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