Week 3- The Crime of the Century

Colors and Relaxation- I love to relax, and concentrating on parts of the body can be very helpful when it comes to doing this.

As I listened to the recording I found myself in the beginning to be very relaxed, but as the focus on things became more intense I started finding myself drifting from the relaxation and trying to focus on the colors and circles and doors. Although the background music and his voice is very soothing, ultimately I found it to be too much focus to relax.

As I discussed during class, I was taught a similar practice to shut down each part of my body when going to sleep. This require some mental focus, but very little. The phrases and body parts are don sequentially allowing you to work in an order that suits you and helps to relax. The same can be done when you are just trying to take a break in general.

The focus of colors and shapes are very nice to draw attention away from issues, or to relax to relieve stress, but I found it to be a little too much work for my own benefit. I actually felt a little overwhelmed a few times when I was trying to place focus on a certain color and compare as well as trying to visualize the color. 

Week 3- How am I feeling?

My Physical Well Being- On a scale from 1-10 I think physically I am pretty damn good. There of course is always room for improvement, but overall I like the way I look physically and my ability to move.

I do have few aches and creeks here and there, but for having four children by the age of thirty, I really think I am looking damn good. I work out at least 4 times a week, run and chase after my kids. I take good care of my skin and I like it. 

In order to be happy with the way we look, we must be dedicated to working on it. You can’t be a couch potato and complain about being overweight or having other physical problems. You have to get up of your butt and stay that way. 

Nothing frustrates me more than a person that complains about being out of shape, or overweight or weak, but they do nothing to improve it. Live a little and for goodness sakes, take care of your physical well-being or later in life you will suffer the consequences.

My Spiritual Well Being- Over all I would rate myself at about a 10 with how I feel about it, but my spiritual following and [performance are at about a 6. 

I say this because I am a very spiritual person at heart, but the everyday hassle of life seems to affect the way I do the things I should spiritually. As a child growing up I was very in touch with my spiritual side, but as I grew and had children it slowly slipped inside the recesses of my mind and soul. 

I am a Buddhist, and as a Buddhist I feel very strongly about nature and life all being interconnected, but the issue I find myself faced with every day is religiously following my beliefs. Although a Buddhist, I am not religious, I actually follow Buddhism because of the spirituality and the philosophy of life. I think that if I practiced a little mere devout that I would raise my actual spirit level to at least an 8 and then overtime all thing would come together and I would be back a 10.  

Psychological Well Being- I think overall I find I am at about an 8 with this.
Since I do take care of myself physically it helps my mental focus which in turn helps me to relax and deal decently with everyday stress. This returns the favor by taking care of my body since my mental focus is strong. 

I do however find that this level of 8 fluctuates on a daily basis several times because it is dependent upon the current situations. In some cases I am able to maintain my level of stress low, while others I get upset and let things bother me more than normal. This makes my psychological level fluctuate on a daily. Overall though I find that I sit at about an 8 because I am a very strong willed person. 

Exercising my mind and finding constructive ways to relieve my stress and continuing my education will help me to achieve my goals.

Wow, I am so relaxed right now!!!

Wow,
      I think that the "Journey to relaxation'" made me almost pass out. Focusing on teh background music and his voice is so relaxing. I think this is a great method to make a person relax. The end, even when he discusses feeling energized, it is a relaxed kind of energy.

      Ironically enough, as a child I was taught how to do this by my uncle. He was a very spiritual person. He believes in magic and astro projection and other things of that nature. When he used to visit, we would talk about how difficult it was for me to sleep at night, and he taught me how to use a similar method to allow myself to fall asleep.

     He taught me to basically shut down each part of my body starting with my toes. He said that when I close my eyes to focus on mentally telling my toes to feel heavy and to relax and fall asleep, and then move to each body part until I was asleep. after about 15 years of doing this, i think the farthest I have ever gotten is my chest. It really works.
   
     You should try it and let me know how it works for you!!!

Colleen Huddleston

   

Hello Everyone

Hi,
   Welcome to my journey to relaxation and my new blog post. This is the first time I have ever blogged, I don't usually do this, but lets see how it turns out. Thank you for coming to visit, please let me know what you think about my discussion. I am using my husbands account because he already has it set up. LOL.

Enjoy!!

Colleen Huddleston