Favorite Practices

My two favorite topics throughout this course have been loving kindness and meditation. I really enjoyed both because they opened up a new way of thinking and have really helped me calm down and not take the small things for granted. My favorite exercise for the loving kindness is as follows.

May all individuals gain freedom from suffering.

May all individuals find sustained health, happiness, and wholeness.
May I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering.
May I assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness.

I really enjoyed this exercise because the thought of first helping me gain freedom from all of my suffering and then finding health, happiness, and wholeness I think is incredibly important. You can only help others if you first help yourself. After you have gained peace within yourself you can begin helping others. I love the idea of helping others find health and happiness. I try and do this with my family now and it is very rewarding.

One of my favorite meditative practices is yoga. Yoga is considered a mind-body type of complementary and alternative medicine practice. Yoga brings together physical and mental disciplines to achieve peacefulness of body and mind, helping you relax and manage stress and anxiety.

The potential health benefits of yoga are numerous and may include:

• Stress reduction. With its quiet, precise movements, yoga draws your focus away from your busy, chaotic day and toward calm as you move your body through poses that require balance and concentration.


• Increased fitness. As you learn and refine new poses, you may enjoy improved balance, flexibility, range of motion and strength. And this means you're less likely to injure yourself in other physical endeavors or in your daily activities.


• Management of chronic health conditions. Yoga might help with a variety of health conditions, such as cancer, depression, pain, anxiety and insomnia, by helping with sleep problems, fatigue and mood. Yoga also can help reduce heart rate and blood pressure.


• Weight loss. If you're overweight or have binge-eating disorder, yoga may help you make the healthy lifestyle changes necessary to gain control of your eating and drop those extra pounds (Stress management, 2012).
• Yoga is the perfect way to escape from the stress of the day and regain balance with one’s self.

Reference

Stress management. (2012). Mayo Clinic. Retrieved September 19, 2012 from
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/yoga/CM00004.