Useful tools for my continued journey (Unit 8)

Over the course of the last eight weeks, I have learned some great techniques, practices, and tools to help promote integral health.  My journey is far from over and I am certain all of the tools will come in handy at one point or another in the future.  However, two have really made an impact on my journey.  The first is the Subtle Mind practice.  This is a practice I have incorporated into my life on a planned basis, but I have also used it spur of the moment as well.  I utilize this tool in three different ways.  First, I use the subtle mind practice to continue to train my mind.  It has helped me to have clarity and focus and though I still have work to do, I can fell a difference in the way I handle situations.  The second way I use the subtle mind practice is to calm down.  If I am in a stressful situation or find myself overwhelmed, I stop and take a few minutes to utilize this practice and it helps me restore the productive mind.  Finally, I use the subtle mind practice for relaxation or when I am having trouble sleeping.  I will continue to use this practice throughout my journey as I have mentioned above.  The other tool I have not had as much experience with, but it was impactful and something I know I will utilize in the future.  It is the human flourishing visualization.  Visualization is a powerful tool because it helps you to see the result.  It forces you to put yourself in the situation and feel like you are experiencing the result.  This tool will help me because it is a motivator.  I now have something to turn to when I feel like I am falling off track or when I am struggling with what to do next.  The visualization exercise walks me through remembering experiences in health, happiness, and wholeness so that I can take those reminders and continue to work toward achieving them once again.

The mindfulness way to spiritual wellness (Unit 7)

For this week, I used a variety of meditative practices.  Each one served its own purpose in my focus on increases psychological and spiritual wellness.  Some were planned, and some were called upon spur of the moment at a time of need.  First, I took some time to complete the meeting Aesclepius exercise.  This exercise was an interesting experience for me.  It is an exercise I would like to try a few times, but with different focal individuals in order to see if I have a different experience.  I did enjoy spending time focusing on my father, who I chose as the focal point, but I found it difficult to keep my mind focused because I wasn’t sure what I should be focusing in regards to him.  I also used the subtle mind exercise several times though out the week.  I tend to have an active mind and I enjoy the calmness and the focus I can achieve from the subtle mind exercise.  In fact, the other night I was lying in bed, trying to get tired and my mind was racing.  I stopped myself, started the subtle mind practice, and was able to clear my head and sleep peacefully within 10 minutes.  Another mindfulness exercise I utilized this week was reframing.  I like to use this practice in order to gain control of emotional situations and focus on the positive.  All of these things help me to be in a better place psychologically and spiritually, which in turn fosters greater health and wellness.

One of my goals for this journey is to feel my way through the many aspects of wellness and find a future career for myself.  The saying “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” has significant meaning for me personally because that is how I feel about finding a new career.  I want to help people improve their health and wellness but I feel like I need to take the journey myself in order to set an example, speak from experience, and be a better supporter of others.  I believe that the best person to teach or lead another is someone who has been there.  That does not mean that everyone has to follow the same path, but someone with experience and an open mind can provide guidance and support.  Another example of this is with teaching.  I have found professors who have served their entire lives in academia as knowledgeable, intelligent individuals.  However, the professors who have real life experience from a non-academic environment have given me additional insight, support, and perspective that the others cannot.  I believe there is a continued obligation to clients, regardless of industry or subject, for the ‘teacher’ to continue developing.  Life is a process and a journey, reaching the end is the end of life.  As long as we continue the journey, we continue living.

The personal, integral assessment (Unit 6)

I am always looking for ways to increase my awareness about my reactions and be more open and selfless.  The universal loving-kindness exercise was a quick, easy way to take a few minutes and think about others.  I found the exercise calming and helpful.  This was a little easier for me than the previous exercise where we had to think about the suffering or pain of a loved one.  I found this exercise to be a good reminder that we are all human and on this earth together and it is important to be conscious of our self as well as others around us.  I have discovered that I have a longing to help others, I just have not figured out the best way for me to do that. 

The integral assessment process is a bit more involved.  While I enjoyed the activity, I found it difficult at times because the true honesty required is tough.  I liked that the assessment walked us through various questions, but they were challenging questions to answer.  Because of the exercises over the last few weeks, I do not feel like I learned anything new about myself this time.  I feel like I have solid perspective about where I am and where I need to develop and grow, for now.  I anticipate completing this assessment again in the future and learning more about myself and my growth during that time.  I have chosen to focus on the biological and interpersonal aspects of my growth and development at this time.  My reasoning is twofold.  First, I need to focus on my nutrition, fitness, and overall health in order to ensure I am not hurting myself for the future.  Second, is that I am going to be finishing my degree in approximately 7 months.  I need to focus my efforts on my community relationships and work toward figuring out what my next career will be and how I will use that to help people.  Now that I have these focus areas in place, I can include various activities in my daily routine in order to help me grow in these areas.  First, is to continue to practice the mindful meditation exercises from this course in order to help me gain clarity about everything.  Another exercise I will use is a food journal to track my meals and the physical reaction I get from them.  This will help me focus on my health and address issues that are currently challenging.

