Unit 10: In Review & A Farewell

In unit 3 we did our initial assessment for our physical, spiritual and psychological well-being, this week we're to re-assess ourselves. I actually did some of this in my assignment and blog last week, including why I feel it has changed – but for the purpose of class I will once again reflect on my changes.

Assessment – Then & Now

Physical – Initially I rated myself a 6 in the health realm, that was probably a little high considering how I've seen others rate themselves; however I felt 5 on a scale of 1-10 was average. On average most people my age are not only overweight or obese, but also have little to no exercise and poor eating habits. At the beginning of the term I was exercising regularly, had taken all processed foods out of my diet and was doing well. As of last week I dropped that rating to a 5, but all things considered it may be a 4.5-5. I have fallen back into poor habits and “quick” fixes of take out and junk food. My “energy” is now not from exercise and eating right but a plethora of caffeinated drinks and “energy shots.” None of which is healthy for me. In addition, with the changes in my life I have stopped exercising regularly.

Spiritual – Initially I rated myself at a 4 for spiritual health. I felt on a scale of 1-10 I was most likely below average of the “norm”. Over the course I have learned the spirituality and religion do not have to be mutually exclusive and you can be spiritual with religion and religious without being spiritual. Since I live in the middle of an exceptionally Christian area (aka The Bible Belt) I have often felt at odds with my own personal beliefs which are considerably non-Christian, but range somewhere between Agnostic, Buddhist and Pagan. I'm not sure where I am in the realm of religions. I was raised in an exceptionally strict and cult-like religion, found paganism and have since been searching for where my beliefs truly lie. Since I've begun into the heavier science courses for my degree it has made me reconsider even more. Luckily I have learned that I don't necessarily have to have a “label” or “title” and can instead focus on the spiritual side of my life instead of what “religion” I am.

Psychological – Initially I rated myself at 8 for psychological/mental health. Right now I feel that I am about the same. I haven't gone insane adding my sister in law and two additional cats to the household, and with the ability to use the subtle mind and increase the “productivity” of my sleep I am more refreshed and rested than I was at the beginning of the term – which is probably why my rating hasn't drastically decreased with the changes in my life over the last 10 weeks.

Goals – Then & Now

Physical – My goal was to continue to make healthy changes and read my friend Abby's book. I was able to complete the book and made healthy changes until about February when life changes occurred and then I started falling back into poor exercise (aka no exercise) and nutrition choices. I intend to take the remainder of this week and next week and prepare to once again re-introduce healthy eating to my household.

Spiritual – My goal was to continue my exploration of spirituality and begin practicing again. I have continued my exploration and may continue to do so my entire life. In addition I needed to take more “me” time. I haven't had a lot of “me” time, but working on the subtle mind before sleeping has been most of my “me” time.

Psychological – My initial goal was to reconsider having three jobs, put myself first and time management. My time management has become better and I feel more rested thanks to more beneficial sleep. I have decided to quit one of the two part-time jobs and have talked to my manager about my full-time job and will actually be getting a promotion (and more money) hopefully before the summer. That will leave me with one full-time job and one part time job which is fun. I plan to continue working on this.

Behavioral Changes

My attitude has changed about all three realms of integral health. I will continue to work on each. I meditate more often now, assess myself regularly and work on all three areas of my health. I have a clear and focused game plan that I will be implementing before the beginning of the next term. I plan on adding exercise again and eating properly for physical health, finding a counselor for psychological health and continuing to explore my spiritual health.

The Course In Review

Throughout the course I have been giving the tools I need to achieve integral health, now I need to use them. I have improved in some areas of integral health and declined in others. Overall my “total” score is about the same. The most rewarding part to me has been the ability to apply what I learn in my life and keep my calm even under difficult circumstances which may have otherwise sent me to the hospital. I am not able to sleep more often yet, but my sleep is more restful. The most difficult thing has been taking “me” time and re-adjusting. My other course was actually more problematic than this one has been. Nothing in this course has been difficult really, just adjusting my own health and thought process. Change is difficult but not impossible.

I will be able to use the tools to keep myself in the realm of integral health and I will be able to help others by sharing my experience and the tools we have learned as well. I hope that a small part of what I have learned will pass to others, especially considering eventually I will be going into end of life nursing care. The ability to help keep a “stable” integral health is important during a stressful time like that.

I have enjoyed this class than all but one other course during my time at Kaplan University. I am sad to see this class, my classmates and this professor go but am glad for the things I have learned and the time we have shared.

