Practicing Mental and Spiritual Health

I feel that all of the exercises and meditations that we have completed in this class have been successful in some ways. The most common reason that an exercise was less helpful, usually, has more to do with my inability to let go of daily life. Because of this reason, I went back and tried those again. I found that both of our "Loving-Kindness" exercises to be greatly helpful in my own life. Not only do I look past my own suffering and onto the suffering of others, I learn to dissolve it as well. The simple act of wishing strangers well has been endlessly moving and positive for me. I also found that the "Subtle-Mind" exercise was able to give me insight into what my biggest opportunities for improvement actually were. In the last few weeks, I have implemented a daily exercise routine that I use in conjunction with these mental exercises. I have found that if I mentally allow myself to complete any of these while physically moving and pushing myself increasingly harder, I reach an amazing new realm of peace. I am sure that I will continue to use these exercises in my life, because that is exactly what integral health is about.

Meeting Aesclepius

Along with the mediation exercises required by this class, I have also begun to do some of my own. The Meeting Aesclepius exercise was deeply moving and easy for me to follow, especially considering my house was the opposite of quiet. I easily pictured someone who embodied wisdom, love, kindness and compassion and found that I could continue listening and following the speaker's words without hesitation. I pictured my great-grandmother. She passed away almost 15 years ago, but she had such an influence on my life. I often have pictured her in my mind when I found myself in difficult situations. Particularly when I chose to have natural childbirth and needed to find relief from the pain. It was her that I imagined comforting me, and it was her that calmed my fear. So there was no real thought involved in who would take the role of wisdom, love, and kindness in my mind. When this exercise was finished, I felt an amazing sense of calm. Realizing that because her influence on me (even though I was only a child) was so great, I became her. It is an amazing thought that I could be like my favorite person, that I could ever embody the level of love, wisdom, and kindness that she always did. 

We often look for others to help us reach our desired level of integral health. I believe that it is important to find someone well trained in the field to give us the best possible solutions for our own path to wellness. The saying "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" means that someone who is in a position of leadership must fully understand and personally use the methods that he suggests to those following him. In order to successfully assist others' health, one must develop their own. The healthcare professional has an obligation to clients to lead by example. Those who seek do offer this service to others must remain diligent on their own path to human flourishing as well. The same methods of meditation, loving-kindness, and calm-abiding mind should be used by professionals helping others seek the same level of spiritual and psychological growth. 

Integral Assessment/Universal Loving-Kindness

This week's blog required me to complete two tasks: The universal loving-kindness meditation and the integral assessment. Both of these helped me immensely to help understand the direction that I need to take to become the person I want to be.

The universal loving-kindness meditation was moving and emotional. I guess this is directly effected by the unrest in my personal life, yet I maintained my focus on the suffering of others. This helped me realize how many others are burdened with much deeper suffering than I could imagine. To reach past my own selfish, petty issues and wish others freedom from their suffering was emotionally charging to say the least.

For the integral assessment I chose personal/family issues within the interpersonal quadrant. Focusing my energy into healing the specific relationship, I asked myself what growth and development could help in the healing process.

I took time to myself to meditate, putting all of my energy into how I felt about the situation as a whole. Then I began to write freely about what I could do to reach a more desirable outcome. Through the flowing words on paper, I realized that I allowed my emotions to overreact to the situation and my actions actually caused someone else emotional harm. I decided that a better way to attempt to resolve the situation would have been to openly discuss my feelings instead of drawing conclusions and making rash assumptions. This is the growth I seek to develop as a person and is needed to avoid these types of situations. If I completely understand my feelings and can communicate them clearly without hurting someone then I will have made a step into the direction that I would like to go as a person towards integral health.

The Subtle Mind

This week we have focused on Dascher's Subtle Mind, and while I found it to be easier to achieve than last week's Loving Kindness exercise, I still was not extremely successful. I think this has much to do with my upcoming wedding closing in quickly and realizing that I am not finding time to allow for relaxation and meditation as much as I would like.

This is leading me to lose the positive connection that my spiritual wellness adds to my mental and physical wellness. I am finding that because I do not allow time for spiritual activities, that I am becoming more stressed. This, in turn, leads me to being more stressed because I am not allowing time for spiritual activities. It is a vicious cycle. I must make the time to fully commit to my spiritual well-being. I can no longer allow stress to take over and worry to grow roots.

I also spent the last week absolving a detrimental relationship that has been causing me heartache for a while. I allowed a person to drown me in her own negativity until I could no longer keep my head above water. This week's reading helped me realize how harmful holding onto that relationship was for me, so I simply let it go. I feel relief and sadness at the same time, but I now realize that I should not have allowed someone to affect how I viewed my own life. If I can give anyone advice, it is to love those who truly love you as well. Do not harbor guilt for dissolving friendships/relationships that cause you harm. You are an amazing person and require more than that.

