Unit 10 Wrap Up

After going back over the things we have covered and experienced this term, I am sure I won't be the only one feeling like they have gained further knowledge about how to improve our health; especially mentally. If our mental health is at its ultimate performance, it will improve our physical and spiritual health as well. The Unit 3 assessment scoring- sadly hasn't changed much. I suppose it hasn't changed much because I haven't had the time to slow down enough to focus on change. Sad; I know, because life never slows down. However, I don't think I was so bad off at the start that I can't keep trying to do better. I have made progress in the physical domain some. I have increased my running a little and I have been getting out of the house more to play with my daughters.

For each of the domains, I haven't implemented all the goals I set. I haven't gotten involved in more church activities during the week like I planned, and I haven't improved a large amount on positive healthy affirmations. I have gotten maybe one degree better with the affirmations, but it's such a small change that it's basically not worth counting. Ha ha. :)

As far as my personal experience from taking this course goes, I have benefited greatly from the facts of meditating and almost the entire Dacher text has been a reason for a rewarding experience. The book has information in it that I plan to refer back to and to continue to use. The things I have learned will help others by me sharing it with them. I already have started to share the benefits of Meditation based off my personal experience, with others. It was difficult to find time to do all the exercises. It was hard to find the time to read everything, and staying focused on all the exercises' instructions proved to be challenging at times. But overall, the class has been fantastic, enjoyable, and worthwhile. Good luck to all of you in the future! I will miss a lot of you!

Unit 9 Project

Well, after several attempts to copy and paste the traditional way, through ctrl this and that, AND through google reader, nothing worked. But I am posting as instructed for Unit 9. I formed what I called "My Wellness Plan". I wrote about the importance of needing to be able to rise to the occasion when we are confronted with all the unique different clients that will be coming our way. Second I touched on how I score each of my personal domains. I ponder and then I settle on the score by the way I feel. Third, I broke down my current standings on my physical, psychological, and spiritual goal development. I have decided to get back into my running long distance, to repeat healthy positive affirmations everyday, and to become more involved in church activities. Fourth, I broke down further the exercises and strategies I can do for each of my personal domains. For example for my physical domain, I chose to maintain my gym membership and to also get outside more with my girls for my strategy and for my exercise, I picked an exercise-playing tag with my daughters outside.

Making this wellness plan is a great way to get organized in our goals, ambitions, and focuses. It is said that when goals are written down it helps to make them more real, therefore, more attainable. I wish the best luck to everyone! Have fun with it and use it. That is a goal in itself-"to remember I made the plan" and to use it.

Tara

Pick Two- Determined to choose "Subtle Mind" & "Visualization"

I get the feeling this week's blog post will be short, because I feel like I am just revisiting an assignment we have already done. However, we have learned that these practices work best when visited regularly. So with that said, I decided that for me The Subtle Mind and Visualization practices worked best for me. I enjoyed them the most. I remember a specific vision practice used that had a very strong calming feeling for me. It was called "Dolphin Breathing". During this visualization, we were told to imagine the top of our head being like the hole on the top of a dolphin's head where it breathes in and out of. Just focusing on inhaling and exhaling our air from the top of my head was enough to take my mind off anything else I may be thinking about. I remember a part that we were to try to imagine all the ill feelings, negative emotions, etc being exhaled out the top of our head and when we inhaled we were to breathe in the positive, healthy feelings back into our body down to our stomach to replace the negative ones.

Next was the Subtle Mind exercise. This one worked best for me and I loved this one the best, because it was an approach I had never learned about or done before. This was the exercise with the waves of the ocean and its tide turning with the air coming from the vent incidentally over me. It was amazing. It was easy to have a strong focus on the focal point with all the parts of the exercise working together. We can implement these into any aspect of our life through practice.

Wise Mentor Exercise

1. This week we got to make a visit to the thoughts of a wise friend or loved one. The person we chose was our wise mentor for this exercise. I found the speech part of the exercise strange, but I thought it was neat to imagine the beam of light coming from their head as to invite our thoughts to be one with their thoughts. I chose my best friend who I haven't seen or spent time with in over a year. We had a special bond, so it was easier to have her as my focal point. Meditation has fostered an increase in my life psychologically and spiritually by its way of calming my mind. I had never tried meditation before this class and its amazing what it can do to quiet the mental chatter.

When answering the question how we can continue to apply these practices in our lives, the answer may never change. If someone wants to be a good runner, they have to run. If someone wants to be a great cook, they must spend time in the kitchen practicing the act of cooking until they become great. The same principle applies to continuing to apply these practices in our lives. We must make the time to practice them and watch for times during the day where the practice can be applied.

2. "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself". As Schlitz stated, "Having a map of Hawaii isn't the same as being there" (Shlitz, 2005). Another example might be being told what it's like to run a marathon. It isn't the same as actually running one. With that, these same scenarios answer the question whether or not we have the obligation to our clients to be developing psychologically, physically, and spiritually. The answer is yes. We have to be there to truly "know" how to guide someone to the same place.

A TIMEOUT TO REFLECT

This week we are taking a timeout to reflect not only on ourselves (the integral assessment practice) but also to reflect on how we can feel love for everyone universally-(Universal Loving-Kindness practice). Upon the completion of my experience of these practices I realized I had had a lot of different thoughts and wondered if I would remember most of them and which ones to share.



