Unit 6 Blog: Dawn Norris
The Universal loving kindness exercise teaches us that: Our
consciousness and reach expand. Our capacity for empathic listening, seeing and
caring for the other. Openheartedness, sensitivity, generosity, and emotional
intimacy can spread to all our relationships. To see another, acknowledge,
hear, be present with another; a lover, partner, friend, stranger, and even an
enemy is a profound healing gift for oneself and the world. It allows us to
extend the capacities to all humankind. This is the final leap into our
personal development. This powerful exercise expands our mind and heart beyond
personal love, serving as an antidote to anger and hatred. The practice: 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 assist all
individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness.
The Integral Assessment: Maybe I will focus on the four
quadrants and then identify the specific lines of development I would like to
address. This could include personal relationships, emotional development,
fitness, work, or another concern. Then I visualize the next level of
development. My next approach is to identify any urgent areas of distress. This
is important to be attentive having concern for all the related quadrants,
lines, and levels. You have to consider all aspects and be accurate and precise
before undertaking integral health.
Describe the exercise and the assessment process:
Close your eyes, rest
into the ease and stillness of your mind and body, releasing all mental
activity. When quiet, ask yourself, “What aspect of my life psychospiritual,
biological, interpersonal, or worldly, is the source of difficulty and
suffering?” (Psychospiritual) Focus on this one area. This is the first aspect of assessment. You may explore this over several days or weeks.
What line of development is most essential for me at this
time? Conative, education.
What is my current level of development and what can I aim
for? Cognitive: reactive, conditioned, and self protective. I can aim for
reasoning cognition that seeks a larger truth, meaning, purpose and fulfillment
to the most subtle level of cognition an understanding of the ultimate reality
of the world. My knowledge is predominantly acquired through logic and reason.
I feel the difference between knowledge and essential truth is information is
not always 100% I feel essential truth goes above 100%. Emotionally, I am
dominated by uncontrollable desires, anger, fear, and other reactive emotions.
I do not feel I have evolved to a level of stable and expansive happiness. In
order to do that I need to move from where I am living into my own home. Be
married to the man I have been with for 9 years. See my mother not have to work
so hard at the ripe age of 62 and be able to retire at 65 comfortably! Know
that my sister and her family will be financially secure someday. Get my nephew
to leave the house and become a productive human being in society so as to help
my sister with her burdens! Peace in the world, no more killing! We all have
issues but do we have to take another persons precious life so that we may feel
justified I think not!
What did you discover about yourself? My psychospiritual
flourishing needs work.
What area have you chosen to be a focus point of growth and
development? With conative the second arise from vision and values. I have
tunnel vision so I need to expand my horizons and have more of an open mind. It
is driven by culture, education, and religion. Culture in my family we did not
emphasize on I never even knew my background until I got into high school and
asked what is my heritage: Irish, Welsh, Scotch Irish. Because I never knew my
father’s father I am part of his heritage as well! Education, I have never been
very smart. I have to work extra hard to learn things and to remember them I
have to come up with different strategies. When I read the text I underline,
put things I feel are important in parentheses or quotations to refer back to
them. My attention span is not very good, it is like that of a teenager and I
am 42, so you could imagine the struggles and challenges I go through daily. I
have to force myself many times to get through the reading, there always seems
to be so much of it! I am just barely getting all my work done every unit!
After the holidays I plan to really regain my focus and buckle down to what is
most important earning my degree to have a better life! Religion has never been
a problem. I grew up in a family where my dad’s side believed in going to
church every Sunday religiously! We all go to grandma’s after for entertainment
and then supper! Those were the days I cherished and miss quite dearly. “With
full development, we are motivated by wisdom, wholeness, oneness, and the corresponding
qualities of universal loving kindness and compassion” (Dacher, 2006). In
cognitive development my weakest area is reactive, I over react to things situations
and become too emotionally involved. I need thicker skin! Conditioned meaning
our behavior, I have a lot of anger issues and I do not handle stress well.
This term had been hard for me I feel overwhelmed by the amount of work, I am
still trying to get a system down but I need better time management. Self protective patterns, I am a paranoid
person many times I feel that no one wants to see me happy and that misery
loves company! I try to get along with everyone but feel I may go over board when
it comes to making others happy! I just want to be accepted for who I am and
not judged by others! “The Self-Protective System
involves the emotional and instinctual brains. It seeks to protect the self
from real or perceived threats to survival and is fuelled by fear and other
associated emotions. These systems operate outside our
conscious awareness. The self-protective patterns that we develop in childhood,
which ensure our survival but inhibit our growth and development, continue to
be used, relied upon and replicated into adulthood, causing us to keep bringing
the past into the present despite our efforts to change and grow” (Striving
styles, 2011).
What are some specific exercises or activities that you can
implement to foster greater wellness in this area? I know this is not good for
you but once a week I go tanning it is the only time I actually feel like I
have control of my mind, body and spirit for 20 minutes I lay in a coffin like
bed and just breathe. I let go of my cares. I also find a bubble bath to be
soothing light some candles and just let Calgon do the rest. I am although going
to listen to the cd from this class and try to focus on the exercises as well.
I am working on better techniques for relaxing; I find music to be my main
source! I know in my mind that if I do not work on calming down my mania, it
could lead to a heart attack! I get so worked up over things I cannot change
and I realize this is one of my sources for destruction it must be eliminated!
Reference:
Dacher, E. (2006).
Integral Health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health
Publications, Inc.
Striving styles. (2011). Self-actualizing vs. Self- protection.
Retrieved December 20, 2011, from http://strivingstyles.com/ssps/self-actualizing-vs-self-protection
Merry Christmas to all and God Bless, may your higher power bless you!
