Unit 3: Level of Awareness

1. Based on your reflections, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being optimal wellbeing), where do you rate your A-physical wellbeing, B-spiritual well-being, C-psychological well-being? Why?


My physical well being is 7 because though I try to eat right and get my exercise regularly, since the holidays I have been lagging behind in my aerobic work outs. My spiritual well being is 8 because though I do make time for prayer regularly, there is always a need to improve my spiritual growth. My psychological well being is 4 because the stress and problems have been extremely high lately.



2. Develop a goal for yourself in each area (physical, spiritual, psychological).

A physical goal I have is to maintain a healthy weight for my height and age. A spiritual goal I have is to maintain my intimate relationship with God and to fully trust him. A psychological goal of mine is to maintain a calm disposition in my own thoughts and emotions so that when situations get explosive in my own environment, my behavior will correspond to maintaining assertiveness calmly.



3. What activities or exercise can you implement in your life to assist in moving toward each goal?

A good physical activity to get back into would be walking, yoga and aerobics. Walking will help to clear my mind and to build my endurance level to generate increased physical activities later on in the week. Yoga is a wonderful exercise to stretch and relieve tension. In addition to that, I need to engage in aerobics again to keep my metabolism at an optimum rate and maintain lean muscles.

A spiritual activity of mine is to continue to pray regularly and attend regular bible studies. My schedule limits my time for church services, but I believe it is important to maintain spiritual growth and my personal relationship with God.

A psychological activity would be to maintain a recollection of my thoughts and feelings regularly to put my own feelings into some sort of perspective. With the stresses that I have endured in the past year or so in my personal relationships with other family members, it’s been extremely difficult to handle conflicts. I’ve been feeling so emotionally drained, it’s been exhausting trying to sort out my own feelings or even maintain a calm disposition to disagreements. However, if it weren’t for my strong faith in God, I think I’d probably be sitting in a mental ward wearing a straight jacket!!!! I should try to maintain a regular diary to have a better understanding of my emotions. Though I do get some relief from praying, I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve.



4. Complete the relaxation exercise The Crime of the Century. To hear this exercise, click here. Describe your experience. (What it beneficial? Frustrating? etc.)

My experience with “The Crime of the Century” exercise was rather frustrating. It was difficult to shut off my thought process and just focus on my breathing from the very beginning. The stresses that are going on in my life right now seems so overwhelming, it is difficult to put complete focus on myself without some form of prayers and meditation going on. The words of the exercise were difficult to facilitate with some of the phrases as “I feel loved” and “I feel balanced.” I experience those emotions when I am praying, so I’d actually need the words to be more coordinated with my spiritual and religious beliefs to really have those feelings that the commentator was speaking about. I did experience feeling grounded, connected to others, and part of the rest of the universe but the other two emotions were just too difficult to experience alone. How could I possibly feel loved if I am alone, not reaching out to God? My strength is a derivative of my faith, and if I feel like I am separating myself from that in anyway, I feel alone rather than love.

Unit 2: Reflective Statement

In the Journey On Relaxation exercises, I had to go through the session three times because my mind was preoccupied with my list of things that needed to be accomplished.  That was evident in the first two sessions because I didn't experience the heavy arms and warm palms, not to mention the interruptions of the phone ringing or my son needing me to help him with his homework!  I actually had to wait until everybody in the house was asleep to try it again! 

Needless to say, the third time around was a charm!  I experienced a feeling of relaxation where my my mind was clear and the stresses of the day had dissipated.  I felt fully refreshed and energized as if I had been on a much needed vacation!  Following the prompt to open my eyes after the exercise, I had a very vivid memory come to me of performing a similar exercise in the 6th grade!  We were asked to lie down facing the ceiling on padded mats and to concentrate on our breathing.  I find this similar to the state of mind I am in when I am about to drift off to sleep at bedtime.  In the relaxation exercise, I focused on my circulatory system and heartbeat, which took a little longer to do than just focusing on respiration.  The experience was so refreshing, it's something I need to try more often to renew energy and relieve stress!   

Welcome Statement

Hello classmates and Professor Stewart! 

It is a pleasure to finally be able to join everyone here for the Creating Wellness course.  During the quarter, I hope that we are able to share experiences and perspectives in a respectful manner with our selves and each other.  In the hurriedness of the day and keeping track of a regular schedule of juggling roles as a wife, mother, student, and employee, I share and relate to the roles that many of you have with similar stresses.  I find the concept of integral health to be most intriguing but also in some instances, like learning to ride a bike or to skate!  I learn through auditory speech, kinetics, and sight.  So, I hope to be able to fully embrace the new concept into my own thought process of ideals and perception.  I look forward to enhancing my emotional intelligence and sense of wholeness in this world.  Hopefully in time, we all will be able to appreciate the empowerment of our own minds and bodies to make improvements with the tools and skills given in this course to relieve stress and achieve optimum health and wellness.  Happy learning and enjoy the upcoming weeks of learning everybody!