Meditation Reflection

Meditation has helped me relax during the stressful days  by making me take time to relax, concentrate on breathing, and healing thoughts rather than my burdens.  I plan to continue my weekly practice to allow further mental development and wellness.  I also would like to incorporate my family and friends to practice with me.

Loving-Kindness improved my self-esteem in a significant way.  It really changed how I feel about myself by helping me realize that I am deserving of a good relationship, but I need to fully love myself first.  I can continue to use this exercise weekly to remind myself of the feeling of true love and the steps I need to take to achieve it in my life outside the practice.  Also, just by experiencing this emotion on a regular basis improved my attitude and outlook on life.

Again with this exercise, I was very distracted by my personal life and troublesome thoughts.  I could not fully immerse myself in the exercise.  The experience I had was here and there as far as unity consciousness style concentration.  I felt it while I was picturing the image of my person, but I could not concentrate.  With continued practice, I will feel a deepening development of my spiritual life.  Since beginning these exercises, I have had an improvement in the spiritual aspect of my life.  I felt strong enough to make a sudden and life-changing decision that impacted my life dramatically, hopefully for the better.  Furthermore, I was able to stand strong in my decision as I hope for the best.  I wouldn’t have been able to do this if I hadn’t reconnected to my spiritual life.  I think it’s funny how life pulls you back to a clear view after you’ve lost meaning of everything. 

I absolutely believe in the quote on page 477 of Consciousness and Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine.  As a patient, we place a lot of trust in our doctors and health care professionals.  In the case of Western doctors, we trust they have obtained a license and studied the necessary knowledge to treat our physical symptoms.  We place trust in holistic and Eastern doctors that they also are licensed and have studied thoroughly or experienced developing the mind to treat the mind, body, and spirit.  Knowing they have witnessed it allows patients to remove bias and barriers, allowing the doctor to take them on the journey to complete wellness.  I do believe that holistic doctors are obligated to have experienced states like witnessing mind and unity consciousness before they can treat patients of the same practice.  Otherwise, the doctor would not fully believe in the practice and it would almost be lying. 

Reference:

Schlitz, M., Amorok, T., & Micozzi, M. S. (2005). Consciousness and Healing: Integral approches to mind-body medicine . St. Louis, Missouri : Elsevier Inc.

Integral Assessment

With continuing practice of the relaxation techniques from this course, I feel I have gained strength in integral health and I am ready to begin my assessment for my life.  From this, I will be more prepared and able to decide the next step in my personal development.

First Stage of Assessment
"What aspect of my life-- psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, or worldy-- is the source of difficulty and suffering?"
Honestly, I do not believe I am fully developed in any of these areas.  This is because I am young and still have much to learn and experience from the world.  Right now, the biggest deficit is probably the interpersonal aspect of my life because I am going through turmoil in my relationship with my daughter's father.  We both need to develop into the responsibile adults we need to be individually, while simultaneously fixng the problems from the past and learning appropriate ways to deal with current problems.  It's very tough for us right now, and I hope this class helps me become the person I need to be to bring this family back together.

Second Stage of Assessment
"What area of my life is ready for development?  What does this look like?" 
This one is a little easier to answer because I am experiencing different emotions since the beginning of this class.  My spiritual life is ready for development so it can return to the state it once was.  I feel less dependent on others and ready to become a better person.  I am now aware of a void I am feeling because I have let my spiritual life die.  The next step for me would to start participating in activies that improve my spirit and make me feel connected to the world.  For me, this activity would be taking a walk and enjoying nature and everything that I have in my life. 

After I have more experience, I will be able to automatically assess myself during or after an event.  I will be able to ask myself: "How did I handle that situation?"  "Could I have improved my actions or thoughts?"

Sharing Some Love & Kindness

I really enjoyed listening to the loving kindness exercise this week.  I knew before what the emotion "love" felt like, but the exercise made me hold on to that feeling and make it become more tangible.  As the emotion became more real and defined, I felt it easier to imagine passing it on to others.  Just picturing sending love to those in need of it made me feel better on the inside.  Feeling the emotion by itsself for such a long time improved my mental outlook and made me appreciate those around me more.  This exercise is difficult because I had a hard time focusing enough to picture something intagible like "suffering" and "love" being drawn out of others and into myself.  It did become easier the second and third time I did it, though.  It takes a lot of practice to train your body and mind to medidtate, but once you get the hang of it, it makes you feel a lot better.  I will recommend it to others.  In fact, after every meditation exercise I do, I tell my fiancee about it.  I am excited to start meditating because I know it will help me with my struggles, and I would like those around me to as well.

