Meeting Aesclepius

So this is my second attempt at my initial post for this unit.  Last Saturday, the 21st, I was working on my school work, trying to complete as much as I could before Christmas.  Well, as I was working, I decided that it was time for a break.  During my break, I found it very hard to breathe, and I was extremely nauseous.  And the nausea increased and I had a very deep pain right under my sternum and above where I could feel my baby.  I even called the doctor and told him what I was feeling.  He said it sounded like heartburn.  (I have never had heartburn, so I don't know what it feels like.)  I wound up going to the hospital a few minutes after I hung up the phone anyway.  I just knew that something was wrong--and it wasn't heartburn.  My husband drove me to the hospital.  They took me right back.  The nurses took some blood and hooked up some monitors.  The doctor decided to perform an emergency C-section, and within a half hour of being in the hospital, our daughter was born!  From the time I started to feel sick, to the time she was born, it was less than three hours.  Talk about a crazy evening!  She wasn't due until February, so this was quite a surprise for us!  She is beautiful!  Her name is Melina.  Since she was born seven weeks premature, she is and will be in the NICU for several weeks.  Her improvement has been phenomenal!  Hopefully she will be able to come home sooner than they estimate.  :)  Ok, so that is my super exciting news for the week!  I just had to share with everyone!  :)  (I can't believe I am a mom!)

I chose to visualize my husband's Pap for this exercise.  He was a wonderful man, and the world needs more people like him.  Unfortunately, he passed away last August.  I liked that the "beam of light" that the author was referring to had special meaning for each placement of the light.  To purify my thoughts, speech, and heart to be more like this wise person I was visualizing.  And the author instructed me to "become this person," and take on the qualities of this person, which I found interesting, because I just said "the world needs more people like him."  When I tried to visualize what it felt like to "become" him, I was temporarily stumped.  What would it be like to be him?  What went on inside his head?  How did he get to be so kind and caring?  Was he like that by nature, or was he a product of his environment?  Are his parents and siblings the same way?  And then I found myself distracted trying to find the root of his kindness.  And then I started to look at myself, and thought, how could I be more like him, really?  And then the author said that his essence is now my inner essence.  And that made me think as well.  Hmm...

Since the start of this term, we have done several meditative practices.  And I have found that I actually look forward to each one in each unit.  It allows me to take some time for myself.  And in a sense, take care of myself.  These practices may only take a few minutes, but the effects and the thought processes that are stimulated lead to a sort of peace that lasts all day.  I could certainly make an effort to try to complete a meditative practice every couple days, or at least once a week to continue to feel that sort of peace that I was referring to.  I could look up meditative practices on YouTube or Google and listen to those.  Especially with the new baby coming home in a few weeks, I must take this time to heal physically, prepare myself mentally, and open myself spiritually for the journey ahead.  What better way to do that than to set aside some personal reflection time?

My interpretation of the saying "one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself," simply means that before you can help someone else, you must first be able to help yourself.  How can you offer advice to a situation if you have never been in a similar one?  And how can they trust you?  This concept is important for a health and wellness professional, because it allows me to show my clients that I am human, just like them.  That I too, am on the same journey through life that they are, and there are many avenues to be explored that can lead to greater health and wellness.  Why not try them all?  If I try different ways to develop my health (physical, mental, and spiritual), I can share  my thoughts and experiences with my clients and we can compare once the client tries a similar modality.  As a health and wellness professional, it is my obligation and personal responsibility to encourage my clients to take charge of their overall wellbeing and experience as many options as they are willing to achieve the goal of ultimate health. 

Mariah  :)

Universal Loving Kindness and Integral Assessment

Ok, so this week we were to do two exercises that were found in our text.  This was a change of pace, because instead of listening to a guided practice, this week we were in charge of conducting two exercises at our own pace. 

