Unit 7

Meeting Aesclepius

This week I practiced the Meeting Aesclepius exercise. In this exercise I visualized a loved one, a man that I respect, love, trust, and strive to be like (my husband). I found the music relaxing and calming. I really liked this exercise in focusing on my husband and all of the characteristics that I truly appreciate in him. I found this exercise enjoyable and it allowed me to focus on all the positives of our relationship. I felt that I was connecting with my husband on a whole new level even though he was not present. Practicing meditation exercises like this can truly help you feel better about yourself, about others, and allow you to live a healthy and happy life. Mindfulness has allowed me to feel more positive in my daily life. It has allowed me to pray more and open my heart to the world. I plan to continue to apply these practices in my life by being positive, meditating, exercising, and eating well. All of these will help to reduce stress and allow me to feel wholeness in my life.

The saying, “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself”, is very true. If you have not opened up spiritually you will not be able to help others to do the same for themselves. As a professional you cannot teach someone to pray, meditate, forgive, or help them to connect their mind, body, and spirit if you have not done so yourself. If you do not meditate how can you explain to someone else how to do it, what they should be thinking, or feeling, if you do not know yourself. I feel that each of us being in the health profession is expected to develop our psychological, physical, and spiritual health so that we can help others to do the same. I think that by implementing meditation, exercise, prayer, yoga, and quiet time into my daily life will allow me to continue to develop my inner self and spiritual side. 

Unit 6

Universal Loving-Kindness Meditation

I practiced the loving-kindness meditation. I found it to be relaxing and stress relieving. The loving kindness meditation was easy to do. I sat in a quiet place and began to repeat the phrases:

May all individuals gain freedom from suffering.

May all individuals find sustained health, happiness, and wholeness.

May I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering.

May I assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness.

I practiced this for 10 minutes and this made me feel at ease. I felt that this meditation allowed me to feel that I had the power to help others. This exercise helped me to open my mind and heart to myself and others. I also liked this meditation because unlike a recorded meditation exercise you can truly use this meditation almost anywhere.

I also completed the integral assessment. I had to focus really hard to think about my life and it allowed me to put my life into perspective. I found that I am good with psychospiritual and biological aspects of my life. I however lack on the interpersonal aspect. I find that it is easy for me when it comes to nutrition, exercise, meditation, and prayer.  On the other hand I am really bad at community, family, friends, and work relationships. I have never been good at relationships and I have very few friends, but many acquaintances. I think for me to work on my interpersonal skills that I first need to work on my inner self. I need to work on having a positive attitude and behavior. This will hopefully help me to develop into a better communicator and friend. This assessment really helped me to evaluate my life and to see where I need to make some improvements. 

Unit 5

The Subtle Mind Practice

I liked how Dacher talked about our breathing, how when our breath is calm our mind follows. I find this to be true for myself. I liked this exercise better than the Loving-Kindness exercise because I felt more relaxed and calm right away. I could easily start deep breathing, feel relaxed, and stay focused on my breath and not my thoughts. The Loving-Kindness exercise I felt was harder to practice because my thoughts would wonder when I was trying to think of certain loved ones or myself and then my mind would continue in a different direction. While the Subtle Mind practice you can just relax and not think about anything other than your breathing. I also thought it was hard to relax with the Loving-Kindness exercise when we were to think of a loved one suffering. I again liked the waves and flute noises in this exercise. The waves helped me to focus on my breathing and I breathed with the sounds of the waves.

Spiritual wellness is important to our mental and physical wellness as they are all connected. As we are able to connect with our spiritual side we can mentally and physically feel relaxed and calm. As our mind, body, spirit, and emotions are slowly progressing toward the positive side of life we will improve our mental health, our immune systems, and our connection with ourselves and the world around us. The connection of my spiritual, mental, and physical wellness has let me become a more positive person and I feel better about myself. 

Unit 4

Loving-Kindness

I found that the sound of the waves during the Loving-Kindness exercise helped me to relax and feel at ease. I thought it was difficult to open my heart like the lady said and allow happiness to fill my heart and thoughts. As the exercise went on I felt that it was a little easier to let myself go and feel love, kindness, gentleness, and peace toward myself and others. I didn’t like thinking about a loved one suffering but I could see how this might help you to cope with a similar situation. I would recommend this exercise to others because you never know what people are going through and this would help them to feel better about their selves. You need to love yourself before you can share your love with others.  

“Mental workout” is the concept of exercising our minds like athletes workout their bodies to stay in shape. To evolve our psychospiritual minds as we work toward health, happiness, and wholeness we must put the effort in daily. (Dacher, 2006) Working our minds for an hour a day can help us to work toward our mind, body, and spirit wholeness. Research indicates that loving-kindness attracts loving-kindness and that we get back what we give. (Dacher, 2006) I think that you can use mental workouts to help calm your mind and allow you to have more positive actions and thoughts. This will allow you to grow your psychospiritual mind.

Reference

 

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