Universal Loving Kindness Mediation & Personal Assessment

"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."

The practice of this particular meditation was very potent for me.  Although we were assigned only ten minutes to work with this valuable affirmation during our meditation practice, I certainly went over in time. The repetition of the affirmation revealed itself to be second nature to me, as I have been working with Sanskrit mantras for years during my personal meditation practice. During the practice this affirmation transformed itself into an oath. As I sat there crossed legged taking this oath, I felt a lightness reveal itself from inside of me. The lightness was first felt across my forehead and then traveled both vertically and horizontally from my torso into a feeling of expansiveness. The affirmation rang of truth not just in regards to my personal path of healing, but also a universal truth. Once completed, I was left with a feeling of gratitude that stayed with me throughout the day.

Results of the personal assessment while in a contemplative state of mind:

During my contemplative state I focused on my career as a holistic health provider. As I reflected on my current career and its aspiration, I started to notice a connection I never thought possible in which I can integrate my full time job as a manager for New York City’s number one holistic center into my current occupational endeavors. Since making this connecting, it is as if the universe said “she finally gets it” because within two days of coming to this realization, I have met three influential people and have been presented with several opportunity to move in the direction of integrating my job with my  healing practice. Hence, the only exercise or activity I needed to accomplish was the realization that this is actually possible and the rest seems to be falling into place. Once I transformed how I was viewing the situation it began to take on a life of its own, I am certain it is because I got out of my own way.

Practicing the "Subtle Mind" exercise

1. Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.

Similar to the “loving kindness” guided audio clip I was assigned to listen to in last week’s class, the “subtle mind” exercise given in this unit also drifted me off to sleep.  I began the exercise by employing Dacher's instructions in advance by consciously took ten deep breaths in and out before playing the audio. As I played the audio and it guided me through the same breathing pattern I had just practiced, I felt confident that staying aware of my breath would be beneficial to the success of the assignment.  However, when the sounds of the waves kicked in I knew I was in for trouble. As mentioned in my last blog, the sound of the ocean is something I have inadvertently trained my mind to associate with sleep. For fear of falling asleep, I forced myself to stay focused on my breathing. The female voice coming in and out of the audio with contemplative questions such as “what happens when I lose interest in and let go of mental movements?” was quit distracting. Whenever the voice asked a question my mind would become startled and instantly start search for the answers which would break my concentration on the breath. I found the speaking voice to be abrupt and incredibly off-putting. Wanting this activity to be successful, yet realizing it had built a mental struggle in me as I was trying to simultaneously stay awake, follow my breath and ignoring the voice that jutted in and out expectantly, I finally surrender to just doing my best. Unfortunately, my best ended with me waking up after hearing the voice tell me to come back into the room. It is hard to no experience feeling of frustration around this particular exercise as I am not sure if I received it true benefits.

2. Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.

The connection of the mind, body and spirit is a system in which health can either flourish or fail in any three of the categories. Dacher explains this system as being one that “shifts from outer to inner to innermost” (Dacher, 2006). For example, if some spirit is trouble by the death of a loved one, it will cause mental stress which can manifest as erratic sleeping patterns, poor diet, stomach problems, anxiety, and/or depression. Although the loss has seemingly only affected the person’s spirit, the effect of the spiritual system being disturbed can result in a physiological and psychological break down. Treatment of this particular patient would need to be holistic so that all three dimensions of the person are addressed for the success of true health and wellness. 

As most people, when I experience an unbalance in my spirit, mind or body it tends to affect all that I do. When I take the time to mindfully connect with my innermost self, I find the answers to questions I have been struggling with that address both my physical and mental health. For instance, recently when I worked on a high profile event staring Deepak Chopra, I experienced an intense amount of mental anxiety while think of the many “what if” scenarios in an effort to make things work out just perfect. Physically what manifest from these worries were headaches that only subsided after some deep breathing exercises. However, the moment I began contemplating the worse, my headaches would reappear as if they had been looming in the background waiting for me to take the same pattern that brought them on in the first place. These headaches continued until the day of the event. Coincidentally the headaches subsided during Dr. Chopra’s lecture about being in the moment because thoughts of future will either lead to worries or expectations took my headaches away.  Once my headaches stopped, I could not help wonder how I can avoid disturbing my spirit so that it does not affect my mind and body adversely.

Practicing the "Loving Kindness" exercise

Unit 4 Blog Assignment:

1. Describe your experience. (Did you find it beneficial? Difficult?) Why or Why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or Why not?

Several time within the week I listened to the loving kindness guided audio clip assigned to this unit. Utilizing Dacher's meditation instructions, I sat in a "noble upright posture", witnessed my breath for a while and perform the practice the same time everyday. Embarrassingly enough I fell asleep every time I performed this activity. In hindsight, I now have a pretty good idea why I could not stay conscious with this particular heart opening relaxation technique.

Whenever I am having trouble sleeping I listen to an audio recording of beach sounds, I have done so for years. I rarely have insomnia but when I have it is always for the same reason, over active thoughts. In those times I have turned to my relaxation CD to help put my asleep and unlike the assigned audio recording there is no dialog. It seems that I have inadvertently trained my mind to respond to the sound of waves as a time for rest and sleep. Although, I genuinely enjoyed opening my heart to thoughts of those persons I cherish most in my life, the waves themselves have become a trigger to my parasympathetic system to take over and put me to sleep.