Unit 9: Integral Health Now & The Future

I can't believe we're in unit 9 already, it seems like this semester has just flown by. We began our blog with an assessment of our integral health - physical, spiritual and psychological so it's only appropriate that we wind down our term with the same thing. How far have we come in the last 9 weeks? How can we use what we've learned in our future both personally and professionally? By making a plan, which is just what we are doing in this week's project.

Our blog assignment this week is to post our final project into our blog and commenting on other's blogs as well (which is a weekly task) so here is my final project for HW420: Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing. I did my project in APA formatting with a title page and a reference page so it may not copy and paste exactly appropriately into a blog post, but the content will come across at least!

Integral Health Plan

Sandy Lacey

HW420: Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Professor Mark Maule

Kaplan University

Integral Health Plan

Integral health can be defined as “sustained health, happiness and wholeness” that incorporates body, mind and spirit as integral parts of the whole. (Dacher, 2006) So how can we as individuals apply what we've learned throughout the course about integral health in our personal lives? This paper will explore five elements with which we can apply what we've learned to “foster growth and health spiritually, physically and psychologically in [my] personal life.” (Maule, 2013)

Introduction

As a health and wellness practitioner I cannot “lead others where [I] have not been” it's like having a map without actually visiting a place, I may know the location – but the best and most efficient route to my destination is beyond my knowledge and experience. (Schlitz, M., Amorock, T. & Micozzi, M., 2005) In addition, we must ensure we take care of our own health and wellness before we can help others reach their goals for integral health. The areas that I need to develop in order to achieve my own goals are as follows: physical fitness, regular assessments,  meditation and stress management. In order to more fully achieve overall “homeostasis” or integral health I need to work on becoming physically fit by eating better nutrition and incorporating exercise into my daily routine. In addition I need to work on my mental health by incorporating meditation into my routine daily and incorporating it into part of a stress management regimen. As an ongoing part of integral health I need to incorporate regular assessments to see where I am and what areas need focus at any given time.

Assessment

Most people recognize the importance of regular physical check ups and either do them annually or more often. But how often do we assess our mental and spiritual health? Some tend to assess their spiritual health more often than others, however almost all of us allow our mental health assessments to lack and it's rare that we assess all three aspects of integral health to see what area needs attention and focus. How do I rate myself physically, spiritually and psychologically?

Physical – I currently rate myself between a five and a six, while at the beginning of the course I rated myself a six. During the first part of this course I was eating better and exercising regularly, however over the last eight weeks due to several reasons some which are beyond my control, that has almost completely stopped. The food I am eating is barely fueling my body and I have fallen into the bad habit of “quick fixes” which are not healthy or nutritious. I recognize what needs to change and it is my goal to change it prior to the start of the next term. I only have approximately a year until graduation and it is my goal to be physically fit before that time.

Spiritual – I currently rate myself a five, while at the beginning of the course I rated myself a four. During the last nine weeks of this course I have renewed some of my spirituality and have come to realize that spirituality does not have to be tied to religion which has helped immensely. I still have a long way to go to feel “spiritually fit” however with regular assessments I am able to see where I need to focus and plan to get my life back on track and stop letting it go so fast that I don't have time to slow down and protect all three forms of my health.

Psychological – I currently rate myself at an eight which is the same rating as the beginning of the course. I personally feel on a scale of 1-10 that 10 is a score that means you cannot be touched mentally and I recognize the fact that I am human and am not untouchable in any aspect of my health. I feel that psychologically I am a strong person, I am a survivor (of many things) and in the last nine weeks not only have I endured several life changes, but I haven't let it alter my performance as a parent, person, at school or at work. I started out the term with five people and two cats in my home and since have added another person and two additional kittens and haven't lost my mind yet despite the fact that there is never “silence and stillness” in my life anymore. (Dacher, 2006)

An important part of growth is to make sure that after we make an assessment to follow through with creating goals to reach in order to focus on what changes need to be made before the next assessment.

Goal Development

It is an important part of an assessment that once you are complete to use that extra clarity to focus on the changes that you need to make for the future, either short or long-term or both.

Physical – My current goals for my physical health are to both add exercise on a daily basis and return to health nutritional habits. I want to not only provide adequate and nutritious fuel for my body, but also to be able to use that fuel more efficiently which means adding exercise. It is my intent to start eating no processed foods again and to exercise a minimum of five days a week and at least 30 minutes per time in exercise.

Spiritual – My current goal is to continue my exploration of spirituality and continue meditation and taking time to get back into nature where I can experience “silence and stillness” as well as working on my spirituality. (Dacher, 2006) I need to start actively practicing faith again as well.

