Final Blog

For my unit 3 personal assessment: 

Based on my reflection I would rate myself for physical well-being as an 8.  I am a healthy young woman who partakes in physical activity regularly.  By regularly I mean at least once every day and three days out of the week I will work out twice.  I feel like I have a nutritional, healthy diet.  I could strive for better eating habits especially on the weekends.  I believe this is where I am lacking.  Spiritual well-being I would currently have to rate it as a 6.  I am a Christian, I believe in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for my sins, rose again, is alive and is with me in my journey through life.  I currently go to church, participate in regular church activities such as bible study once a week, and Christian, women get togethers. However, I rate myself so low on this category because I have really been neglecting my personal quiet time with the Lord.  I used to always want to spend time with Him through prayer and reading the Bible. This past year has been hard for me to concentrate on my relationship with God.  My psychological health, would have to be rated at as 9.  I do not feel like I have any psychological problems or struggle mentally with thoughts and ideas.  

Presently rating myself:

I would now rate myself as a 7 in the spiritual aspect.  I am spending more one on one quality time with the Lord through reading, praying, and other forms of worship.  I also have been volunteering more with the church.  I still think there are things I could do to further my relationship with God such as ministering to more people through my actions in my daily activities.  My physical well-being I would rate as a 9 compared to the 8 I had rated myself previously.  I am eating healthier than what I was and continuing my work-out regimen.  Psychologically I would still rate myself as a 9 as previous. 

 

Throughout this course I have not felt like this class has personally affected my life, other than me having to participate in a class for school.  I enjoyed some of the exercises but I do not believe I would continuously implement them for the rest of my life.  When assisting others in the future, I think the one thing I will be able to pass to them is that the body functions as a whole and when one part is being neglected the other parts are affected as well.  This can be a great way to finding the source of a problem. 

Unit 9: Final Project

            According to Dacher, the healer is the key to the evolution and fulfillment of the integral healing process.  By incorporating the integral process into the lives of the healer, there will be a discovery of the profound possibilities of integral health and healing.  The practice of integral healing can begin as professional training but soon becomes more personal.   As the ideas of human flourishing grow to be more as the healer experiences first-hand the healing, the healer begins to understand and believe that ultimate healing is possible, and there can be an end to human suffering.  The work develops into a personal sacredness and a tool to create a better world (Dacher, 2006).  I believe I need to develop my psychological aspect of healing.  I am very motivated to do school and finish my bachelor’s degree in Health Science at the present time.  I really want to continue on with clinicals for nursing and later obtain my Nurse Practitioning license.  I want to make sure I prepare and discipline myself to continue on this path and work hard while I am doing it.  I know that this path will take time.  I want to pace myself and remember my goals and in the same way keep in mind the present time and enjoy it.  I think I am on the path to this psychological way of thinking but as I said I will have to practice and discipline myself to continue on this long route. 

            I have assessed myself in each domain: spiritually, physically, and psychologically.  If I was going to give myself a score in each aspect it would have to be a 6 in spirituality, 7 physically, and 7 psychologically.  I rate myself a 6 in spirituality because I believe that I could be doing more in my spiritual relationship with God.  I want to be able to share my faith with people by my actions.  I would like to work on being more kind, sympathetic, caring, compassionate, and considerate of others.  I believe if I can accomplish this, with the Lords help by praying, reading the Word, and meditating on the things of God, I will be able to accomplish a higher level of flourishing in the spiritual aspect.  I gave myself a 7 for physical.  I am very active and work out every day of the week and sometimes multiple times.  I feel like I eat moderately but would like to change some of my diet habits.  I have been researching the vegetarian way of living and have a growing interest.  I would like to eat healthier and incorporate it into my workouts.  I would also like to further my running capabilities in order to take part in more organized runs.  My health is very good right now but I would like to take it to a level of excellence.  In addition to my physical aspect, I also scored myself a 7 in the psychological realm.  I feel as if I have control over much of my thoughts.  The time I find it hardest to control my thoughts is at night when I am trying to go to sleep.  I would like to practice more of the subtle mind exercises and relaxation methods to help me have a peace of mind and get the adequate amount of sleep I require. 

