Unit 5 The Subtle Mind

I found this week's exercise much easier to follow than last week's Loving Kindness exercise. I found it much easier to tap into that stillness and oneness with the universe. I suppose I find it easier to find balance than it is to love and accept myself. Normally, when my daughter acts up during these exercises, I find it difficult to get back on track. This time, my daughter was getting into the cat food and my husband had to get her away from it. Normally, this would be very distracting during these exercises. However, this time I just laughed and couldn't stop laughing instead of getting upset like I normally would. I saw all of these distracting thoughts as little doors that I was able to close and set aside for later. I think this is a very useful technique for those of us who may be prone to stress or anger.

Spiritual wellness can have a profound impact on physical and mental wellness. It is my belief that the more you are connected with your spiritual self, the more in-tune you are to your mind and body. For instance, yoga and Tai Chi are both used in spiritual development. However, they make you focuse on your breath and posture. My former yoga instructor told us all about how yoga impacted her life to make changes to her health (like quitting smoking and eating right). A balance in one's spiritual health is likely to have an impact on one's mental and physical development.

Unit 4- Loving Kindness

I found the Loving Kindness exercise to be a bit more difficult than the Rainbow guided meditation. It wasn't so much that the exercise itself was difficult, but that I had a little trouble focusing. Even though I normally have no problem keeping my mind clear, I found myself thinking to much about those people that the exercise wanted me to think about. I started thinking about the problems my sister and friends are all going through and how I wish I could help, even though it's not my place with any of their problems. I'm the kind of person who feels responsible for other people's problems, even if it has nothing to do with me. I did, however, find myself instinctively sending Reiki out to all of those people. There are some people that I haven't spoken to in a long time and this exercise helped me to forgive them for whatever happened between us. I guess that when you're really close to some people for so long, no amount of petty fighting will make you stop loving them. I realized that with this exercise. I would recommend this exercise to others, but with my own changes. I found the pauses to be too long and it made the whole thing a little boring to get through. For other people, I can just see them having problems sitting still for so long in silence like that.

Our textbook states that mental workouts are essential to really build our psychospiritual self. Only through continuous practice can we really connect with that Loving Kindness. Even 5-15 minutes a day can have a profound impact. In order to love and accept others, we must first love and accept ourselves. Mental workouts can help with this by pushing out those negative thoughts that we let hinder us and our love for ourselves. For someone like me who has negative feelings toward his or her body, this is tough to get through. Yet a mental workout like this can help you to see the real person inside and not just what you think others see. This is important for spiritual acceptance. I think meditations and personal mantras are important for this. Waking up in the morning and repeat positive thoughts to yourself before the stress of the day begins can help you get through those negative feelings. I know that I need to focus on bringing loving kindness to myself so that I can learn how to accept, love, and forgive others.

Unit 3- The Mind/Body Connection

For my physical wellness, I would rate myself around a 5. I am currently overweight, but it has not become an issue and I am in the process of losing weight. I've never been diabetic or had any cardiovascular problems. The only time I've ever had high blood pressure was when I was on the Ortho Evra patch when I was younger. My body simply rejects any form of birth control- even ones without hormones. 3 months after I stopped hormonal birth control, my cholesterol and blood pressure dropped back to normal. Since then, I haven't had any sort of problems. I have glaucoma, but it is under control with eye drops, bilberry, and vitamin C. I do suffer from joint pain, however, and that is something that I really need to work on.

As for my spiritual well-being, I have to give myself a 10. Even though I don't meditate as often as I should, I feel very connected to my spiritual self and my Goddess. I also run a Pagan and Wiccan study group here in the Quad Cities and we meet every 2 weeks in person to talk about anything pertaining to our magickal practices. We also have an online forum that we talk on daily. I'm very comfortable in my spiritual beliefs and my Reiki practice. For mental well-being, I would give myself an 8. Lately I have been getting mad more than I should and taking things out on myself- even if they're not my fault. Otherwise, I don't let stress get to me as much as it does to other people.

My physical goal is still to lose weight and become more active. This means popping in a movie and working on my exercise bike if I had to. I also want to go for more walks and go for bike rides with my family to the park and the zoo. My spiritual goal is to do magick and divination readings for myself, my husband, and my friends more often. I want to reconnect with the faeries around my home and use magick to bring positive blessings to my home and those I love. Finally, my mental goal would be to take out more time for myself. I need to get off of the computer during the day and do some reading instead. I should also do some meditation before bed or when I wake up in the morning. If I can find some good videos, I think doing some Tai Chi would help with that, as well. Overall, I think just getting away from the computer and becoming more active would help me in all 3 of these areas.

This week's relaxation exercise is pretty much identical to the meditation that I was taught during my Reiki training. Even though it's a little difficult to concentrate with a baby in the room, it was very pleasant getting my chakras open again. This exercise reminded me of why I want to be a healer and what Reiki, herbalism, and nutrition mean to me. I feel as though doing this once a day when I wake up in the morning would be very beneficial to give me the energy to tackle the day- whether it be to lose weight, do the chores around the house, or play with my daughter. I also can't wait for my husband to get home from work so we can spend some quality time together.

Journey on Relaxation

I found this exercise to be very beneficial. The background music is very calming and nice and the man's voice was very easy to follow. However, it's a bit difficult to do for a long period of time when you have a baby pulling on your arm for attention. During the exercise, I noticed that my body started vibrating with my heartbeat in my chair. Also, for the past day or so, I have had a great deal of pain in my neck and shoulders that I just have not been able to get rid of. Even though the pain is not quite gone, it is a lot more tolerable. This also brings me back to my days in massage therapy school when my professor used to use meditation techniques in class. The only thing I didn't like about this exercise, however, is that it feels like more of a lecture than a meditation technique. For someone who's been doing meditation for many years, this just felt very repetitive and not really anything new for me. However, I can see how other people who may be new to meditation can benefit from it. It really makes me want to start teaching meditation classes like I've been thinking about for the past 4 months or so. Teaching people in my area stuff like this, as well as more advanced guided meditations would be a great way to get my Reiki business finally up and going.