The first one was called Universal Loving Kindness.  Here, we were to repeat four different phrases over and over to ourselves for approximately ten minutes.  These phrases were:  "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," and "May I assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness (Dacher, 2006)."  At first, I had to keep looking back in the book to remember what I was supposed to be focusing on.  But as I kept repeating the phrases, it did get easier.  I felt that the first part of this exercise was a little bit "heavy on my heart."  I mean, it's hard to look at the suffering of others to begin with, and then to look to myself and think about how I can help to alleviate that suffering.  It can be a little bit exhausting.  The other half was much easier, to hope for health, happiness, and wholeness in others, and look to myself and think about how I can assist in fostering those feelings in others.  To me, that just seems easier.  The Romans used to refer to the experience of all these feelings as the "purging of emotions," and they considered it to be very healthy and cleansing. 

The second exercise was the Integral Assessment of ourselves.  We were to look at our psycho-spiritual, biological, interpersonal, and worldly aspects of our lives.  I identified my "source of difficulty and suffering" as my relationship with my mother in law.  And I asked myself, "how can I make our relationship better; what can I do?"  "What type of relationship would I like to have with her?"  I have many great relationships with many people in my life, and I am very thankful for that.  I am so fortunate to know so many great people.  The most difficult and hard to understand relationship that I have is with my mother in law.  (So cliché, right?)  :)  But the tension is very real (and I also do not know why it is there).  I understand that we are very different people, but that's okay.  She had a conversation with my husband the other day that lasted about two hours.  She felt the need to bring up everything that I have ever done, in the past ten years, that she has found fault with.  This brought on quite a bit of stress for my husband, as well as myself.  It is very sad to see someone with so much hate and resentment in her heart.  (And it is not just toward me...there are others on her list, I just happened to be the focus of that particular conversation.)  And what I am about to say next is kind of funny, because it applies directly to our blog assignment this week.  I asked myself "what can I do to try to make this right?"  (I mean, we are having a baby in a few weeks...let's enjoy that experience together).  So I wrote her a letter (because she will not answer the phone if I call) encouraging her to recognize the many blessings she has in her life.  I also went on to remind her of all the things her son and I have been through together over the past ten years and how much I love him (high school, college, two overseas tours, marriage, a house, pregnancy, etc.).  I also told her that I thank God for her every day, because without her, there would be no Adam (my husband).  And I also asked her to be willing to put our differences aside and look at what is important:  our future and our growing family.   I put that letter in the mail on Tuesday, so she should have gotten it yesterday or today.  I felt really good writing that letter, because I felt that I was doing something good.  I also feel better, now that I wrote it.  I'm curious and anxious to see how she responds to it.  And I sincerely hope she sees the love and positivity I was trying to convey to her.  I do want a nice relationship with her.  So that was the first active step I took in "righting" this situation in my eyes.  I certainly hope it works.  For those of you who are interested, I will let you know how she responds, and if she responds at all.  Have a nice day!  :)

Mariah Joyce

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral health:  The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA:  Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Subtle Mind Practice

When comparing the Subtle Mind Practice to the Loving Kindness Practice we did last week, I really must say that I liked the Subtle Mind Practice better, mainly because of the long pauses between instruction (Dacher, 2006).  I mentioned in my Loving Kindness post that I would recommend to other people to feel free to pause that exercise, simply because I felt that I did not have enough time to complete a thought or feeling before I was guided to another set of thoughts/feelings.  I certainly found the Subtle Mind Practice much easier to "get into."  Perhaps this had something to do with the time of day I chose to do this practice, but I think it had more to do with the fact that this is the same type of mental coaching I give myself when I am sad, frustrated, or angry, and I am trying to calm my mind and body so that I could get a good night's sleep.  I literally talk myself out of focusing on what is distracting me, and bring myself back to the importance of quality sleep and calmness.

There is a spiritual connection to mental and physical wellness.  An example of how this is evident in my personal life would be through the changes I have gone through during my pregnancy thus far.  Since I have been pregnant, I have gained a total of 23 pounds so far.  My doctor says that I am doing great with the weight gain--I am right where I am supposed to be.  However, as a woman brought up in American society, it is hard to watch the scale creep up at each doctor's visit.  This is where I have to remind myself that this is all healthy weight gain, and that I do need to gain a certain amount of weight to have a healthy pregnancy and deliver a healthy baby.  So that covers the physical and mental part of my current wellness status.  The spiritual part of my wellness status comes from knowing that once this little girl is born, I will embark on a journey that will last a lifetime as a mother.  Together we will grow as people.  And together we will grow in our relationships.  I know that having children will be a rewarding experience for myself and my husband.  We are both very excited and nervous at the same time.  I pray that I will make a good mother, and that I will successfully instill in our children values, work ethic, respect, and love.

