- Practice
the universal Loving Kindness (meditation) exercise on p. 93.
- Complete
the Integral Assessment discussed in chapter 11 (p.115).
- 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.
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