Monday, July 28, 2014

My Aesclepius, My Meditation, My Practice, My Growth


Complete the Meeting Aesclepius mp3 (located in the Doc Sharing area). Describe your meditative practices 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?

Aesclepius, my mentor, my vision, is a she, my mother Theresa. My meditative practice was focused on her, my immediate go-to, life-long supporter and ruler. The speaker’s voice was soothing this time around, but why? Is it because I am adapting to the various practices or that I did focus and listen genuinely? Dacher refers to the river connecting to the ocean and its stillness, quietness, and stability yet the waterfall is noisy. I find the sound of a waterfall to be the opposite and quieting in my mind. Wise, individual, present, past, respect, honor, connection, it can be difficult to designate a person of such qualities yet we have the ability to imagine and create one of such reflection. I have stayed with my mother and have deepened the connection that meeting Aesclepius instructs. The white light, a beam of energy represents thoughts and images and is said to be in a way that we can alter to stabilize the mind as it soaks in purity and wisdom from my mother, Theresa. The waves are crashing but recede with a soft washing of any imbalances. The speech is to come of what the wise one (mother) had spoken and is being passed onto me so that I can continue to pursue wisdom and lovingness through my sensitive speech. The heart is purified by bathing in compassion and loving-kindness. I hear in the background what imitates a thunderous sound or the depth of the ocean, like the deep thoughts from my mind, words from my speaking, and the beating of my heart, all of which I was able to transform myself into self-guidance.

Mindfulness meditation has opened up my psyche to see life on a clearer path that has helped me to determine my purposes, go about reaching them, and continuing to strive for health, happiness, and wholeness. My mind, body, and spirit are trying to connect. Unfortunately, with all of my recent major surgeries it has been extremely challenging and continues to be that way throughout my self-healing process. I continue to apply optimism regardless of my situation and regardless of who is surrounding my atmosphere. In my home, in the street, in the store, in conversation, and deep within my consciousness I self-adhere and comply with the intent to flourish my psychospiritual health and wellness and foster only the positivity that life has to offer.

Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" (p.477). 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?

I cannot guide someone in the direction of the unknown, a place where I have never been, seen, felt, heard, or touched. In the medical profession I cannot conversation with patients about their own level of pain or direct experiences when I, myself, may never have encountered similarity. Another saying, “you can’t lead a dead horse to water,” becomes clearer to me. This is something my mother has said to me repeatedly over the years and speaks that if we, ourselves, do not know where to find what is necessary to survive, then we cannot carry or guide life to the essentials required for that survival. I certainly do have an obligation to patients that I work with on developing my health psychologically, physically, and spiritually. How can I act, respond, prepare, or have intents that will provide quality care for people if I do not have self-awareness, a sound mind, loving-kindness, or that connection needed between the body, mind, and spirit. Personally, I am in control of all aspects of my human existence and as a result I can implement psychological and spiritual growth in my personal life. For example, a burning building, people are frantic and lots of chaos would be apparent like the sounds of people screaming, crying, the smell of fire burning, crackling sounds from wood burning, and everyone heading for the very same exit to save their own life. This scene imagined in my mind can be changed to a calm and collective exit for survival by eliminating the noises, concentrating on the purpose of finding the way out and to help others surrounding me to remain stable so that we can make it out together, all we can do is try.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Meditation and Me


Universal Loving-Kindness Exercise

The universal loving-kindness exercise is meant for I (me) as the individual and All as the individuals, which explains why it is universal and a collective loving-kindness. Initially, as I began to repeat the phrases for the duration requested, I thought I was going to be very distracted in my mind and have difficulty focusing. However, that was not the case. I discovered that I have already been exhibiting acts and qualities of loving-kindness without having any prior meditative or integral healing practices in my life. I immediately started to recall the acts of kindness that I have assisted friends, family, co-workers, and strangers in gaining freedom from suffering by opening up their opportunities to find health, happiness, and wholeness. It could be that I have suffered in life like others and fostered my own individual path to health, happiness, and wholeness. I share and reflect my personal experiences and education with just about anyone that crosses my path by chance or even by a conversation. My mind and heart has always been great and so I have been told on numerous occasions that it is made of gold. I hold a treasure (my gold heart) and I will unearth more valuableness with time as it passes. I find myself engaging in with random people throughout my day whether it was at the gas station or at the grocery store. Each person has a story and I am a listener and there is more to be told. 

