This week I used a lot of breathing and reading as a form of meditative practices.  I did complete the exercise meeting Aesclepius and for some unknown reason the idea of having a light burst from a person just kills the ability to quiet my mind.  Instead I see them in pain or about to explode and therefore can’t seem to focus on anything but the impending mess that I will have to clean up.  Another thing I had a problem with in this exercise is the idea that I need to become more like another person instead of clarifying and understanding the love, peace and knowledge within my mind.  While I do gain knowledge from the people I see as mentors; there are only parts of them that I want to understand and digest to help me with my personal path.  I did not enjoy this weeks practice. 

The phrase "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" is very simple to me – without living out a full life of failures and achievements you can’t assist others on their journey.  This should be a motto for those in the health and wellness profession; because, without the failures of ourselves we cannot truly understand the struggles of our clients, patients, family or friends.  Since the idea of integral healing is to evolve oneself in all facets of life, all healthcare professionals should work on themselves instead of being stuck in place and making choices for others without truly understanding the problems that can be in their way on their healing path.  As life progresses our meditation practices are going to change and this acceptance of the change allows people to explore several different types of practices that will expand growth in the psychological and spiritual areas of our personal lives. 

Even with meditation we need checks to help us balance

The exercise for loving kindness was so much better than the guided meditation of earlier in the semester.  This form of meditation was not one that made me feel like I was being crushed by the pain and stresses of others.   Instead the stead chant and relaxed feeling of the meditation exercise was easy and I was able to practice it anyplace I went.  The Integral Assessment we did in chapter 11 helped to feel ease the causes of stressors, by looking at our lives and the areas that could be causing disconnect in the mind-body connection.  By listening taking the time to listen to the body and allowing the mind to flush out the toxins or blocks in words I was able to get a better understanding of limits I had from the areas of life.  The areas that I have chosen for growth and development is the areas of fitness and nutrition; since these are the areas that I neglect most with the when trying to juggle a families schedule.  As a stay at home Mom I get to be the first one people go to with short notice things to do, taking away the time I might have set aside for making dinner or exercising.  By writing down the time on a calendar and making it known to my family I am going to exercise I have some one that check me on whether or not I accomplished it for the day.  Having an exercise buddy is also a great way to have a check system in place. 

Our wellness is like a stool without more legs we can't balance.

This mental exercise was very mind opening and helpful.  Unlike the loving kindness exercise I was able to use the exercise to gain the ability to feel accomplished afterwards; the loving kindness exercise was very heavy and did not allow me to explore the abilities I have within myself. 

I am a stay at home mom and most of my day is spent taking care of the house; others and making sure all schedules are met, followed and fit into each other.  Not having the time to help myself as well as my family I don’t get the chance to stop and enjoy my family, life and health.  By adding the spiritual wellness into the plan to improve my health both mental and physical I can create another leg to the stool I use to balance my life – and we all know that more legs on a stool help to create balance that is natural and not stressful.

The negative emotions of other overwhelmed my ability to open to Loving Kindness

Upon completion of reading chapter 6, review the section ‘Getting Started’ (p.66). Begin practice 1: Listen to the Introduction mp3 and Loving Kindness mp3 (both located in Doc Sharing). Practice the Loving Kindness exercise this week. In your journal (blog), record your reaction to the exercise.

Answer each of the following in your blog:

The Loving Kindness mp3 was a rather hard thing to get through for me.  The relaxed breathing was easy and relaxing, but the idea of breathing in the dark emotions and pain of other was heavy on my body and started making it hard to breath.  I wanted to fix it all and help them on the physical side; instead of being able to help them and fix I was over whelmed and found it hard to breathe.  For those that are not influenced by the emotions of other this might be a great exercise, for me personally this exercise was difficult.  Every day I am with children (my own and the neighborhood kids) they are always looking to me for ways to help with lifting their spirits and keeping their emotions positive for me this is easy since I can see the results in the end.  This exercise; however, did not allow me to see an improvement in the end instead I was imaging them in a happier place when in reality there are those that I know that would not be happier no matter what (negative Nellie’s).

The idea or concept of a mental workout for me is expanding and understanding our relationship between the physical and mental links of the body.  Long before the research was around the idea and proof that mental workout helped improve lives was valid and needed.  Today the idea of needing research to prove the idea of a mental workout is beneficial helps those that are not able work on the mind-body links.  For those that are more open to the idea of the links the research is not really needed.  Mental workouts are a great ways to foster the growth and understanding of a person psychological health – we are able to not only understand the reasons we are in pain (physically and/or emotionally) but in certain cases we are able to expel the pain and causes with the mental exercises. 

 

Color in meditation make me nervous

I started the relaxation exercise and it started off great, but when the speaker suggested that there was a red beam of light coming from the bottom of my spine I got a little nervous thinking I was going to poop blood.  Not a good thing.  The more colors added to the body got me more nervous; the idea that I was being torn apart from the colors was horrifying.  The idea that colors are the ways in which we expel our feelings was not very enlightening to me. 

Scoring my Wellbeing

When rating my physical wellbeing I would have to say it is a 5.  There is great room for improvement by adding strength training on a daily basis to help with toning, but overall I am able to perform activities daily that do not cause pain and exhaustion to me.  Walking my kids to school is a great way to help ensure that I can get some activity in and there are some days that I chose to walk extra because I want to clean my mind or just enjoy the day. 

My spiritual wellbeing would be a 7, there is a since of relief that I feel at the association I have with the way I want to live my life and help my kids become better people.  The idea of living life to see the best in people is a great way to find the special things that people will not always see themselves.  To improve my spiritual wellbeing I love to have my family spend more time together talking about the amazing things that happen to our lives.  During our dinner meal we already have each person tell the best part of their day to promote talking and finding the joy and good thing that happen in our lives this also gives us the opportunity to unplug and focus on the lives we are living not the lives of the people around us. 

My psychological wellbeing would be a 5; there is room for improvement since most of my days revolve around my family and their needs.  Taking classes and talking to my family, friends and neighbors are great ways to expand and explore the improvements I can make to my psychological wellbeing.  The idea of learning from other people experiences is a great way to understand why and what we can do in our lives that help to create a better person overall.  Taking the time to have calming time through either meditation or just with walking I can look to myself as a guide to the thing that need to me improved within myself. 

No one is to old to learn new things

Well this is a first for me - I feel like I should be covered in gray hair.  But real life I am only 40, so sad.  This idea of a blog is new to me - I have never read or used one before so I am learning all this on the fly.  Funny but I am thinking this is the newest version of a diary and I kind of like Doogie Howser from the old show.  Except it is going to be out in the world forever and for anyone who wants to read it instead of in the drawer next to my bed.

Here goes......  My parents have been visiting for the past two weeks and it seems that every time we are together I over eat, spend and over do it.  Today when they left I cleaned and put away SO much food, clothes and just stuff from their time here.  I have been wanting to get rid of so much more, but I am afraid that the next time they visit it will only get replaced by them again.  I am so glad we do not live closer and they only visit every few months.  But I did enjoy getting to creating and fix things with them - ceiling fans, storm door, planter boxes and fixing my dryer.  Strange to be so annoyed by the ones we loved we love so much.

Signing off - Heather Lopez