Unit 10 Post

I can’t believe we are here already!  I will miss all of you and this class!  Going back and reviewing my post from Unit 3 as well as my initial integral assessment was eye opening.  I’m glad I had the opportunity to go back and see where I was and compare that to where I am now.  I would say that although I initially scored myself as an 8 for physical health, after breaking down the physical aspect into different categories in the integral assessment, I should probably score myself as a 7.  I am strong in the nutrition area, but I need to incorporate more exercise into my life.

Another reason I am glad for this opportunity to go back and see where I was and compare it to where I am today is I would score myself higher in my spiritual health than I did in Unit 3.  I grew spiritually during this course! That is pretty exciting!!  I feel more at peace and have been praying more.

I have been able to implement the activities, and have been experiencing success.  I was incorporating more exercise in my life, as well as more focused subtle-mind practices and prayer in my life on a daily basis.  Since I went back and reviewed my assessments and goals, I can clearly see that Thanksgiving weekend was a major distraction, and I have not worked on them this past week. This is another valuable insight I gained from this exercise.  Realizing holidays and vacations cause us to get distracted and off track is half of the battle.  Once we realize this we can plan ahead to get back on track once the holiday or vacation is over.

I loved this class.  I gained a deeper insight into how important it is for me as a practitioner to be pursuing my own integral health.  I not only learned concepts about integral health, but learned specific concrete practices to help me achieve it personally.  Learning how to perform an integral assessment was valuable.  This exercise was also beneficial to show how important it is to assess our progress. 

I do feel my well-being has improved.  I feel my ability to concentrate has improved.  Learning how important it is for me as a practitioner to take care of myself and my own health was rewarding.  Participating in the discussion boards and blogs was also rewarding.  I learned a lot from everyone. The subtle-mind practice is both rewarding and a challenge at times. Being empowered through the understanding of the mind/body/spirit connection will enable me to be a better and more holistic practitioner.

Be Well Everyone!
Kathy

My Personal Plan to Create Integral Health

Introduction

            Whenever we apply for a job one of the main things a perspective employer will want to know is what experience we have in that field.  The best way to build client-practitioner confidence is to be an example of integral health.  By walking the path towards wholeness, happiness, and health we demonstrate that the attainment of these goals is possible.  Our inner wisdom will become apparent and the healing presence that we emanate will show we have experience in this field.

            As Dacher stated, “The healer is the key to the evolution and fulfillment of the integral process.” (Dacher, 2006).  Integral health is holistic, encompassing the four aspects of human experience, and so the path that we walk towards our own integral health must address each of these aspects as well. 

            In order to grow and develop as a practitioner I need to continue to grow in each of these areas as an individual.  By humbly realizing my own need for growth, I recognize that health and healing is complex.  Each of the aspects of my life, the physical, the psycho-social, and the spiritual are interconnected.  Growth in one area will most surely affect growth in another.  As soon as I reach a goal in one area, the need for growth in another is sure to become apparent.  (Dacher, 2006).  Keeping this attitude will enable me to continue to grow on into the future, which in turn provides me with further experience and strengthens me as a practitioner.

Assessment

            I assessed my health in each aspect of my experience by utilizing the Integral Assessment as outlined by Dacher in his book Integral Health.  In the Integral Assessment the aspects of human experience are broken into four quadrants, psycho-spiritual, worldly, biological, and inter-personal.  Each quadrant is broken into areas referred to as lines of development. (Dacher, 2006).  I like using this method because it provides some direction to help guide me in making a more objective assessment.

            In the psycho-spiritual quadrant I score myself at a seven. I believe I have grown in this area quite a bit in the past, but could use some continued growth.

            In the biological quadrant I score myself at a seven again. I have attained phenomenal health through nutritional therapy, but need to increase my level of physical exercise. 

            I am happy with my development in the interpersonal and worldly quadrants.  I will score myself an eight in those areas currently.

Goal Development

            My goal for my continued growth in the physical/biological area is to increase my level of exercise.  Increasing my level of exercise will have a positive effect on my physical as well as on my mental well-being.

            For my spiritual well-being my goal is to continue to seek God. I know this is a vague goal, but I do not want to put any specific outcome as a goal.  I believe that for now my job is to continue to seek and trust Him for the outcome.

            For psycho-social well-being I need to continue to work on forgiving someone from my past. The goal for this would seem to be attained when forgiveness is attained.  The problem is I already thought forgiveness was attained, but I recently had a thought towards this person that made me realize, I have some more work to do in this area. The goal will be to attain the ability to consistently visualize this individual in light and peace. Eventually a more lasting sense of forgiveness will be attained.

            In the area of my relationship to the world my goal is to learn as much about nutrition, wholeness and healing as I can so I will be equipped to serve as a nutritionist.

Practices for Personal Health

            In order to achieve my goal of increasing my level of exercise, I need to plan a time each day to exercise, as well as have a plan for what type of exercise to do.  I will first plan on walking outside even though it is getting colder out. I have already planned the outer-gear I will wear to help ensure that I follow through with this plan.  It’s even ready by the door! I have been working on this goal, and the exercise combined with the fresh air and nature is good for my mental and emotional well-being as well.  If the weather does not permit getting outside, then I have designated an area indoors for exercise as well.  The time I plan to accomplish this goal is in the morning.

            My spiritual goal of continuing to seek God is strengthened by the subtle-mind exercise and prayer.  Training my mind to focus and not become easily distracted improves my concentration in prayer.  I plan on using the subtle-mind exercise to help center my mind, as well as a means to opening my mind to the expansiveness of God.  The second exercise is to use prayer as a way to focus on God and His attributes, and as a means of communication.  I believe planning on beginning my day with these practices will help me to implement them.

            To attain the psycho-social goal of forgiveness, I plan on using the Loving-Kindness exercise to visualize healing for the person I need to forgive.  I also find the exercise of visualizing this person in a peaceful place surrounded with light allows me to leave them in that place and gives me freedom from any negative emotions.  Both of these can be implemented by setting aside the time each day for contemplative practices.

            I work on my goal of learning, so I can serve through nutrition counseling, every day since I’m currently in school.  In the future, I believe I can continue to meet this goal by continuing to read and educate myself.  Continuing on my own path of integral health is another way to continue learning about wholeness and healing, and to develop as a practitioner.  Keeping a humble, teachable spirit sets the tone for learning, and makes it easier to implement these strategies.

Commitment

            The best tool for me to assess my progress or lack of progress is to write these goals down.  If I want to be able to refer to them easily, then I need to write them down in a special place. I have decided to buy a special journal for this purpose. Having the journal and writing down these goals in a location where I know I will check on them gives me the feeling of greater intention towards achieving them. I believe that in order to maintain these practices long-term, it will be important to repeat the Integral Assessment. (Dacher, 2006). The strategy that will help ensure I do this is to write down the basics of the Integral Assessment in my goal journal.

Dacher, E.S. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publicat

My Two Favorite Mental Exercises/Practices

I personally have found the subtle-mind meditation, and the visualization exercises to be the most beneficial for me at this time.  I find that the discipline of quieting my mind and experiencing the expansiveness of my mind to be rewarding and therapeutic for me.  I have found that practicing this meditation and training the mind to observe and not grasp on to distracting thoughts affects other areas of my life.  For example, this exercise improves my concentration for prayer and also for reading.

I find the visualization exercises to be extremely uplifting.  I am surprised how remembering and visualizing a past experience has the power to allow the feelings associated with that memory to be experienced again.  Quieting my mind and practicing a visualization that brings me joy, happiness, and expansiveness is powerful.  It is nice to be reminded of these experiences, especially when life is not bringing happiness and joy.  Taking a moment to remember those moments can be quite a lift and remind us that those moments can and will happen to us again.

I plan on practicing the subtle-mind meditation in the morning, as well as whenever I feel it would be beneficial to help me quiet my mind.  The visualization practices could also be done daily, but I believe they would be helpful if used as a mental “vacation” as needed during the day.

Kathy

The Blind Leading the Blind

In the text Consciousness & Healing, Lawrence George states, "one cannot lead another where one has not gone him or herself".  I think that is an acurate statement.  The analogy the author uses is the difference between having a map of Hawaii versus actually being there.  Someone who has actually been there will know alot more about it than what he or she can learn from a map. (Schlitz, 2005).

In the context of a nutrition profession, I believe this is also very true.  Having walked the path of making nutritional changes gives me a deeper knpowledge of what it is really like to do so. Knowing what it is really like to eat healthfully day to day, during baseball season, traveling, and even what it is like to find whole foods in the food store, enables me to effectively answer the many questions and concerns that inevitably come up.

Does this mean I have an obligation to my clients to be developing my health?  I guess I do. They will be coming to me looking for help, guidance, and direction. I believe developing my own health psychologically, physically, and spiritually is vital to my ability to help others. The first thing I am going to do to improve my health physically, psychologically,and spiritually is graduate from school.  hahaha ... Seriously though, I believe the subtle mind practice is the most effective practice for me right now.  The second area I need to continue developing in is in continueing my exercise program, and instituting mind/body/spirit approaches as part of my exercise routine.

Kathy

Schlitz, Marilyn and Tina Amorok with Micozzi, Marc (2005)  Consciousness & Healing. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Inc.

Meeting Aesclepius

I did not really like the Meeting Aesclepius exercise.  After all we read in our text, Integral Health, about calming our mind, finding our subtle mind and experiencing our inner wisdom, the idea of visualizing another person as our healer did not make sense to me.

 When doing the exercise, I initially thought of someone I know who exemplifies healing.  As the narrator went on to describe this person we are supposed to be visualizing, I couldn’t help but to think there is no perfect person I would want in this role for me. It seemed to be a better description of God than of another person.  To imagine God as a person was a dilemma for me… then it clicked. I realized Jesus fit the description perfectly, an actual person who walked the earth and who exemplified peace, love, wisdom, and compassion. Even those who do not believe he was God in the flesh, would agree that as a person, he exemplified each of these traits.

I tried to complete the exercise focusing on Jesus.  I had a difficult time picturing Him though.  It didn’t seem right to me to try to physically picture Him. I struggled through that part of the exercise, and then found the next section interesting.  This was where we were supposed to allow that person’s thoughts become our own.  The narrator said to allow our visualized being to transform our thoughts.  This is actually a Biblical concept.  A component of the Christian faith is to allow ourselves to be transformed in our minds.  The next part was good too, having speech like His … sounds like a great idea to me.  He always knew what to say & when to say it that would get right to the heart of the matter. This section became more like a prayer for me.

The end of this exercise just really did not come together for me.  It seemed to me to be a disappointing end to what we have been learning so far in the book.  We have spent chapters and weeks learning the concept that the wise healer dwells inside of us.  The author uses examples of butter, describing how it is hidden within the cream, explaining how our inner wisdom is within us waiting to be experienced through the exercise of quieting the mind and finding our subtle mind. Spending so much time and effort visualizing a being outside of ourselves, and wanting our thoughts, our speech,  and even our heart to be like this other person… did not make sense to me. The Meeting Aesclepius exercise did not seem to follow the logical sequence of the text.

 I personally believe there is a healing force within each of us.  Our bodies inherently want to be whole and healthy.  Quieting ourselves and healing our mind to allow our own healing wisdom to be experienced is powerful enough.  I believe it would be far more empowering and effective to have people focus on that, rather than on creating a being outside of themself whose thoughts and speech they want to copy.  That is not empowering at all.  The healing power is already within us.  The subtle mind exercise seems much more worth the time and effort.  Since, as we subdue our busy mind, the subtle mind will be available to us with our own inner wisdom to guide us in integral health. 

The Integral Assessment

The Integral Assessment is a tool to aid in detecting areas of our life that need attention.  It is a good way to determine the areas where we need to grow. There are four main aspects, or quadrants, of our life. These are psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, and worldly.  Within each of these quadrants there are three specific lines of developement. Within each line of development, there are three levels of growth to attain.  Generally, the first level  is self-focused, the second is other focused, and the third is focused on the greater good in a global sense. (Dacher, 2006). 

I will begin my assessment in the psychospiritual quadrant. The three lines of development are; conative (the source of our motives), cognitive, and emotional. As I assessed myself in each of these areas, I realized my development is similar within each line.  I tend to move between the second and third level in each line.  I have invested time and energy doing psychospiritual work, and am not surprised to find myself evenly developed in that area.

