Unit 8 Reflection

   I firmly believe that in order to have mental and spiritual fitness, you must have a good understanding of meditation and visualization. the reason for this is because without these practices, you have not started getting your mind to the point of having control over stress and bad thoughts. Until you can gain this control, you are not going to achieve the higher level of mental and spiritual fitness. 
 Looking back at the past 8 weeks of this class I can see many different changes that have been made in my life from what I have learned. The biggest of these changes is the ability to find a peace inside that allows me to control my stress and better control the alpha rhythms in my brain. For years I have struggled with controlling stress with little sucess. Instead of doctors teaching these practices to me, they simply tried medication and more medication. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can not be solved with medications. You are simply hiding it under levels of drugs. Since I have started meditation, I feel like I finally have more control over the thoughts and anxiety.

Unit 6

   After reading the lessons from Unit 6, I decided it was a good time for an assessment of where I am at in terms of mindful existence. Today was a good day to do it, as it marked the 6 year anniversary of the worst day I experienced in my 2005-2006 Iraq deployment. I thought it would interesting to see how my mind has changed since then and how I am doing in learning to live a more meaningful existence. The biggest thing that I noticed, was that it seems to take a lot to get to me now. I think one reason is because no day since coming home has been as bad as they were over there. After getting out of the infantry, I feel like I now use my dedication and discipline to help others as a personal trainer. In my mind, this is a meaningful existence.

Comparing Loving-Kindness to Subtle Mind exercises

   I found that while both were relaxing, loving-kindness seemed more effective. With each breath, you inhaled the problems of a loved on metaphorically, allowed it to disperse, and then as you exhaled, you breath out peace and tranquility. I found this to work better for me as I felt that by letting it dissolve you feel as if you have done something about controlling it.
   In contrast, with the subtle mind exercises, you breath in a set amount of breaths, and exhale, allowing yourself to find relaxation and peace, but did not focus on letting the problems dissolve in your heart. I feel like this takes away from much of the mind-body connection I feel with the loving-kindness exercise.