Two Mental Practices That Work For Me

The two mental practices that I found to work best for me and create a lasting effect were the Loving-Kindness and the visualization practices. The Loving-Kindness practice is such as peaceful and fulfilling engagement. Practicing this on a regular basis helps me to have and keep love in my heart and radiate it towards others. I dislike my conditioned thoughts towards others sometimes, so by practicing Loving-Kindness, I can change my initial thoughts to pure love. An example of how this positively effected me was a recent train ride I took last week. On this train were so many "gross-looking" and "gross-acting" individuals (the train runs through many poor areas of the city of Chicago) who either littered out the doors when they opened, cussed at their children, or who just smelled really bad. I had poor thoughts of them all but then suddenly the love I remembered from practicing this Loving-Kindness meditation knocked on my door and budged its way inside. Love took over and I no longer held in these negative feelings towards these people or towards my inner self, more importantly. I was able to completely transform my emotions by allowing love and kindness to fill my heart, mind, and the place that I was physically in.

The visualization practice is another wonderful meditative act that has allowed happiness to fill my soul; to fill my inner core. I can at any time, any place, through any situation close my eyes for a minute and visualize a calming scene; a happy scene; a peaceful scene. Whatever it is I need at that time and place, I can create it in my mind which gives me the emotions I'm after. This changes my whole aura which changes those around me too. This has helped me specifically when dealing with my wild three-year-old son: he is always pushing the limits, my buttons, and the dog (literally). I take a few moments to close my eyes to gain calmness and love back into my heart and mind and then I am way more able to deal with the situation in a calm way. My son truly benefits from this, as do I.

These are true ways of strengthening my mental fitness as long as I practice them both on a regular basis. They keep my mind and thinking fit by staying positive, calm, kind, peaceful, and loving.

Integral Assessment

The universal loving-kindness meditation exercise from page 93 of our Dacher text was very enlightening. My mind willfully accepted the words I said as I imagined all people rising above their suffering and floating on clouds of health, happiness, and wholeness. It was truly a divine experience for me. I discovered how easy my mind allowed me to believe these words; how much my whole being wanted this for all people.

From our Dacher text, the Integral Assessment meditative practice allowed me to discover that within the worldly aspect of my life is where I have always had the most difficulty. Within any job I’ve had, it has been out of survival. I have worked in many restaurants as a server and had recently worked in a technical support department; all of which has service responsibilities. I want to give my service, which is the highest level to achieve in this realm of life. But I must “choose” it, not “put up” with it in order to make money and survive. So this is also the area that I want to focus my growth and development on. After reading chapter 11 on Flourishing in the World, my view of this aspect completely transformed; it slapped me awake. I want to turn my life into a service of myself; taking each opportunity to practice strengthening my inner self in order to reach my highest potential. It doesn’t matter what one does to make money, it only matters if what one does is able to use it as leverage for reaching integral health and flourishing.

I am not currently working right now but I am out in the “world” everyday: running errands, waiting in lines, dealing with people over the phone and in person, etc. I run into many angry people on the street and in stores and they usually are able to light a spark of madness within me. I want to realize these opportunities before that spark ignites and reach deep within myself to practice my loving-kindness in order to find an inner peace. Diffusing all situations that stem from anger or frustration will be the goal of such opportunities.

I enjoyed both the Loving-Kindness exercise as well as the Subtle mind exercise we did this week. I know many of my classmates stated they did not like the loving kindness part of “inhaling” other’s pain and suffering but I did not have any problem imagining that breathing it in would disintegrate from the love of my heart and allow my body to breath out health, happiness, and wholeness back into the person I was focusing on. The Subtle mind exercise was just as calming and rewarding as the loving kindness exercise. I enjoyed this one very much because I had in mind the benefits I of calmness and stillness I wanted to experience so badly. I hate mental chatter, which is why these exercises are so wonderful because they help my mind to witness, not hold onto and accept and love, not criticize.

There is a connection between spiritual wellness and physical wellness by one’s ability to use their mind and body as one. This is accomplished through mindful and intentional practice. This connection has begun to manifest in my personal life more than ever before since the beginning of our Creating Wellness class. These exercises and readings help to understand a deeper meaning to life and the interconnectedness of these different aspects of our life. My mental wellness plays a role on my physical wellness and vice versa. When one is lacking, it can pull down the other as well. There has to be an effort to maintain both aspects in order to keep on the path of wellness as a whole.

Loving Kindess

For the time it took to complete the Loving Kindness practice, I truly felt the diminishing of self-centeredness; just as it said it would. I understand I will have to practice this twice a day for the next week in order for it to be a more natural state of mind, though. This was without a doubt a beneficial exercise because it gave me the chance to feel the tenderness and love that I hold for my son and my pets to others; to channel that dense loving kindness to people that I know are suffering, strangers that I do not know, and to “enemies.” I do not label anyone in my life, past or present, an enemy by the way. Instead, I think of the people who have wronged me or my loved ones who I know hold much pain and suffering inside. I have realized these people are who need someone like me to breathe in that dark cloud that surrounds them and to then release my positive energy that is filled with health, love, joy, peace, and happiness towards them. I recommend this exercise to others because we all need this opportunity to realize a greater potential that Dacher speaks of within his book, Integral Health, and his audio CD.

