Week 7 Exercise

     My meditative practices were beneficial to me after listening to the mp3 Aesclepius. It was very interesting to listen to this practice and to visualize another person/healer and to connect with them. The person that I visualized is my grandfather, who passed away in 1973. I have very few memories of him as I was only 5 years old when he went away, but I have many pictures of him and me when I was a baby. Pictures of him holding me and sleeping with me when I was a toddler and the look in his eyes was of pure love in these pictures, much in the same way I look at my 3 year old daughter now. I visualized him, for some reason, not sure why sitting in a large chair, the decor and design of the chair would be something you would see in a movie when you would enter into a monastery. I envisioned him sitting there with a very peaceful look in his eyes and found it difficult to concentrate on anything else in the room but him, as if the room faded away and it was just him in the chair. As the exercise went on, I felt like we were speaking to each other without saying any words and it felt like we were one in the same person. It was really quite powerful. It was also powerful when the instructor informed me to imagine the person dissolving into a white light and then entered my body and traveled throughout my entire person. This brought me to a place of total relaxation and happiness as I felt that my grandfather and I connected, even though he is in a better place and I haven't seen him in a long time. This is an exercise which I will do daily as I feel it benefits the connection between me and grandfather but also assists in my ability to reduce stress in my life.

     "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself". This statement I believe holds a lot of truth, however, it depends on the situation in which you are in. For example, as a Soldier, in order to lead others, I feel it is necessary to have experienced the same situation yourself before you can lead effectively. Another example of where this statement may not be as relevant would be if someone was very educated in psychology, for example. They have multiple degrees and have a vast knowledge of text and studies. If they are seeing a patient that is suffering from a divorce, for example, and is need of mental help, I feel the psychologist wouldn't necessary have to had a divorce in order to help that person if they can use all the knowledge and the tools they have learned through their education. With the example of being a health and wellness professional, I believe having been to the places where your clients are at now is very important and the quote above would be applicable in this case. By understanding the roads that your clients are going down by having experienced it first, I feel can only help them get the most out of their experiences. I can meditate, pray, relax, practice yoga and tai chi, are some activities I can do.

Universal Kindness exercise, Integral Assessment and more

Hello classmates,

I practiced the universal loving kindess exercise and it is one that I enjoy very much. It puts my mind in a quiet place and really lets me focus on love and the consideration of others and their needs. The voice and the background noise adds to the exercise by channeling my focus on the ones that I love and how to fully open my heart to them and to appreciate the people I have in my life and to not take them for granted.

I performed the integral assessment exercise and I felt it was beneficial for me as it allowed me to really break down the areas in my life and to focus one the areas in my life that I need to give some extra attention to and which ones were where I wanted to be. I found that all the areas are areas that I could improve in one way or another. Psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal and worldly. Psychospiritual- this is an area that seems to be lacking in my life. I think there are a few reasons (excuses) are time, it seems during the week everything is so busy with work and family and school that by the weekend, I just want to relax. Usually I try to relax which doesn't include focusing on my psychospiritual being either by praying, going to church, etc. Biological- I have not focused on my biological aspects of my being like I should. Again some of the reasons (excuses) are the tempo of the normal week, relaxing on the weekend and getting older (yes I am 45 and things start to creep up on you physically, especially after 20 years in the military). Again these are excuses, I know what I need to do, I just need to start doing them. I need to get my old body out of bed earlier in the morning and start working out. I need to develop a routing to improve my fitness on a daily basis. Interpersonal is an area that I could work on as well. It seems that the older I get, I want to interact with others less and less. I am not sure why, maybe because I interact with people all day at my job being in charge of a Physical Therapy clinic that I just need a little down time from interaction. I need to set my goals as interaction with others to enjoy who they are not just because its part of my job but because to enjoy who they are and enjoy the act of interaction specifically. Finally, worldly is a an area where I need help with if not the most help with. As a Soldier, we are forced to see things that happen in the world everyday as it may very well impact what we do as Soldiers, i.e. deploy, humanitarian missions, etc. I think because it is part of my job, when I am not working I tend to want a little down time from that too. I think if I refocus my energies when I am not at work on the positive sides of the world, beautiful art, images, stories, places, etc that my outlook on the world would change, I just need to do it.


Scott Cranfill

Loving Kindness vs. Subtle Mind

These two different exercises were challenging in different ways. With the loving kindness exercise, it prompted you to consider the ones that you love and the ones that hurt you. This brought about memories that aren't always present in my mind everyday. With the subtle mind exercise, it was a little different challenge as it prompted you to really focus on your inner thoughts and mind and to do this required a place, for me, that was free of sound and distraction. Both were good, I thought, and both focused on different things. I plan on using both of these in my daily life.

The spiritual mind is something that I can always improve on. Often time I think that just by praying, and not always at the same time, that this is enough. This is true either because of normal day to day time conditions or just perhaps my own second self denying the fact that I should do more. I believe the spiritual mind should be as important, if not more important than our mental and physical aspects on one's self. To me, the spiritual mind should be the third piece of the trio of total fitness, the mind, the body and the spirit.