In the biological quadrant the three lines are; fitness, nutrition, and self-regualtion.  Nutrition is my passion, and I am solidly in the second level, and often in the third level.  I do make food decisions based on their environmental impact, but not always. On the self-regulation line, I am glad to have attained a degree of homeostasis in my life, and have practiced my own mind/body practices, but after this class, and learning some specific techniques, I will continue to develop more in that area.  The fitness line is where I think my next focus should be.  I have had a hard time getting back into an exercise routine.  So, I am in between  the first and second level.  I believe the thing that is holding me back is that I need more meaning in my exercise routine.  I plan on using mindfulness techniques to improve my exercise by focusing mentally on the exercise being performed.  Combining exercise with enjoying nature, impoves my mental well-being as well as provides physical benefits.

In the interpersonal quadrant, I am happy with my development on the family and personal relationship lines.  I am not very advanced on the community line, I am involved within my church community, so I gather that is the second level.  I am more developed on the family and personal lines because I have devoted time and effort developing those relationships.  I believe the phase of my life I have been in, has been the time I was meant to be focused on my family.  I feel that as I grow and develop as a person, and my kids get older I will naturally evolve into being more community focused, so I do not feel it is necessary to devote effort in that area right now.

I believe the same is true for my involvement in the worldly quadrant.  Currently, in my work as a mom, I am somewhere between the second and third levels.  Maybe back and forth between them.  As far as social activism ... I recycle... hahaha, that's the first level though! I do venture out to the third levvel of global concern when I support efforts others are making globally.  The same is true of generativity (tranmission of knowledge and skills), I am mostly in the first level there as well.  Once in a while I get slightly involved in supporting a social policy.  I know that as I grow as a person, and my children are older and do not take as much of my time and energy, I will naturally begin to develop in my work as a nutritionist, and in my social activism and generativity.  I feel confidant this will occur in its proper time, and so I do not feel a need to focus energy on developing in these areas right now.

After performing this assessment, I can see the two areas where I need to put in some intentional work are both in the biologiccal quadrant.  Interesting! I wouldn't have guessed that initially.  The two lines of development I will focus on are self-regualtion and fitness.  For self-regulation, I plan to continue practicing the suble-mind practice.  The changes I plan on making along the fitness line are mentioned above.

 I am glad to have had this chance to perform the integral assessment.  I now have a better understanding of each line of development within each quadrant, and will be able to recomend the assessment in the future.

Kathy 

Subtle Mind Exercise

I found the subtle mind exercise to be more challenging than the loving-kindness exercise.  Primarily, I thought the loving-kindness exercise was easier because the entire exercise was guided.  I was surprised how much my mind wondered with the subtle mind practice.  The way Dacher decribes it as "grasping" onto thoughts was a perfect description.  I found that initially it was easier to catch a thought and let it dissolve, but the longer that exercise went on, the more difficult it was to catch the thought right away.  I would catch myself down the road from the initial thought onto my third or fourth thought, which would quite often even be on a different topic than the initial thought my mind had "grasped" onto. 

Although it was more challenging to me as the exercise progressed, I did have some success with the exercise as well.  I was able to experience my open, expansive mind while observing my thoughts and having them dissolve away.  I have to admit it was pretty awesome.  Another thing I liked about the subtle mind practice is that once you know how to do it, it can be done without the tape.  Which means it can be done anywhere, and anytime.  I have found that aspect to be helpful, and it increases the likelihood of me continuing it.

Just as the mind and body are interconnected, our spirit dwells within us and is interconnected as well.  Our ability to access it is determined by our ability to move from our witnessing mind, to our subtle mind of calm-abiding, and eventually to unity consciousness. The ability to access our spirit occurs as we grow psychologically and mentally. Conversely, desiring to grow spiritually creates within us the to desire to grow psychologically.  In this way the two work hand in hand.  At times it is the desire for psychospiritual growth that drives us, and at others it is the desire for spiritual growth that drives us.  Either way the outcome is that as we grow psychologically we ultimately grow spiritually.  The physical body benefits from this growth because our thoughts and emotions drive our physiology.  When we are healthy mentally and spiritually, we are going to be healthy physically as well.

In my personal life, I find that any positive experience or growth psychospiritually or spiritually increases my feelings of well-being.

Kathy