So Long, Farewell, Our Feet Are the Same (Auf Wiedersehen), Goodbye ???

Hello Professor and Classmates,

I choose not to say goodbye, because this chapter is not an ending, it is somewhere in the very beginning of my “Flourishing” and I wish to thank everyone who participated and walked this journey with me.  Without your companionship, the journey would have been much harder.

I find this posting to be similar to the Final Project that I posted last term.  I hope I do not bore you with my musings.  I try so very hard to keep it interesting each week.  Here I go.

When asked to review my unit three assessment compared to how I assess myself now, here is what I have to say.  In unit three I was a mess.  I really do not think my assessment was a reality as I compare it to myself now and all the things I have learned about myself along the way.  In unit 3, I rated myself as a 2-3 in Mind, a 7 for Body and I perceived my Spirit as an 8.    Looking back now, I do believe I was correct for the assessment of my Mind and Spirit, but way off on my Body.  This discrepancy was most likely due to the cogitative distortions about my body that were fueled by a Mind domain that was really in trouble.

As I review myself today, I will say the Mind has improved to about a 4 by my continued exercises and mindful exercises that keep me grounded.  The Body is more realistically at around a 5 since I have some things that I need to work.  Last but not least is my assessment of my Spirit.  I will say the Spiritual domain has not improved, but an 8 is pretty good.  I will keep striving for enlightenment and see if it changes.  Keep your fingers crossed.

In reviewing my goals, I wanted to exercise more, practice contemplatively and commune more with my higher power; I have to say I have achieved those goals.  Walking, meditating and praying keeps me centered and lowers my stress and I have found I can do all three while I am walking.  I will stick to my goals and become a healthier person.

My experience through this course has been a real eye opener.  I do not believe it could have come at a better time in my life or my education.  I was getting so stressed and burned out that I was starting to really not care if I graduated or not.  I needed loving kindness from myself and others.  I needed contemplative practices and I needed to take a long hard look at where I was and where I wanted to go.  I have gained these insights and more from this course.  I also think I have made some acquaintances that I want to nurture and keep them close to my heart as I feel that is what they deserve.  There uplifting comments each week have replaced the little voice inside my head that told me I could not.  Their voices told me, I could.

While I feel that there was a lot of course work each week, I know that there were valuable lessons to learn in each one.  These are life lessons about loving your neighbor, healing yourself and just down right being a better person.  These lessons have been a gift to me.  They have made me a nicer, stronger person, a person with skills that I will carry with me each day in my nursing practice.

So, my dear compadres, with that, I wish you all Auf wiedersehen.

Rufus J.

I Plan, therefore, I Can - Flourish to the Finish

Hello Everyone,  

I am saddened that this class is coming to a close.  I have learned for many of you.  I have learned much from a few of you.  I am honored to have to known each of you for this short time and I wish you many blessings in your future. 

To this end, I am allowing you all to view my plan for the future.  It goes something like this:

The importance of a well-developed mind, spirit and body cannot be underestimated for an individual in the healthcare field.  The idea of Integral Health as defined by Dacher (2006), is that it can lead to a holistic path in healthcare that can enable a person to heal themselves or become immune to maladies that plague the human body such as death, aging and disease.  As a healthcare provider, I have quite a way to go before I am able to incorporate the Integral Health into my every day practice.  I still have a journey ahead in attaining the skills necessary to practice using Integral Health.  I have made progress in my spiritual self and in the healing of my mind, but the body is still a work in progress.  I know and have been reminded that the mind controls the body so I have hope that I may someday pull the three pieces together and become the Holistic healer that I wish to be.

Assessment

            During my assessment back in unit 3, I had to judge myself in the domains of Mind, Body and Spirit.  In assessing myself, I had to take an in-depth look at myself and compare where I was now, in each domain, to where I wanted to be.  I also asked my life partner to try as impartially as possible to assess his views of each domain and I used the information that he gathered, in addition with how I view myself, to complete my assessment.  We both assessed my Spiritual well-being to be the strongest of the domains scoring an 8 out of 10.  Secondly we addressed the health of my body and the Physical domain as needing work.  This domain was measured at 7 out of 10 and was by no means as weak as my Psychological domain which was screaming for improvement at somewhere around 2-3 on a scale of 10.   I will admit that I have come a long way since Unit 3, in my Psychological domain.  With the tools I have learned from this course and my therapy sessions, I would say I am currently at a 5 out of 10 and still climbing.  

