Burning all sorts of new neural connections with this class.

Unit 3

It would have been nice if there were some surveys we could fill out to rate ourselves in these categories.  I feel this would give us all a better reference point.  Anyway this is where I rate myself.  I rate myself an 8 on physical well-being.  I am 39 years old but I am the same size as I was in eleventh grade.  I work out at least three times a week and eat a healthy diet.  I would rate myself higher if I was more flexible.  I tend to take classes that are high impact like kick boxing or circuit training and these do not do much for your flexibility.  I would rate myself a 7 on my spiritual well-being.  I attend church but do not feel that I pray enough.  I just recently started to make daily prayer a priority.  My psychological well-being would also be rated a 7.  I feel like I am a well-adjusted and well grounded.  I am kind and loving to my family and friends (except for that one week of the month when I tend to lose patience).  I need to work on incorporating integral health into my life to be able to raise my score in this area.

My goal to increase my physical well-being is to add yoga to my work out routine.  I have a yoga DVD and I need to make it a priority to do it at least 3 times a week.  I would like to add more prayer to my life to increase my spiritual wellness.  My goal is to pray nightly before bed.   To increase my psychological wellness I would like to start incorporating the three steps to preparation to integral health into my life.  Loving-Kindness, skillful action and silence and stillness are the steps that Dacher outlined in the reading.  Adding these to my life will help eliminate some of the negative junk.  “Cultivating what brings us happiness, health and wholeness and abandoning what keeps us stuck in stressful and unproductive life patterns (Dacher, 2007)”.   

I just finished listening to the relaxation exercise The Crime of the Century.  What a weird name for this exercise.  You wonder who comes up with these names.   I had also heard this exercise in another class but it was very relaxing.  I almost fell asleep several times even with the dog scratching the door to get in and the phone ringing.  It was a bit strange to imagine windows in your body.  I found it interesting that during the exercise I felt really sleepy but once he said that you would not feel sleepy then I no longer felt at all tired.  Wow the power of suggestion really works.  Maybe I am just getting the feeling of relaxation confused with sleepiness.

Reference:

Dacher, Elliot. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health.