Week 9

Christan Templeton

HW420

Week 9

Final Project

I.               Introduction:

Health and wellness practitioners need to know how to develop the mental and spiritual health of others. To do that, we must first master this ourselves. Meditation and visualization improves so many aspects of life. It reduces stress by getting rid of those negatively charged emotions and releasing tension from the body. This leads to better sleep because the body can relax and let go. Visualization gives you something to look forward to and it helps you see the bright side of life. Positive thinking attracts positive actions.

II. Assessment:

My ratings were much higher a year ago when I was such a positive person about everything in life. But, once I read the book "The Disappearance of the Universe", I became depressed.. not caring about much in life. I think the book is supposed to have the opposite effect but for me, I took it very hard knowing that all we need to do in life is wake up because none of this is real.

 Physical wellbeing: Normally a 7 or 8 but since I'm pregnant, I don't feel as good as normal. So, currently it's a 5 or 6.

Spiritual well being at the moment is not good. Maybe 3.

Psychological well being: 4

            However, since doing the practices and meditations in this class, I have really improved my outlook on life. I feel much happier, relaxed, and more positive overall. I have even seen a huge change in my relationship with my spouse (in a good way!).

III. Goal Development:

At the beginning of this class, my goal development was to plan on raising my levels 2-3 points. I think this has been achieved in this short 9 weeks. However, I plan on developing these aspects and expanding on them much more as I live everyday.

IV. Practices for personal health:

            Dacher refers to training the mind as a way to increase your level of awareness. This means being more open to love and understanding our true power as human beings. As humans, we are not the peak of existence but rather, we are in transition to another path. By training our minds to focus on faith and forgiveness, we allow a much smoother and rapidly moving transition to this new existence. Physical results of training the mind include increased immunity to disease and depression. Overall, we train ourselves to have a richer understanding of our purpose and our value of other human beings/animal/plant life.

            There are a few steps that I have found helpful in breaking down how to achieve mental and spiritual health:

The first step in preparation is Loving Kindness. Loving kindness means loving ourselves and others without limitations. The text states that a thinking mind is the enemy to loving kindness. We may over think how we "give" and realize that it costs us time, money, or effort. This is not something that we should worry about but it often stops us from practicing loving kindness.

The second step is Skillful Action. Skillful action means not reacting in a way of anger or another type of outburst, but reacting with a controlled peacefulness that allows us to see the situation and assess it.

The third step is Silence and Stillness. This means simplifying your life to less friendships, more meaningful friendships, less noise, less technology, etc. This is about finding an inner peace. It's about finding what true happiness is and not the fleeting moment of a laugh we get from a comment on Facebook.

Some activities that can foster awareness and health for body, mind, and health would involve increasing my focus while I am already physically exercising. Visualize while I workout and concentrate on my breathing. This will bring the mind/body connection together. The book states that since physical exercise is already repetitive, then I have room for concentrating on these specific things. The author says to allow my awareness to notice everything but don’t attach them to anything (Dacher 2006).

V. Commitment:

                        Meditation can decrease my stress and anxiety. It also increases my well being, ability to learn, and adaptability to change. My favorite meditations are guided meditations. I don’t see any weaknesses to meditation but an endless amount of benefits. Generally, guided meditations suggest that we sit upright on the floor or in a chair but I like to lay down so I can truly relax and let my whole body go limp. A study in the January issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, found that meditation increased gray area of the brain in things like memory, stress management, and empathy (Bahnoo 2011). Meditation and visualization improves so many aspects of life. It reduces stress by getting rid of those negatively charged emotions and releasing tension from the body. This leads to better sleep because the body can relax and let go. Visualization gives you something to look forward to and it helps you see the bright side of life. Positive thinking attracts positive actions.

References:

Dasher, E.S., (2006). Integral Health: The path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA. Basic Health Publications, Inc

Bahnoo, S. (2011).  “How meditation may change the brain”. NY Times from: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/how-meditation-may-change-the-brain/