"Meeting Asciepius"

Describe your meditative practice(s) for the week and discuss the experience. Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness. How can you continue to apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness?

I used the subtle mind when meditating as I’ve been meditating for quite some time. I focused on the light as it was Jesus crown and he sat next to me as we speak about tomorrow and the good I tried to do today. I know that when I can’t see right he guides me and when I stumble he helps me up and when I feel I can’t go on he carries me as I look back and see his foot prints. I am a believer in destiny and we all have a purpose in the life with the body we have. Jesus preach loving kindness and as I see the world turning into a world of evil, greed, unfaithfulness, and unholy. One of the reasons why I am taking the courses that I am taking is so that I can continue to flourish as I age. Knowledge is power (Bacon) and having the ability to go back to school is a blessing as not everyone has that opportunity to attend school. To teach people to stay healthy I have to be healthy and to stay healthy you need the knowledge to flourish. If I can flourish then I can give the tools to someone else to have them flourish. Because someone took the time to show me a different way and direction than the one I was leading. Now I am paying that forward and helping other make a better choice. Life is promised to no one and we should make the better of the one we have. I started the martial arts at the age of 10 and now at 50 years old I feel like I am in a better place than most people. One never stops developing but to feel good about your accomplishments is a great place to be in.

Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” How does this apply to the health and wellness professional? Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not? How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?

I feel that you should practice what you preach and unless you know what you’re talking about you should not speak but just listen. Most people have maps with no direction or knowledge of the territory they are speaking about. The sad part is that without knowing yourself you will be taken advantage of because you won’t know truth from fiction. How can you tell someone to be healthy if you’re not healthy yourself? I know that with all the injuries I have when telling other about the benefits of exercising I make it hard for them to give me excuses of pain and injuries. I always do a Par-Q assessment on all my client’s and if there is issues with the assessment I will do a full health assessment to protect the client and me. We have a responsibility not just to our client’s but to ourselves in maintaining your health. As professionals we have to flourish ourselves as integral healing and health is a never ending lesson of flourishing. I have my studio that I use as my escape place to go when I want to grow. As I flourish my emotions also grow and flourish giving me the balance that we all seek for in our life. To be where I am today has taken me time and hardship, but like anything else we have the choice to learn and flourish or stay still and stagnant.

Artemio

Universal Loving-Kindness & Integral Assessment

Universal Loving-Kindness & Integral Assessment

The aspect of difficulty and suffering happening today in my life is interpersonal. Life always through curve balls at you that if you don't step out of home plate the curve ball will strike you out. I always say that I can only control things that are within my control. When you love someone you tend to feel their pain and there is those time that you are causing the pain. The perception of circumstances can create stresses that through communication can be resolved. When you can control your emotions it allows you to look at the whole picture allowing you to think clearer. Practicing loving-kindness has giving me the loving-kindness back resolving the issues that were stressing the situation. I am also practicing the subtle mind has helped me stay in control at handle the issues that are in front on me today. By allowing my mind to be at eases and not allowing the stress to get to me the stress has become less. Knowing my abilities has kept me stress free. Continuing the development of my subtle mind and loving-kindness practices I find myself more at peace and whole.
I feel like I am in control of my stress the down side is that I can only have control of my stress. Explaining to others the importance of staying stress free takes time as they have to feel comfortable with their decisions. By focusing on the exercises and the four quadrants of integral health I am finding new doors opening as others are closing. What I find refreshing is that the new doors opening are coming with less toxicity and the ones closing the toxic elements are staying behind.  To take care of outer stress you have to know yourself and your inner abilities in staying balance.
The CD exercise has given me the ability of allowing the mind to escape the body as we know it. It’s almost like being in a dream that you have control over as you can see things clearly. I have been taking time to say the phrase in the universal loving kindness in different places like the beach while listening to the wing and waves. In the Catskills while walking up the mountain trails listening to nature. I have added the phrases while meditating before putting my mind at eases. I want to also make a correction to the post because I said the CD exercise when I met the exercise in the text. When doing some of my work I'll listen to the CD and relax and if the exercises requires me to meditate I do it both with the CD and without.
Taking the time to say the phrase has expanded my mind and body and has help me find new direction.
May all individuals gain freedom from suffering.
May all individuals find sustained health, happiness, and wholeness.
May I assist individuals in gaining freedom from suffering.
May I assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness.

Artemio

Subtle Mind is Mine

The Subtle Mind Not 2 Stress

Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.

Cross training is a great description explaining the connection of spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. As a martial artist I can relate to these aspects of well being. I must train my mind to deal with the pain sometimes inflicted as a result of my training. Pain may originate in our peripheral nerves, but our experience of pain takes place in the mind (Dacher, 2006). Pain varies for everyone according to the mental attitude of the individual. The mental training offers various techniques for relaxing which reduces the perception of pain. I have used meditation for relaxing the body allowing the reduction of my pain. Because I started the martial arts at a young age I learned how to stay focus on the task at hand and multi-task without losing focus. I use my children also as examples.

My youngest son was just awarded the Ironman award at drill sergeant school as I said before. He started training in the martial arts with me at 4 years old. I truly believe that the training was what got him where he has gotten so far in his young life. It’s not the physical training of the martial arts that got him there it’s the mental training that got him there. Without the mind the body won’t function to its best. My oldest son also started with me at age 5 and he has also accomplished so much at 25 years old. He’s a correction officer today, but has been a police officer for the city of Avalon New Jersey. He is waiting for the state police application to open because that is his dream and he is one step closer in getting there. My daughter is working in Florida and getting ready to go back to school. She is in Florida hoping to find something different than New Jersey has to offer. After a year if thing don’t go as planned then she’ll come back home to work for me. Allowing my children to go out into the world with the training they’ve had has giving them the edge I see them having. I know they will do find as the martial arts has done for me.

