Current Standings:
Physical Well-Being: 3
Spiritual Well-Being: 7
Mental Well-Being: 5
To be honest, admitting this stuff on a blog post is really really hard. It's difficult to admit to anyone who could possibly come across this post that I don't have my life as together as I act like I do. I'll start at the top with physical well-being. I don't exercise anywhere near as much as I should. Honestly, I'm lucky if I get 30 minutes in a week. With everything else that goes on in my life I'm overbooked and I just don't have the time. Spiritually, I think I'm doing decently. I am a Christian and have recently "dived" further into my faith. I feel a much stronger connection to God than I have in years and my faith has become a very solid foundation for me in the past months. However, I do have a lot of days where it is harder than it should be to continuously strive to be the person of faith that I want to be. Mentally, I am going through some very stressful situations and struggling. I feel like I may have bitten off more than I can chew this term with my classes, work, and my family. However, I will do my best to make everything work. In cases like this though the thing that winds up suffering is the time and attention that I would give to myself.
My goals:
Physical Well-Being: 7
Spiritual Well-Being: 8
Mental Well-Being: 7
These goals are realistic for me. The most important activity that I will need to do in order to achieve all of these goals will be to reevaluate my current priorities. I will need to find some time and space to devote to my own development. Although the course load in this class is heavy, it is funny how it kind of feels more like "me time" than the rest of my activities. In order to become healthier physically the most important thing I need to do is to carve out 30 minutes a day to exercise. I think that this will also improve my mental well-being as it will give me time during the day where I do not have to focus on everything else. I have also enjoyed the guided meditation and I believe that something like this would be useful to incorporate for my own well-being. Lastly, I think that trying to find a church where I can connect with other like-minded people would help me spiritually. When you surround yourself with people who share the same beliefs, they can help to guide you and support you during difficult situations.
For our guided meditation this week, we listed to the Crime of the Century. This was a guided meditation that focused on opening different areas of ourselves. I'll be honest, by the time I got to the head I fell asleep. I couldn't help it and I'm not sure if it wasn't a bad thing. I woke up a few minutes later and felt incredibly rested. I also noticed that I was in a very deep internal awareness during this meditation. I heard a noise while I was meditating and it felt like I was being pulled back into awareness. I liked the idea in the meditation of opening different areas of the body. However, I found the imagery to be difficult to follow and it left me a little frustrated. I didn't understand the idea of a shining light from body parts and how it would look in order to imagine it the right way.
Hope everyone is having a great week!
Sandra
Sandra,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, I also found it difficult to do this assignment, I am not necessarily a private person but when you're faced with rating aspects of yourself it's pretty difficult and intimidating, especially when you have to turn around and share that info with a bunch of strangers! Thank you for being brave and sharing with all of us! And don't worry, you will get through and come out stronger for the effort. I know this first hand, no matter how dark things get, no matter how overwhelmed you are, just keep kicking and you'll find the surface eventually (as Dori says "just keep swimming"), and the sun will be shining. And as a person of faith, you know that God does not give us more than he knows we can handle, we just have to trust.
I also find that exercise is a huge stress reliever! I love to work out, and for a while I was finding it impossible to find or make time for it, I fell out of fitness and started slipping emotionally into a dark place. But we HAVE to make time for US, or everyone around us suffers. Finally I pulled myself up and said "just join a gym and get it over with" (I was exercising at home but I have teenagers in and out of my house all the time, it's hard to stay focused and do a work-out when there's people coming and going, and the idea of going to a gym and taking myself away from family time was not an option...until it had to be). I was suffering inside, and it was leaking over into my personal life....so finally I joined a Bikram yoga studio, and I think it's the best decision I've made in a long time, no matter how bad my day was...yoga is worse (lol) and when I come out of the torture chamber, all my other cares have melted away along with 2 lbs of sweat. Sometimes those 90 minutes are the best part of my day, regardless of how awful it was at the time, when I come out, everything is back in perspective and I feel new, refreshed and peaceful, and much more capable of dealing with my daily life stressors.
Thanks again for sharing!!
Andie
I agree completely. It is so hard to juggle all of the things we have to do on a daily basis and still feel sane. I can only imagine how it is with children! I don't get enough exercise either. Last month I ordered T25, where you only workout intensely for 25 minutes a day. I shamefully couldn't find the time to do it! When I tried to do it in the morning, I always talked myself into getting that extra 25 minutes of much-needed sleep. When I tried to do it in the evenings after work, I was just too exhausted. Needless to say, you are not alone in this juggling act we call life! Thanks for sharing!
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