Psychological – My current goal is to find a counselor just to have someone outside of my situation to talk to about everything that is going on in my life. I do not want to extend that burden to my friends and I don't have any close family so I feel that finding a professional to have some “couch time” with is what will help keep me healthy and on a good path psychologically. In the beginning of the course I stated I was going to reorganize my jobs, considering I have one full time and two part-time jobs currently. I have quit one part time job that was more stressful than helpful and am considering quitting my full time job as well. These are still things I am taking into consideration in order to keep myself psychologically fit.

Practices for Personal Health

Physical – The two practices I will implement in my life for physical health are eating nutritionally and exercising at least 30 minutes a day on five days a week. This will help in both physically and psychologically as I feel better physically my mental health increases. In addition physical activity has been shown to affect the chemicals that alter your mental mood. As Dr. Pert says “The mind is the body, the body is the mind.” (Dacher, 2006) In addition to removing processed foods from my diet I will attempt to incorporate both cardiovascular activity by starting with walking at least five days a week and toning by doing weight training at least three of the five days a week.

Spiritual – To choose only two practices to assist spiritually after exploring so many good exercises isn't easy. I want to continue to use all of the exercises we've learned throughout the last eight weeks of classes such as the subtle mind, universal loving-kindness which I need to develop and meditation. In addition I will begin to do yoga every week which will help both spiritually and physically.

Psychological – Two practices I can incorporate to help my psychological growth and stability would be to continue to work with the subtle mind exercise which will assist me in stress management and to find a local counselor to speak to. While contacting a counselor isn't a practice really it will incorporate exercises to help me reduce stress, so it will be part of a stress reduction practice.

Commitment

In the next six months I plan to do an integral assessment of my health at least once a month and any time I am feeling unduly ill – physically or mentally. I will keep assessments like we were given in my exercise and fitness course to track my physical health, and I will keep track of my exercise and nutrition changes as well as physical changes in a journal. I will continue to assess how I feel spiritually and psychologically with the exercises we've been given. In addition I will use forms from NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) to assess my psychological state and regular discussions with a counselor/therapist.

In addition to regular assessments and goal setting with tracking via a journal I can set both short and long-term goals and work towards them with the use of a “dream board” where I put my goals in sight daily and word towards them. I can even include a checklist of goals so that I can check off the goals as I reach them.

References

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Maule, M. (2013). Unit 9 project. Retrieved from https://kucampus.kaplan.edu/ Kaplan University course HW420: Creating wellness: Psychological and spiritual aspects of healing.

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). (2013). Retrieved from http://www.nami.org/

Schlitz, M., Amorock, T. & Micozzi, M. (2005). Consciousness & healing: Integral approaches to mind-body medicine. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Churchill Livingstone.

Unit 8 - Reviewing Beneficial Exercises

This week we’re to choose the two most beneficial exercises that we have done to date in the class and determine how we can “implement” these into our personal lives.

I chose the practice of Subtle Mind and Meditation. I can use both of these in my life to enhance my emotional/mental wellness and learn to calm my body and mind.

The Subtle Mind helps me by allowing me a method to quiet the constant chatter that always seems to be present in my ever busy life. By taking time out every day, or every other day just to quiet my mind it takes between 5-10 minutes each day and once it’s complete not only do I feel more calm, but I am more clearly focused – even if I don’t continue into meditation or visualization. Taking time out each day, or as I am able allows me to enjoy the “silence and stillness” that Elliott Dacher spoke about in our book Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Having a time to quiet your mind each day – even when you allow thoughts to come and go is as beneficial as the “down time” your brain requires and gets when you sleep.

The second practice – Meditation – is an essential practice for me personally to allow me to focus on my life, remove the things that are not beneficial and focus on the things that are beneficial to my growth. I used to meditation often, sometimes 3-5 times a week and then I got away from it when life got too busy with children, school and work. Throughout the last 8 weeks as we've done an exercise, usually with meditation or visualization each week and I have found that my level of stress decreases each time. Meditation can also be comparable to the same state your body reaches during prayer. It is a time when you clear your mind and focus on what’s important to you and in some cases what the universe is trying to tell you. You can also use this time to take a mind, body and spirit inventory to see what areas are lacking and what needs you to focus on them.

Meeting Aesclepius

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?

I wasn't sure what to expect from the title of this weeks exercise so I loaded it up on the computer and within a minute or less of beginning the meditation I was easily able to visual someone. The minute the guide said to visualize someone older who was wise, etc a vision of my father came to mind. I thought that maybe I would visualize an ancient Greek or Roman God, but the persistent visual was my father. This made the exercise both easier and harder for me to complete than I anticipated. My father passed away in 2000 but is one of the most loving and wise men that I knew and I miss him, so I had to try and allow the wave of emotion to come and go so that I could meditate and complete the exercise. I was surprised that I was able to clear the “chatter” of my mind a lot quicker this week than in previous weeks, but my house was surprisingly quiet in comparison to "normal". Each week I am able to build upon the previous experiences and have used this to enhance my personal calm and internal emotional and mental health. As I continue to work on the exercises and become more proficient I feel that it will allow me to lift a weight from my shoulders and enhance my overall stillness and wellness.

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 am reminded of the saying I have often heard in life “Do as I say not as I do” and how often people say that it confuses children in a parent-child relationship when the parent does something contrary to what they are being told to do themselves. In the same way I feel that a practitioner can't effectively explain something to a client without attempting or being able to experience it themselves – even when all of our experiences are individualized. It allows us to relate to our clients/patients at a base level. I like the example from Schlitz, Amorock and Micozzi (2005) that says not to confuse the “map with the territory” saying having a map of Hawaii is not the same as being there. Even if we are not able to achieve what we attempt – for the example mindfully meditating and not being able to completely quiet the “chatter” of our mind – we still will be able to discuss and direct our clients/patients with more understanding than we could if we had never attempted to begin with. Another good point from our reading was that the client-professional relationship has been damaged over the year, we've taken the human factor out in the Western world and that's the most important part in my opinion. We are humans and our patients are as well, we should allow both ourselves and them some loving-kindness and understanding. I think as a professional it is our responsibility to work on ourselves before we teach someone else to do the same. For example I wouldn't take instruction from an obese personal trainer. If you can't apply the process to yourself how can you give advice to others? Isn't that hypocritical? To implement growth in my own personal life I just have to be consistent and persistent in following through with exercises and assessments, working on taking one step at a time and applying what I learn in my daily life.

Reference:

Schlitz, M., Amorock, T. & Micozzi, M. (2005). Consciousness & healing: Integral approaches to mind-body medicine. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Churchill Livingstone.

Unit 6: Integral Assessment

Since my last post ended up so large when discussing my week thus far and my attempt at universal loving-kindness and random acts of kindness I decided to separate out my integral assessment into a secondary post.

So, when I see the four areas in a circle where we are to see what we need to improve I see a "pie" shape cut into four parts and then sliced down into portions from there. The four main parts are of course Psychospiritual, Biological, Interpersonal and Worldly. Each smaller section are the lines of focus in each fourth of the "pie" where we can focus.

I worked clearing my mind, working towards mindful meditation so that I didn't have to completely quiet the chatter in my mind, but left it in the background.

So what part of my mind-body-spirit needs work? First I needed to try and do an assessment of my mind-body and spirit, where am I now. What is lacking? What needs the most work? I started with the biological aspect of my life since I thought a physical assessment would be the "easiest". What needs work, what is ready for work? After doing a thorough assessment of where I am, I realized that about 3/4's of my "pie" is completely off balanced. How on earth did this happen? There are areas in all four quadrants that need work. It's because I haven't done regular assessments on anything - mind, body or spirit - in a very long time. I've gotten too busy with life to devote or focus any time on myself. Not the healthiest of things, but as a mom, wife, going to work and being a student my own needs often get put at the very bottom of a very long "to-do" list.

So what did I learn? I have aspects of my mind, body and spirit that are out of balance and all need work. I learned that sometimes I am going to need to put myself first or I will never regain balance. Even if I do work on it all, there is no such thing as perfect balance - but having a better balance than I do now is necessary for personal and professional growth as well as overall wellness.

What am I going to focus on? Initially I have to split my focus between psychospiritual and biological. I can't let my physical health fall behind to focus on other areas of my life, but my weakest aspect is my psychospiritual portion. I also need to shift my focus about my job - I absolutely hate it, even though it is easy and for now I must keep it as a "necessary evil", but I need to retrain my thinking some and try to work on not dreading it so much as well. My focus still needs to be on the psychospiritual aspects of my life and working on realizing that religion and spirituality do not have to be entwined. I haven't been in nature or meditated (except for classwork) in a very long time and I need to refresh and unwind.

