Unit 8

Hello there,

As far as all of the “mental fitness” exercises that I have completed, the two that stand out for me are “Creative Visualization” and the “Rainbow Meditation”.  I did the Rainbow Meditation in my “Stress” class a couple of semesters ago.

I like the concept of Creative Visualization because it is not so structured and I can let my thoughts “flow”. I liked the concept of being in a place where I was my happiest. This can initiate positive feelings and start my practice easily. I would use this practice because it so positive and I tend to get down and not remember all of the great things I have in my life. This is a great exercise for me and I will do it to try to improve my Psychological flourishing.

The Rainbow Meditation focused associating a color with a specific part of your body. This “mental fitness” exercise is very helpful to me because many times I have very bad pain in my back from scoliosis and my neck from breaking it many years ago. I would use this exercise as a way to focus positive energy to these “trouble spots”.  This type of meditation is like a “journey” through your body, or meridians, or chakras. As you go down your body, you can sense where there is blockage and ideally be able to open them to release the pain and tension. I use this meditation a lot when I am trying to sleep at night.

I am glad that we had this question because I have been struggling to find the right exercises that could be of help to me specifically, and these two are the most appealing.

Take care,

Karin

Unit 7 Asclepius Healing

Hello there,

I listened to the Asclepius Healing track. This one is meant to access our “inner self”. This type of practice is a “subtle mind” practice. I found this practice to be beneficial to me. I liked the detailed guidance given. For example, when she said let a “wise person’s speech” become my speech”. This was a very positive reinforcing type of exercise to me. I liked the sound of the waves in the background.  I do not like to have too much light “bathe” me because it makes me feel hot.  The sound of the cooling waves helped the little bit of “white light” given to me in this exercise. By writing this explanation just now, I had an “aha” moment. I realized how uncomfortable the light meditations tend to make me feel, that I really do feel like I am getting hot, which is a big problem for me. I am hot all the time and do not like getting hot, being cool is pleasant to me. I guess that is what happens when you live in the desert for 20 years! I feel that by doing these practices daily, it has made me more aware of how easy it is to make time for myself. I also realized that 20 minutes a day to take this time “fosters” a sense of accomplishment to me and I think that my patients would feel the same way if they committed themselves to doing a practice like this.

The statement in our readings  "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” means to me that the practitioner needs to be constantly seeking ways to best meet the needs of their patients. It is important for the practitioner to be open and cognizant of the many different aspects of integral health and how there are unique needs for each person. The discovery of different options to give a patient should be a priority in competent integral health practitioner.

Take care and be well,

Karin

Champion

This has nothing to do with our course, but I am very proud to announce that a colt we bred was just named Abu Dhabi International Champion.
Karin

Unit 5 Power Point

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AfAevUUxx81gZGZyMmJ3c3ZfMGNjZmh0OGd3&hl=en

Please find attached a link to my Unit 5 Power Point presentation.
Take care,
Karin

Unit 6 Loving Kindness & Integral Assessment

Hello Everyone

I really, really like the “loving-kindness” exercise. I am going to write that down and every time I am stressed out and feeling bad about myself and/or other people, I will repeat this mantra. It is a great mantra and makes me “come around” and reshape my thinking.

I did the Integral Assessment and as they said in the Dacher text, it is like “taking a personal inventory” of our life and to use it as a “tool to transform our life”. To do this exercise, we should be in the “contemplative state”. I should “envision” the four quadrants of of our lives (Psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, and worldly) and decide where I need further development. I did do this and found that my fitness level was good, my nutrition level is good, and however, I just recently have had a lot of changes in my appetite. I need to address this by journaling my nutrition intake and figuring out my calorie expenditure. My psychospiritual life I feel is growing. I feel that I can continue to grow in this area by checking my understanding and growth from time to time. My interpersonal area is always in a sense of uncertainty. I feel that if I can find a sense of “stillness” or calming of the mind, that I can address this issue. Now I will focus on the worldly aspect. I do feel very good in this area. I tend to more easily contribute to this quadrant that the interpersonal. I think to work on my interpersonal area; I will try to use the “subtle mind” practice more often.

I found this personal assessment very difficult. I think it is hard sometimes for us to really “see” what is going on in our lives and address this honestly. Honesty is something that I take away from this exercise.

I think it is important to “re-assess” ourselves from time to time because we are always evolving and changing.

Take care,

Karin

The Power of Mental Fitness

Unit 5 Questions 1 & 2

Greetings,

The loving-kindness exercise is a type of practice that brings about mental training by first focusing on your own feelings. You are to “grasp” them and release them and examine how they feel and fill up with these good feelings. Then you are to think of someone who is suffering and bring in their bad experiences and send out your good experiences with them. You are also to try to “still” your mind and expand the feeling of this loving-kindness to people around you. I really like this concept because it has a feeling of “giving” to it, and not just about me.

The subtle-mind practice uses our breath as the first reference point of focus. We think about our breath and how it is moving as a way to clear our mind. When our mind wanders, we come back to the breath. Once we are able to effortlessly “lose” ourselves in the breath focus, and not let the mind wander, we can focus on “stillness”. You can come back to focus on breathing if you lose your concentration, but the focus now is on how still your mind can be.  This stillness can lead to acute awareness and ideally bring you to the Unity Consciousness state.

I find these two mental practices very different. The loving-kindness practice is more of an “active” relaxation practice where we think about different things to release the mind of “clutter”. The subtle mind practice is like a meditation where we clear our mind of any foreign thoughts or movements. I find this one much harder to achieve.

Spiritual wellness is the last piece of the puzzle for integral health. Once we are able to master our basic biological needs, and begin to focus on others, we enter the psychological phase. Then once we are in the psychological phase, we began to learn empathy and compassion towards others, not just for our own wellbeing. This leads to the spiritual phase. In this phase we are focused on the world around us and how we can make a difference and help to achieve wellbeing for all.

This connection has manifested itself in my life in the last year. I have become much more conscious of a need within myself to give back to the world and be of service. I am seeking answers and knowledge and hope to become more gracious and aware.

Take care,

Karin