MEETING ASCIEPIUS

1. Completing the "Meeting Asciepius" exercise. Describe your meditative practice(s) for the week and discuss the experience. Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness. How can you continue to apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness?

This week we completed the Meeting Asciepius exercise. This meditation session was based on learning how to quiet the mind by concentrating on one specific wise and guiding person in my life. Overall, my experience was very pleasant. I especially enjoyed the sound of gentle waves and soft music, along with relaxing vocals. After experiencing this exercise I believe that meditation has increased my psychological and spiritual wellness in the following way:

“I have been given a life changing tool that is needed to quiet my life-robbing noisy-mind so I can gradually improve the quality of life as I have known it. To ensure this continued mental improvement, I am going to implement these valuable meditation exercises as part of a regular daily routine. I’m confident that over time, this type of positive psychological training will enhance my psychological and spiritual wellness even further.  

2. Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” How does this apply to the health and wellness professional? Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not? How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?

According to (Schlitz, Amorok, Micozzi, pg. 477), the quote “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” means that I can’t expect another to acquire psychological, physical and spiritual growth if I haven’t developed it within myself. According to (Elliot S. Dacher, 2006, p. 59), the four reasons that I should explore psychological and/or spiritual growth and development are because “it is the most undeveloped aspect of our life, it is a principal source of modern-day epidemics of mental suffering and premature disease, it is the one area of development that will most directly catalyze the full development of our life, and the development of our inner life is the most unique and precious opportunity given to us as humans.” This means that if I acquire psychological and spiritual wellness then my physical health may naturally improve.

I also believe that in order to be a true professional, I should only advise clients after fully treating my own psychological, physical, and spiritual growth and development via integral medicine. This is because the benefit of practicing integral medicine will allow me “the opportunity to end needless suffering and to gain health, happiness, and wholeness” (p.59) for both myself and the patient/client.

I can also implement positive psychological, physical, and spiritual growth and development within my personal life. I currently feel that my personal life needs work because there are times when my psychological state is in complete turmoil due to moments of anxiety and depression, my spirituality is constantly tested with useless drama, and I have periodic fatigue due to lack of physical exercise. One way that I could combat these negative factors while improving my personal health is to implement daily mental and physical exercises like meditation, yoga, Tia Chi and brisk walking.

References:

Schlitz, Amorok & Micozzi. (2005). Consciousness & Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine.

Elliot S. Dacher (2006). INTEGRAL HEALTH. The Path To Human Flourishing.

THE EXERCISE & ASSESSMENT PROCESS

3. Describing the exercise and assessment process. What did you discover about yourself? What area have you chosen to be a focus of growth and development? Why? What are some specific exercises or activities that you can implement to foster greater wellness in this area?  

The exercise process

According to (Elliot S. Dacher, 2006),  a mini meditation exercise “can be quite powerful in expanding your mind and heart. It can serve as an antidote to anger and hatred. It can help to shift your focus from personal love to universal loving-kindness.” (p.93) One particular exercise process can be completed by repeating these phrases ten times:

“May all individuals gain freedom from suffering. May all individuals find sustained health, happiness and wholeness. May I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering. May I assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness.” (p.93)

The assessment process

According to (Elliot S. Dacher, 2006. p.115), an assessment process can be done by asking myself a series of questions.  Five specific examples of questions which focus on healing and promoting integral development are:

1. “What aspect of my life-psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, or worldly- is the source of difficulty and suffering?” (HEALING)

2. “What line of development is most essential for me at this time?” (HEALING)

3. “What is my current level of development and what can I aim for.” (HEALING)

4. “What area of my life is ready for growth and development?” (PROMOTING)

5. “What would the next level of development look like?” (PROMOTING)

What did you discover about yourself?

I have now realized that I am not fully focused on ensuring that the needs of others come first and that I need to learn more about where I can improve my own integral development. (If I improve my own integral development then the need to focus on others first will naturally follow.)

What area have you chosen to be a focus of growth and development? Why?  

I have chosen to focus on decreasing my subconscious level of self-centeredness. If I can accomplish this task then I will gradually acquire positive psychological development and become a more productive member of society.

What are some specific exercises or activities that you can implement to foster greater wellness in this area?   

After completing the exercise and assessment processes, I learned that I need to take part in daily mini-meditation and assessment activities. These include immediate implementation of the two exercises/activities which I stated above. (I will first repeat those four specific phrases and then focus on addressing five healing and promoting integral development questions.) 

