Integral Assessment

I don't have to think hard about this to find what affects me in my life.  I would have to say the my psychospiritual aspect suffers the most; I am constantly battling with happiness and stressors.  I had court last week for custody and things seemed great then Sunday was a disaster and now today my ex is asking to take my oldest out of the state for his birthday.  I guess I have a lot of turmoil that causes me to struggle at calming my mind enough to find my spiritual self.  I am ready to calm and grow my mind and spirit but I need to have patience first.  I will work on my psychospiritual self and finding inner peace even when times are stressful.  I am ready to work on this part of my life, it is in need of healing and I am content in other aspects at this time. 

Loving-Kindness Exercise

As I calmed myself and began saying the exercise over and over I found myself rushing through the words at first.  However, as my body clamed I was able to slow down and really feel my mind and heart open up and welcome in the suffering of others.  I began thinking about the people I have read about in the news that have had sadness in their life and began to feel myself pull through suffering and wear their burden for a moment.  Now I need to find a way to help others, that is a great feeling!

Project!!!

Unit 5 Project

Subtle Mind Exercise

Before beginning this exercise I recalled my experience with the loving-kindness exercise and decided that I would wait until the house was calm and quiet so I am able to relax.  I found that this track was able to calm me more than the loving-kindness track and I found myself able to handle the noise better.  The biggest difference, for me at least, is the time of day I listened to this track.  I am the only one awake in the house because it is just passed midnight and I found that this is the best time for "me" time and listening to the track.  I have enjoyed each and every one of the relaxation exercises that I have completed in my courses though some of the voices can get annoying at times.  I am trying to keep my mind open to different possibilities and remember that change can be good.  I have never been trusting of meditation/relaxation exercises because I am so high strung but I learned about one a few years ago that I use to calm and clear my son's mind when we are doing homework and it seems to re-focus his mind and he is able to calm himself enough to complete homework.

Spiritual Wellness

For me, spiritual wellness is something that I am working on and striving for in my life.  I have learned, through several of my KU courses, the importance of the spirit in mental and physical health.  When we are hurt physically we have to believe in ourselves and our ability to strive and overcome obstacles that we face in life, this is spiritual wellness.  Having the right attitudew can affect the way we think about things and the way we react when we are facing these obstacles.  It is through a healthy spirit that we are able to find our stable and healthy mental state and our healing process can begin.  Physical ailments are much more difficult to overcome if our minds are being weighed down by our spirit and mental health.  When our spirit is well we are well mentally and physically.

Mental Workout

The basis of a mental workout is practice.  Dacher points out that an hour a day is most effective for a mental workout.  I would love to be able to have an hour a day to workout my mind to be able to b in touch with my higher thinking more often but I have kids and a job so an hour a day is not going to work for me.  However, I believe that, as with anything, any kind of practice is better than no practice at all so I am going to attempt to complete some type of mental workout daily for 5 to 10 minutes so I can increase my mental capacity.

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Loving Kindness

This is my second attempt to post, I had technical difficulties after I had typed everything so I guess I will learn to save everything before I submit it.  Ironically, I completed this exercise twice as well.  When I completed the exercise the first time I was distracted and did not feel that I had gained anything from it.  So, I decided that I would try again and the second time felt much more beneficial.  Before starting the exercise again I took precautions to assure that I would be relaxed for it and focus on the exercise without distractions.  I completed the exercise the second time after everyone in the house was asleep while I drank a cup of citrus tea.  I found my second attempt worked much better and would recommend that anyone that had trouble with the exercise try the same thing.  This was a great exercise despite the annoying voice over that was not at all calming.  I loved how the relaxation exercise not only instructed us to draw in loving-kindness to our heart but to also draw in another's sorrow into our heart to ease their pain.  I would definitely recommend this to someone but I would warn them about the not so calming voice. 

Crime of the Century Reflection

I still do not like the creepy man's voice!  However, I liked the exercise.  I found myself imagine that I was literally bloted to my seat when he directed me to imagine myself grounded.  I think I imagined myself botled to the ground because I have trouble feeling safe and secure; I have had a rough past year and it is still difficult for me to trust others and allow myself to feel safe again.  When he directed me to imagine the bright yellow my eyes could feel the brightest pour from the color like I was staring into a light bulb.  I had trouble repeating the phrase "I feel loved" because I have had so many issues with that but I am healing from my past and learning to be loved again.  The light for willpower made me feel motivated to succeed, I have felt discouraged lately with my learning and work so this helped re-center me and re-focus me to what I want to accomplish because I know that my life has a meaningful purpose.  The indigo blue was calming, I was able to feel more relaxed as I listened to how blue is the sense of balance.  I was very tired when I did this exercise and found that I was able to concentrate better.  Although I felt more concentrated during this relaxation exercise I still had trouble focusing untill the end, I have a short attention span and the exercise was a bit long for me.  The lights remninded me of another class that I took last term that reviewed Chakras in one unit, the light seemed to represent different Chakras of the body.