Unit 10

At the beginning of the course I do believe I was a little hard on myself and I have surely made some progress.  Regarding physical wellbeing I would say I rate myself a 7.  I did start exercising more, but also overindulged in all the good foods over the holidays.  Therefore I need to work a little harder to make some progress.  As regards my spiritual wellbeing I will give myself a 7.  I definitely feel that I made progress in this area with the meditation practices that we did.  I will continue to incorporate those in my day.  Regarding my psychological wellbeing I rate myself a 9.  According to my therapist, my thinking is very evolved.  However, I will always have something to learn and it will be a continual process.  My goals have not yet been achieved they are still a work in progress.  I have not yet consistently exercised 4 times a week, so I can’t say it’s a habit yet.  I haven’t yet reached meditating or taking a walk everyday, but I’ll get there.  I am always pursuing my psychological goals, so I feel good about that.  I enjoyed every lesson in this course.  I found myself looking forward to reading each chapter because the information was so appropriate to my life right now.  I feel that I have made progress over the last 10 weeks as regards decreasing my stress level and focusing on what is important.  Meditation is challenging and rewarding at the same time.  Also getting deeper to oneself is the same.  It is challenging but very beneficial.  This has been sort of a boot camp.  This training is getting me closer to integral health for myself as well as helping me to become a good example.  It will also enable me to teach others the things that I have learned.

Unit 9 Project

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Integral Health Plan

Introduction:

            Integral health incorporates mind, body, and spirit.  All components of an individual must be balanced for one to be truly healthy.  As a health professional, to understand and be able to teach mind, body and spirit health I must be able to practice it myself.  First I must be an example of health for a client to believe that I authentically know what I’m speaking of.  I must experience mind, body, and  spirit health to know what the journey is that lies before someone else attempting to follow this course.  Personally I want to develop more in the act of service, which would be the world aspect of development.  I am also in need of developing better mental and physical fitness. 

Assessment:

            This class has been instrumental in my progress, therefore I will say I am a step above where I started when we did our first blog rating our mental, physical and spiritual fitness.  I tend to be hard on myself, because most of the time I acknowledge what I need to do.  Taking constant action is where I fall short at times.  My physical well being is average.  I rate myself a 7.  I am approximately 5 pounds overweight.  I am virtually physically well according to my blood work.  However, my body could be more fit by incorporating more physical exercise.  Spiritually I am grounded.  I rate myself a 7.  I know my values and beliefs, however I would like to pursue more meditation and activities that bring me peace.  Psychologically I am very sound, but I would like to expand my mind and its capacity.  I rate myself a 9.

Goal Development:

Physical: 

My goal is to eat to nourish my body and not so much to suit my comfort cravings.  In addition my goal is to get at least 3 days of cardiovascular exercise per week. 

Psychological: 

My goal is to do mindfulness meditation to expand my consciousness and continue to study and learn as much as I can regarding integral health. 

Spiritual: 

My goal is to dance, walk, meditate, participate in community service, and activities that make me feel one with the universe.  I want to evolve to be the healer within.

Practices for Person health:

Physical:

1.     Spend at least 30 minutes a week doing cardio exercise.  Options are: take a class, ride a bicycle, go for a jog.

2.     Every morning stretch for 10 minutes as soon as I wake up.  This will prevent my back from being so stiff.

3.     Lower my sugar intake.

These can all be accomplished by just doing them.

Psychological:

1.     Practice the loving-kindness meditation.

2.     Practice the subtle mind meditation.

Set aside time in the evening 10 to 20 minutes 5 days per week to meditate to develop mental fitness.

Spiritual:

1.     Visit a meditation center such as Shambhala.

2.     Take walks on a regular basis to feel one with nature.

3.     Pray for guidance.

4.     Do some type of community service at least once a month.

Taking walks is something I can do any time living in Southern California where the weather is usually great.  Walking and appreciating my surroundings especially at the beach is very spiritual for me.  I can walk to the beach in 10 minutes, therefore I just have to put my shoes on and go a few times a week.  I am going to make a date with myself to visit this meditation center as well as a few others I’ve been think of for some time.  Prayer is something that I can do anytime anywhere.  All I need is to remember that prayer is always available.  I signed up for community service on January 19, 2013 to start this off.  I will look up different organizations that I am interested in and spread my time accordingly.

Commitment:

            The paper will serve as a contract with myself to incorporate these things as I have stated starting today.  Just as looking back at the first blog post and comparing it with today, I will look at this contract and compare my progress in 3 months.  At that time I can gage whether I need to try something different or whether I am moving along as intended.  In 6 months I will assess myself again.  Carrying this contract with me and posting it on the refrigerator will remind me of what I need to do.  I will read it over at least once a month to make sure I am on track.  This way I am accountable to myself.  Sometimes telling a confident your intentions and asking them to check in with you is also helpful in being accountable for the actions we are supposed to take.

Unit 8 - My two Favorites

 

I believe that all of the exercises that we have done can be beneficial, however some were much more challenging to accomplish.  The first exercise that I truly enjoyed but also thought was very beneficial was the loving-kindness exercise.  This exercise is to send out loving kindness to the world and also to give it to myself.  Over the past two years I have gone through quite a bit personally.  So this exercise helped me to practice, forgiveness.  It helped me to let go of some anger and hurt feelings.  It reminded me to send everyone, even the folks that I do not care for loving-kindness.  This is one of the most valuable exercises because as long as I send out loving-kindness continually, I will have peace of mind.  The second exercise that I found truly useful was meditation.  Meditation can serve so many purposes, from keeping my stress level down, sending out good energy into the world, bringing myself into focus, calming myself when I am alarmed, clearing my mind, or bringing my heart rate down.   As this year gets into full swing I intend on dedicating a few minutes each day to meditation, including the loving-kindness exercise to keep me grounded and focused.  As the year progresses, I would like to graduate to more advanced mental fitness exercises, but I will do first things first.  Once I feel that these come natural, I will move on to something else.