            One main goal I have for myself in the physical area is to start eating more vegetarian meals.  I believe this would increase my vegetable and fruit intake and would help lessen the intake of animal protein.  I do not want to jump into this type of diet without the proper knowledge and preparation for it.  I think in order to successfully start and continue this way of eating I will have to: research the method further; gain insight from people I trust that are true vegetarians and have lived this way for many years; and plan carefully each week my meals.

            Strategies I would like to implement in each domain, physical, psychological, and spiritual, to foster my growth towards integral health would all be exercises I have learned from the path to human flourishing.  My physical domain would consist of the subtle mind exercise and meditation practices.  I believe the subtle mind would help clear my mind before my physical activity to help me concentrate solely on the event.  The meditation practices would help me during my physical activity to keep a calm and peaceful mind during exercise, helping me to concentrate on one central thing rather than my mind on other objectives that may clutter and distract it.  For my psychological aspect, I would like to implement the same two practices as in my physical aspect.  I would like for my mind to be clear and at peace at all times and be able to meditate and concentrate on one central idea.  When speaking of my spiritual area of life, I would like to incorporate the loving-kindness practice and meditation.  I want to exercise the loving-kindness practice in order to let my kindness, love, compassion flourish to other individuals other than myself and the people I am close to.  I would also like to practice meditation in this aspect in order to contemplate on the Word of God, to help me throughout my day and continuously let my spirit grow closer to the Lord.     

            I want to assess my progress through journaling.  I would like to have a journal specifically for recording my practices each day.  I would like to set aside time each morning, afternoon, and night to use each practice for every domain and start out with 5 minutes.  As the days progressed and I felt comfortable with 5 minutes I would want to continue on with adding 5 extra minutes for each practice.  I would like to get to the place where I could practice the exercises for 30 minutes in each session but have a continuance throughout the day of meditation.  Also, I would like to have an accountability partner who could help me on my journey.  Even if they are not participating in what I am progressing towards, I would still like it if another person, that I trusted, was aware of what I was doing and could help motivate and keep me accountable to what I striving for.  This could help me during periods of struggle when I am not feeling self-motivated. 

Reference:

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Basic Health Publications.

Unit 8 Blog

I believe that the loving kindness exercise and the subtle mind were the most beneficial exercises that I experienced during this course.  I would like to implement the loving-kindness practice when I am feeling out of touch with kindness towards other, specifically people that I am close to.  I know for me, at times I take out my frustration on the ones I love most.  I think the loving-kindness exercise will help me remember the ones I love most and take in all of the memories of our love and use it for the future.  The subtle mind is useful for when I am unable to think clearly.  This practice would probably be most helpful to me before going to sleep, taking a test, or participating in an organized run.  The subtle mind helped me to get rid of the unnecessary clutter and focus on what was most important.  I was at peace and comfort which I think would be most useful at the times that I previously mentioned. 

Meeting Aesclepius

When completing the Meeting Aesclepius practice, I was able to first deepen my thoughts into a wise and calm stage.  The focus here was to visualize a person I respected and thought of as wise and full of great characteristics such as peace, love, and joy.  The person I chose was my mother.  She has passed but in this exercise I was able to focus in on all the aspects of her I could remember.  All of the characteristics the exercise was asking for us to look for in our “wise person” I could find in my mother.  I could visualize what she would be thinking to tell me while we looked at each other and all of the wise things she would want to share with me and deepen our thoughts and connection together.  These made me want to personify every aspect of her and remember that there is a piece of her inside of me that can help me be this wise person and healer.    Observing the qualities she has left me and has engraved into my soul has made me want to expand on them and let them come from the inside out.  I believe it will take time and effort but with the continuance of these exercises I have faith that they can be come forth even more. 

The saying, “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” is very clear and straight to the point.  If a person has not been somewhere, physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, they are incapable of allowing a person to follow their path.  The leader has to explore for him or herself the path first and then let others follow.  This saying can be applied to the health and wellness professional in a strong way.  The professional should be able to practice what he/she preaches.  When they are trying to heal an individual they should not only know the teachings but the practices.  I believe there is an obligation to clients to be on a continuing development of health psychologically, physically, and spiritually.  As the saying was said, one cannot lead if they have not gone there themselves.  I can continue to grow in these ways in my personal life by continuing in prayer, meditating on the words of the Lord, and carrying out the message of the Cross.

