Unit 8

Good Evening Everyone,

During this course, we have focused on a variety of mental exercises. I have tried them all and I found that the two exercises that worked the best for me were the Subtle-Mind exercise and the Rainbow Meditation exercise. I tend to use the Subtle-Mind exercise more often than the Rainbow Meditation exercise. I use the Subtle-Mind exercise every morning before I start to get ready for work. I also use it during the day when I feel stressed or when I need to relax at the end of the day. I like it because it helps me to focus. I am often distracted. Any small amount of clutter in my brain while invite me to wander with it on some days. The Subtle-Mind exercise helps me to recognize it for what it is and let it go. It also helps me to focus on my inner self. Ever since I have been using it, I feel so much better and I am more productive. I think this is why I tend to use it so often.

I also like the Rainbow Meditation exercise. I think I like it so much because it was an exercise that I did not have difficulty doing it. I was easily able to visualize the different colors coming from my various body parts. During my first attempt, I experienced the feeling of a release of some sort coming from each specific body part and going with the color towards the ceiling. It was as if something was leaving my body. I assumed this was like a negative energy or tension leaving my body. After that experience, I felt so much better. I was also amazed by the experience. This led me to continue to do it on a daily basis. I usually do this a night before I go to sleep. I feel that it helps me to relieve the tension that builds up in my body throughout the day.

I plan on using both of these exercises after this class is over. I saved a copy of them on my external hard drive, computer, Ipod, and e-reader to be sure that I have them wherever I go in the world. Hopefully, I will get to the point where I will only need to do the Subtle-Mind exercise in the morning and the Rainbow Meditation at night. If I get to this point, I know that I am on my way to wellness!

Carol

Unit 7 Asclepius Healing

While listening to this track, I found the first part of the track to be annoying. The man’s voice was not appealing to me. When the woman began to speak, I was relieved that the exercise was going to be with her voice. The exercise was meant to develop our inner consciousness. We were asked to focus on a wise individual. I used my father for this individual. We have always had a close relationship, but this exercise left me with a deeper feeling for him. I have often admired him for his ability to control a situation with calmness and not explosiveness. I tend to be explosive in my reactions. This is an area that I am working on improving. By doing this exercise, I was able to start to develop a better think before I speak approach to situations. It reminded me to remember my father’s way of handling a situation. In the practice, we were told to let the wise person’s speech become our own and this is what I did. It made me realize how important our words and actions can be.

I liked how the waves in the background gave me a soothing sense of being. It was very relaxing and calming. I did this in the morning and it gave me a relaxed feeling for the rest of the day. During the exercise, I was actually able to visualize the waves and the white light. This is sometimes a problem for me because my mind tends to wander. I was able to focus on the exercise for the entire time.

When I started this course, I was under a ton of stress. I had just gotten through the death of my father-in-law and the Christmas holidays. The day after class began, I was leaving for work. This meant that I would be on the road, almost continuously, for six weeks. When I looked at the amount of work that there was to do for my courses this semester, stress started to build even more. I thought I was going to explode from all of the stress that I was encountering. I would wake up in the middle of the night with my heart racing. I felt like I couldn’t take the time to really enjoy something because I should be studying. Once I started getting in to my courses, I found the mindfulness practices and meditation to be quite helpful. I began to do them because of the requirements for class, but later I started to realize the benefits that I was receiving from them. Psychologically, my stress has been reduced and I feel more at ease. I am no longer preoccupied by my studies. I face them with the calmness that I should have had in the past. I now am finding more time to devote to myself. I have been doing meditation on a regular basis. Now, it is not a requirement for class, but a requirement for my self. I plan on continuing this on a regular basis from now on. I even downloaded some of the mp3s onto my Ipod so that I can listen to them whenever I need to de-stress. I also have noticed that I have become more connected in my prayers. Although I regularly pray, I think I was just going through the motions. I now feel the difference when I pray and I have noticed that they have become longer and more meaningful. Lastly, I have been able to develop time for exercise. This has been something that I have been missing in my life. Before college, I exercised on a regular basis. One could say that I needed my exercise fix every day. When I started college, I felt that I had to give this up because of my time constraints. Boy, was I wrong! This was one area that I needed to keep in my life, but I didn’t realize it. Through the use of these exercises, I have decreased my feelings of time urgency. I feel that I have become more productive with the time that I do have and therefore, I am able to concentrate more on myself.

The statement, "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” refers to the fact that you must practice what you preach. If you do not believe and partake in these practices of integral health, you can not communicate the need for your clients to do so.  As a practitioner of integral health, you do have an obligation to your patients to develop your own areas of psychological, physical, and spiritual health. It sets an example for them and it also shows them how important they are to one’s life.

I plan on developing my psychological and spiritual aspects by implementing a variety of methods into my current lifestyle. The first method is to exercise on a regular basis no matter how hectic my life becomes. This allows me to clear my mind and body. I am starting to think of sweating as a way to cleanse my body of impurities. It also cleanses my mind. I will also incorporate meditation into my daily life. This will help to develop my spirituality. Although I have not started to do yoga, I plan to incorporate this into my life as a way of continuing the connection between my mind and body. These are only a few baby steps, but considering where I was at in the beginning of this course, it is a great accomplishment for me. I now do not think of it as being required, but rather a necessity in my life.