Unit 7 - Aesclepius Meditation

This exercise was challenging at first because when trying to picture someone, a few different people were passing through my mind but it was hard to focus on just one.  I did try to hold one in my mind.  It’s interesting because closing my eyes and picturing someone seems simple but it is as if they are a faint projection that is shorting out.  They come and go.  I want to vividly picture the person or moment but it seems that my mind sometimes does not want to give the clear picture.  I like picturing the light from her coming through to me.  It was almost like superheroes transferring energy, like “Wonder Twin powers activate!”, if you are familiar with the old school Wonder Twins cartoon.  Toward the end when I was picturing my heart being full of light, I actually felt my heart cavity being full for a moment.  And then I pictured light oozing out everywhere from my body as if my body was a cracked pot and water was coming out of each crack unstoppable.  I still feel like I have a very long way to go as far as my focus.  The more I can visualize myself as a healer, the more I will actualize that part of myself.  I want to be a person that is a light to all.  I know a few people like this and anytime I come in contact with them I feel happy or like I have received a gift.  I would like to be that toward others, not just in practice, but with anyone I come in contact with.

The saying “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself”, gives me the idea that in order to be a good teacher, one would do well to have had the experience that he is teaching about.  I can read lots of books about meditation; however, until I actually meditate I really don’t know the experience.  Now that I have been practicing meditation, I can have a real conversation with someone about it.  I completely feel that as a conscientious practitioner, I should always be working toward my psychological, physical, and spiritual health.  If I do not, I would consider myself to be a hypocrite.  As I have taken many classes such as this one at Kaplan, I am continually applying what I have learned to my daily existence so that I may reach optimum health and can understand how to help others to get there.

Unit 6

The loving kindness exercise was interesting.  I found myself thinking of all of my loved ones, even some who have passed on.  Between thinking of them I kept thinking of all those who died in Connecticut and those who it directly affected.  Different people kept popping into my head, even some whom I despise.  I can see how this repetition could help to open one’s heart.

The assessment process is hard because you have to be honest with yourself.  There were a few things that came to me which are rather personal.  I have chosen to work on my psychospiritual health because I realize that many times I don’t think I am deserving of good things.  I believe my therapist related that this is a result of having an alcoholic parent.  It is just amazing that after 43 years I don’t completely have a handle on that.  I need to keep practicing the loving-kindness exercise toward others and myself.  In my life I have generally always put others first.   Because of my studies with Kaplan I have learned that sometimes people do this out of dependency issues.  This means if I am always doing things for others they will always need me and I will be validated.  It is important to serve others, with the right underlying motivations.  I want to work on being my authentic self.  In order to do that I will also do the subtle mind practice to quiet my mind down observe my thoughts and then incorporate positive ones where I need to.

Exercise 5 Subtle Mind Exercise

During the subtle mind exercise, I enjoyed listening to the ocean, because the beach is my very favorite place and if anything can get me to settle down, that's it right there.  It is very challenging though to keep my mind on my breath.  It seems like every 20 to 30 seconds I have to bring myself back.  I was a little distracted though because I was hungry.  This isn't frustrating, it's definitely exercise though.  It is a little easier than the loving kindness exercise though.  During that exercise, I felt that it was a little harder to focus.  I look at this the same way as physical exercise or even going to a therapist.  Sometimes you don't see or feel results for a while.  However, over time great results can occur with consistency.  A little bit every day can eventually go a long way.

Over the years I have been very physically active in dance and other things.  Because of this I have many aches and pains at the young age of 43.  I wonder now if some of the back and knee pain that I experience is because of emotional issues that I've had a difficult time with.  I look forward to practicing mental fitness so that I can alleviate some of the symptoms that I feel.  I know that if I am stressed, sad or worrying, my immunity gets low and I tend to get sick.  I want nothing more then to be able to exercise a witnessing mind, subtle mind, and unity consciousness so that I can reach my full potential and not get caught up in the stress of the day.

Exercise Week 4

Blog Week 4

Loving Kindness Exercise:

The first man’s voice was a bit agitating.  The women’s voice was more soothing.  I found it challenging at first.  I noticed myself clenching my teeth at some point, which is something I do when I’m stressed.  I had to tell myself in the middle of it to relax.  Maybe I was concentrating too hard.  I believe that it could be beneficial in the same way that the first day that you exercise, you may not see any physical results even though you have burned some calories and are training your muscles.  Also when you are in the middle of it you may want to stop and give up because it’s challenging or you are bored or tired.  However if you press through and continue with consistency, the results will be evident.  Once I have practiced and seen my results I could make a recommendation to others regarding this exercise.

The concept of a mental work out corresponds with what I just discussed in that repeated, consistent practice is needed in order to strengthen those figurative mental muscles.  The benefits are great.  A healthy mentality also can enhance or create a healthy spiritual existence.  It can also lend to our physical health.  When we are mentally and spiritually whole, our physical health can flourish as well.  This loving kindness practice suggests doing this two times a day.  I will have to set aside time when I wake up and before I go to bed to do this.