     2.  What is the concept of “Mental Workout? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a Mental Work Out? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

Using yoga as an example, if one continues practicing, the body (and mind) become limber. If the individual stops their yoga practice their flexibility fades more and more each day as the body's conditioning depreciates and tightens up. The same takes place within the mind. A mental workout is the concept of training the mind to stay in a neutral and contemplative state in hopes of obtaining clarity of mind. When one systematically workouts mentally, be it using methods of contemplation, relaxation or meditation, ones mind becomes conditioned. According to Dacher, "when we stop practicing, we will see a drop-off in our conditioning, weather physical or mental" (Dacher, 2006). Dacher recommends working out the mind an hour a day to keep it fit. Basically as my mother always says, "practice makes prefect".

Although I don't always have the luxury of sitting for my meditation practice an hour each day I do sit for a minimum of fifteen minutes to a half hour. During my practice, I follow my breath for the first five minutes or so and then move on to mentally recite a spiritual mantra presented to me by a swami many years ago. A mantra is a sound or string of words in any language (mine happens to be in Sanskrit) that is repeated out loud or mentally for the purpose of spiritual transformation. When I first began this mental workout years ago I would say the mantra out loud so that my mind was forced to stay focused. After several years of practice I can just say it to myself mentally because my mind is already conditioned to go into a place of neutrality during my routine.

Reflexion of My Personal Wellness

Unit 3 Blog Assignment: This week my class assignment was answer the personal questions below. Hope you enjoy reading my responses.

Based on your reflections, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being optimal wellbeing), where do you rate your A-physical wellbeing, B-spiritual well-being, C-psychological well-being? Why?

A. Physical Well-being: Ranked 7 - Physically I have arthritis, injuries and physical pain that keep this number at a solid seven. However, physically I am aware that I am graceful, have good posture and a highly cultivated body awareness in regards to my blood pressure, weight, ovulation, elimination, breath, nutrition, potential allergens, rest, acid/alkalinity balance, etc.

B. Spiritual Well-being: Ranked 9 - Spiritually I am intuitive, meditative, contemplative and mindful. I have a consistent spiritual which encompasses mantra, yoga and seva (selfless acts of kindness).

C. Psychological Well-Being: Ranked 8 – If asked five years ago I would have rated myself a ten because I had made so many positive and important changes happen to me in regards to my life's endeavors. However, since then I have visited places within myself through emotional and spiritual techniques that made me look deeper into myself. Energetic medicines like: Reiki, Chakra balancing, silent meditation retreats, re-birthing techniques, journeying, mindfulness and awareness techniques guide me to look at unhealed emotional rubbish that has yet to clear my system of consciousness.

Develop a goal for yourself in each area (physical, spiritual, psychological).

Physical Goal: Research practitioners who can holistically treat arthritis.

Spiritual Goal: Continue to cultivate both inner awareness and environmental awareness.

Psychological Goal: Locate a psycho-spiritual therapist that can help me clear old emotional traumas.

What activities or exercise can you implement in your life to assist in moving toward each goal?

Physical: Using the website as a resource to find a holistic practitioner that has decent reviews.

Spiritual: To enhance my awareness I am going to attempt to stay in a neutral state (without judgment) while witnessing my inner thoughts and tuning into my surround environment.

Psychological: Since most psycho-spiritual therapist are not covered by insurance, the first step I have to do is start saving money. 

Complete the relaxation exercise The Crime of the Century. To hear this exercise, click here. Describe your experience. (What it beneficial? Frustrating? etc.)

Listening to the relaxation exercise made me doze off at first because it was on a day where I had worked a twelve hour shift. However, as the audio recording progressed I slowly came to as it began referring to the colors of the Chakras and its coinciding body centers. I work with the Chakras regularly so my mind awaken itself as it recognized the typical suggestions given when tuning in to those wheels of color and light. Lastly, the tone of the speaker’s voice was wonderful and highly appreciated as I was not only tired but also stressed out on the day I listened to this recording.

Journey On Relaxation Exercise

Our class was assigned to listen to a guided relaxation audio recording. I would rank it as a standard de-stressing tool which utilized Neurolinguistic Programming. My mind and body followed along quite well until I mentally started comparing this audio with a meditative one that I use by Deepak Chopra. Since my mind became distracted with the comparison, I lost focus of what part of the body I was suppose to be relaxing. When I finally caught my mind wondering; I brought it back to focus, to continue progressing with the relaxation exercises just as there was only about 30 seconds left of the audio session. I feel as though because I have listened to so many different types of relaxation techniques, it caused my mind to discern between which kind I prefer instead of staying in the moment.

Introduction

This blog page was started as an college assignment appointed by professor John Aguilar for the class HW420: Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing. This course is a requirement for my BA degree plan in "health & wellness". 

My name is Jazell pronounced Giselle. I am an almost 40 year old, New Yorker, wife to a decorated paramedic, mother and new grandmother with a passion for Ayurveda, yoga and the healing arts. I work in New York City's number one non-for-profit holistic and cultural studies institute, the "New York Open Center". At the center I wear many hats: I am a events manager, a yoga instructor and healer. I have been in the field of healing and wellness for seven years. I am obtaining this degree to further my credentials. It is my intention to earn a PHD in the field of integrative health (and possible as a Naturopathic physician) with a focus on Ayurveda and spirituality. It is my hope that obtaining this degree will lead me to what our professor Aguilar does today and hopefully I will in the near future, teach.

Thank you for taking the time to read all about me. Now share with me a bit about you.