Unit 7 and Random other things

I have had many teachers and I still do. I have a resource online of various individuals from many different areas of thought. I have found this to be very useful. For me, this week’s meditation was very strange compared to what I am used to. The main changes I have noticed is I have been doing types of meditation I am not used to. I have found this to be having a much difference experience on myself and the subjective experience of doing it. Maybe, because the themes we have been doing are much different than I am used to and seem very foreign to me. The best way to describe it is it feels awkward. For instance, when they start to describe light coming from an individual I imagined from what I know to be chakra points and to begin to become like them, because to me even though they are my mentor I do want to be specifically like them. I may want to learn from them and to make my own judgments based off of what I learned from them, but I want to still be myself. So, I felt a bit strange to say the least. I have no problem seeing things from other people’s points of views and attempting to understand others better, but I do not want to become them or be that much like them. I think difference is a good thing, because it lets us find new ways to do many things.

I will continue to meditate and do self-hypnosis. However, I highly doubt I will use this specific meditation. I do think I will use the other meditations again, because I found them to be useful even though they are very simple. Of course one has an obligation to develop their self psychologically, physically, and spiritually. However, I believe this is an obligation even if one does not have clients, because otherwise we become stagnant and stuff where we were or get worse, which is not an idea state of being and I am pretty sure many would agree with that statement. One can always even take small steps in implementing things in their life to foster psychological and spiritual growth. For instance, something as simple as meditating to understand better helps us develop ourselves and our actions to fit in with what we really want to achieve and to develop a balance and growth from these actions. For instance, nine years ago I was worse off than I am today. I just got out of the military and I was mentally scarred. However, utilizing meditation and self-hypnosis I was able to achieve what many doctors said would be impossible. I had a severe case of PTSD and was diagnosed with several other issues. I can tell you from my own personal experience that when I think back to those times it seems more like a bad dream than something that really existed. So, yeah I really do believe in meditation and self-hypnosis, because it helped me get past things that I was told I would probably live with for the rest of my life. 

Modified Self-Hypnosis Exercises

Swish Pattern Modified (using ehe principles, ideas and is direction based)

Step 1. Choose target behavior you want to change.

Step 2. Write a minimum of four different ways you could respond, which could be useful in those situations. 

Step 3. Mentally go through those different ways you could respond making sure they are as useful as you thought.

Step 4. Create a mental image or movie of behavior you want to change, start at the beginning, but instead of going through it put the number of different responses you picked as small boxes in the middle of it.

Step 5. Put the different ways you could respond one at a time in the boxes.

Step 6. As you make the boxes bigger until they completely consume the old behavior, imagine a swish sound and then say to yourself the time is now.

Step 7. Future pace by going though future situations where the old behavior would have occurred and make sure the choices occur instead of old behavior. The go completely through it if it has generalized.

Step 8. If it has generalized, then go through 5 more similar examples of where this behavior would have occurred in the future. If not, then repeat the exercise, but a little faster.

Step 9. Adjust as needed.

I hope you all find this modified swish pattern useful. I have found it to be much more useful than the original swish pattern.

Modified Visual-Kinesthic disassociation (Also known as the fast phobia cure) with redirection and propulsion system

Note: This is useful for situations where someone has a highly charged memory, which henders them from making changes using normal methods. There are many other ways one can do the same work. However, I have found this technique to be very useful, because it works quickly and also deals with the issue.

Imagine a cellphone, on that cellphone I want you to imagine (Insert emmotionally charged memory here), but stop it before it plays.

Hold it right there and we will come back to it after we do a couple of things.

Imagine how you would like to respond in a situation, like that instead of the way you were. (i.e what else could you do that would be useful)

Note: Sometimes they might need a bit of help with comming up with this part. This comes to the next part which will occur in both circumstance. However, if they need help comming up with something. Then after this next part have them think about it again.

Imagine a time when you are creative, if that feeling were a color, then what would it be. (write this down or remember it).

Imagine a time when you are learning something and having fun, if this were a color, then what would it be. (write this down or remember it).

Now, lets go back to the cellphone, but first before you play the memory, I want you to play it three times faster than it would normally happen and repeat three times. (This does a few things and I wonder if you can figure out all of those things it does).

Now, I want you to go to the begining of that memory you are imagining on a cell phon(e. Before you play it this time I want you to add (The first color) and repeat three times. (Then repeat this again for the second color).

Now, make the memory its normal size and tell me what changes do you notice so far.

Note: They should already be repsonding differently and doing something differently in said memory. However, sometimes it takes adding a bit more other things in with it to break the triggers that are associated with said memory. I have found that usually three feelings repeated three to four times and sometimes repeating that process has been the norm for this exercise. Generally speaking, this exercise does not take long and and help make it a lot easier to help them make some changes faster than some techniques, which will use up a whole session. After you have achieved this result continue on.

Now, think of five different times when you would have had that issue and tell me how are they different and make sure to do them in their full size. (Ecology check and generalizing many of the changes made so far).