Unit 6: Exercises for Mind-Body-Spirit Wellness and Healing

I discovered that the source of difficulty and suffering was my psycho-spiritual aspect.  I want to focus on this part of my life for growth and development.  I noticed when I was trying to bring my mind to stillness, it was very hard.  I could not and did not want to let go of the chaotic thoughts roaming around in my head.  Before I started the exercise I was quite upset about something that normally I would have thought was very petty.  I went to a new hairdresser and they gave me a horrific haircut.  I really thought I was going to lose it on them.  Previously, if this would have happened to me, I would have blown the situation off and just told myself that my hair will grow and that I will be okay.  However, this time it really upset me.  I just couldn’t let it go.  So I really want to be able to have better control over my emotions and thoughts.  Also, if my spiritual life was flourishing like it is supposed to, I would have been able to pray about my problem and gave it over to the Lord but I didn’t; I had a pity party for myself and continued to let myself continue to be upset.  I want to start recognizing when these negative thoughts and emotions arise and take hold of them and let them diminish as I release positive thoughts and emotions.   I want to use breathing exercises to calm my inner and outer body and focus more on prayer as a source of peace. 

Subtle Mind Practice

The subtle mind practice: Breathing

“Peaceful breathing can lead to a peaceful mind.  The breath is always with us.”

When I would try to focus on my breathing it was frustrating because I would not breathe normal.  I would focus so much on my breathing that it would mess up the normal inhalation and exhalation and make me feel out of breath or uncomfortable breathing.  When comparing the subtle mind practice to the loving-kindness exercise, I would have to say that I enjoyed the loving-kindness activity so much more.  I felt like the exercise was more in depth and pushed me to expand myself to think about deep thoughts and feelings that I had kept unrevealed for a long time.  It was an exercise that I could definitely repeat and participate in daily or weekly. 

During the subtle mind practice, the voice said that “bringing your mind back to your breath is like an anchor in the ground.  It is a forceful thought that has to be done in order to keep out the business of the mind.” If I am relaxing I do not want to have to “force” my mind to do anything.  Training the mind is one thing but it should not have to be forced to do it.  The voice would also give you commands during the exercise.  I understand that you need instructions to do the objectives but I felt like the voice was just another mindless chatter that I could not clear my mind of.  Even if it is part of the exercise, my mind did not feel still. 

When my spirit is feeling at ease and peaceful, this brings my mind at ease and peace.  As discussed before, the mind and body are one and I believe the spirit and mind are connected also, along with the emotional aspect of our being.  These four aspects would all be considered the integral healing of one.  When each aspect’s needs are being met then the body as a whole can function properly and adhere to the human flourishing that is explained and talked about in the reading material. 

Loving-Kindness

Author Elliot Dacher of Integral Health explains loving-kindness in this way, “Loving-kindness is more effective in stabilizing our mind and lessening the grip of self-centeredness than the embrace of others.”  During this week’s exercise, when I opened my heart to a dear loved-one, it made me feel wonderful.  I reminisced on all of the fun and enjoyable memories I had with this person.  The feelings at one point felt so over-whelming that I wanted more than anything to stop the exercise and go up to the person and just squeeze and hug them and not let go.  When I was supposed to turn feelings of care and affection towards myself, I did not feel inner-peace.  Honestly, I was quite upset with myself.  I felt like I should be doing more to care and show my love to the ones I truly care about and therefore I could not care and feel affection for myself.  The most difficult part of the whole exercise was taking the suffering of the same loved one I had been meditating on and letting my heart absorb their suffering.  It was so painful and overpowering.  I knew that a lot of the suffering they had endured was due to my actions and this brought even more sadness and discontentment towards me. 

I think I would recommend this exercise to another person.  It can be very eye-opening to one and can be helpful for a person to take time out to contemplate on the things that are most important. 

Mental workout is the concept of training and exercising the mind.  The benefits of a mental workout are a source of peace and calm, ease and delight, creativity and wisdom that will not want to end the practice.   Also, mental workouts help a person continue on the path to integral health and human flourishing.