Take care,

Carol

Unit 6 Loving Kindness and Integral Assessment Exercise

For this unit, we were to complete the universal loving kindness meditation exercise and the integral assessment exercise. The universal loving kindness meditation exercise was something similar to one that I have completed or tried to complete in the past. Previously, I was unable to get the right feeling for the exercise. In this attempt, I was able to do the exercise with no problem.  The only difficulty I had with this exercise was remembering what I was to say. Once I got over this difficulty, I had no problems with this exercise. I think the difference between the two attempts was with the wording and not the actual exercises. In the beginning of this exercise, my mind was wandering all over the place. It wasn’t until I started repeating the phrases that I was able to focus on the task at hand. When I began to focus on other individuals, I began to feel a warmness come over my body. It made me feel caring thoughts about people in places that I didn’t even know. I had a helping and compassionate feeling come over me and this lasted for the rest of the day.

With the second exercise – the integral assessment – I identified several areas that I needed to work on. One area that I needed to focus on was my interpersonal area. The conflict I have in this area revolves around some of my co-workers. My conflict in this area has to deal with trying to help people that don’t want my help. For me, I am looking at the future, but they are looking at the present. Through the assessment, I learned that I no longer have anger towards these individuals, but rather a sense of sorrow.  With a sense of sorrow, I think I can be able to help these individuals more with out the aspect of anger towards them.

Another area that I identified through my assessment was my psychospiritual area. In this area, I have realized that I have never developed an oneness with myself. My mind and body have always been two separate sectors. Although I go through the motions of being a very spiritual person, I haven’t felt it within my body as I once did. Without feeling this, my spirituality means nothing to me when in fact it really does.

I think by concentrating on developing these two areas of my life, I will begin to develop wholeness within my mind and body. Although these areas are different, they actually are inter-related. If I develop psychospiritual flourishing, my interpersonal relationships will flourish. If my interpersonal relationships are mended, I will be able to develop my psychospiritual area, as well. To start to repair these areas, I will begin to work on my mind-body-spirit connections with various exercises that I have learned in class. I plan to use yoga and meditation to develop these areas. The reason I chose these two was because they were very portable exercises for me. I can do them in my hotel room at any hour of the day or night. I can also meditate in various areas (like airports) by blocking out the chatter. By the use of yoga and meditation, I can start to develop my psychospiritual area of my life. For me, this seems the most critical area at this time. Once I begin to develop this area, the interpersonal area of my life should start to resolve.

This has been an eye opening unit for me. I normally just read the exercises and do them, but with this one, I really got to assess the problem areas in my life. I would suggest to anyone to try these if they have never done them. I would also suggest that if you have done them in the past that you should take some time and do them again.

Unit 5 Project

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AdDe1L7eRRL0ZGY3OXpiempfMGZrNnRrc2R2&hl=en


This was a little hard for me to do because I am in Switzerland and the blog site is in German. Thanks for the pictures professor!

Loving-Kindness VS Subtle-Mind

Hi All,

The exercise for this week was to compare the loving-kindness exercise to the subtle-mind exercise. As I stated last week, I did not like the loving-kindness exercise. In this exercise, one was asked to think about things and then release them from their minds. I found this to be very difficult for me to do. I had trouble feeling or realizing the release. The idea behind this exercise was to focus on your feelings and the feelings of others in your life. I honestly did not find this exercise to be very helpful. The idea was to cleanse your mind. For me, it was very difficult to actually let go of the thought.

The subtle-mind exercise was actually more beneficial to me. This exercise required one to focus on their breathing. You were asked to concentrate on how your breathe moved through your body. If you started to lose concentration, you were told to return your thoughts to your breathing. I found this to be very helpful for me. I think it is one of my favorites, so far. I would have to say that I have already recommended this to several individuals over dinner last night.

These two exercises are quite different from each other. They also had quite different effects on me. I think that the loving-kindness exercise, made me feel more uneasy because I had difficulties with doing the exercise. The subtle-mind exercise was very easy for me to do. It also made me feel so wonderful after I was done. I think both of these exercises are a great tool for individuals to use. I do think that it depends on the individual as to which one will work the best for them. For me, it was the subtle-mind exercise.

These exercises are designed to help us deal with our psychological needs and development. By cleansing our minds and purifying our emotions, we can grow. Psychological wellness is an important step in addressing our biological well-being. It is these two areas that must be in balance before one can develop in a truly spiritual way. At this point, we can then begin to turn our focus to others instead of concentrating on ourselves. In my life, I can feel at times that I am spiritually connected to the world around me. At this point, I do not feel connected to the spiritual side of me all of the time. I guess I have rebounds. When I am connected, I feel a warmness within me that makes me want to share it with others. For me, I would like to have this feeling all of the time, but I know it will take constant work to achieve this state.