(During this part many times no additional work is needed. However, I suggest generalzing the changes even more. If more changes are needed, then make adjustments. You could use things like the swish pattern, repeat the overlapping technique to help make even more changes to this situation and so on.)

Now, think about five times in the future when this issues might have occured before we made these changes and notice how they have changed.

(Do induction or just have them close their eyes or concentrate. If you did everything above as written their state of mind will already be altered quite a bit. I will usually do an induction, but mostly as a form of fractionation or what not).

Go ahead and close your eyes or key them open. It is time to make it so these changes go everywhere they need to go. Your unconscious has already made many changes. Now, I want you to go over everything we did and repeat it very quickly. Then run though more scenarios of when this new response would be useful. I am going to continue to talk and you can continue as I talk. It is alright, if you begin to drift off you're unconscious can still hears me and can respond accordingly. Keep going over everything we did, new scenarios, making slight adjustments when necessary. Then latter on when you sleep and dream I want you to reapeat this all again exactly as we are doing right now.

Unit 6 universal Loving Kindness and the Integral Assessment

1. Practice the universal Loving Kindness (meditation) exercise on p. 93.
2. Complete the Integral Assessment discussed in chapter 11 (p.115).
3. Describe the exercise and assessment process. What did you discover about yourself? What area have you chosen to be a focus of growth and development? Why? What are some specific exercises or activities that you can implement to foster greater wellness in this area?

The loving kindness exercise consists of closing one’s eyes for a minute or two and resting into one’s mind naturally. Once you have achieved that, then repeat the following mantra for ten minutes. “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” (Dacher, 2006, p. 93). I found this a little more interesting the second time around. The assessment was a little strange to me, because I normally do not talk the way the author does. So, it seemed a bit foreign to me. Even though I was saying the things to myself in my own voice, but it still seemed odd.

Basically the assessment is another form of reflective meditation. I do something similar with self-hypnosis, but I normally have some more specific goals in place. I found the assessment to be a bit unnatural to me and I do not mean, because I normally do not do it, but rather the wording is strange. For instance, the author states “What aspect of my life psycho-spiritual, biological, interpersonal, or worldly is the source of difficulty and suffering?” (Dacher, 2006, p. 115). This is a very general statement. One can make inferences, but is that what was meant or was the generality of the statement on purpose, so we make some decision on what it should mean to us. He then goes on to state “Focus on this one area” (Dacher, 2006, p. 115). That one area can be very big; because the statement is not specific it does not refer to whose difficulty or suffering and from whose perspective. I bring this up, because suffering and difficulty requires one to perceive it as such and so on. However, that same thing may not be difficult or a form of suffering from a different point of view.

I am not sure, if I am just over thinking this, but this seems like something that would be important when making some decision, like this. Then he goes on to have us make a comparative decision, which means we are placing importance on something due to some perception, which means we are generalizing some idea and then applying those generalization even further by making it explicit without considering every possibility. The rest of the assessment makes complete sense, but the first part takes a considerable amount of thought, because it is so general and can many possibilities.

I already know that one of the things I really need to work on is spending more time connecting with others. I spend so much time inside my head that I am sure I have at-least achieved a high level of self-mastery.  I have always had more issues understanding others, because I think very differently than many do. I need to work on just general conversation. I am very good at talking or listening, but general or “normal” or “ordinary” conversations I am not so good at. I usually end up blurting out facts about whatever it is we are talking about or something similar to it. If it is about sports, then I really have issues, because I am more of a person who plays some sports and watches none of them. In fact, I would rather read or study something than do most “ordinary” things. I have no trouble talking or so on, but rather I prefer facts and understanding than what I think of as pointless conversation.  I think randomly engaging in these types of conversations may help me understand people in general better than I do and could possibly help with rapport in general.

References

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications.

Unit 5 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.

I found this one to be a little better than all the previous ones. However, I still prefer to do meditation solely myself or with just background sounds. This may be, because I have become used to doing meditation that way. However, I will sometimes listen to some self-hypnosis things I have recorded, which is somewhat similar to the audios the professor has had us listen to. I found this meditation to be more relaxing and reflective. The other recording seemed to talk so much that I was thinking and listening more than meditating.  

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

I believe that they are all interconnected and people have created ideas, which inherently separated them as being different. This is both the blessing and curse of language, because it is all just a generalization and a form of stereotyping things. We are a system and in systems everything affects everything. So, what happens mentally, spiritually or physically affects the others to some degree and vice versa. For instance, if some ideas or belief does not fit your environment, then it creates stress, if one does not adapt, then this causes our bodies to react by creating cortisol and so on to go into the fight or flight response. This response in turn affects our mental state, which then affects our spiritual aspects of ourselves.

For instance, if I find more opportunities to have fun in any circumstance, then I will create a positive effect on both the physical and spiritual aspect as well as the mental aspect. This is because everything affects everything. You can alter your mental state, which alters your physical state and that also alters your spiritual state. None of these are specially constants per sey, but rather variables in an equation, which equals outcome we give names, like moods and so on. 