I need to get outside and alone, and experience the "silence and stillness" a nature walk has to offer. I am no longer close to a natural body of large water (The Great Lakes or an ocean) but I can relax in the woods and on nature trails. I need to get away from my chaotic household and relax and enjoy the outside, non-technical world. This will help me acquire more of a balance by letting me work on my spirituality and giving me a chance to experience stillness in my life - which I have found is an essential component to my mental and physical health. I need to take time to put "me" first, commune, meditate and unwind.

Unit 6: Universal Loving-Kindness and Random Acts of Kindness

My family consists of my husband, me, and my two kids who are 3 & 5 years old and two cats who are in their "toddler" stage. My 16 year old nephew has been here since mid-November living with us and we have been solely providing for him since then. This week my sister in law and her two "baby" cats are moving in, so there has been some chaos going on. Our cats are not getting along and the house was not ready for another occupant - we are still trying to finish the "guest" room - which will be the kids room until the rest of the family moves out.

I explain this because my mind has been all over the place this week and I wasn't able to come up with anything catchy for this week's blog title, which makes me rather sad. Ah, but life will go on and a title is not the end of the world - but may garner less interest this week. Sorry classmates & professor!

So, this week we are to discuss both universal loving-kindness and do an integral health assessment and discuss our results. I fully expected the universal loving-kindness to "flop" this week considering the difficulty I had with our first attempt at loving-kindness, but I decided to give it a try.

So I found the quietest time and place I could - the kitchen table and right after I got off work, before everyone was awake. Everything is perfect so I can do this right? Not so much... the children woke up again, the cats all got into a fight and I was frustrated. So I retreated to the garage after someone was awake to get the kids!

I sat out there and tried just the universal loving-kindness exercise. I kept opening my eyes to try and remember exactly what I was supposed to repeat and checking the time to see if I could do it. That didn't work so well as the "chatter" of my mind kept creeping into my thoughts. That was attempt one so I gave in and went back into the house until a later date.

The next time I tried it I went to the library on Saturday and shut myself into a study alcove only 5 minutes after the library opened. I found some music that was about 15 minutes long with no lyrics, plugged in my headset and began to clean my mind. I finally worked on finding my inner stillness and then I forgot what I was supposed to repeat. I opened my eyes and some chatter came through - but I worked on refocusing and began to repeat the four sentences we have in the book - but the chatter remained, because my eyes were open. So the amount of OCD (I am obsessed with doing things the way I am instructed to make sure they "work" properly) I have kicked in and I let it go to the side. I remembered the sentiment of the instructions and worked to settle my mind again - restarting my 15 minutes of music. I figured approximately 5 minutes to clear my mind and 10 to do my repeating was about right.

I cleared my mind, settled into the inner calm I could and began my universal kindness - originally I tried saying it out loud since I was in a study alcove and alone and realized external noise brought back the chatter so I resorted to saying it over and over in my head... eventually it worked itself into the background and I tried to work on expanding my mind and heart while going over the sentiment. It mostly worked as universal loving-kindness is much easier for me to try than personal loving-kindness aimed at myself. I have a great love for people in general, just one reason I am ready to change careers from one which makes me doubt humanity in general. For the rest of the day I tried to also perform random acts of kindness - which were mostly met with awe and disbelief and in some cases even anger, which surprised me. I attempted to pay for the person behind me in line for lunch and they were not happy. It doesn't mean I will stop hoping for the overall good for people or stop random acts of kindness.

Quieting Your Mind

The Subtle Mind 

This week we were to listen to an exercise on the subtle mind and compare and contrast it to the loving-kindness exercise we did last week.

I listened to the subtle mind exercise the first time and ended up falling asleep so on my second time I made sure I was slightly less comfortable. This morning as I loaded up the subtle mind mp3 to listen to my children woke up, my husband had fallen asleep on the couch and started snoring and the cats started their at least once daily “fighting sprint” through the house and I thought “Here we go, another exercise I am not going to be able to concentrate on.” I was seriously considering either giving up, or re-scheduling the exercise to another day and time. Instead I decided that I would put on my headset and try to focus at the task at hand. My initial focus was on my chest going up and down instead of the breath coming in and leaving my nostrils, the chest felt like an “easier” focal point for me. I removed my glasses that I use to read and closed my eyes, attempting to close out the world. I focused on breathing, heard my kids playing loudly (my sister in law was watching them), heard the cats and my husband snoring and the “chatter” of my mind came in heavy. What would I blog about? Would this exercise work for me? Will I ever experience the “silence and stillness” we all need ever again? What are the kids doing? Am I going to get sleep again today? On and on … I brought my mind back to my chest moving up and down and tried to regulate and make my breathing longer and smoother.

