Integral Asssessment

After I prepared my mind with the Loving Kindness and Subtle Mind meditations I completed the Integral Assessment.  Every area of life can be transformed into an integral practice.  The factors that I would like to focus on during my mindfulness journey are personal relationships, emotional development and community involvement. 

Anger is something I need to examine because reactivity and projections can lead to psychospiritual disease.  According to Dacher:  "when angry it is important to stop, practice patience, see the suffering of this person, look into the beauty of their innate soul, witness our projections and reactivity, and bring forth care and compassion as a needed antidote to our anger" (Dacher, p. 127).  Anger can poison the soul if not dealt with properly.  We all get angry but it is how we deal with our anger that is important so I would like to use the integral health practices to help deal with this emotion.

Aging and disease can lead to resignation, despair and resentment or they can be transformed into integral practice.  Daily life and reoutines halt so this gives time to explore what is true and important in life.  I plan to examine tbe meaning, purpose and value of the second half of my life.  After all, we only get a 100 years to live.

Very enlightening and may everyone reading this blog have a wonderful holiday season.
God bless,
Sheree

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

Subtle Mind/Loving Kindness Practices

Loving Kindness practice opens the heart, diminishes self centerness, heals and allows us to flourish.  It is the first step in psychospiritual development and leads to witnessing, calm abiding and unity consciousness.  It helps with peace, clarity, silence, timelessness and interconnectedness with others.  We can practice loving kindness throughout our lifetime. 

The Subtle Mind practice is deeper and helps to open the mind.  It tames the moving mind which we must quiet and reduce our thoughts to still the mind and allow for healing to occur.

Both practices take work and practice that is why they are known as "mental work outs" but the benefits are worth the time spent pursuing the goal of changing health and life.

Loving Kindness Practice

This exercise was a little difficult for me because I believe I am self centered.  I know it is difficult to admit but in the beginning you first allow the loving feelings to expand within your heart.  I found my posture improving as I tried to perform a chest expansion (similar to Yoga) but the challenge is giving love, kindness, sense of ease, spaciousness and care.  I tried to lose grasping and attachment and let them be and to be at peace with my body and sensations.  Those are difficult principles.  The inner mind must be still, at peace and gentle.  I must fully embrace myself for the unique and precious expression of life that I am.  Also a tenet of this practice is to love myself as a prelude to extending this love to others.  This is very difficult to achieve because one must accept themselves. 

It is hard to take in loved one's suffering (negative) although it does dissolve in the heart and the exhalation allows me to give health and joy (positive). 

This exercise will be a difficult practice but the rewards of taking the time to practice these concepts are well worth the effort. My goal is to acheive a natural aura of loving-kindness and get to that higher level so it becomes second nature.

Anyone from Kaplan do the Rainbow Meditation yet?

I did that Crime of the Century Rainbow Meditation yesterday and posted my comments on my blog but can't find any other classmates comments.  We are supposed to give feedback and suggestion to others.  Guess I will check back.  The holiday got a lot of people off track, myself included.  It's on to the DB now.  See ya in the threads fellow Health & Wellness seekers:)

Rainbow Meditation

First, I would like to rate, on a scale of 1-10 (10 being optimal well being) the following areas:
Physical well being 8 I try to stay healthy by practicing healthy habits (diet, exercise, etc.)  I do have certain physical ailments but try not to dwell on them.  I try to work around them.  I rate an 8 because there is always room for improvement.  For diet I would like to control my sugar intake and focus more on vegetables and proteins.  Exercise, I would like to increase the intensity of my workouts but avoid injury.

Spiritual 7 I try to practice my spirituality but have neglected this area.  My goal is to have more of a sense of purpose in my life.  I hope to explore this area more fully by finding God's purpose through prayer and meditation.

Psychological 7 During the Rainbow Meditation I discovered I would like to work on self confidence so I would like to develop this area of my psychological health.  Affirmations are important for confidence building so I am making a goal of at least 10 minutes of daily positive affirmations.

The Rainbow Meditation was very relaxing.  I was so relaxed I had a hard time focusing on the principles so I had to play it over and jot down some of the points that I would like to remember.  The symbols that stood out were Love, Confidence, Purpose, Balance and Peace.  Also, when I am stressed I hold my breath.  A point that I must remember is that "exhalation is the most relaxing part of breathing and it requires no work"  just let that exhalation happen to calm our bodies and minds.  I enjoyed the Rainbow Meditation and would like to practice it regularly for relaxation and stress management.

Meditation Exercise

The meditation exercise that was assigned for Week 2 helped me to relax.  It involved autogenic training which helps the mind to control the body.  This training is very important if you suffer from stress related neck pain.  The challenge is trying to make time to just relax and practice this meditation/autogenic training.  My goal is to set aside some time each day and try to practice this.