Unit 7: Continuing forth to the greater outcome...

Hello everyone,

1.        Complete the "Meeting Asciepius" exercise on track #4 of the Dacher CD. 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 have been utilizing the Loving-Kindness, Subtle Mind, and now this meditation on an everyday basis. I do one or the other and I try to do them twice a day, especially in the morning when my mind seems to be in a constant uproar of thoughts and at night in order to prepare myself for some much needed peace and rest. I find that these can be utilized for that and they help me to focus on a purpose for the day, whether it is to just stay positive or to try and bring some positive love and kindness into anyone’s life that I may come in contact with.

I believe that these meditative practices are helping me to have a calmer approach to things and allow me to look at everything going on around me and either let it in or simply do my best to block the negative out.

I think that if I keep utilizing these practices, then I will be able to continue to foster a very positive and calmer well being but I will also be able to help others to find a way to find their mental calmness and start to enjoy life through a deeper, richer, and more profound way of enjoying it.

2.        Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” (P.477) 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?

This saying simply means that no one can lead anyone else down a path when they have not even been there before themselves. It would mean that you cannot expect to show Sally where the treasure box is, unless you have found it before yourself.

I believe that this saying applies to health and wellness professionals because I would not want to be seeing a physician for help in my journey with learning integral health and applying it to my life when the said physician does not even apply it within their lives in the first place. How would they be able to teach me how to find the calmness when they have not even found it themselves?

Yes, I do have an obligation because I do not feel that I would have the right to simply preach any type of methods to them when I have not been utilizing the methods myself. It would be like telling a patient that they need to quit smoking but then you go on break as they are about to leave the office and they see you smoking on the side of the building. You cannot touch someone else’s life by telling them that they should cultivate something in theirs that you do not even have the skills to cultivate in your own.

I believe the biggest way to implement psychological and spiritual growth within my personal life is to be true to myself. I need to understand that these changes do not occur overnight and that I cannot expect to be perfect. All I can simply do is keep striving for my ultimate goal of finding that calmness and cultivating it so that I can continue to strive forward in my journey and not have the need to regret things or to keep looking back at the negative things in my life.

Unit 6: Universal Loving Kindness

Hello everyone,

Universal Loving Kindness:

This exercise is quite easy to perform but I enjoyed doing it as well. I saw this exercise as a kind of prayer and felt that I can incorporate it into my prayer time each day. It is a very simple meditation and yet, it feels as if it says so much in those 4 little sentences. I did not need a focal point or anything to utilize it, because I simply stated it as I would if I was praying.

Integral Assessment:

This process is definitely involved and required me to put a lot of thought, time, and focus into it so that I could go through it accordingly. I believe that this process is one that you can do as many or as little times as you think you need to do it, and it is a great way to really find the depth of questions and answers that we might have about our integral health.

I discovered that using a journal during the process is something that I definitely needed because it helped me to put things in a more focused area. I also discovered that I would have a hard time using someone as a guide, or at least someone within a close vicinity to me.

I have decided that I need to focus on my psychospiritual growth because there is a great deal of things in my past that I have yet to forgive and let go of. Some of them were quite painful experiences and I believe that in time, I would be able to forgive and be able to move forward past them. Also, I believe that I need to learn how to truly find the depth of love for myself before I am able to think about incorporating another person into my life. Some of the things that I have yet to forgive have come from past relationships and I feel that it part of what is holding me back from finding that significant other in my life.

I believe utilizing the assessment would be a great way to help me with learning things that I can do to further my growth in the psychospiritual aspect of my life. I believe that being able to look at things when I am at an inner stillness, learning from them, and giving forgiveness for them will help me to move further with my own growth and life.

Reference:

Dacher, E. M.D. (2006) Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing, Chapter 9, 10, & 11.

            Laguna Beach, CA. Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Subtle Mind practice.

1.        Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.

The differences that I have found between the Loving-Kindness exercise and the Subtle Mind exercise are that in my opinion the Subtle mind exercise takes a lot more focus because it gives you the ability to let your mind wander and it allows you to learn how to re-focus your mind back onto the task at hand. I believe that both exercises have a great amount of benefits because it allows us to learn how to focus ourselves either on loving and being kind, or learning how to shut out the mental chatter and find the stillness that I so desire throughout my days.

The only frustration is that my copy of the Subtle mind exercise has a loud burst of static through it and I am not sure where I can get an undamaged version because the static does last for quite a bit of time throughout the CD.

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

The connection that spiritual wellness has to my mental and physical wellness is that since they are all intertwined, I find myself feeling poorly in all aspects if even one of these is off kilter. Such as, if I am stressed, it affects my mental outlook on the day, my physical body is tensed and finds no relief from that tension, and I feel spiritually drained.

However, with the implementations of the exercises we are learning, ensuring that I have my meditation time, and learning to carry a more positive outlook about things, I am finding that it is the exact opposite of what I have stated above. When I am in a more positive mindset, I am able to be more productive in all the aspects because I feel the energy within myself.

Being able to do physical wellness by walking or using gym equipment, I am able to “de-stress” myself by not only being physical but by allowing myself to visualize that the sweat and burning of my muscles is simply eating away at the issues that are interrupting my stillness and causing me to not feel positive.

Loving-kindness practice

Hello everyone,

1.        Describe your experience. (Did you find it beneficial? Difficult?) Why or Why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or Why not?

I believe the loving kindness experience is one that all people from all walks of life would benefit from. It is not always easy to wish everyone well in their lives, especially people that you have not met or are angry with. However, I believe that doing this exercise will help me to not only be able to grow as a person but also be able to give to others as I have never given before.

I found this exercise to be completely beneficial as well as easy to fit into a busy schedule because all it takes is a mere 15 minutes to feel rejuvenated and in a more peaceful state. I must say it was a bit difficult the first time I tried it because I could not seem to shut my mind down enough to totally benefit from the exercise. However, I do plan to implement this into my daily routine and would encourage everyone else to as well.

Yes, I would recommend this to others because it can teach us not only to love ourselves but also to love others, and to me that is an important concept that I see society lacking, or at least from where I live and what I see on the news.

2.        What is the concept of “Mental Workout? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a Mental Work Out? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

The concept of “Mental Workout” is where you put forth the effort and training needed to bring yourself to the point of being able to incorporate the loving-kindness practice and the subtle mind practice into your daily routine. Essentially, meaning that you are “working” out your mental health, just like you do your body in your physical health routines.

The proven benefits are the ability to open our hearts to others, whether we know them or not, and allowing ourselves to leave that self-centeredness behind us. It also allows us to have unity within our minds with our thoughts, emotions, and actions. Furthermore, it allows us to flourish into a more loving, kind, wise, and calmer person.

I can implement mental workouts within my daily routine. I will begin to make sure that I have those 15 minutes or more out of my day to do the exercises and work on finding a clearer and calmer path to be able to fully reach the potential of what I am learning to do.