At the moment I am on a cross country trek with my family. With that being said I sat and faced a wall and plugged my earbuds in and tuned them out the best I could. I sat and tried to center myself and I focused on my biological, psychospiritual, interpersonal and worldly self. The part of my body that seems to be experiencing difficulty is my biological and psychospiritual self. I am at the moment experiencing troubles with my heart. The effects of this problem have started to weigh on my mind. I have been worrying about this problem constantly and worrying about the outcome just worrying. I know that I am not where I need to be in my psycospiritual life. Worry has started to dictate my days. I think the area that needs the most development at this time is the psychospiritual life. If I can look to something bigger to myself to give my problems to then I can find hope where I find worry and despair now. I would say that my development is in the rusty phase. By this I mean that I was once sharp and great at looking to a higher power for guidance and hope. Now however I am I guess too lazy to take time out to pray and read my Bible. I used to find such comfort in doing these things and now I can never find the time to do these things. I need to start setting aside time to read and pray again. It is just that simple. I feel that if I can find a center to my life if I can find my spiritual center. I feel that the physical and mental demands of the world will all go away or be kept in check by finding my spiritual center once again.

I can honestly say that I am a huge skeptic when it comes to the powers of meditation on a person’s life. I took part in the “Loving Kindness” exercise and I was very surprised at the effect that it had over the way I felt while taking part. I began to feel a lightness that I have now experienced in a long time. I do not think that I have felt this freedom and burden free since I was a child. I was able to forget all of the things that were weighing my heart and spirit down. I swear that I actually felt like I was experiencing a beer buzz but without the negative after effects. I think the reason that I do not put much stock into these types of exercises is because of the difficulty that I experience when I try to clear my mind and sit in the quietness. It is so hard for me to silence my mind and the outside world and my to do list for the day. I have massive problems sleeping nightly. I really do think that if I would take part in this type of relaxation, mind clearing exercise each night before I go to bed I would experience the kind of quiet needed to enjoy a worry free sleep. So yes I did find the exercise very beneficial. I suppose that I would recommend exercises similar to the one we took part in to others. You don’t have anything to lose by trying something new. It doesn’t cost you anything and there isn’t a great penalty that you have to pay if you are not successful in the endeavor. That is the beautiful thing about this there isn’t any competition to be won and lost. It is just you and your mind. Nobody is around to judge you or the outcome of the practice.

The main goals to me of the mental workouts is to help cultivate your mind into a fully functioning mind that is connected to your soul and your body. The workouts are designed to help you silence the world outside of your head and look inward to find solutions to your problems. This will help you be the source of your own happiness instead of having to rely on medications, food or other crutches that we may use to fill the empty parts inside each of us. When we do the exercises we are able to find happiness within in ourselves. We are able to accept things that we may not have been willing to accept before we began the exercises. We begin to be able to reduce the anger, doubt, confusion and depression that we once felt and replace them with feelings of love, peace and calm. We can literally transform the way we think and the way our minds work by completing exercises like the one we were assigned. I think that I would benefit most by taking part in mind clearing and soul calming exercises before I go to bed. Dacher suggests that we take part in the exercise at the beginning of the day to enhance the beginning of our day. I literally believe that I would probably have to shut myself off from the rest of my apartment in order to benefit fully from the exercises. I have the hardest time focusing on things that do not require movement.

I believe that if I had to rank my overall well-being I believe that I would rank my well-being around a 6. I do all that I can to make sure my physical well-being is maintained. I work out, eat a balanced diet, stay hydrated and take my vitamins. Where I fall short is the mental side of my well-being. I obsess over things that are beyond my control and hold on to feelings of anger and ill intentions for far too long. This keeps my mind busy at night and I have problems sleeping due to these feelings of stress and worry. I used to be really active in church and I used to read my Bible and pray regularly. Now, however I do not read my Bible frequently and I do not currently attend church.

My goal for my physical well-being is to incorporate more stretching or yoga into my weekly workout routine. My psychological goal is to sit in silence while doing nothing for 10 minutes a day. This may seem ridiculous but I have to start somewhere. I have to begin a road to meditation somewhere. Spiritual can be solved by setting aside 15 minutes daily for reading my Bible and prayer.

I will keep on eating well, working out and doing everything in my power to maintain my personal health as I always do. For my psychological health I need to learn to not sweat the little things. I need to let go of things that are beyond my control. I need to set aside time to allow myself to unwind and my mind to calm down before I go to bed. I need to find a way to sit quietly and let my mind calm to find peace of mind. Turn the TV off and find my peace of mind. Reading my Bible and praying can help not just with my spiritual well-being but also my psychological well-being. I believe that having faith in something bigger and more powerful than yourself is calming and reassuring. Knowing that if I get in over my head I have somebody or something else to turn to for guidance and strengthening when I am weak and weary. Knowing and acknowledging that I am not enough alone to make it through this life.

The exercise that we were asked to take part in was excruciating. I am not ready for meditation and definitely not ready for meditation that is led by an instructor yet. Every time he said something out of the blue I was focused on what he was saying instead of doing the things he was suggesting. I am not in meditation shape yet. 

Hey everybody,
My name is Joanie Dodd and I am a sports fanatic. To me there is nothing greater than the classic NCAA, NBA, MLB and NFL. The days where men were men not because of their sexual orientation but because they cared greatly about anything they attached their name to. I loved the days when kids were proud to play for schools and represent the organization as an ambassador to the fans. Instead of being more concerned with what they will be getting out of their time in school. No longer is it acceptable compensation to allow these kids to become educated and trained to be a professional. Gone are the days when it was allowed for NCAA coaches to see kids in need and reach out to help them as John Wooden did. Now we have coaches making more money than the presidents of the universities. You used to have such inspired performances not just by the NCAA kids but by the pros as well. Now it feels as if all the pros are more concerned with their annual income and sponsorship opportunities instead of being stewards for mankind. Sports heroes used to not be afraid to take a stand for the right thing regardless of the consequences. The Jackie Robertsons, John Woodens, Branch Rickeys and Don Haskins of the world are simply ghosts of the past. Hank Greenberg along with several other baseball greats volunteered their services in the Armed forces when it was necessary for them to be more than just a famous face. I love these days of sports and sports heroes. Oh I miss those days.

My reflective statement is one made by John Wooden, the molder of men, "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail."