The Dawning of a New Day

Wow a new term, more classes, pushing toward the end. Funny when I started this journey my concerns were drama and paper work.  I hate them both!  I said I can do this if there is no drama, no misunderstandings.  Hmmmm I am almost at the end and the drama begins. One stupid thing after the other.  I realized I have grown through this ordeal, I am almost at the end and now the frustration begins... I usually find myself giving up and quitting.  I have come too far and am too close to the finish line to allow some foolishness cause me to quick.  As I reflect on me...I realize that I am really evolving, things that use to make me through my hands up now fuel me with determination.  5 more classes and I can say I made it!...I have learned that this is only the beginning the I have only opened the screen, there is still a door that needs to be opened.   It is a new day!  I have to command the day, no longer will the day command me!

My Assessment

My assessment has not changed much from unit 3. I still rate myself a five physically, I am making great strides to improve myself physically, progress is slow due to medical issues,but I am working on them.
Spiritually, I still rate myself an eight. I am holding on strong and it is a continual development, I am grateful that I am ever evolving.
Psychologically I moved up one number from a seven to and eight. I believe the more I participate in the exercises and practices the strong I get mentally and the less I allow my emotions and feelings to lead me.

I believe that I am slowly but consistently making headway in my goals, I am participating more in the practices and I am learning to structure my time. I have just made a move so of course I am distracted right now with the move and going back and forth to the doctor trying to rectify a health issue.

This course has been a eyeopening, amazing experience. I have share with so many people what I have learned and what I am trying to do in my life.  I believe that this practice of integral health is the way of life for me.  I realize all will not believe or participate but I will do my level best to continue to help make others aware of great opportunities to improve health on all levels and the least expensive. The only challenging thing about this course for me is mastering the subtle mind. I truly believe when I can do that consistently I will see a huge change in my life.

My Plan

I.                   Introduction

Why is it important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically? What areas do you need to develop to achieve the goals you have for yourself?

It is essential to health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically not only for their on health to flourish but to walk other through the transitions.  Patients and clients alike look to the health professional to lead the way, to direct them through knowledge and experience. They want to see there results and having results will give them the confidence needed to help others on the path to human flourishing.

I believe that I am developing quite well spiritually and psychologically, but physically is my least favorable area. I will continue to develop my physical person. Through exercise and nutrition, I should be able to reach my goal. It will take consistency, doing it every day to bring balance to my mind, body and spirit. I believe that mind and spirit will help me achieve my physical goals.

II.                Assessment

How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?

I have made great strides in each category. One a scale of 1 to 10, I give myself and 8. I have been developing my spiritual self for years. It is a part of everything I do, I am well aware of my spiritual person, I have learned to practice selflessness, loving kindness,  I am very concerned about human kind. I have a relationship with GOD, and I am in constantly walking out my journey.

Psychologically, I give myself an 8. I believe that I am balance in this aspect of my self as I am spiritually, I continue to develop on this level and I am consciousnessly and consistently being more and more aware of where I am.

Physically, I give myself a 5, I choose the lower number because I am not where I need to be but I am consciously aware of where I should be. I have spent the last seven years devoted to becoming physically healthy. I have come a very long way in my journey but I have not gotten to the place I would like to be. I have given myself a new plan to reach my goals; after several assessment for deficiencies and needs, I believe now I am equipped to add to my diet the nutrition that will bring results as well as an exercise program tailored to meet my needs.  I believe that my goals are attainable.

III.             Goal development

List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.

                  Physical Goal: Lose the last 150lbs of excess weight.

                  Psychological Goal:  To truly develop the level of consciousness that Dacher describes as a 

                  witnessing consciousness.

                  Spiritual Goal: To develop that Consciousness that Dacher also describes as calm abiding.

                                        

IV.             Practices for Personal Health

 What strategies can you implement to foster growth in each of the following domains; Physical, Psychological, and Spiritual. Provide at least two examples of exercises or practices in each domain. Explain how you will implement each example.

                  Physical—Beside having a better nutrition plan and a physical fitness program, I

                   believe it is essential to reduce stress and avoid negativity and pessimism. I will

                  Incorporate daily meditation practices, visualization, and weekly acupuncture. The

                  Meditation and visualization exercise seem to reduce stress and it also relaxes my

                   Mind and body, reduces pain. The acupuncture helps reduce pain and seems to bring

                   my body back into balance, restores the Chi or energy to the body and just keeps me

                   grounded  and calm.

