Mental Fitness

Subtle Mind

Hello all~

I listened to the cd for a good majority of the weekend. The practice failed me or should I say I failed the practice. I just can not get into keeping my mind still for longer than 5 minutes. Even though I would breath and concentrate on my inhale and exhale which worked for a short period of time, the busyness of my day or life situations would break up any silence going on in my mind. I thought that it was very true how we are enslaved by our thoughts. The images, feelings and unresolved solutions to problems take over. I exercised for a good hour on yesterday as well as today and I found the benefit of mentally focusing on my exercise routine. I often close my eyes when I am reaching a point of exhaustion or feeling the 'burn' associated with fatigue and I simply pray and this helps me to push on. I have been doing this for years and the benefits are self-gratifying.

While watching the football game today, Aaron Rogers quaterback for the Green Bay Packers said something (quoted from the commentator) that fit in with our units subject; "slow the mind & trust your feet". He shared this information with a collegeau and I thought is was great advice to give to another quaterback that was possibly doubting their own capability.

I hope everyone is finding their inner man and growing more holistically.

Bare and Free to Be Me!

Okay, my blog title has nothing to do with this unit's blog discussion but I wanted to post this picture and share the reason behind the title. For years I fought and struggled with being accepted by my family, friends, coworkers, society. I always believed that there was something wrong with me; that being over weight, under weight, too natural ( I went from a perm to dreads), passive, reserved  and sometimes distant from people ( I am not a follower) made me the outcast. And it caused me a great deal of mental distress. It took inner self reflection which is an ongoing practice that helps me to be happy with who I am today. Once I recognized that I am my own individual, uniquely created in Gods image, it no longer mattered to me what society, friends, family and especially my coworkers thought of me. As I began to slowly remove all of the false layers of my identity and being exposed to an unknown self  transformation developed. During that period of finding myself, ironically I drew more people towards me (imagine that)!    I am Nada Lavette and proud to be BARE, FREE and ME!

To be continued..............

Loving Kindness

This has been one busy week so I looked forward to the exercise practices for the unit. I was hoping to find it useful in helping me to calm down.  I really was not able to get into the exercise the way I had hoped to. I was able to follow the voice and the instructions but the breaks in-between were kind of long and my mind drifted on to the business going on from either the day or something from the week. What I did find interesting from the Loving Kindness exercise was the part in which you breathed in the suffering of a loved one and blew out the joy, love and health. This was suppose to remove self-centeredness and create a quiet mind. There is some family conflict going on right now so I imagined several people while doing this exercise. I noticed the tension in my neck pounding more as I thought upon those that I felt are suffering. When I thought of my nephew who is in need of assistance, I just couldn't get my mind to cooperate so it was a failed experience.
I would recommend the exercises just because it could very well help someone else.


The concept of 'Mental Workout' means to exercise the psychospiritual life and its capacities on a regular basis. Like physical fitness or an exercise regime once you stop committing to it you will fall back into old habits and conditions. Perseverance is important in maintaining psychospiritual health. It is not just a point of relaxing but to expand the mind and thoughts with holistic approaches of healing. Meditating, praying, studying the Bible, practicing CAM modalities are a few examples of expanding the mind. I have shared a few pictures of what I do regarding 'loving kindness'. I make jewelry, my son plays youth football and I love watching those boys compete in the name of Jesus, my nieces are between parents and what my sister doesn't share with them I try to. Loving kindness is not self-centered, it is about putting others before yourself =)

Strengths & Weaknesses

I need to work on all aspects of my integral health. Grading myself in the areas of physical well-being, spiritual well-being and psychological well-being I show a need to improve.

A) Physical well-being, I give myself a 7.
B) Spiritual well-being, I give myself a 8.
C) Psychological well-being, I give myself a 6.

There is always room to better your physche. I am walking around 15 pounds too heavy. The result of this is joint pain which was stimulated due to chemotherapy. The goal is to keep it moving and lose the 15 pounds and keep it off.
Spiritually I am in tune with who I am due to my Christian belief and practices. If I can only manage the battle that goes on in my mind I would grade myself higher psychologically.

The goal is to learn as much as I can and be determined to practice a more holistic way of being healthy. I have already removed many substances from my diet due to a bout with cancer. If I implement more of what I am learning about eating properly, approaches to keep stress from my life and to control my thoughts I would be on the road to geniune healing.

I enjoyed the relaxation exercise, "The Crime of the Century". I actually played it at my workstation and it drew the attention of my coworkers. Watching the color waves and the music sort of put me in a trance. I felt myself becoming lighter, it was actually pretty cool.

Now the weekend is here and I hope to be able to actually relax for at least one of these weekend days.

Moving Forward!

This is a picture taken when I was in St. Louis last month for a women's conference. I find pleasure in photography. I like to go back and look over the entire picture, detail by detail. I often locate something that I didn't see while taking the picture as I am going over the processed picture afterwards.

Now that I am getting the hang of this, I will be sharing things that interest me. Mainly what you will see are things that help me to escape the chaos that life often brings. So I hope you enjoy, and come back again.

Nada Lavette

Journey On relaxation

Well 'hello' everybody!

I have been frustrated for the past 45 minutes trying to figure out how to manuever around in this blogging community. I still don't totally understand what I am doing so if you see something that raises an eyebrow, this statement alone is the reason (ha, ha, ha!).

Well I listened to the relaxtion cd a couple days back just to see what it entailed and I must say, it had me close to sleeping behind the wheel. I did a few of the exercises before picking up my son and recognized quite a bit of the modalities from a womens retreat I went to several years ago. Basically the same application, to learn how to still your mind.

Today is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24). We recognize breast cancer awareness this entire month and I look forward to it. During this month I upgrade all of my old breast cancer stuff with some new and improved things.

I am not sure what the day will bring but I will appreciate all that comes my way. Make today a great day!