Artemio

Loving Kindness N No Stress 2 Me

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Refllections of yesterday 2 make 2morrow better than 2Day

Hello everybody and hope that all is well as I am recovering from being under the weather. Once per year when I push myself I get like the way I did for the last two weeks. I thank that my knowledge in the field of health and wellness allows me to get well quicker than if I depended on the doctors. I believe in Western medicine when it comes to research and the technology it has to offer. But just because you have the tools it does not mine you know how to use them as in most cases today when you go to the doctors office. Health care providers and health care in general is dictated by insurances so maintaining you health is your responsibility.

My optimal well being as taken my 40 plus years to figure out what is best for me and how best to maintain balance and quality of life. My physical well being I rate at a 8 or 9 because of how I maintain my body and work out at least 5 days per week. I would say a 10 but because of injuries that I have sustained throughout my martial arts fighting I do pay a price. Thanks to my exercising and other activities that I do I keep my body in excellent shape. I believe that a strong body make a great foundation for all the other parts of health to have quality of life.

My spiritual well being I also believe in keeping up with as as go to church when able. The important thing to me is that my heart there is a temple that I don't need to go to a building to believe that there is a higher power. I pray every day and don't believe in hating people or things as I believe everything has a purpose and thing happen for a reason. I teach martial arts in my studio that I have been working on since the 90's putting the pieces together one piece of equipment at a time always looking for a bargain. I meditate everyday as well as I am physically active always doing something from bike riding, to kicking and punching, lifting weight, walking or running with the dogs, and taking time out with the wife for a walk on the beach. Being in touch with your inner soul is important and knowing that there is a higher power that we can go to. I rate my spiritual health and well being as a 10 as I am where I am because i believe in spiritual balance to go with my physical wellness.

The psychological well being is something that we all as humans have choices over how well our health is knowing that life's ever changing ways can and will created stressful situations that we have to deal with. I still believe because of time and age I would put my rating at a 8 or 9 because I try to handle thing from different perspectives. I will look at things from my view point as well as the other persons points and will listen to others advice to make sure I have better outcomes when it come to different situations. As they say when it comes to conflict there is three sides to the story your side, their side, and the truth and the truth always come out so I never really stress. When there is situations that I fell stress me and I cannot get answer to on my own or the support system I have around me I go to a professional such as a concern or psychiatrist to talk on a one on one level.

My goals today when it come to my physical well being is to go back to the training I was doing before school started because it allowed my to distress and take my bodies physical abilities to the edge. Training with professional fighters and law enforcement people I feel gives me knowledge giving my students the edge when it come to physical ability for better health and wellness. My spiritual wellness I just have to maintain I meditate everyday knowing the health benefits it brings in mental health. I been training in the martial arts for 40 years and understanding how to meditate is a art within a art. How to get the most out of your meditation time or re-energizing time takes practice and time. Psychological health and well being is good right now because stress is what will play with allot of your emotional being. Stress is a killer will all have to got through some kind of it if it's good or bad stress dealing with it is a personal choice.

To achieve my physical goal I have to take and find the time to get back with the boys and allowing my stress out. Financial set backs have also taken its toll but once again it's about choices so that's why it is what it is and to stress is not going to change anything. Like I said it is about choices and I don't regret any of the choices I have made to date and would not change any one of them. I know that many of the thing I have done have made a difference in peoples lives and sometimes it takes one persons scarifies to make a difference. My spiritual health plan and goals are to continue my meditation time, church time as well as personal prayier time, and my nature time such as walking the beach, boating, and other things that we can done in nature. The best thing that I can say for my psychological health is that I can control it and no one else. How I chose to deal with stress and stressors is my choice and I know that I can only control what's within my control.

The relaxation exercise will only be as good as you allow your mind to open its abilities. Religion, meditation, mind over matter and other things that people have a hard time believing in will only work if you have a open mind. I have relaxation tapes as well as other equipment to allow you to destess. I liked how the pitch of his voice and the smooth tone of the music allowed me to get into my zone and I was able to find myself very relaxed and at peace. The one thing about knowing yourself is that it doesn't take much to relax you or get you in the zone. is like anything else the more you practice the better you get at it.

Here are some of the places I go to destress.
Artemio

This is my studio

The Bike path that stretches 10 miles one way soon to be stretched to over 50 miles and two bridges along the way.

The bay just down the street fro my house and close to the bike path.

What is stress? It is what you MAKE it!

Life is to short to worry about things that are out of our control. The one thing that I say to myself is "If you always do what you've always done, You'll always get what you've always gotten" and if stress use to get to me and i don't change then I'll continue getting the negative effects from the stress that is by choice something I can help.
Luv live and live will LOVE you back!

Artemio

NoStRess4Me2dAy

What days have come my way since my son graduation and the trip back. I drove 17 hours to get home from Florida and I guess I am not as young as I use to be because I am still feeling the effects of the drive. Life does not stop so my daily routine is till the same and has not skip a beat it actually has gotten more hectic. Time never stops and to rest is to stress that is way I am trying to keep up with lives everyday stuff without stressing out.