Reference:

Elliot S. Dacher (2006). INTEGRAL HEALTH. The Path To Human Flourishing

HOW TO ACQUIRE A SUBTLE MIND

If one wants to develop a subtle mind than he or she will first have to acquire loving-kindness. One thing that was similar about these two exercises was that they both teach the listener how to develop these mental capabilities via contemplative practices. I feel like one benefit that I did experience after listening to the subtle mind exercise was a further sense of mindful peace. It helped me realize that we can experience peace of mind if we're willing to work at it overtime.

The connection between spiritual wellness and mental/physical wellness is that we must have the first before we can have the second and third. This means that if people want to be mentally and physically well then they must first be spiritually well. If they can achieve this ability then their mind, body and spirit will become balanced and optimal health will occur.

This has manifested in my life because I have not acquired spiritual wellness. This lack of balanced wellness has caused me to experience undesirable mental and physical symptoms. These negative symptoms include periods of anxiety, depression, fatigue and mood swings. I am hoping that I will be able to implement these practices so that one day, I will experience optimal health and these negative symptoms will vanish.

DESCRIBING A MENTAL WORKOUT

After listening to a Loving Kindness CD, my overall experience was both positive and negative. This exercise was beneficial because it helped me somewhat relax when normally my mind would be consumed by a mental list of daily obligations. Also, I did feel a momentary increased sense of loving kindness toward my sister and self.

One way that I found the exercise to be distracting or difficult was due to a technical error. There was an extremely loud static filled noise that periodically blasted through my speakers which caused the same mental effect as nails on a chalkboard. I don’t know if this was an error on the actual CD or if it was an issue with my laptop and/or audio system. Since this technical error occurred so frequently during the exercise, I would only recommend it to others after initially reviewing the CD quality.    

What is the concept of “Mental Workout? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a Mental Work Out? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

The concept of a mental workout is the belief that one can evolve or enhance his or her psychospiritual life by simply practicing this type of exercise on a regular basis. According to (Elliot S. Dacher. 2006), even though “the apex of human flourishing may require an Olympian intensity of effort and practice, we can be well on the road to health, happiness, and wholeness with a far more moderate yet sustained effort.” (p. 64) This simply means that if we practice mental workouts on a daily basis then eventually we may get to experience what is known as human flourishing. Human flourishing occurs when one gets to finally live a life that is consumed with positive health, happiness and wholeness.

After learning about mental workouts, I would like to improve my psychological health by implementing this practice in to my own life. I am going to begin this workout by first choosing a regular time of day when I can meditate for at least 5 to 10 minutes. If this routine is successful then maybe one day, I will get to experience human flourishing within myself.  

Reference:

Elliot S. Dacher (2006). INTEGRAL HEALTH. The Path To Human Flourishing

RATING MY OVERALL HEALTH & WELLNESS

On a scale of 1 to 10, my physical, spiritual and psychological well-being can all currently be rated as a 3 to 4. This is because I don’t get enough physical exercise, my spirituality is sometimes tested with negative drama and due to periodic moments of anxiety and depression my psychological state is sometimes in complete and utter turmoil.

Three goals that could be set to improve these elements in my own life are to start jogging regularly (physical), believe in others by looking for their positive qualities (spiritual), and learn to pick my battles by alleviating factors that cause undue stress (psychological).   

After taking this class, I have learned that my physical, spiritual and psychological levels need extreme improvement so that I can experience a much richer quality of life. I am going to try to accomplish this difficult task by preparing my mind with skills which enrich positive mental growth versus negative useless stagnancy. This will begin when I actually complete my first jog, embrace another without prejudice, and eliminate one unnecessary stressful activity per day. I will also try to take pride in accomplishing these baby steps as they are slowly completed. In turn, this positive thinking might eventually foster a new found belief in myself, others, and the world in which I live.

After listening to “The Crime of the Century” exercise my overall experience was enjoyable. The benefits that I felt were rainbow colored moments of relaxation, being centered, choosing to love, a sense of balance, having meaningful purpose and being grounded. I also felt moments of frustration because I was unable to direct my full attention to the entire exercise. This was because my bird kept singing through the whole thing and I was only able to block her out during certain times. I have now realized that I will need to complete these exercises in an alternate room where there are little to no negative outside distractions.