The Future of My Yoga & Some Critical Thinking :)

My plan is of course to continue my new occupation but I think at a more “leisurely” pace. There are a lot of other classes that are offered at the place I do aerial yoga and I would really like to try some of those, as well! So, my plan is to still continue aerial, but try some other classes and if I miss a week here and there, no big deal! I definitely think that I have benefited from this class greatly in that it’s given me a place to relax and unwind and also provided me with some much needed exercise. I also feel that I’ve been able to do a lot of inner reflection in this class, which is great for my overall well-being.

The two presentations I attended were mindfulness practice of practitioners and informed consent of limited English patients. The one I will focus on here is mindfulness practice of practitioners. The purpose of this study was to determine whether mindfulness meditation practiced decreased levels of perceived stress and increased factors of mindfulness among first-year, graduate level speech therapy clinicians. The question and the purpose surrounding the study were relevant to one another and I felt were unbiased. The researcher cited a similar study done and used that study to base this smaller study on. I thought the speaker did a great job discussing the relevant evidence and experience of mindfulness and how it can be very beneficial in relieving stress and promoting well-being. However, from what I have experienced with mindfulness, I think it’s a lot more difficult than it was portrayed, which seems silly but for me it’s really difficult to constantly focus on just being in the moment and keeping my thoughts right there. In meditation, my mind constantly wanders and thinks about other things and I really believe it takes skill to master the art of mindfulness. I know there are different aspects of how to be mindful, which she addressed briefly, but I felt there was this underlying assumption that one can just instantly become mindful, I don’t think it’s that easy at all. Overall, I thought the researcher explained her data well and how she arrived at the conclusions that she did. The concept of mindfulness is really a beneficial practice and thus that was the only point of view being conveyed, but in this topic, I don’t really think there’s ever a time where being mindful wouldn’t be beneficial in a situation, but maybe I'm making assumptions now!

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Oddly enough, the presentation on being mindful I felt pertained nicely to not only this class, but recently Kelly’s class as well. Many of the topics that we have addressed in this course deal with mindfulness and just being aware of all the circumstances surrounding occupation. Topics like flow, hope, motivation, spirituality, identity, well-being, participation, meaning, etc., are all concepts that we should be mindful of as practitioners and how these all play a role in partaking in occupation. Although we haven’t discussed the meditation aspect of being mindful, it think it’s something that is relevant to both the class and our profession and is incredibly beneficial in promoting health and well-being