Beneficial Exercises

The two exercises in this course I have found to be the most beneficial to me were the Journey On exercise at the begining  and Meeting Asciepius exercise at the end. The Journey On helped me to be able to relax the muscles in my back and find relief I had not had in months. It is something I can see myself keeping up with and attempting to get my spouse to participate in with me. I am sure I can find variations on the exercise that use the same concept. This would allow me to keep the practice fresh and to keep it from becoming stale or boring as I continue. It would also allow me to up the ante so to speak the more progressed my practicing becomes. I believe by using the journey on concept in conjunction with my physical therapy and counseling, i can actually if not attain my goal of reaching complete wellness, then at least come a lot closer. Since it appears to work on physical pain as well, this can only be a good thing for me to continue.
The Meeting Asciepius exercise is more of a calming and revitalizing exercise that I could continue to use on my own. The only part I did not like about the exercise was the making yourself into another person aspect. I am thinking that maybe I am just taking that wrong and it is not about making yourself into someone else, it is just about taking on the good attributes of the model you are using at the time to assist you in seeing how to achieve that goodness and way of thinking. I think this would be hard to do with someone else, but I could introduce it to my spouse and see if maybe he could benefit from it as well. I cannot help but think that by improving my mental well being, that it could improve our relationship along with it. If I deal with people better, then I will deal with him better. If he starts practicing with me, then he would get the same benefits as well, and our relationship and family would only reap the benefits. We could always go to a counselor that specializes in these types of practices as well. This would allow us the instruction and more access to better tools that are a good fit for our personalities and way of life. This would allow us maximum benefit and results.
Like we talked about in the previous chapters of this class, this is not a one size fits all treatment or way of life. You each have to find what works best for you and utilize all the resources available to you to find that fit.

Mental Fitness

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AZuxq1GHG75vZGc2ZDZ0N2dfMGd3bmJ4M2hn&hl=en

Meeting Asciepius

The practice this week was a lot better than the previous two weeks for me. For this practice, I used my grandmother who passed away this past year for the person I envisioned. This was easy for me to do as I was pretty close with my Grandmother, and she was a loving and spiritual person who could find the good in anything and had infinite patience for anyone and everyone regardless of their personal demons or faults. By the end of the practice I felt like I was floating in water and my arms and legs were very heavy. I am not sure if this is what was supposed to happen, or if it was merely a by product of the sound of the waves that they use on the soundtrack playing tricks on my mind. I found it was pretty easy overall to imagine the white light going from my grandmother to myself at each stage of the practice, as we were close in life and I relate very easily to her.
I think this has helped to increase my psychological wellness as I am more open to new things now than I was previously in this area. I also stop myself and think about how I am reacting to a situation or something negative that is happening now, as I would just react impulsively in the past. I think I am better with people than I was previously and am a little more calm and at peace with more aspects of my life. I believe I can continue to use some of these practices , and possibly find some others that would suite me better to keep up with this and help myself progress to a better place mentally down the road.
The phrase "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" is pretty simple to understand. It is kind of like the old saying,"walk a mile in my shoes before judging me". If you have a practitioner that has never put into practice the theories and teachings they are giving to patients, they cannot give good feedback , knowledge and instruction from an experienced perspective. You have to have actually tried them and not just read them in a book to give good advice and teachings. It is kind of like having a rehab counselor for a drug or alcohol addict that has never taken a drink or had a substance problem. They have no idea how the addict feels, and the struggles they go through as they have never experienced it. So how can they knowledgeably lead them through recovery?You as a practitioner do have an obligation to develop your health in all aspects as you can only be truly beneficial to your patients if you are healthy yourself, whether it is spiritually or physically. It is possible to implement your psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life by practicing what you preach and striving everyday to reach your goals of true and total health and wellness. Meditation, going to church and loving kindness exercises can all assist you in reaching these goals.

Loving Kindness

While completing the exercise this week, I had gone into it with the mindset that I was going to have more luck than I have had with the past 2 exercises we have completed in this class. With the loving kindness exercise, I did not have any suck luck unfortunately. I sat there and attempted to clear my mind of all thoughts and just breath and relax, then I attempted to start repeating the phrases as instructed. Every other phrase, I had to open my eyes and reread them to remember where I was and know what I was attempting to repeat to myself. I could not get the phrases to stick in my head long enough to repeat them with any form of success. I think I was spending so much effort in remembering what I was supposed to be repeating that I lost all sense of any good I would have otherwise gotten out of this exercise.
Now for the Integral assessment. I had more success with this exercise I am happy to report. What I discovered about myself with this is that I do not pay enough attention to my own health and well being as I spend so much time and energy on my families, there really is never enough left over. I know I can improve on my nutrition, which would be the biological aspect, as I have many times where I am rushed or running from one place to another to drop kids off or pick them up and I will run through a drive through. I also have some work to do in the psycho spiritual aspect of my life as I do not fulfill my promises to myself to get back in the church as I always have been in my life, and work on my own inner areas such as self esteem and contentment. However, the area I chose as the area that I would like to work on is my interpersonal relationships. I can be a very harsh person, especially when I am upset, and unfortunately, the people who are closest to me normally end up taking the brunt of it. I am sure this is due to the fact that  you tend to lash out at the ones you trust the most as you know they will be there the next day with no hard feelings and no grudges. I tend to do this at work as well, coming down hard on people under me for things done incorrectly, or when their knowledge is not where it should be for the job they are doing. I really liked the chapter in the reading this week that discussed the changing of the attitude form imposed to chosen. I think remembering teachings such as that will help me a great deal. Also, practicing a breathing exercise, or relaxation exercise on a regular basis may help me to relax a little more and become a little more peaceful with myself, which in turn can help me to be peaceful with other people.

Subtle Mind Exercise

Subtle Mind exercise huh......wellll....we will get into that a bit later. We were supposed to do the exercise and then compare our experience with it to our experience with the Loving Kindness exercise. It is no secret, I did not get much out of the Loving Kindness. I was frustrated, thought it took way to long, and utilized way to many colors to try to get you where you need to be. My brain just does not work that way I guess. HOWEVER........I went in this week with high hopes, crossed fingers and the ultimate desire to actually get something out of this. Well...I sit down, lower the lights, get comfortable and start track 3. I went through the 10 breath start exercise. I continued onto the breathing technique of the exercise. Instructor got quiet..thought, O.K. we just keep doing what we are doing for a few minutes. Get really relaxed, was actually starting to feel like I was nodding off..and then WHAMMO! STATIC! screeching static that hit about 5 times the noise level of the instructors voice. After I picked myself up off the floor (which let me tell you is no easy feet following spine surgery), checked to see if I had had a stroke or an MI from the shock....turned the volume down...I continued to listen. to static. The rest of the exercise was all static. SOOOOO..I obviously came away once again without getting what I was hoping to get from an exercise.
Maybe it is just me. Maybe someone upstairs is trying to tell me "Honey, this just is not your cup of tea". I do not know. Anyone have any ideas?
There is definitely a connection between spiritual wellness and mental and physical wellness. I believe that if you truly have faith and hold true to your beliefs and practice them daily...not just when you show up for mass once a week or a couple times a year for the holidays, God does intervene and assist you to becoming the well centered peaceful person you desire. It all relates. Just like with the breathing exercises assisting you in your physical workouts. You have faith, so you believe in divine assistance to guide you. You have faith, so you do your breathing and meditations, you have faith, so you do your physical workout. All of them assist the other in reaching your ultimate goal of total well being.
Not real sure how this has manifested in my personal life though. I do not seem to be having much luck with the mental aspect of this course.