Loving Kindness Exercise

After last week's exercise, I knew that I would have to use my time alone while the children are at school to complete these exercises. No more trying to clear my mind while giggling, footsteps, or any other disruptions are going on in the house.

Beginning this unit's reading during the holiday break, was a good idea as well. Work has been even more stressful than usual. Our children spent a week with their other parents, and like usual, came back with horrible attitudes. I have felt like I was fighting a losing battle. Trying to work retroactively to keep harmony everywhere I go has been nothing short of impossible.

This week's "Loving Kindness" exercise was great to look beyond all of the things that stress me. Feeling warm affection for those who are suffering with whatever their problems may be is even deeper than simply treating others as you would have them treat you. This is beyond the golden rule for me. This is expressing loving kindness to everyone, even those who are not particularly kind or friendly to me. Usually, it is difficult to achieve because we hold onto our own pain, suffering, and hard feelings. I think that this exercise first helped me release my own stress, and then take the negativity that is all around me and relieve that as well. I would definitely say that this week's exercise has been successful for me.

Rating my Well-Being

This week is has been much more chaotic than my usual life. I am working more hours, trying to complete homework early so that I do not get behind, finishing last minute Christmas shopping, and more than routine housework in case anyone stops by unannounced. It seems that there are not enough hours in the day to find a chance to get everything accomplished. Usually, I have the amazing ability to clear my head, but this week has been especially difficult. Taking a moment to rate my well-being, separated into physical, spiritual, and psychological, required me to think about things I often overlook these days. I’ll rate 1-10, ten being optimal, to evaluate some changes that could improve each of these.

A.   Physical- My physical well-being is very lacking lately. While I have no serious physical ailments, there is tremendous room for improvement. I give my physical well-being a 3. My goal in the next week is to have this increase to an 8.
B.   Spiritual- Though this changes occasionally, like most other people’s, right now I would rate my spiritual well-being at a 6. My goal this week is to increase this rating to a 9.
C.   Psychological- Life is stressful for almost everyone, but I would rate my psychological well-being an 6. My goal for psychological well-being to a 8.

I have not made many goals regarding my well-being in these areas, until lately, but there are improvements that I can make that would easily improve my overall well-being.

A.   Physical- This is the area that I can work on improvement the most. First of all, I need to get consistent amounts of rest. I get four to five hours most days until I am exhausted and try to catch up all at once. I can also improve my physical well-being by making time for moderate physical activity several times per week. This could be simply going for a walk, or doing yoga first thing in the morning. The important part is to insure that I make the time to do something, no matter what it is.
B.   Spiritual- While I feel like this is an area that is pretty good now; I can take the time to enjoy my solitude, maybe in combination with doing yoga first thing in the morning. Meditation is helpful to enhance spiritual well-being and I have always found that it was easy for me to make a daily goal.
C.   Psychological- I feel that the previous goals will also help with this one as well. I also think that I can improve this by keeping a journal of all of the things that I find stressful with ideas on how to deal with each of them.

Regarding this week’s relaxation exercise, which can be found here . Unlike last week’s exercise, I was not successful while listening to this one. It was extremely difficult to find time to be alone and relax. I tried several times to listen to the exercise, and every time I did, something would happen that disrupted my meditation. From children to house guests, I could not find an appropriate time to listen uninterrupted. I suppose it has something to do with the holiday season and how busy my schedule has become, but I hope to try this again when no one is here. When I first began the exercise, I thought it would be successful. I listened to each instruction carefully and tried to clear my mind of everything, while focusing on every word being spoken. The breathing exercises did allow me to relax to a point and I began to let go of everything. This was always interrupted by arguing children, someone asking for something, a phone call, or a knock on the door. I think the inability to focus is pretty telling of the amount of stress we all endure during the holidays, which only further proves that we each must MAKE time to relax and let go.

Relax

This week's assignments included a sound file for me to review here in my blog. I will admit that the first few moments of listening to this, I thought it was going to be silly. I rarely take the time to be open minded about such things as listening to someone for instructions on how to properly relax. Maybe this is mostly because I feel that there is no time to do the things mentioned in the clip. There is always something else to be done; but I did give it a shot.

I was surprised to find myself doing as the gentleman suggested. I literally felt my arms grow warmer and heavier. I was alone and no one was here to see me melt for a moment, so I just did. The more he spoke, the more tuned out of the world I became. I have never allowed to be taken by someone's words before. I usually just shake my head and continue finding something to do instead. I am really glad I took the ten minutes out of my day to actually listen to the audio here.

By the time it was all over, I felt as though I had taken a nap, drank a cup of coffee, and had a hot bath all at once. This is something I will keep in the arsenal for those days when nothing seems to work out the way I need. I encourage everyone to just take a few minutes when you're alone to see how much better you'll feel after listening to him. I am really glad I opened my mind to the idea.