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.

Universal Loving Kindness – I can do that!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all experiencing some sort of joy, relief, awareness or some other sort of wonderful thing from this course.  It could not have come at a better time in my life, a time where I am beginning to feel burned out with school as well as with nursing.  I have been in school since 2008 and with almost two more years to go until my Master’s Degree, school is becoming both tiresome,  boring and a burden.    This course has helped me with renewed faith in myself and the world when it comes to Loving and Kindness.  It is also taught me that this journey I am on is an Intentional journey and I need to stop whining and get on with life.

The practice of the Universal Loving Kindness was remarkable.  It gave me ten, calm minutes, to project Loving Kindness to the world.  It gave me ten solid minutes of practicing and projecting Loving Kindness to the Universe. (Actually with my OCD, the phrase has been going on, and on, and on, in my head all day).  I have always been told by a friend of mine to be careful what I put out into the universe as it may come back to me.  This is certainly something that I hope comes back to me as I need some relief from suffering, in addition to some health, happiness and wholeness (Dacher, 2006). Just imagine what it would be like if the entire world, yes, the entire world would stop for ten minutes and repeat this exercise.  I imagine something akin to a miracle would happen in the world.  I surly know we could all use one of those about now.

The act of the Integral Assessment (Dacher, 2006) was not as easy to perform as it caused me to take a long hard look at myself and I do not like to do that.  I am not yet happy enough with myself to examine myself for too long of a period without distress.  One of the passages from the book really hit a nerve with me today as far as the truth of it.  The text stated. “A parent without an inner life grows a child without an inner life. A parent without an inner connection grows a child without an inner connection.” (Dacher, 2006).  Nothing truer was ever stated.  My parents did not give me the tools to be a complete person who could examine and appreciate my inner self because they did not know how.  Learning to appreciate and inner life and inner connection is hard at my age.  It's like learning how to walk all over again.  It is hard.  I wonder if I have time to learn before I pass on into the cosmos.

From examining myself using the principals of the Integral Assessment (Dacher, 2006)  I have determined although I have always thought myself a spiritual person, I am apparently weakest in the area of pyschospiritual flourishing, especially in the subcategory of Conative and Emotional.  I find myself even now, still driven by the basic instincts of fear as a the dominant driving factor in my life.  Rather than being intentional and doing things because I choose to do them, I find myself being driven by the fear of failure as a motivator in most of my daily decisions. I need to practice Contemplative practices and allowing calmness to guide me rather than fear.  I find that the use of the Subtle Mind exercise (Dacher, 2006) to be the easiest for me to perform many times a day.  I will continue to use this exercise to move forward in my attempt to Flourishing to the Finish.

So, my dear classmates, I will keep putting positive energy out into the universe for all of you and for me.  I would, selfishly ask that you do the same.

Safe and blessed week to all,

Rufus J.

Reference

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

Subtle Mind or Loving Kindness, Let me think?????

Hello Everyone,

When comparing the Subtle Mind to the Loving Kindness exercise, I found the Subtle Mind to be far easier to sit through and visualize.  Being asked or expected to take on the trouble and care of the world and convert it to loving kindness was far more difficult for me last week that the exercise this week.  I found it much easier to work on my breathing and witnessing the things that pop into my head, and then letting them go.  While I admit, my first try, I was almost constantly being bothered with stray thoughts; I found a way to integrate my breathing into witnessing the thoughts and then letting them go. 

My focus was on my out-breaths.  During the exercise I visualized my pursed lips and the exhale of air as a gust of wind.  When a bubble of thought would invade my conscious, I would acknowledge it on the in-breath and then use the force of my out-breath to blow the bubble away.  Though there were almost constant distractions, I can see myself practicing this one every day because it left me with a feeling of control over my thoughts and emotions, unlike the Loving Kindness which has been a struggle because I am just now learning to love me and not owning the world.

Dacher states that loving kindness can instill calmness in our lives as well as those around us (Dacher, 2006).  The spiritual wellness that can be gained from loving kindness can be a profound way to reduce stress in our lives and lower stress has been linked to better heart health (Dacher, 2006). Unfortunately, I am more or a case of do like I say and not do like I do.  While I know all of the positive aspects of Spiritual Wellness, I am still plagued with issues that eat at my spirit, my mind and the lining of my stomach.   The stress in my life is literally eating away at me.  I am a work in progress.  I can honestly say it is not as bad as it was 5 weeks ago.  I am learning some excellent tool in this class.

Thanks Everyone!  Send me some Loving Kindness.  I can really use it :-)

Rufus J.

Reference

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

Loving Kindness - Not as Easy as it Sounds

Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s blog on Loving Kindness.

This week’s experience was much different from the exercises in the past.  Rather than focusing on me and my mind, body and spirit, I was asked to take in the pain and suffering of those around me and transform it into loving kindness and give the loving kindness back.  I found this exercise difficult because I am experiencing issues with myself lately.  I have explained the problem to my counselor of being overwhelmed because I feel like I own the world and all of her problems.  This is a terrible burden for anyone to carry around.  My Counselor has asked me to relax my arms and see that the world will exist without me there to hold her up.  Now, I know you all think I must be crazy but I would ask that you all express loving kindness to me as I surely need it J.  I am sure if I were no experiencing my own issues with just giving myself loving kindness, I would appreciate this exercise more and could recommend it to others.  But right now, I cannot

The concept of a mental workout is interesting to me.  It is said that exercising your brain with mental challenges and tasks will build new neurons and neural pathways in your brain (Diranian, 2011). Keeping the brain healthy and building new neural pathways is thought to delay the aging of the brain and “reduce the risk of cognitive decline, age-related memory loss or loss of motor skills” (Diranian, 2011).  To foster my psychological health, I have built my own Personalized Training Program at lumosity.com.  I would encourage anyone who wants to boost their memory or cognition to try it.

Thanks everyone!

Rufus J.

Reference

Diranian, S. (2011). Mental Exercises. Livestrong.com. Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/464192-mental-exercises