Goal Development

Through the studies in this course and additional outside readings, I have come up with the following three goals for myself:

1.     Physically, I am going to get out there and exercise more.  I have long used the excuse that I do not have time to exercise.  I have long used the excuse that with two jobs and full time school, I simply did not have time to take care of myself.  I can no longer lean on that distortion of reality.  I simply do have time and I will stop finding excuses not to exercise.

2.     Psychologically, I am will set aside a minimum of fifteen minutes to allow myself to practice my mindfulness exercises, meditations and exercises in Loving Kindness (Dacher, 2006).

3.     Spiritually, I will not be so closed minded.  I will open myself up to the wonders of the universe and the unlimited possibilities that exist in the universe.

Practices for Personal Health

            To foster growth in my physical domain, I can begin by making better diet choices and eating more fresh fruits and veggies instead of the many packaged and fast foods that I currently consume. I will have to be more mindful when shopping that I make better diet choices.  I can also start walking my dogs each evening.  If I only take them for a fifteen minute walk, they will appreciate it and my body can certainly use it.  This exercise will strengthen my bones and help to lower my blood pressure.  This one will be easy to implement as each dogs is most willing to walk when they see their leashes.

To foster growth in my Psychological domain, I will continue to attend my weekly group therapy sessions to lower stress and fight depression.  I will also continue to practice the exercises in mindfulness and Loving Kindness (Dacher, 2006).  I have found that the inner peace that I obtain while doing these exercises has enormous benefits in keeping me calm and lowering my stress.  Lowering my stress allows me the opportunity to love myself and to love others.  Lowered stress also equals lower blood pressure.  Practicing these exercises will keep my mind healthy and strong.  I have already put the fostering of this domain in place.  I only need make myself get out of bed every day in order to do them.

To foster growth in my Spiritual domain I will allow myself to pray more to my Higher Power and allow myself to commune with nature so that I can tap into the spiritual energies that I believe exist in nature.  Implementing the fostering of this domain actually begins with the prayer to my Higher Power to give me strength and courage to more forward and become a healthier person.

Commitment

            I will assess my progress over the next sixth months by performing another Integral Assessment (Dacher, 2006) and rating myself in the areas of the three domains.  I will use the number from my initial assessment as a baseline.  If I find myself progressing in an area, I will continue with my goals and my exercises.  If I determine that I am not progressing in a domain, I will change my strategies until I find one that works.  I will also continue to foster relationships I have developed in this class and I will continue to bounce my ideas off my cohorts as long as they will let me.  I have met some amazing people in this class and I my hope is, that the relationships will not dissolve with the termination of the tenth unit of this class.  My goal is to continue my blog as it has been a valuable tool for disseminating information and gaining insightful feedback.

Conclusion

            The goal of Integral Health is forever a work in progress.  Do I ever hope that I will attain Unity Consciousness (Dacher, 2006) and ultimate enlightenment?  The answer is yes.  Do I think I realistically will reach those goals?  Probably not, but that will not stop me from trying.  I will strive to meet my goals and I have a plan to meet those goals.  It is important for everyone to remember, it is in the journey that we receive the enlightenment, not so much in the destination.

References

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

Mental Exercise – Sure Makes me Soar!

Hello everyone 

Welcome to my Unit 8 Blog regarding exercises in mental fitness, that I have incorporated into my daily routine.  When I first started this course, I have to make myself sit and be still, not fidget and mindfully practice the exercises.  I thought, “These are tedious and they will never work for me”.  I am here to tell you, I was wrong!

The first exercise that I have incorporated into my daily routine and now do it almost unconsciously is the act of Universal Loving Kindness (Dacher, 2006).  I am very task oriented each day so I usually do not deviate from my routine (OCD, you know ;-)).  I let the dogs out in the morning and I step into a nice warm shower.  I used to sped this time to ruminate over all of the future daily tasks that I had no control over.  That was an act that was not beneficial to me so now, I have replaced the rumination with mental exercise.  While going through my routine, I repeat the mantra from Dacher (2006):

            May all individuals gain freedom from suffering. 