I was then prompted to let thoughts come and go, acknowledge them and let them go .. so I tried not to focus on the millions of things that seemed to be going on in my head and focus instead on an anchor from my chest to the ground. Breathe in and out, in and out. I noticed it became easier to let thoughts come and go and not scold myself for them, but acknowledge them and let them go. I released as heavy of a hold on my focal point and tried to reach for that place where mind and body connect and you are supposed to feel that certain clarity. I started to relax my mind and then it came back to a million thoughts. I refocused and started to mentally “drift away” and then something would distract me and I’d come back to the fact that I was listening and not finding my subtle mind.

But then something happened, and I am not sure what or when. I began to focus on making my breath relaxed and reminding myself people were watching the kids and let thoughts come and go without thinking about them or getting side tracked and then it was all just blank with thoughts at the exterior of my mind and nothing in the interior. It felt like the time right before you fall asleep and right after you wake up where you are only semi-conscious and aware that things are going on around you but your body hasn’t decided if you want to wake up or fall back asleep. Then just like that the voice came back on the recording and told me to return to the present. I was shocked and afraid I had fallen asleep, but I had experienced the entire recording this time, I was still sitting in my kitchen chair and I felt utterly relaxed. As a matter of fact I felt so relaxed I had to wait to write down my observations because I needed to go to bed after a long night at work. After I went upstairs I used the same technique to relax my mind and within not even 5 minutes I was able to go to sleep, which is a HUGE thing for me considering I have suffered insomnia for years and normally it takes me 30-60 minutes to relax my mind and fall asleep. I found the exercise this week extremely relaxing and beneficial and will be using it daily to calm my mind. I will use the recording until I am able to do it on my own.

My house is always busy and there is always someone awake and something going on. We have three adults – me, my husband and my sister in law here almost all the time and she will be moving in soon. I go to school, work full time, work part time and have the kids most of the day, along with most of the chores, etc so my mind is rarely calm. My to-do list seems never ending. Someone always has a television, video game, radio or phone conversation going. Add to that two small children – 3 & 5 years old, one who makes noise from the time she wakes until she is asleep in some form or fashion and two cats I never thought I would achieve a subtle or quiet mind. I am always thinking about what needs to get done at home, for school and for work. Except I wasn’t this morning and I was pleasantly surprised. I was able to focus idly on how I felt as well and took a physical inventory and realized how very worn out I actually feel.

Loving-Kindness

So how does this compare to the loving-kindness exercise? I felt it was harder to listen to the loving-kindness, however I was sick during the week we did that exercise and I was tired. I will go back and try it again as I am learning to focus more. I know that I will struggle more with that exercise as I am capable of showing loving-kindness to others, but it is harder for me to turn it towards my own body, mind and soul. I think my own personal struggles made that exercise harder than this one. They were both similar using similar techniques to focus on your breath and relax and then a guided exercise. However with the loving-kindness you were to focus on specific things where the subtle mind your focus was actually more of a lack of focus.

Body-Mind-Spirit Connection

As we've learned there is a definite connection between not only mind and body, but also spirit. Our spiritual health can manifest itself in our physical and mental health and this is regardless of our religious beliefs. Initially when I thought about spiritual health I think religion, but our spiritual health doesn't have to be tied to religion or religious beliefs. Often times it starts as something as simple as “not feeling right” or “not feeling well” and can cascade from there to actual mental or physical health issues.

I realize that my own personal spiritual health suffers not because of previous religious beliefs or a lack of current religion, but because I haven’t been able to experience the quiet and calm I experience when I am out in nature. I rarely get to experience the silence and stillness we are learning about – my job is in technology, my house is full of technology, we are always on the go, my cell phone, email and facebook are almost always on. I need to take the time to renew my spirit to boost my mental and physical health.

An Exercise in Loving-Kindness and Mental Workouts

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

I felt that I couldn't concentrate on the exercise this week. Maybe that is because as we explored last week my spiritual portion of the mind-body-spirit connection is the weakest. So far I have realized that a male voice seems to be more relaxing that a female voice to me. The sound of waves crashing I found more relaxing than music but I also found it slightly distracting this week. It could just be my personal stress level as well as I have had a lot less ability to practice “silence and stillness” that we've been learning about than I have in previous weeks. I tried the exercise multiple times throughout the week, at different times of the day, hoping that I would be less distracting and none of them seemed to work.

