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
Your post reminds me of part of our reading on page 101, The Healer at Work. Being in charge of a physical therapy clinic, you are in such a great position to have a healing presence. The job already benefits others but it can benefit them more so, if your mind is calm and your heart is open. Check out that part of the reading if you haven't already. I can completely understand withdrawing from people and just wanting to relax on the weekends. Sometimes it is important to make time for yourself, and if the weekend is your only chance, then you shouldn't feel bad about that. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI like how you put into parentheses the word excuses, because many people don't want to take responsibility for the choices they make, and kind of keep things at arm's length in their lives. The one tip I can give for doing something of the things you put in your post is to start telling yourself that you want to do them as opposed to needing or having to do them. This tends to start to shift the mind set a little bit, and makes it seem like its something you get to do instead of making it a chore. Great blog post this week!
ReplyDeleteScott, I find that I have many of the same "excuses" that you do. I get so busy with work and school that it seems to leave little time to work on our inner selves. This probably means that we need to do it even more! I've been trying to commit to 30 minutes/day of meditation and even find that difficult. Fortunately, physical exercise has always been a priority for me, so I do manage to get that in. I'm about the same age as you, and find that there are things I want to do less and less. After a busy day, its an effort to make time for meditation, but I enjoy it once I get started.
ReplyDeleteThis assessment was very beneficial especially when you can focus on certain aspects of your life and the things that you would like to change and use this time to reflect and come up with ways in which you can fix them.
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