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.