First, I would like to apologize for my lateness in blogging this week, but a terrible head cold has slowed me down this week in many areas. As I will discuss later in this posting however, it also helped me to realize a few things.I only wish that I had the whole mind body healing thing figured out already so I could get rid of this miserable cold.

After careful reflection I have come to the conclusion that I have a long way to go to reach my optimal wellness. However, this does not mean that I am unhappy with my current level of wellness, I just realize that it can be so much better. I would say that my physical wellness is currently a 5. I feel that I can function on a daily basis, and I am considered to be a healthy weight. I rarely fall ill, and I have very few physical ailments. However, I am not as fit as I once was, and I know that I can again reach a higher level of fitness. Additionally, I would like to improve my immune function, as I am currently suffering from a terrible head cold. My spiritual wellness has come a long way in the past few years, here I would rate myself a 7. I feel much more grounded and secure with my beliefs and am happy with my spirituality, but I know there is always room for improvement. My psychological wellness has also come a long way in the past few years. Here I would also rate myself a 7. I feel comfortable being alone with myself, and am able to understand and control my emotions more than when I was young. However, I do know that there is always room for improvement.

To improve myself in each area I have set a few goals. For my physical health, I have set a goal of eating more fresh foods each day and also bringing Yoga practice back into my daily routine. The daily Yoga practice is also a goal for my spiritual and psychological health. In addition to the daily Yoga, I set a goal of eliminating at least one commitment per week from my calendar. I feel that my psychological health will improve if I do not feel so pulled in multiple directions.

After setting these goals for myself, I completed the Crime of the Century Exercise. I actually ended up trying it twice, and both times I ended up frustrated. Last week I loved the exercise, so I was really looking forward to this one as well. However, I have been suffering from a very bad head cold all week, and it had a huge impact on this exercise. The first time I sat down to complete the exercise, I immediately became frustrated when I tried to take a deep breath. It caused a huge coughing fit, and I realized I was not going to be able to breathe deeply at all. This frustrated me because without the deep breathing, I was not able to get into the proper mindset. I decided to just do my best and try to focus without the breathing. Only a few minutes later, I must have fallen asleep because I woke up an hour later when my son walked in and asked me for something. At first I was very angry with myself for taking an hour long nap in the middle of the day when I have very limited time to complete homework let alone everything else that needed to be done. But then I realized that I must have really needed the rest because I sure felt a lot better. So the exercise was a bust, but I felt more confident in my need for trimming down my calendar a bit. I tried the exercise again today, and was a little more successful. I still didn’t get fully into it without the deep breathing aspect, but at least I didn’t fall asleep this time. I liked the idea of the exercise, and even found myself reflecting on the colors and the idea of bringing them all together or separating them out throughout the day. Unfortunately, I must really need the deep breath as a part of my relaxation. I found my mind wandering a lot during the actual exercise. I hope that I will feel better soon, and I plan to try again.