Unit 3: Mind/Body Connection

     For this week’s blog entry I would like to start by saying I had the worst time getting through the reading for this week.  I find this book "Integral Health like reading the King James version of the Holy Bible.  This book is a tough read and very difficult to understand what the author is really saying.  I have to read the chapters several times to understand how to put this stuff in my own words.  I just hope it gets better as this course continues. 
     This unit is asking me to rate my physical, spiritual and psychological well-being on a scale of 1-10.  Develop goals for each and list some activities I can implement to assist my goals.  Fist, I would rate my physical well-being at 7 of 10 due the inherited high blood pressure and low back problems from serving 23 years in the United States Army.  I usually work out about 3 to 6 days a week and try to keep a pretty strict diet to keep my body looking a feeling good.  Second, I would rate my spiritual well-being at 5 of 10.  Although, I am a believer in a higher power I haven't attended church services in a long while.  Lastly, I would rate my psychological well-being at 5 of 10 due to the fact that I am dealing with recurring issues of PTSD which affect my family and myself as a result of combat related incidents in Iraq.  This is an ongoing fight every day and I am doing all I can to handle this situation to ease the pain and suffering on my family and myself. 
     The goals I have developed for my physical, spiritual and psychological well-being are on going and I plan to follow them as much as possible.  My goal for my physical well-being is to keep exercising 3 to 6 days a week to keep my mind and body feeling and look good.  I find that running help ease the stressors in my life and it helps me to relax afterwards which allows me to handle tough situations with a fresh mind.  My goal for my spiritual well-being is to continue to believe there is truly a higher power and continue to pray for good health and forgiveness for myself and others.  My goals for my psychological well-being is to keep my mind fresh, treat my family with the up most respect they deserve, keep associating with like minded individuals to improve my social status and keep studying in school to keep my mind off of disturbing events.  These are just a few goals I am currently using at this time, I'm sure I can list many more but I think this is enough for now. 
     What activities or exercises I can implement to assist my goals and keep moving forward.  As I mentioned already, running and working out is very good for my physical well-being.  I also attend an exercise class twice a week with local First Nations Aboriginals members.  This is another great way to engage socially with others in my community.  When it comes to my spiritual well-being, I treat this as a personal issue and I do not push my religion on others and I would hope others would have the same respect for me.  Exercises or activities I can use to implement my psychological well-being, I plan to doing as much as possible to stay active with my family, continue to attend meetings with my PTSD counselors, keep associating with like minded individuals and keep the disturbing events to a minimum. 
     This week’s relaxation exercise on Rainbow Meditation once again took me to a place of total relaxation, concentrating on all the different body parts with corresponding colors made the relaxation technique all the better.  I could actually feel the body parts relax as my breathing became deeper and deeper.  The most important area of relaxation for me was my forehead and the corresponding color indigo blue.  I had a bit of a headache and soon as I felt relaxed, I could feel the headache disappear and I indeed feel like my whole body was in balance with everything in the universe.  I'm starting to like this relaxation stuff, I didn't give it much thought before this class.  I think I'll continue, can't wait to see what comes next.