Integral Assessment

My biological aspect of my life is the source of difficulty and suffering at this point and time in my life. My body is the first level of development that is essential to me. Fitness is my primary line of development. I have been lacking on physical exercise with a recent surgery (2 weeks ago today) and have been trying to continue with weight loss since my weight loss surgery that was performed in September 2013. My nutrition is the second line of development that is interconnected with fitness. My body is continuing to heal in recent days and it was a major change for me at such a young 31 years of age. I had a hysterectomy that came along after my 100+ pounds of weight loss. Despite it being a great change for me not to worry about a monthly menstrual cycle, I was saddened that I permanently was no longer able to carry any more children. I don’t understand why that is when I had a tubal ligation 7 years ago when I had my daughter by a scheduled C-section and signed a contract to fix me. This part of my body is healing. My hormones are connected to my spirit and mind which are affected levels of development with the major changes to my physical person within the last ten months. I have cut back on my working so that I could provide further healing, but in some ways I feel like I am just on a vacation that is boring and have made the goal of returning back to work next week a few days at a time and then as tolerated. Growth and development is taking place in many different areas of my life all at the same time. Today I decided to visit my brother who lives 2-3 hours north after I went to have my interview and drug testing in order to start nursing classes next term. Low and behold he coincidentally got the okay to see him son for the week, his son he hasn’t seen in 12 years, my nephew I hadn’t seen in 12 years. This is an emotional experience but happy all at once because neither of our visits were prearranged and I feel like God brought us together. Yesterday my son had a visitor from out of state (grandmother from father’s side of family, a father not involved) and she hadn’t seen him since he was a year old (he is now 10). I am trying to figure out why all of the reunions are taking place all around the same time? I am becoming more awareness that not only my physical body is changing, but the people surrounding my atmosphere are changing. These people are important to me despite the fact that I do not travel often to see them. Today is the first time in 8 years that I visited the town where my son born. The small city has changed, but I don’t miss it because it was a city where negative memories existed, yet I don’t think about those memories as the reason why I am here today. My mind, body, and spirit are becoming balanced and focused on healing in order to promote integral development within my biological developments. I hope this makes sense to anyone that reads it. I am sure it sounds like chatter in your mind, but it’s a reality and recognition of cognizance in my mind.
I will always be able to foster new adaptations with the changes that are ever-lasting by continuing to keep a balanced life amongst the psychological, biological, and other aspects of healing and wellness. Practicing meditation when I have a spare moment that I say to myself "I am bored" can turn into a healthy "I am bored." I will be waiting to approach a yoga class once I am fully healed from surgery and can't wait to see what other dimensions of my mind, body, and spirit will open for doors and windows of opportunities.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Thought, Wellness, Healing...Mind, Body, Spirit


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

At the start of the Subtle Mind exercise I found it difficult to concentrate on my breath through my chest falls but on the contrary was ease focusing on my breath through my nostrils. I felt an overwhelming sense of anxiety just with trying to center my focus on my breathing instructions. As a result, I was feeling slight frustration because it reminded me of working with my hands on a tedious object that I was unable to handle. I did not experience interruptions of chaotic thoughts outside of my focus because I practiced this exercise while lying in bed with only the white noise of my fan in the background of my headphones as I listened to the speaker’s voice. Again she had a calming tone of voice but disturbed me when she began to speak after the duration of oceanic waves and music that I associated with Native Indians (I don’t know why that is, but I presume because their culture if very absorbed in rituals that involve sounds from nature). The musical ambiance was more calming than the ocean atmosphere because of the soothing flute. The Subtle Mind involves a direct relationship between the breath and the mind, a peaceful breathing, a peaceful mind, a still breath, and a still mind. Stabilization of my mind be establishing a witnessing consciousness was successful through this technique and will involve several attempts to make it a routine. The term subtle covers an array of meanings such as intelligence, understanding, delicate, and ingenious. I know associate my mind with each one of these meanings because the mind is composed of these ideas and much more.

