Unit 4 - Loving Kindness

     I love the water sounds in the background as I tend to gravitate towards those sounds when relaxing and doing meditation exercises.  I do feel this exercise was beneficial and I did feel more loving and patient when done.  I did find the exercise challenging as I have not done it enough so my thoughts tend to wander when there was pauses between the lady speaking.  I would recommend this to others as I did work and I would like to listen to this more and see how I do with it over time.  

     A mental workout is working out the brain or mental side of yourself.  It's not so much different from a physical workout in the sense that it takes motivation to complete and implement as part of your routine. The newer concepts your are working on must be practiced just as lifting weights, if you don't do it often you lose the muscle tone.  The benefits point toward a greater inner well being and greater mental focus.  I feel that beginning the loving kindness exercises on a consistent basis will help me gain a greater peace within and its a great start to a mental fitness routine.

Unit 3 - Reflections

Physical - 5 

     I give myself a five in this category as I am a work in progress.  I have achieved great physical fitness two years ago and then was pregnant with complications and ended up benched for almost 1 1/2 years due to recovery and surgery.  Now I am getting back in the saddle slowly and getting back in the habit is terribly hard.  I have the desire to gain better physical health through physical fitness and have been successful in implementing a new lifestyle that is much healthier.  My goal is to continue in my weight loss success and get back up to my 6 day a week workouts.

Spiritual -6

     I give myself a six in this area as I have always been spiritual but have been growing my my biblical spiritual self.  I have begun to pray more and lay my stresses and sorrow on God's shoulders and really understand a higher power.  I have also been learning better meditation practices to release the stresses of the day.  A goal of mine to to do some soul searching on if our church is where I want to be and if it is then we need to go more often.  Sometimes I feel like my husband feels like this is where he has always gone so we just go there, but I am not feeling necessarily like its where I want to belong.

Psychological -6

     I give myself a six in this area as I know I am working on it.  I want to have more loving kindness and patience with my family.  I also want to gain a better grip on settling with what I cannot change.  I tend to be a bit high strung and I really want to become better at relaxing and just gaining better focus.  My goal is to meditate more consistently to release the stress of the day and also to greet my husband in a happy manner each day when he gets home rather than spilling over what all went wrong in my day with the kids, chores, etc. 

RELAXATION EXERCISE:

After completeing this relaxation exercise i did feel better and more relaxed.  I started to get antsy as it seemed like it was very long.  I do prefer the guided exercises at this point as my mind tends to wander without direction.  I also love the use of imagery with the colors to help with focus on parts of the body and relaxing.

Unit 2 - Welcome to A BeYOUtiful You!

Hi everyone!
     I titled my blog a BeYOUtiful you because I believe that people are beautiful if they are able to be themselves.  Once the barriers are blown away and people are not trying to be what others think they should be its amazing!  My hopes are to inspire others in my professional career to not only become healthy but be able to manage their stresses and incorporate physical activity and fitness into their life. 
     I am not new to the blogging world but have not been consistent in my blog for about a year.  I really enjoy reading other people's blogs and to see their ideas.  
     I love the guided relaxation practice we had as its similar to one I use before bed to help calm my mind.  I tend to need a guided solution to keep me focused otherwise my mind tends to wander.  I look forward to our continued blog posts!

Thanks!
Melissa R.
A BeYOUtiful You