The concept of a “Mental Workout” is exactly as it states: exercising the mind in order to reach its full potential. Just as one exercises their muscles at the gym in order to become more fit, strong, toned, etc, our minds need a good workout just as often in order to keep it healthy, strong, fit, and efficient. The research surrounding the benefits of mental workouts indicates that a developed compassionate mental state “increase[s] [the] synchronization of gamma waves and organization which suggests a higher order of mental integration” (Dacher, 2006, 63).

I will implement mental workouts in order to foster my psychological health by dedicating certain time periods within my day that I can devote to this practice. Dacher recommends 5-15 minutes, twice per day (2006, 66). I will begin with the Loving Kindness workout for the next week and will progress to the other exercises as our course progresses, too.

Reference

Dacher, E.S., M.D. (2006) Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA. Basic Health Publications, Inc. ISBN-13:978-1-59120-190-8

Physical, Spiritual, & Psychological Wellbeing

Unit 3, Part I

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being optimal wellbeing, this is where I rate myself under these three categories:
Physical Wellbeing: I rate myself an 8 because I am not only aware of how necessary it is for my body to get regular exercise and to be eating fruits, vegetables, vitamins, and fiber everyday, but I do it as well. I may not have the most perfect physically fit body but I do take care of myself and I am a pretty healthy individual. My goal for this area of wellbeing is to get to that perfect physically fit body by continuing what I am doing through exercise and eating well. Something that has helped me with the act of exercising (because it can be hard to find your groove) is finding a routine in which you will continue to do regularly. I began a routine called “Look Better Naked” which is a healthy eating and exercise regimen that caters to women’s health in every biological aspect of the physical body. I work out 4 times per week alternating cardio and featherweights and making sure I eat specific “Key” foods at every meal. As long as I get in my body everything I need to and exercise the days I should, I can eat whatever else I want. The funny thing is that I’m usually not craving the bad stuff by this point. If I can continue this I will make it to my goal faster than I think.

Spiritual Wellbeing: I rate myself a 9 because I carry a strong faith of something far beyond what the eye can see. I believe my God is everything and everywhere. My openness and trust within myself has helped me grow this aspect of my life tremendously. My goal is to find love in every single person I come across in my life no matter who they are or what they have done. I do not want to be judging, angry, revengeful, or hateful towards anyone or anything since this is exactly what will hinder my journey towards my complete wellbeing. What has helped me thus far has been connecting with the earth, nature, in order to feel and know again that we are all one; that nothing can exist without the other; that the path I chose to walk down effects the other people in my life. To recognize this without effort is my ultimate goal within the realm of my spiritual wellbeing.

Psychological Wellbeing: I rate myself an 8 because although I have trained my mind through many stillness and calming techniques, I still have far to go to reach integral health. Meditation is wonderful but it is still a struggle for me. Ultimate concentration and awareness is my main goal for this aspect of wellbeing. Perhaps if I train my mind a little harder through meditation more often, I can reach this goal to where it can be an easier feat no matter where I am. It is my positive attitude that has given me the much needed boost in this aspect of my wellbeing; I’ve practiced this every single day for years and it has made a tremendous shift in my view of life and ultimately the core of my happiness.

Journey On Relaxation: A Reflection

My Journey On Relaxation was a very pleasant one. The main idea was to direct the flow of your own blood to the muscles that are most tense; saturating them in order to feel a relief of tension pain. I didn't know that 80% of ones blood supply stays within the GI tract and the other 20% sort of stagnates around the rest of your body. The audio was helpful by explaining this fact in order for me to be more open about his suggestions on shunting the away from my abdomen and move it towards my arms and hands. What really helped me was the phrase he used while we imagined our blood moving through our veins, "...with every breath you take, and with every beat of your heart..." This made me feel simply alive and special; relaxed and focused on my body. I appreciated his suggestion of feeling energized near the end of the meditation because I would have fallen asleep, I was so relaxed. But bringing up how we can tell ourselves how energized we now feel allowed me to consciously and happily open my eyes and begin to write my reflections on here about my experience tonight. Yes, it is night time for me now; that time of day I accomplish not only my important class work, but also another cup of tea :)

Kaplan University (n.d.) Journey On Relaxation, MP3; Retrieved on November 18, 2011 from http://www.kushs.net/kaplan/HW420/JourneyOn.mp3

Welcome to my "Creating Wellness" Blog!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my newest Blog for my "Creating Wellness: Psychological & Spiritual Aspects of Healing" class. I chose the title of my Blog "Late Nights & Hot Mint Tea" because this is usually when I do most of my class work: late at night while indulging in some divine hot tea. I don't always drink mint tea, but it sure is my favorite. My next post will discuss my reflection on my first Journey On Relaxation, so stay tuned!