Integral Assessment

Universal Loving-Kindness

I must admit that I did not believe that I would get much from this exercise because of the experience that I had with the first Loving-Kindness meditation.  But, after I was able to shut off all of the mind chatter and focus on the thoughts of wanting everyone to find health and happiness and to be free of suffering and then thinking that I could help people with this I did experience something unexpected.  At first I felt an emptiness inside of me because I have been stressed out about some things and I thought that if I don’t have anything extra to give, how can I help others?  Then I actually started to feel a warmth and fullness inside of my chest.  I did not expect this to happen.  Then I had the thought that if your intentions are to truly help others to find health and happiness then you will receive the loving energy to do so.  I thought that it was pretty cool!  Whenever I do these exercises, it helps put everything in to perspective.

Integral Assessment

I feel that I have been trying to assess my life and what I can improve upon for a long time.  My main focus for many years has been on my physical health.  I have struggled with my weight since I was a young kid and it has been difficult to replace my emotional eating with another coping mechanism.  I felt that recently I was able to deal with some issues from my past that I didn’t realize was affecting me.  I did realize that I will constantly struggle with an issue if all I address are the superficial things.  I now feel that I am on a better path with my physical health.  I am going to start a new yoga class today actually and I am very excited about it!  I have cleaned up my eating and I have set some new goals for myself.  While going through this class I have realized that I could be giving back to my community.  I already excel at work and I love what I do.  I would like to volunteer at some shelters and look for other opportunities to give back.  The thing that I feel is holding me back from doing this is the amount of time that I need to dedicate to school right now.  I do not want to make a commitment to volunteer and then realize that I have a paper due or a seminar to attend.   Although I have learned a lot from my nursing classes, these two elective classes dealing with stress and spiritual development have by far been the most beneficial!  Seeing that my physical health is coming along and I have a future goal for my community relationships, I believe that I need to attend to my psychospiritual development.  I need to work on incorporating meditation in to my life because whenever I do it for class I really enjoy the outcome.  I also think that yoga will help improve my mind/body connection and keep me calm and centered.  I have a lot of exercises that use drive and aggression, I think that yoga will help incorporate exercises that use concentration and mental/physical strength.  I am really thankful for this class because it has given me the answers to some of my questions and shown me the path to better health and wellness.