Mariah

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral health:  The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA:  Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Loving Kindness

The exercise "Loving Kindness," lead by Dacher, was certainly a different exercise than the ones that we have done for previous Units.  So how was my experience?  Certainly not bad...I didn't like the sound of the ocean in the background, but that is mainly because I am pregnant and have to use the bathroom often, and that sound just added to that all-too-familiar sensation.  :)  haha!  The woman's voice was easy to understand, and I liked that she spoke slowly.  I liked in the beginning how I was instructed to think about someone who was close to me and that I cared deeply for, the next step was to take those same emotions and apply them to myself--allowing me to apply those same feelings and emotions to myself.  This makes perfect sense to me, because I do not believe that we can fully and truly love somebody until we truly and fully love ourselves.  How can we accept others if we cannot accept ourselves?  Anyway, I liked that there were moments where the woman did not talk and allowed myself to think.  I would certainly recommend this exercise to others, however, I would also suggest that that person feel free to pause the exercise to allow themselves to complete his or her thoughts before being prompted to the next step of the exercise.

So what is the concept behind a "mental workout?"  According to Dacher, the purpose of a mental workout is to progress in our development of our (now and ever-) expanding consciousness and its healing benefits (Dacher, 2006).  And research shows that if this is not practiced regularly, we can lose some of thought elasticity (Dacher, 2006).  So how can I implement mental workouts to foster my psychological health?  The Loving Kindness practice suggests that we do things for others, with no selfish incentives (Dacher, 2006).  We can do this through charity and volunteer work.  And the Subtle Mind practice suggests that we train our minds to cease the madness...we can do this by writing down everything that is on our minds and then listing them by priority (Dacher, 2006).  This will help us to sort out what is important, less important, and not so important, and prioritize our attention accordingly, all while lessening our stress load.

Mariah Joyce

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral health:  The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA:  Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Crime of the Century Relaxation Exercise

Ok, so last time I tried to do this exercise, I was not able to access it.  But it worked this time!  :)  So this time, I decided to do the relaxation exercise in the morning.  It is about 0630 where I am.  This worked better for me.  Last time, for the Journey On exercise, I did it in the afternoon, and I was feeling rushed and couldn't focus on the exercise. 

I like the author's voice, because it is very relaxing.  And perhaps because I was actually able to relax, I feel that I got more from this exercise than the one we did last week.  "I feel grounded, I feel centered, I feel loved, I choose to love, my life has a meaningful purpose, I feel balanced, and I feel connected" are all feelings that are associated with different colors of the light spectrum and various body parts.  I found this interesting because I have done other relaxation techniques for other classes and the colors associated with certain meanings and body areas were different.  I suppose that this does not matter, as long as you achieve the relaxation you seek.  I really do not know why this exercise is called "Crime of the Century" though.  I do however, like trying all of these different relaxation exercises.  It just makes sense to try them all out, because what works for one person, may or may not work for another.

Mariah

Personal Health Goals

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate my physical wellbeing at seven or eight right now.  You see, I am seven months pregnant, and things are getting a lot harder to do!  Putting my shoes on takes my breath away!  haha!  Although my weight gain is right where I am supposed to be and I have had no adverse health conditions, I still can feel how much being pregnant has slowed me down.  (I actually don't like that!)  But I also understand that I am taking care of myself and soon to be baby girl.  :)  So I can't be off-roading, or climbing in rafters anymore!  haha!  I do have a goal for myself in this area after I am done being pregnant--and I think it is a very popular one amongst pregnant women:  to fit in my pre-pregnancy clothes!  And also to attain the same physical fitness level (by working on my push ups, sit ups, and two mile run) that has become expected of me as a soldier.