                 Psychological – I will continue to educate myself, keep up my mental fitness through,

                 Puzzles and minds games. I will continue to develop using the The Subtle Mind

                 Practices,to develop the witnessing mind and visualization.  My goal is to reach a

                 higher consciousness.  

                 Spiritual – I will continue my praying for and serving others. I will continue the

                Loving kindness and Subtle mind practices, I am very interesting in developing the

                Calm abiding mind. I believe this will help me get to a level of consciousness that I am

                not currently experiencing.

I am currently using all the exercises and practices but my goal is to get them into a routine time for the day. To be consistent with each exercise and practice until they become a part of my day like brushing my teeth or combing my hair.

V.                Commitment

How will you assess your progress or lack of progress in the next six months? What strategies can you use to assist in maintaining your long-term practices for health and wellness?

                 To track my progress I will continue to blog about my journey, I will keep a daily

                diary and will continue my custom of accountability to my best and dear friend.

                 I believe that keeping a spread sheet will help me see my progress, for me seeing

                 Things written helps me know how I am doing.  Charting my progress, whether it is

                 losing pounds or inches, whether it is notices my attitude is more positive or negative,

                 charting how I feel physically, mentally, or spiritually will give me an idea of how

                much I am learning, changing, growing. My goal is to take what I learn and make it

                become a permanent part of my life.

Choices, Choices, Choices

Oh my so many choices, so much to choose from.  Ahhh, when I go back over the exercise from our class, I can say I have no problem implementing all of the practices, each of them can be helpful to me on any given time.  I must say that I have 3 for certain that I am implementing.  Meditation is a given for me.  I is one of the easiest, quickest ways for me to unload some of the chaos from the day.  It is easy to do, I can do it almost anywhere. It does not require a lot from me...I have many tapes or cd's that can offer me a few moments to get my spirit quiet.  I can also do it without a prompt, it is a matter of closing off the world and breathing until I find a place.  Now visualization is also a great one for me as well...What it does for me is pull me out of a place where my mind is running all over the place and allows me to focus on a particular moment, a particular thing and that things seems to open up so much for me and sometimes provides a conduit of physical healing.  I actually have experienced feeling physically better after visualization exercises.   Thirdly and most important to me is the subtle mind exercise. This one is my challenge...the calm abiding mind is my goal...I am so not there yet.  This one is hard for me. I am still dealing with the chatter in my mind.  I have a hard time staying focused and allowing myself to look at my thoughts and not be overtaken by them.  It is the one practice that I so look forward to incorporating and developing.  I believe this one is the one that will open the door for me to integral health.  I don't look at these practices as just opportunities to escape my routine. I look at these practices as ways to gain maximum health, to be balanced mentally, physically and spiritually.  I know that incorporating them into my daily practice has helped because I can already see the changes from the beginning of this term.  I have experienced a sense of calmness and clarity during very troubling moments.  I have seen a heighten sense of awareness in so many areas. I believe that these practices are essential to my mental fitness.   I have managed to see how they can help control pain, alleviate a cough, calm down the mind to the point that I could gain clarity and peace about some things going on in my life.  Through these practices, I was able to remove some of the chaos that would have kept me from making wise decisions.  I was able to critically think my way through some difficult dilemmas and therefore with a full understanding make a successful decision that brought peace to me.  Sometimes we can be so caught up in life, so stressed physically and mentally that our state of mind will make us vunerable to bad choices and terrible decisions.  I must say that I have had some difficult moments in the past few weeks but because of the exercises and the state of mind that was created I made very good sound decisions and I am very happy about that.

"Meeting Aesclepius"

The Meeting Aesclepius Practice was a very interesting exercise.  I admit I struggled with keeping my mind focused on the image I created. I found myself over and over trying to get back to the image, therefore I had little time to really spend on what the exercise said focus on.  My mind is extremely busy right now and I cannot complain, my thoughts are good thoughts. I have so many wonderful things going on right now.  Which is a turn around from all of the medical issues that have been going on for the last 90 days are so.  

I am going to have to go over this exercise again and again because I realize that it really takes time. Integral health, mindfulness practices, a subtle mind, calm abiding all of these things take time to develop.  I am impulsive and move quickly at times but I realize that those practices that have been successful in my life have taken me a lifetime to get right and I am still working on some.  I think once I realized this I was able to calm down and make the most of it. Mind was no longer asking am I doing this right, I begin to accept what I saw in my mind what I felt in my heart and I was able to flow with the exercise.