Below is another video I put together that you may find useful. It is designed to be useful in helping people get into an altered state of mind. I hope you enjoy it.

Unit 4 The Loving Kindness Exercise

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

I found it to be more beneficial than the other two. I did not find it difficult, but rather a bit more unnatural than I believe it should have been. I would recommend it to others, because I know these kinds of experiences are useful even if one could point out areas of improvements. Also, I know from firsthand experience that meditation and self-hypnosis do make a very big difference. While I generally do things to help out my issues using a different form of meditation and self-hypnosis, but I did find it useful to be done this way. Sometimes the best ways to deal with something’s is to release some of the emotional ties to it. However, sometimes it could make it worse, which is why I generally use other techniques which are good for solving issues without the emotional attachment, so one can think rational instead of responding mostly to the feelings.

2.             What is the concept of "mental workout"? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a mental workout? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

“Studies indicate that meditation may be like actual brain exercise, stimulating physical changes to neural fibers and having widespread ramifications for the body” (Science in the News, 2014). I have had firsthand experience with increase in mental abilities after I first started meditating. I was once diagnosed with having ADHD and I used to show many of the symptoms. Now, after years of self-hypnosis and meditation I am able to concentrate better than most people. Mindfulness meditation has been found to increase grey matter in the brain and also has a positive effect on our brainwaves, which correlates with our ability to think and focus (Science in the News, 2014).

I have found that everyone has an ideal balance of things they need to find. I have found that 20-30 minutes of meditation and around 1 hours of self-hypnosis later in the day have helped me out a lot. However, I do not take naps and I am pretty much always doing something when these times are not happening. I am a very busy person almost all the time. Usually I do my half day meditation when I start to feel a little mentally exhausted and I find it reinvigorates me. Later during that same day I will at some point begin to start to feel a little drained mentally, then I will either do some self-hypnosis or guided hypnosis. I do this in the afternoon, because it seems to be a little better at reinvigorating me and that it helps get rid of any stress I might accumulated throughout the day and it feel almost like one took a good nap. After, I started this routine I noticed I was much more productive than, if I skipped either activity, I also felt better, slept better and the list goes on.

Here is another video I created a while ago. It is created, so it helps one alter their mental state. I hope you will enjoy it.

Unit 3 Blog Response

1.             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: 7

B: 9

C: 9

My physical wellbeing could be better, because I could exercise more and eat slightly better. I am very spiritual, but I am not religious and I am completely secure with it. I do a lot of meditation and self-hypnosis. I have being doing this for so long that I can do some things that people would think are crazy. However, I am only rating myself at a nine, because there is always room for improvement. I rated my psychological well-being at a 9 again, because there is always room for improvement. However, I am fairly certain that I am at-least close to scoring as high on happiness as that one monk involved in those studies. I am often asked how I stay so calm, happy and so on even with things that are going on around me and they often look at me crazy when I tell them that meditation and self-hypnosis have been instrumental along with understanding myself better.

Understanding is a little more complex than many may initially think. One way to realize this is to go into a deprivation chamber, because there you will truly realize just how noisy it is inside your own head. Once you begin to understand yourself better you have more control of yourself. The more you have control of yourself, then the better you can respond to anything.

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

I plan to stay about the same as I am in each area. However, I will start adding a healthier meal at-least once a week and skip desserts. I will also add an extra 10 minutes of cardiovascular exercise to each of my daily workout routine. In my spiritual and psychological areas, I plan to add at-least one extra time a week of doing either an extra 20 minutes of meditation or self-hypnosis. I believe this will help make a little bit more of a difference. However, the trick I noticed is keeping a balance.  

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

I mentioned what I can do above in the previous question.

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

This exercise was easier than the last. However, I still prefer ones that get more to the point.

5.             Participate in the Blogs of at least two other students.
Provide them with feedback on their goal strategies. (Would their strategies be beneficial for you? Why or Why not? Do you have any suggestions for them? Would their strategies work for your clientele? Why or why not?)

I suggest creating a recording of different kinds of exercises and having them find out, which ones they prefer. This way you can better serve them and also work either their clients subjective experience of what they find the most useful. However, with traditional hypnosis I have found that faster inductions are usually liked more than progressive muscle relaxation.

Below is another video I did a while back.

Unit 2 Reflection

The audio reminds me of some self-hypnosis audios I have heard before. I have made some of my own, but it was more for experimenting. I still need some practice, because it feels weird talking to a computer. I think I should probably record me talking to a person, but with background music. The way he is talking reminds me of a technique called PMR or progressive muscle relaxation. However, I have never responded very well with this technique. The background music is very relaxing and his voice is actually distracting me from relaxing as much as I could and is actually a bit annoying, because I would rather hear the music. Below is a video I created quite a long time ago. However, I should have planned it out a little better. Anyways, I completely created everything from the music and audio. I should have also used a better microphone. However, I hope you enjoy it. Even though it could have been done much better.