Regardless of the fact that it did not work for me and I received no benefit from it, I would still recommend the exercise to others as they may have a better connection with a female voice, or the sounds of the waves. Others may also have more time to relax their minds and practice “silence and stillness” than I have been able to do.

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?

What is a mental workout? In the same way exercise is a physical workout that helps strengthen your body a mental workout helps you strengthen your mind. Mental workouts have been proven to be able to increase clarity and focus and even increase a higher thought process which has been scientifically measured by the use of gamma waves. Not only can it have short-term benefits, thanks to a study by Antoine Lutz it has been shown that the benefits can be long-term as well. By applying the practices we are learning then we can do short daily workouts to help boost our own thought processes and mental health and wellness.

I apologize for coming in so late to my blog post this week, I am currently fighting the stomach flu and have been so sick that my entire body is sore. I hope to get an earlier start this upcoming week.

The Crime of the Century

The title of this exercise is definitely misleading! I was not expecting an exercise that would help relax and revitalize me.

I listened to it this morning before everyone else was awake and unlike the Journey On experience the music which I thought was initially too loud eventually was no longer the focus on my mind. I have done guided meditation successfully and non-successfully tried as well and the speakers idea to be in the moment – letting thoughts come and go without focusing on them helped me connect much better than the last exercise.

I am a visual person and I found the speakers use of color to be exceptionally relaxing and while I couldn’t focus 100% on what he was guiding us through I still felt relaxed and energized by the end. I think I will try this exercise when I haven’t just spent 9 hours working and can relax my mind, hopefully not as many thoughts will come and go and I will be able to focus more clearly on the colors of the rainbow.

Overall it was an enjoyable and pleasant experience and I plan to use it now and in the future if I need a guided meditation.

Body – Spirit – Mind

As we learn that our health and wellness doesn't just have physical elements it’s a good time to reflect on where we struggle and the areas we need to focus in order to find our own personal balance which will help lead us to a better overall wellness. What better way to do this than to do a self reflection and a grading scale?

So, we are to use a scale of 1 to 10 to reflect on three aspects of our health – physical, spiritual and psychological. Where do I rate myself?

Physically – I rate myself a six. I am slightly above the middle or average considering the average American is obese to morbidly obese with instances of diabetes, heart disease and hypertension (high blood pressure). I do not have any major health issues; I usually get sick about once a year when the weather changes and the kids typically bring it home to me. This year they brought home bronchitis and the flu and I was able to fight off the flu, but did end up with bronchitis; albeit a MUCH lesser degree than the other four in my household. I am not higher on the spectrum physically because I am currently obese even if I am taking steps to correct that, I am not “there” yet to physical fitness.

Spiritually – I rate myself a four. I am just below the average American in belief and faith. Since I was raised within a very restrictive cult/religion when I left home at 16 it has been hard for me to once again find faith in anything of a higher power. I have my own moral code, but beliefs are a lot harder to consider. I stay away from spirituality because it is very hard for me to find a balance in this aspect between still recovering from brainwashing and not being 100% where I find truth. I am not completely null and void spiritually because I do believe there is something larger than myself – I am not sure how to explain it and in my journey of the last 20 years, most religions have left a sour taste in my mouth. I am scientifically minded, so blind faith isn’t something I am currently capable of, but I am okay with that. Only time will tell where my spiritually truly lies.

Psychologically – I rate myself an eight. I would say that I am above average to my peers. I currently am an adult survivor of abuse, survived abuse in my teens and again in my twenties. I have been through a lot of things in life that many people could not handle and some of my classmates in the same situation are no longer with me because of taking their own lives. In addition to suffering from major depressive disorder, PTSD & panic attacks with the least amount of medication I can take (nothing for depression – and only sometimes for panic attacks) I am able to keep a household of six people (three of which are adults) almost entirely by myself while working two part-time jobs, one full-time job (on third shift), going to school full-time and caring for a three and a five year old without entirely losing my mind. This doesn’t mean I don’t have “down” days, or that I am never depressed or sad. It doesn’t mean I don’t have days where I feel like I’ve hit the wall and have no where to turn for help. It just means that despite my past, having two children I do not have with me, one miscarriage and all the dark shadows that occasionally haunt me in nightmares, I am a survivor not a victim. I choose to look forward instead of backwards and I choose to think there is still some good in the world when I’ve seen the dark and ugly side first hand more than once. I think the fact that I am not a complete cynic makes me fairly strong mentally, despite my occasional “bad” days.