I believe like any other practice, once we make them habit we can benefit from them, mindfulness exercises as well as meditation can help develop the inner person. It helps us to reduce stress, relax, give thought to the important things, discard the negative things. It helps to calm our minds and allows us to have mental clarity. We have a heighten consciousness. The simplest thing sometimes is the hardest thing.  In order to continue toward the goal of Integral health, these exercises have to become daily habits, its the only way to get to the place that we want to be. The practice only enriches us and allows us to more and more be strengthen, then and only then can we teach others how to obtain Integral Health.


The statement "one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself". Is a very good statement. Sure we can have information and share it with others and they can benefit from the information if they choose to, however, when one has experienced something and shares the information from their experience, it always is more helpful because it becomes real to the hearer.  
When health and wellness practitioners share their personal experiences of different practices, clients and patients are more apt to want to take part in the practice because they believe they see the actual results. I think when when physicians and others show they live the life that they advise others to live, it validates them.  When they teach something and don't follow the teaching themselves, it is easy to discard the information as this must not be true because he or she does not follow the information themselves... For example a physician telling a patient that he should not smoke, it is bad for his health and is effecting him negatively but has the smell of cigarette smoke on him as well as a package of cigarettes in his shirt pocket.  That patient may focus so hard on what he sees and not what he hears. The information does not benefit him because he is looking at that physician's practice.  It is hypocritical I think.
I personally think that it is essential for me to do all I can to better my health if I am to be an example to my clients. It is my testimony of how my health has changed that has allowed me to help so many. I continue this journey of learning and sharing because not only am I concerned for my health but for the health of all I come in contact with. I believe knowing that others depend on me for advice and information health me keep going, helps me to keep working at it and finding the best solutions for health and wellness.

Universal Loving Kindness and the Integral Assessment

The Universal Loving Kindness exercise was a wonderful opportunity to put in words what I feel. I was able to say what I really feel in an intelligent way and put that in my spirit.  I am a helper, a healer, a nurturer, my concern is generally and usually for the health and well-being of another.  This exercise was and intelligent way for me to express my feelings in fewer words that are profound and powerful.  The interest thing about the next exercise or assessment was it makes me see how out of balance I am.  I am concerned about my health and well-being. I put everybody and everything above me, myself and I.  Although that can be seen as a good thing, it is not a balanced thing, therefore allowing myself to suffer in many areas, only keeps me from being all I can be to others.  I am learning that I have got to be at my best , to uplift, encourage, help others make the changes in their lives that I have made. It is very hard to convince someone that they can be healthy when they see you may be suffering in that area. 
I have come to know the root of my issues and I think that I must work on balancing the interpersonal and worldly parts of my life more so.  As much as I have learned about health, I believe that the root of some of my problems lies not in the biological but in these two quadrants.  I have not problem with either of the loving kindness practices, where I believe I can devote my attention is in the subtle mind practice. Learning how to tame the mind and regain my focus on how to fix some of the issues in my life.  I have already begin to think and meditate on them and how I have set goals for myself to take care of much needed task.  I have gone through a fierce battle with myself over taking care of some of my needs and stepping a way from helping others for a while. I remembered something I taught my church; it is hard to be a blessing to others when you are not blessed yourself. Meaning that if I do not take care of my immediate needs I will not be in a position to help others. I am going to have to take a little time an reacquaint myself with a few things that really are essential to my success.  I think I am headed in the right direction and it will not take me long to get in balance.

The Subtle Mind

I think this exercise is a very good exercise but it requires some work.  It is easy to become so relaxed that you just fall a sleep.  That defeats the purpose I think, it was very hard for me because I am currently dealing with pneumonia and trying to quiet the coughing is extremely hard and makes it hard to tame your mind when all on your mind is Please Stop Coughing!!!
I expected to get more out of this exercise than the Loving Kindness Exercise, I think because I practice Loving Kindness on a daily bases and although the exercise was profitable and allowed me to see some things, I believe this one would be more beneficial to me, to get me to the place I want to go.  Until I can learn to quiet my mind any and every where, I realize that I have to have the atmosphere for it. In a house with four girls ranging from 8 to 14 who love to talk and watch television with the volume up as loud as possible, does make it a little challenging.  Trying the exercise again when nobody but me was available, I found myself very in tuned for minutes and then wondering am I really doing this right? Am I fooling myself into thinking this is working an am I doing the exercise properly.  I am not sure but my challenge was with me this morning and I spent too much time dwelling on my thoughts.  For a brief moment I do remember the thoughts rising, hovering and then dissolving, only for  my mind to say, Am I doing this right?  I am a bit frustrated however I do believe it is beneficial and I must say it will require some time and effort and I will continue after it.