The not so subtle mind

Those who know me well would say I have anything but a subtle mind.  I have had many people make a comment about the way my mind works, the amount of stuff that is in my head, and my inability to ‘turn my mind off’.  I am ready to prove these people wrong, and ready to learn how to train my mind!  I found the subtle mind exercise to be relaxing and empowering.  It was much easier than the loving kindness exercise.  I did have many random thoughts that pulled my focus away from my breathing but once I acknowledged them and returned my focus to my breathing, they went away.  This was a great feeling for me.  I know I still have a lot of work to do, but I feel like I am making progress.  I have also found that I am more focused throughout the day because function with more intent than reaction.

As I continue on my journey, I continue to be amazed by the connection between the mind, body, and spirit.  True wellness addresses all three aspects because they are all related to each other.  Spiritual wellness and development is probably the most difficult for me.  Because of this, it is the aspect I spend the least amount of time developing.  I have recently learned that this is also the area where I gain the most.  The spiritual wellness focus has provided me with a renewed feeling of success and motivation about my physical and mental wellness.  I will continue my journey focusing on each of the three aspects and knowing that improvement in any area will help all three because of their connection.

Loving Kindness, practice, and mental training

Last week I was away on my family vacation.  This was a perfect time to practice loving kindness because many people I love surrounded me.  While it was easy to make time for the daily activity, it was much more difficult to force myself to do school work!

I found the exercise to be helpful to me.  At first, the timeframe provided to reflect on each section seemed a bit long.  In addition, I spent the majority of the time trying to figure out what I should be thinking about and trying to decide if I was thinking about the right thing.  As the week progressed, I was able to settle in to the practice and was more comfortable with the time allotted for thinking.  Another interesting observation was that as the week progressed, I noticed subtle differences in some of the decisions I made.  I do not see myself as a selfish person, but there were times when I wanted to do something but I did not because I decided it was more important to be with everyone else. 

The concept of a mental workout is not new to me; however, I think there are different types of mental workouts.  The loving kindness practice is more of a personal, psychological mental workout.  I think religion or meditation are more of a spiritual mental workout.  I also think there is an educational mental workout (i.e. schoolwork, Sudoku, research).  Each is important to the holistic picture but each is very different.  Research has proven that mental workouts can improve every aspect of a person.  They can improve mood, stress management, health, disease, wellness, and every other aspect as well.  The best way for me to foster my psychological health is to continue to practice and remain persistent. 

Self Reflection, My honest opinion (aka - Unit 3)

I would rate my Physical well-being as 5 out of 10.  I do get to the gym 5 days a week and I feel like I push myself when I am there, which is great.  I do not have any physical limitations or medical issues either.  However, I am overweight and I need to continue to work to reach a health weight for my body.  I also need to continue to improve my eating habits.  Though I do not eat horribly, I tend to eat a larger dinner than I should and I know I make bad choices on the weekends.  One goal I have for myself is to log my food to ensure I stick to my calorie target.  In order to meet this goal I will use myfitnesspal on a daily basis.

I would rate my spiritual well-being as 8 out of 10.  I am not perfect, so I do not think I will every feel as if I have achieved 10 out of 10.  I am comfortable with my spiritual well-being.  I am not a religious individual but I do have my own beliefs.  I do not really discuss these beliefs with many people because I do not believe there is a right or wrong way to be spiritually well, though some people do.  One goal I have for myself is to be open to the spirituality of others and hopefully learn to expand my spiritual focus.  One activity I can implement is to research various spiritual works and opinions. 

I would rate my psychological well-being as 7 out of 10.  I have a bit of work to do in this area because I do have some confidence issues and I have a lot of self talk that I need to eliminate.  My goal is to reduce the self-talk and boost my self-confidence.  One exercise I can implement to assist in moving forward is to keep a journal of what I am thinking and how I am feeling.  This will allow me to contemplate my thoughts and adjust them to focus on thoughts that are more positive. 

I do not know about anyone else, but when I completed the relaxation exercise in the link for the Unit 3 blog, it was the Rainbow Relaxation and did not mention the crime of the century relaxation exercise.  Regardless, I had a very different experience from last week’s exercise.  This exercise is not one I would choose to do again.  I have actually listened to it before and I really tried to follow it again this time.  I found it more frustrating to try to follow along with all of the colors for the different parts of the body.  It also seemed extremely long for me.  Looking at the positive, I did take a few minutes for myself and I did like the tone and volume of the speaker’s voice.  What did everyone else think?  Does anyone have any other relaxation exercise suggestions?

Journey on Relaxation - Unit 2 Post

The mind is a powerful tool!  Taking just a few minutes for you is so important in achieving health and wellness.  The exercise, Journey on Relaxation, is a tool I have found helpful (link is below for anyone who has not tried it).  I have used it several times to help clear my head and focus on relaxing my body.  I suggest you find a quiet, comfortable place before you begin listening to the audio.  The first time I listened to the entire exercise, I found it difficult to stay focused.  My mind drifted to other things and I had to force myself to pay attention and follow the instructions in the exercise.  After the second and third time using the exercise it was a lot easier for me to block out everything else going on in my head and concentrate on the exercise.  I always feel refreshed and energized after completing the exercise. 

It is hard for me to take time for me because I feel selfish.  On my journey, I have realized that the only way I can be the best me, is to take some time for myself.  No matter how busy I am or how many demands on my time I have, I have to allow a little bit of time for me to focus on me.  I am a better friend, family member, worker… a better everything when I take care of myself.

http://www.kushs.net/kaplan/HW420/JourneyOn.mp3