Goals

Now that I have defined my strengths and weaknesses and the areas that I need to focus my attention and redirect my energy to strengthen, how do I do that? I create goals, small attainable goals to lead me to the place I desire to be in all three aspects of my life that will affect my well-being. (We won’t touch on financially here since that’s a tangible and another topic entirely.)

Physically – This goal is simple and complex at the same time. I plan to continue making the changes I started January 1^st to make this year my most successful at staying the course. I will continue to work out 6 days a week using either P90X as I am now or the exercise plan that my friend and author Abby created in order to work on both cardio and strength training. I plan to not only work on my personal fitness level, but also my weight and strength. Once I have attained a healthy weight level I will continue to work out, but I will change the routine and intensity I work out at to either maintain, or achieve a different goal (such as muscle definition). I plan to read my newest book by Abby Campbell and change my nutrition as well. The last time I followed her plan I saw a weight loss of 18 pounds in 4 weeks without the addition of exercise.

Spiritually – I plan to continue my exploration of religion and belief until I find what I feel “fits” with my personal moral code and belief system. Until then I will continue to use what I have such as meditation to take much needed “time outs” for reflection.

Psychologically – I will learn to put myself first sometimes, and I will seriously reconsider having a full time and two part time jobs right now with school and two small children. In addition to spiritually, the personal “time outs” will help me psychologically. I will make better use of the hours that I have when I am awake and work on scheduling so that my time-management is better than it has been in the past. When I use my school book to schedule what days I do what homework and what activities I have each day I feel a whole lot less “frazzled.” I will continue to work on living the Serenity Prayer daily, changing what I can, and giving up what I cannot and attempting to determine which is which in life. I will continue to work on meditation and living in the moment which is dual purpose – spiritual and psychological as well.

Guided Relaxation with Journey On

I decided that my most quiet time of the day happens to be at night, when I am working so I listened to the Journey On relaxation recording found at http://www.kushs.net/kaplan/HW420/JourneyOn.mp3 during the first part of my work night. I telecommute so I was able to get into relaxing clothing and sit in a relaxing position to listen to the guided relaxation.

I found the initial instrument that was playing in the recording to be the opposite of relaxing, it actually seemed to irritate me and it felt “sharp” when listening to it, which did not assist in relaxing me. I found the speakers’ voice to be low, but not monotone or boring. The music that was later along during the process was much “warmer” feeling and much more relaxing than the initial music.

I noticed throughout the entire recording the music changed and the most relaxing portion was in the middle when we were supposed to have heavy and warm limbs. The beginning music and the ending music were not as relaxing, which I am sure is important as they are trying to invigorate you at the end of the recording.

I attempted to follow along with the “autogenic technique” in which I should be able to make any part of my body be comfortable by suggesting it be relaxed. I tried to relax, and follow along. I even closed my eyes during the process to shut out additional environmental distractions. I found that instead of warming my arms and hands that my fingers and toes did the opposite, they became cold. I was not able to relax my arms and hands enough that I was not unable to lift them. Unfortunately my arms also did not feel heavy. I was able to relax my breathing, but not to relax my hands and arms. It did not give me an overall feeling of calm or relaxation.

I have been able to do guided meditation previously where I relaxed each area of my body during classes and while playing Leela on the xbox 360. I’m not sure if the difference was the music or the speaker or the differences in method being used. 

My preferred and most successful form of meditation continues to be “normal” in which I am not guided through the relaxation process by a speaker but often use music that has no lyrics to relax. I used to attempt to relax with no music, but I find that my mind is more “busy” unless I use music or a sound to “drown out” my thoughts. 

Welcome to my World!

Good Morning,

Thank you for stopping by. This isn't my first blog, but it is my first blog for a college course. It is my understanding that over the course of the remaining nine weeks in this term we will explore health and wellness and healing using a mixture of both Eastern and Western philosophy and methods.

While I have kept blogs in the past, they have mostly been located on another host site (Wordpress) and so I am new to the Blogger universe. In addition, I tend not to post very often on my regular blogs, other than the pages I keep on facebook.

As an exceptionally busy mother of two small children at home (3 & 5) I end up finding very little time to sit down and journal anymore. I go to Kaplan University full time, work full time on third shift, have my children during the day with the exception of my son being at school and I do two part-time direct sales/marketing jobs on the side as well as being involved in my local community. People ask me how I do it. My response is that I have no choice. I am in school to change careers and to make a better future for my children. Often I don't get more than 4-6 hours of sleep and more than often I get less.

I look forward to taking this journey with my professor and classmates and hope we can all have fun and learn during this term!

Sandy Lacey