With the Loving-Kindness practice, I originally said aloud, "Repeat these phrases for 10 minutes!". :) But I found by the third time, I was having different thoughts each time I read each line. A few of the times I was feeling concern for everyone with the image of being out and about in town. Other times I pictured visiting or working within a elderly care facility and feeling the love for those individuals that need love and care so much. Other times especially with the line "May I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering", I actually felt overwhelmed with the words-"all individuals". The word all is a big responsibility. But following up was the phrase, "May I assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness" even though it stated all individuals I found myself wanting to bring those things to everyone. I truly do want everyone to be happy-(full of joy) and to have truth and wholeness to their life.



Shifting to the other practice- Integral Assessment Practice, I found that I do take on too much, but that I also feel the need and obligation to do so. I have the natural behavior of wanting to be independent so I can care for myself by myself but to also make everything okay for everyone I know. A few examples of me taking on too much are: I have chosen to take on years of schooling-(3 more to go), to raise a family-(not to mention that we have decided to add to our family soon with our third),to be committed to a relationship (for we all know that marriage certainly requires commitment!) :)I have no need to carry on. Those are the main ones without trying to find time to care for my individual needs.So when the questions were being asked like-"What aspect of my life-psychospiritual biological, interpersonal, or worldly-is the source of difficulty and suffering?", and "What line of development is most essential for me at this time?", I almost need someone else to tell me! I feel lost in my own whirlwind as if all the aspects need undivided attention and healing. What about you observers...what would you suggest? Thanks! Looking forward to viewing everyone's blogs for this week.



Tara

Subtle Mind Exercise

This week we had a lot of access into learn about the subtle mind. It was covered well through Dacher in his text, and we have been able to practice the act of training our subtle mind through the exercise on the Dacher disc.

For me, this week's exercise worked better. I found myself in the right spot, at the right time which helped. I stood in my kitchen under the vent (this was not planned), and the air was breezing lightly over me with my eyes closed while I listened to the waves, so it felt as if I was really at the ocean. It was incredible. So I would suggest to anyone who could do this to do it the same way-I took in my deep inhales as the waves rose and exhaled when the waves fell and the tide came in. Paint this picture in your mind as your doing it. It had almost an immediate affect on me with the air from the vent in the mix. I liked the words she used (even though her voice still bugs me as much as it did last week, lol) that we needed to keep a firm focus on the breath each time. Last week's Loving Kindness just seemed all over the place, but this week, everything was focused.

The spiritual, mental, and physical health of an individual goes hand in hand whether we agree with it or recognize it that way. They feed off each other. If one aspect isn't taken care of, then the others will fall in status as well. For example, when I am reading the scriptures or at a church meeting and I am very tired from staying up the night before, I can't tune into the messages and the revelation I may need personally to be hearing in order to grow spiritually. Being tired mentally also affects our physical health. If I am too tired mentally OR physically I can't get a good workout at the gym. Thus, if I maintain my lack of sleep, then going to the gym will lessen, and my physical health will be affected as well. I am sure there are other ways it manifests itself, but these are the most apparent in my life. I hope everyone gets the most they can out of this week's exercise.

Tara

Loving-Kindness & Mental Workout

Loving-Kindness- "Loving-Kindness can be expressed in our thoughts, prayers, and advice or through physical assistance and generosity that connect heart-to-heart" (Dacher, 2006).

This week's exercise (The Loving-Kindness exercise) really didn't seem to impress or leave a positive effect upon me. It didn't even bring calmness or ease. Of all exercises, isn't this the best one to have no real reaction. ;) I was able to think of three specific people I have affectionate, tender feelings toward, as well as the feeling of loving-kindness. However, regardless how much love I feel for them during the day and night, I couldn't tune into those feelings during this exercise. I had just gotten out of bed when I began the exercise, so all of my body was aching as I tried to let go of all other grasping and tension. Perhaps, that was why I couldn't tune in, because I trying to move past all the aching of my body instead of focusing my feelings and attention to 'feelings' of love and tenderness.

I also had a difficult time understanding the truthfulness of the instruction. For example, how does one shift all their love and tender feelings to their subtle mind? I haven't even come to throroughly understanding the subtle mind, so how do I express care, tenderness, and loving-kindness to it? Regardless, I am sure it served its purpose for many others. But based off my experience with the exercise, I would naturally suggest one of the other exercises we've done before recommending this one.


Our Mental Workout-
Just as one trains physically each day to have optimal physical health, one must train their mind each day to develop their psychospiritual life and access its capacities and resources. Elliot Dacher suggests one hour a day (2006). Just as practice is put in, results will be apparent. Just the same...when the workouts cease, one will notice a dropoff in their conditioning. Therefore, perseverance is necessary. So how do we implement these mental workouts so that we may benefit from them and develop our psychospiritual life and flourish?

Just as we might set aside an hour a day to exercise at the gym, set aside some time each day to implement these mental workouts. It may be hard to try to fit in an hour for the gym let alone ANOTHER hour for mental workouts every day, (that's what my thoughts ride to) so try setting aside small intervals throughout the day for small mental workouts that will add up to an hour by the end of the day. Good luck everyone!