Unit 7: Meeting Asciepius

I loved this exercise. It is without a doubt my favorite from this course. Over the years I have borrowed from here and there various religious and spiritual ideas that appealed to me and have incorporated them into my own practices. I would have to describe my own spiritual beliefs as "eclectic". I have always seen the variety available as a potluck and have picked up what I like or what is useful to me. I have been doing an exercise like this for several years - borrowed from a pagan/Wiccan friend. My conception of "Asciepius" is a female figure that I call Mother. She is ageless and can be the age I need her to be depending on what I am seeking (maiden-mother-crone). She appears as a young woman when I need inspiration, energy or enthusiasm for life; as a mother figure when I need comfort or nurturing; and as an old woman when I am seeking tough answers or wisdom. She is all the aspects of myself as a woman. I came away from this exercise with just what I needed concerning a situation which has caused me some worry in the past few month. The answer for me was to stay in today, I'll always get what I need when I need it if I do the footwork and my motives are honorable.

My meditative practices this week included The Subtle Mind exercise from Chpt 7 of Dacher's book - I did this one afternoon that I had to myself before my family got home. I also stole a few quiet moments to just let my mind rest during the week at my desk at work, waiting in the car and just before work. I found these very helpful to reduce stress and re-center myself during my day. I will continue to use the exercise above but try to do it more regularly rather than just occasionally when I am disturbed or feeling lost.

I think as a health and wellness professional I do have an obligation or responsibility to my clients to practice what I preach. We cannot teach what we don't know and just reading about these things isn't enough. We have to actually experience them for ourselves in order to pass them on, answer questions and serve as a guide. It would be like trying to describe chocolate cake without ever tasting it. I think our clients know when we don't belief our own words enough to follow them and they will not believe them either. I can implement psychological and spiritual growth in my personal life by practicing some of the meditative and mindfulness techniques from this course, by continuing to learn and develop as a person and by honestly seeking guidance from my higher power.

I hope everyone else enjoyed this week's audio track as much as I did! I can't believe we are almost through Unit 7!

Unit 6

Universal Loving-Kindness Exercise: I found this exercise to be awkward and I didn't find it useful. I like the idea behind it but the words felt forces and unnatural to me. I have done a similar exercise using the Prayer of St. Francis which feels much more natural to me. I think the general idea of it is the same. I'll post it here for anyone not familiar with it:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

Personal Assessment: To be honest I find Dacher's concept of different quadrants, different levels, etc. a bit confusing. But, in doing my assessment I discovered two area where I would focus my growth and development. In my interpersonal life, I have few close connections outside my own family and small circle of friends. I tend not to get involved with others for fear they will place demands on my time. I would like to develop a greater connection with my community and people that I meet in my daily life. The second area is my psycho-spiritual development. I have been content with the progress I had made in my life until I realized the potential that exists. I would focus my growth in this area knowing the positive impact it will have in other areas of my life.

Unit 5 The Subtle Mind

1.Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.

2. Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.

Hi Everyone! I wondering how many other people found that Track 3 doesn't play past the first five minutes. Very disappointing. :( I re-read the instruction from the book and tried to follow them the best I could. It has been a really stressful week for me and I haven't been sleeping well at night. Yep, you guessed it! I fell asleep during the exercise - all three times I tried it! But, before I truly dozed, I think I managed a few minutes where I was able to let go of most of my thoughts, quietly let them drift past without responding to them and just allow my mind to be quiet. It was wonderful. What I realized is that I have been doing this for years without knowing what it was. I learned to do it when I worked night shift and would hit the wall around 0400. I would take a break, put my feet up and just focus on my breath for about 15 minutes. I get this slight floating, detached from my physical body feeling. I didn't sleep or doze off, but wasn't fully present either. This quiet time away from everything would leave me feeling fully refreshed and ready to finish the rest of my shift. I haven't used it much in the last couple years because I changed jobs and am now strictly day shift and too busy, but occasionally I will come home after work, sit on the couch for a few minutes and just rest my mind.

I like this exercise much better than the Loving-Kindness exercise. So much of the first one seems counter-intuitive (the breathing was wrong)and I could not really follow the instructions although I tried. The Subtle Mind exercise is more natural to me and I found it very enjoyable. The nap was nice too!

Mental, spiritual and physical wellness are connected to each other. Gains in one area will have a positive effect in others. When we work out bodies physically, we can reduce stress. When we reduce stress through meditation, we can lower our blood pressure. When we spend time developing our spiritual wellness, our mental processes become clearer. The can all work together to help us achieve integral health. In my own life I find that regular physical workouts help me think clearer, improve my mood and reduce stress. Learning how to effectively reduce anxiety, stress and worry through meditation exercises has helped me to avoid illness and feel better physically and mentally. I am expanding my understanding of spiritual wellness and am just beginning to understand how this can relate to the others.

This class has really been interesting so far and I am learning a lot about topics I thought I already knew most everything about!

Unit 4: Mental Workout

The concept of a mental workout is that we have to train our minds in the same way we might train our bodies. We wouldn't expect to be able to run a 10k without putting in some time training for it. I the same way, our minds need practice if we are to make progress in our psychospiritual development. The research show that there is actually a difference in the brains of people who are proficient in this type of exercise - the text calls the "contemplatives". Their brains show a progressive increase and synchronization of gamma waves when they asked to develop a compassionate mental state. Even more impressive to me was that seem to have a higher level of gamma-wave activity at other times which suggests long term results and progress.

If I can be persistent in training my mind through the use of mental workouts, I could expect to see benefits in all areas of my life. Less stress, more peace and serenity, better physical health. Being able to access, at will, a source of calm and compassion within myself would be bring benefits to my psychological health.

Unit 4: Loving Kindness

Hi All - I have not found this exercise easy or even pleasant! First of all, there is no such thing as a quiet time or place in my house! Between kids, pets, phones, and such I haven't been able to get through this exercise undisturbed even when I try to plan for it. I might have to take the CD in my car and go park down by the beach!

I generally find this type of thing to be relaxing if nothing else, but the female's voice was irritating to me - more mechanical than soothing and it would startle me after a few moments of quiet. Once I have the exercise down a bit better I think I will do better no using the CD to guide me.

I am a very visually oriented person and I find I need to be able to "see" in my head what I am trying to do. Concepts like "suffering" and "wholeness" have been hard for me to visualize but I am slowing finding ways to do this. I found that what I need to visualize does not necessarily match what the CD is instructing. For example, the breathing in "suffering" and exhaling "happiness" just wasn't working. But, I was able use the wave sounds in the background to picture suffering coming to me on the tide, and positive feelings flowing back out as the water receded. I'm not sure that customizing the exercise is the way to go but I am trying to find something that works.

Would I recommend this to others? At this point I would have to say no, but we'll see how it comes in the coming weeks. I can't expect great results in a few days and the text did say it would take persistent effort so.....

I am looking forward to reading about other people's experience with this and welcome any comments, suggestions, etc!!