Hello fellow bloggers!
What a journey we have been on! There are some areas I think I have grown on, and some, not so much. Not because I don't want to, but because it is so hard for me to find the time during my busy day to sit down and do everything I want to do; such as meditating. With that being said, my Unit 3 ratings of myself in the areas of physical, spiritual, and psychological wellbeing were 7, 5-6, and 4, respectively. I feel my physical wellbeing has gone up to an 8 because I have changed my workout routine and have stuck with it and I have limited the amount of junk food consumed. My spiritual wellbeing is now between a 6 and 7; going to Bible Study and Church every week has helped me realize just what God can do and wants to do for me. I am learning to continuously pray for anything that is happening and I need something; such as patience! My psychological wellbeing is still around a 4; I haven't started journaling or meditating. In all honesty, I probably won't be able to start doing this until I finish college because between school, chores, and my family, so much is taken out of me.
My physical goal was to run a 1/2 marathon. I have not started training for this because I was going to wait until I got to Turkey. As of now, I am doing the Insanity workout; and it is definitely keeping my physically fit!
My spiritual goal was to continue going to Bible Study and Church every week when I get to Turkey. I have not gone there yet, but I have kept this goal up where I currently live.
My psychological goal was to start journaling, and as mentioned before, I have not started this yet. However, as I type this, I realize it would be neat to journal about my experience getting ready to move across seas!
As you can see, I haven't really implemented any activities, just yet, that can move me towards the goals I want, but I have started doing a little something in both the physical and spiritual aspects.
My experience throughout this course has definitely been a wonderful one! I knew developing these aspects were important, but I didn't realize just how important or how to actually put them into practice. I feel I have improved slightly, but there is always more work to be done; even though I haven't started practicing as much as I should, I honestly can't wait to really delve into it! One of the most rewarding things was learning how to relax and to also become patient; these are 2 things I really needed :-). The hardest thing, as most of you who read my blogs know, is meditating; I just can't find the time to do it yet and that does get a little frustrating. I hope that whenever my family is feeling down and lost, I hope I can use these practices to make them feel better!!! In all honesty, this class was a great one for me and I truly can't wait to dig deeper in all these aspects and find integral health!
-Natasja
Please make me a promise that you will not stop trying to find time to meditate? I am glad to hear that you have found patience, because that is a hard thing to grasp. I am also glad that you learned how to relax. It has been interesting going back and reading all of the blogs that we wrote for this class, and watching our change happen week to week. I am glad that I got to share this journey with you and feel confident that you will find the time you need in your life to reach your integral health goals.
ReplyDeleteDina
We have indeed been on a journey and it was a fun ride. I have followed you closely throughout this course but now it’s time to end. You have had excellent blogs so it was refreshing each week to read them. It seems like you have made progress in all of the exercises you do and your honesty is simply amazing. You blog about things some people wouldn’t even think of. Some of us tend to hide things we may fail at but you never cared each week. If something didn’t work you just seemed to let it go and move on. I am hoping that you complete that ½ marathon which would be an awesome goal to achieve. Good luck with everything!!!
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ReplyDeleteHi Natasja
ReplyDeletePlease don’t give up on the meditations because you see how they have helped me. Is it possible to use some of your physical workout time towards meditation? Do you have any time before your daily things have to happen or at the end of the day when you are done with chores and such? I know you will do so much better if you could work out the time and do them. Your physical workouts will be better also because if you can do the “Subtle Mind” exercise it will help you get rid of the mental chatter so you will have better focus and concentration. I am very proud of you for making changes and sticking to your physical workout routine. You can’t really go wrong going to Bible Study and Church every week, it certainly helps you to be a spiritually stronger person. Be careful about praying for patience, though, because the Bible does say that tribulation and trials work patience. So be on the lookout for that to come if you are praying for patience. But you will be a much stronger person if that does happen. Do you have anyone that can help you with some of the things you need to do? I am asking you this because I believe very strongly in these meditations. If you wait until you are done with school you may lose interest in them and that is not a good thing.
Natasja, what is an Insanity workout? Well, at least you know that the physical aspect of your life is headed for the integral health pathway. I’m sure when you get to Turkey you will set yourself up a great schedule in which you will be able to the meditations and the journaling you wanted so much to do. Even though you said that you haven’t implemented many activities, any activities that you have done is a good start, especially in the physical and spiritual areas. I love the fact that you realize just how important these practices are. I know you were working on some type of practice when you seemed to understand where I was going in my life early on in the class and I will always appreciate that you got involved in getting me out of that issue at the time. I absolutely believe that when you get into journaling and meditating you will find your “inner healer.” That will definitely benefit your family in a very good way. Do your best, My Friend, than you will get to where you want to be. Let’s try to keep in touch; I think that will do us both good.
Take care Natasha
Craig S Aronoff
Natasja,
ReplyDeleteIm glad you had a positive experience in this class :) Its good to hear you have time to go to bible study and workout a bit more. Your psychological wellbeing is very important, my advice to you is to meditate. I find meditation after I pray is good for me. Just being still and quite and listening to God is a meditation. Also you said your too busy at home and online classes to squeeze meditation in your schedule. I found that 5-10 minutes of quite meditation before I go to sleep, right in my bed, is the easiest time for me to slow down and focus on just me, or just God and me. You should try it out for a week or so, its gonna help out. You have a good break down for your three wellbeing scores. Keep up your spiritual thats what I'm working on :)
-Shanna
It seems like you have a good handle on where you want to go with your goals, it is just a little challenging to get there. If it wasn’t a challenge, it wouldn’t be any fun. I think you have patience and just don’t know it. If you have an 18 month old, you definitely have patience. I know as a mom it is hard to find time for ourselves and feel selfish when we do. You may find that meditating before bed is a good way to unwind from your day. It doesn’t have to be a long session as long as you just do it. Look for meditation sessions on YouTube that are shorter and geared toward how you feel for the day. It might be easier than trying to squeeze in a ten or fifteen minute session.
ReplyDeleteIt would be awesome to see you journal your adventure of moving overseas. Use the blog to journal your experience and post pictures to your new adventure. It isn’t written in stone anywhere that a journal has to be on paper so type away. I look forward to reading about how your family adjusts to the move and what exciting things you come across in Turkey. Have a safe trip when you go and keep up the good work. You will reach your goals you have set for yourself.