In the psychological department, I would give myself an eight or nine.  I'm pretty strong willed when it comes to things I want or want to do.  However, I think where I fault is empathizing with too much with people who do mean a lot to me (family or a client).  Like my mom, for example.  She worries about things that I just don't think are worth worrying about!  And then when she talks to me about her problems, I find myself starting to worry or feel bad myself.  But that is where I have to talk myself out of that and remind myself that her problems are not my problems.  And I am simply a shoulder to cry on, and I can give a lending ear and some advice.  From there, it is up to the person to take steps to help fix the problem, not just simply talk about it.  I can also handle a lot of different things going on at one time.  So I would say I'm a good multi-tasker and I can adapt and adjust as situations dictate.  A goal in this department would be to stay on track with my personal agenda while maintaining a professional distance so not to become empathetically exhausted.  (that would not be good for my career choice!)  And this simply takes practice and self awareness.

Oh my, and the spiritual wellbeing.  I would have to rate myself at a seven or eight.  I am not where I want to be.  But I am working on it.  I used to go to church every Sunday.  And then when I got pregnant, time has just escaped me somehow.  So I started to go back to church.  I want to be able to raise my little girl in our church, and I want her to learn about God and Jesus.  I do pray everyday, more conversationally than anything else.  However, I want to learn more about the Bible and the stories that I can share with my little one.  I think that is important.  So to improve my self rating, I can go to church, pay attention, and even do some Bible study on my own.  I have a niece who is two and a half years old and loves going to church, so she also motivates me to want to take her!  She loves going, so I want to make sure she gets to go!

I tried the link for the Crime of the Century relaxation exercise three times this evening, and each time there has been an error saying that the content could not be displayed.  So I will have to try again later.  Hopefully tomorrow!  I will post about it once I am able to access it!  Until next time, see you in class or in your blogs!

Mariah Joyce

Journey On

     I listened to the Journey On relaxation exercise this evening.  Last term, I listened to similar relaxation exercises focusing on guided imagery.  This exercise was different because the author of Journey On called for a focus on how your body feels during this guided exercise.  The man's voice is calm and relaxing and he guides the listener to "control your own body," through deep breaths and the suggestion of arterial dilation to different body parts.  He compared the muscles in our bodies to that of a dry sponge, and then to a wet sponge.  The purpose of this exercise is for your mind to take control of the way your body feels.  And by suggesting to your body that different limbs are "warm and heavy," and guiding the blood flow to different areas of the body, is supposed leave the listener in a more relaxed state than which they started the exercise.  There is a link below for anyone outside of class who wants to take a listen and experience this for themselves.

     I thought this exercise was nice...  Perhaps if I didn't have so many other things on my mind at the current moment I could have taken more from this exercise.  In retrospect, maybe early morning or before bed would have been a better choice in time to complete this exercise. 

     However, several years ago, I was taught a technique that I feel is a little bit more beneficial.  I don't know what the name of the exercise was called, but the person providing the guidance had the students lay on the floor, flat on their backs.  He suggested to us that each of us were stressed and by the end of the exercise, we would all stand up or sit up feeling very relaxed.  As he guided us through this relaxation technique, he had us clench certain muscle groups as hard as we could for a given amount of time.  And by the end of the exercise, all the major muscle groups had been clenched and released.  Between each of the "clenching" segments of the exercise he would have us focus on our breathing and say something in a calm voice that put the students at ease.  I remember "waking up" feeling so relaxed and refreshed at the conclusion of his guided training.  I find myself using this technique myself from time to time.

Mariah

Kaplan University. (n. d.). Journey On. Retrieved from http://www.kushs.net/kaplan/HW420/JourneyOn.mp3

Welcome to my Blog!

     Welcome to my blog, "Your Nutrition Intuition."  I chose this title because nutrition is highly individualized.  When I say "nutrition," I am not only referring to the food we put into our bodies, I am referring to everything that we allow to become a part of ourselves.  This includes the obvious diet and exercise, the current conditions of our interpersonal relationships, our relationships with nature and personal divinity, our creativity and imagination, our moods and perspectives, gratitude, and personal goals, among many other aspects of life that affect us daily.  "Nutrition" is everything that feeds you.  And lastly, when I say "intuition," I am referring to the power each of us has within ourselves to access a deeper "self."  Each of us holds all the answers to all of what ails us.  We just need to look for the answers and seek support from those willing to help.

     I look forward to sharing my experiences with those who choose to follow my blog as well as reading any comments that any of you may have.

Mariah