May all individuals find sustained health, happiness, and wholeness.

May I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering.

May I assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness.

Now, I know you might think I am a little eccentric for doing this, but I have to tell you  it beats rumination over crap I have no control over and it just kind of clears my mind and puts me into a more positive state of awareness that I probably do have less suffering than most and I need to get it together, and get to the nursing home and start serving others (Dacher, 2006).

The second exercise I find myself practicing a lot is the exercise of the Subtle Mind (Dacher, 2006).  While I will admit that I do not find a comfortable place to sit and I do not practice it for fifteen minutes, I have found it to be the best exercise for immediate stress relief.  Instead of encountering a problem and chewing it until my jaws are sore, I visualize it and then let it go, giving it only the attention that it deserves.  Perhaps one day I will be able to sit and practice it in earnest to move myself toward Calm Abiding and eventually Unity Consciousness (Dacher, 2006).  Until then it serves a more immediate and calming purpose so I will hang on to it.

I hope to continue evolving as I grown older.  I do think that part of the process will be to continue this Blog and continue, mindfully updating it with my progress.  I hope that some of you may do the same as your growth, documented, helps me along the path of my journey.

Stay safe, sane and centered,

Rufus J.

Reference

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

I Met Aesclepius – He wasn’t from around here ...

Hello Everyone,

Well I am still flourishing towards the finish, even though it had been a rough couple of weeks.  Never give up and never say die.  That is the mantra that I have been chanting this week.  My house has sold.  I am merging two households.  I started in an intensive group that meets four days a week for four hours and still I find I have time to stop and pause for my favorite relaxation exercise, which is the Subtle Mind (Dacher, 2006).  It seems to work really well for me and I can stop and refresh myself when I get overwhelmed.  

So on I go into another week and this week I was asked to meet Aesclepius.  Let me tell you how that went for me. As always, I positioned myself in the “ready” position of comfort that will allow me to be comfortable and accept guidance from the relaxation coach.  I had trouble with the visualization of the person I loved and trusted, I could not get a fixed reference for a person so I tried the second suggestion with was to fabricate the person.  This visualization took on an interesting turn.  Every time I would try to form a person with arms, legs and a head, the form would dissolve back into a formless shape of a floating  blue mist. I decided not to fight this visualization and let the light blue mist float in front of me.  When I stopped fighting, the mist solidified into a round orb of blue light that seemed to float in front of me.  The more I relaxed,  The more substantial the orb became.  It seemed to pulse with the emotions of love and kindness.  It seemed to speak to me, telling me to let go and not fight the exercise. 

This shape, my Aesclepius, was love and kindness; “it” was not a person to be transmuted into a form.  My Aesclepius was love and kindness in every way.  It participated in the exercise with me.  The light would shine from my orb and at times when the light was to be shining in my heart, I realized that the entire orb had moved into my heart and was becoming part of me and I, part of it.  When the exercise was over, I was left with a profound sense of joy that stayed with me.  It was amazing!

Now, I know the most judgmental of you will think I am crazy, and that’s OK.  I just know that my Aesclepius was not from around here.  He was not human, but he was what makes up the best of the human spirit and I am glad I finally got to meet him.

And…. When I think about the phrase "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" (Schlitz, Amorok & Micozzi, 2005 p.477), I understand it as, I cannot teach an individual to flourish, or even how to have Loving Kindness until I can do it myself.  I guess, I can point them in the direction of the text and the tools, but I can never be their mentor unless I have attained these state of well-being myself.  As a nurse I have an obligation to my clients to help them be the healthiest person they are willing to be.  It would be such a wonderful asset to be able to flourish psychologically, physically, and spiritually and to help them learn to flourish as well.  Their flourishing would certainly make my job a lot easier.

This class has been the starting point to my journey of flourishing.  At this seventh week, I do not look at the “finish” of my “Flourishing to the Finish” to be week ten.  I will be finished when I am finally the “blue ball” of Loving Kindness that goes on to join the cosmos.  But then again, that may be a whole new beginning.

Thanks to you that read this lengthy Blog.  I appreciate each one of you.

Rufus J. 

References

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

Schlitz, M., Amorok, T., & Micozzi, M. S. (2005). Consciousness and healing. St Louis, MO: Churchill Livingstone.