The Loving-Kindness approach entailed opening my heart and concentrating on someone that I love dearly. Developing a full experience directed me to care and provide affection to myself, my sensations, my loving-kindness, and create spaciousness with ease. This exercise fixated on thoughts, feelings, images, and the observation of each. Similar to the Subtle Mind concept, stillness, peace, and gentleness are the main attractions of the mind. The loving-kindness was interpreted as a natural home with substantial surroundings of straightforward awareness in which mental activity hovers. Loving and kindness are words of comfort and worked towards more of a behavioral thought process that the subtle mind engaged performance of breathing practices.

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

The connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness is the evolution of the interchanging from body to mind to spirit. It is a swing in encounters and distinctiveness from the physical domain. It is a transfer that accentuates existence, impulses, and personality to a refined and indescribable mental domain. The mental wellness centers on thoughts, purpose, and centralizes a bond to a refined spiritual domain of recognition, perception, and unity.

As we become stable after psychospiritual development, higher levels of consciousness and enhancement of experience and its subtleties of the mind-body connection, we begin to recognize the aspect of the spiritual body. Broadening the boundaries of the human experience poses the topmost conception of the human body.

This connection is part of every individual’s personal life. Particularly, in my life, my mental and physical wellness are key to opening the door for my spiritual wellness. My physical aspects are my body (physiological/biological), my home, my children and mother (all of these are standing tall). My mental aspect speaks to my organization of the collected responsibilities, management of my anxiety disorder and depression, and more subtle, being able to think on impulse. If I have a balance in the physical and mental department, the spirituality cultivates and shows me that highest point I strive to reach daily. Every day I wake up with my physical body, I open my eyes, stretch my legs and arms, and wait for clarity in my mind. When my mind and body connect I can determine the intentions for the day (whether routine or not). I am well-rehearsed is habit and as I age, I see the spiritual side of me peeking through the door like the sun through the clouds. It is there always, just waiting to be uncovered.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Loving-Kindness, Is it a mental workout?

Describe your experience. Did you find it beneficial? Difficult? Why or why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or why not? 


My experience was very unusual because I was extremely tired in the moment that I decided to listen to the relaxation exercise. It probably didn’t help that I had taken a shower after a long day and was winding down. However, the woman’s voice was very soothing, but the ocean waves and background sounds were much more relaxing. When there was a break in the listening to the sounds I became startled when the woman started to speak again. I have to be honest, I did fall asleep towards the end. I certainly would recommend the loving-kindness to others. I will listen to it again in the future because I did find it to be a tool in relaxing my mind and focusing on important people in my life. I did have a difficult time trying to imagine one person that I love but was able to flip my mind through images of each person that I do love and think about them in a way that the loving-kindness has played a role in each individual life and how it connected to me. I was very happy to think about these special people as I do not have a long list, rather a shortened and specific list. Any exercise such as the loving-kindness that provides a refreshing and cleansing of the mind, body, and spirit is worthwhile and of great value.


What is the concept of "mental workout"? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a mental workout? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?


Our minds need a daily workout just like our physical body. Practice leads to positive results as we clearly would not be practicing for negativity. We cannot attain human flourishing without utilizing aspects of our psychopsiritual life. Education, knowledge, and resources are available for each and every one of us to exercise and reap benefits, but if we lack mental workouts, our mental and physical performance and state of being will be deprived of the health and wellness it needs to maintain psychological health. Persistence and diligence is vital when fostering a strong psychological health. Mental workouts can be implemented through rest and relaxation. Having a quiet and comfortable environment will open up our minds to establishing our internal relationship and connections. Acting on our own behalves, we should surround ourselves with positive and environments so that exercising mental workouts can be done easily and provide stepping stones to greater health.