While I listened to the recording, I laid on the bed with my baby, and her and I played while I did the exercise.  I enjoyed relaxing for a minute, and she was just happy to have me playing with her.  Holding and cuddling with her made the process of holding on to the emotion a lot easier. 

The Rainbow Meditation

A.    Physical Well-being          6          I smoke, do not exercise, and I am a little overweight from recent pregnancy.  I want to become more active, choose healthier foods, and cut back on my smoking.

B.     Spiritual Well-being          4          I do not feel as "connected" to something like I did when I was younger.  I want to have more faith in people, the universe, and the higher powers.  I can try prayer and meditation because they have worked for me before.

C.     Psychological Well-being  7          My fiancée and I are adjusting to owning our first home, being parents, and all of the other responsibilities that come with that.  I want us to balance our priorities and find healthy outlets for stress like trading neck and shoulder massages. 

During the recording, I could not concentrate at all!  My environment was noisy and exciting.  Plus, I was holding my teething and very grumpy daughter during the recording.  I do not think I received the full effect of the meditation exercise; however, I was more pleasant after the exercise.  I felt relaxed and refreshed as a result of closing my eyes and getting lost in the tranquil music and soothing voice.  Hearing these two immediately changed my mood, and my body felt less tense.  I am not as stressed and ready to complete another task. 

After listening to relaxation recordings two weeks in a row, I have a deepening understanding of how the mind affects the body.  In the previous week, the theory of how the thoughts and mental images we have can affect our physical bodies affected me.  Similarly, this week the recording introduced me to how positive self-talk, visualization, and meditation can have a powerful effect on the human psyche.  I left my fiancée in the evening to do my seminar and meditation, and when I returned, I was in a much better mood.  I was no longer stressed and I had a positive spirit. 

I enjoy listening to the recordings every week.  It is an activity that improves my mental state and it is a healthy habit.  If anyone knows the reference for these recordings, I would appreciate it!  I do not know where to find it.    Please let me hear your thoughts and comments. 

Jess

My Arms & Hands Feel Warm & Heavy...

Wow! I just listened to the audio file for this assignment and it blew me away.  I was not expecting it to relax me the way it did.  I am absolutely amazed.  The music alone made me let go of my burden and worries.  Even though there was a lot of noise and distraction around me, I felt my body release the tension and every body part and sensation the voice described, I started to feel my body reacting. 

I definitely believe that the mind can control the body in an amazing and powerful way.  To illustrate, I have been experiencing discomfort in my abdomen and chest all day, but interestingly, during this relaxation recording, I did not feel it at all!  I am going to save this file and use it in the future.  Maybe it will help me quit smoking.

Reference:
http://www.kushs.net/kaplan/HW420/JourneyOn.mp3 Retrieved March 13, 2011 from Kaplan University.

Off to a Great Start!

Hello Class!  I am excited to start this journey into integral medicine with all of you; especially because this is my final class before I graduate with my degree in Early Childhood Education.  This course will help me understand myself better in my personal life.  As a result, I will gain a better outlook on my life and will be able to work past the many obstacles life puts in front of me.  In my professional life, this class will help me remain calm and focused in moments of stress.  Consequently, I will have better patience and the necessary skills to work in a childcare setting.  I will be able to put the children in a positive environment because I will help create it. 

My first impression of this course left me feeling skeptical of the material and theories I would be learning.  I guess I had a negative perception of what holistic medicine could do.  I also first believed this class to be a kind of self-help class, which I was not wanting to take.  After reading two weeks of assignments in our books Consciousness and Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine and Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing, I feel that I have a better understanding of the meaning and many purposes of holistic and integral medicine.  Perhaps it is because I am in the culture where Western medicine beliefs are prevalent and I had a biased opinion of Eastern medicine and inner healing.  I am now ready to learn about healing my mind, and accordingly my body. 

I am going to add several classmates to my reading list on blogger.  If you think we would be able to discuss new and interesting thoughts about integral medicine and what it means to me, you, or society, add me and we'll get the comments flowing. 

Thanks for reading!


Jess