life. My goal for psychological well being is to do some meditation and deep thinking on problems and stress that i come across in my life to make better decisions. The relaxation exercise was very relaxing however i had a lot on my mind as far as school work so my thoughts kept drifting on all the school work i had not completed.