Stuart Smalley

I felt like Stuart Smalley while completing the Universal Loving Kindness exercise this week (I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and Gosh darn it people like me!). Repeating the phrases from the exercise over a ten minute period, at first, felt like my daily affirmation as opposed to meditation.

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.

However, once I began to relax and try to think with these positive thoughts I found that I was able to experience the benefit of this exercise. I can see the point of these exercises as they are designed to change your mind-set and reframe your thoughts towards a positive vibe not only for yourself, but to send those thoughts out to others. After a few minutes with the exercise it instead reminded me of the firefighter’s prayer:

When I am called to duty, God, whenever flames may rage;

Give me strength to save some life, whatever be its age.

Help me embrace a little child before it is too late

Or save an older person from the horror of that fate.

Enable me to be alert and hear the weakest shout,

and quickly and efficiently to put the fire out.

I want to fill my calling and to give the best in me,

to guard my every neighbor and protect his property.

And if, according to my fate, I am to lose my life;

Please bless with your protecting hand

my children and my wife.

 Personal Assessment:

“What aspect of my life—psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, or worldly—is the source of difficulty and suffering?”

I find that for me personally the most difficult aspect of my life is my interpersonal relationship with my wife. I think that communication and understanding are areas which I need to work on more diligently and truly focus on making effective and positive change. I think that I need to try to see things from both sides of the problem more frequently. However, it is often quite difficult to remove yourself from the situation effectively. I find myself frustrated by the failure and feel like there has to be a “fix” for it that doesn’t involve completely giving up my own happiness and feeling of satisfaction with my life. There needs to be a distinct balance between responsibility and enjoyment, and it has become quite difficult to achieve a balance of late. My plan moving forward is to try to do some serious soul searching in order to discover what it is I truly value, and what it is that is most important in my own life. I also need to try to focus on my own sense of tranquility and inner happiness as opposed to always trying to please others.

Unit 5 Blog discussing wellness

1.  Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.

When comparing the two exercises I personally felt that the subtle mind audio was more soothing and aided me in reaching a point of relaxation while also focusing my mind on following the steps that it suggested. Although I did find that the concept of “breathing in” the pain and emotional turmoil of others as a method to help them alleviate their unhappiness and stress to be one which I could visualize and identify with. Being a firefighter/ paramedic I find that my life is generally dedicated to improving the lives of others, so this particular part of the exercise was something which I felt I could accomplish. I have never before been the kind of person who placed any value in the idea of conceptualizing things such as light leaving through my head or other intangible notions of the same type. However, once I began to open my mind and let go of my pre-conceived notions, I began to experience many of the benefits of these exercises.  I found that the breathing exercises in “the subtle mind” exercise were much more cleansing, calming, and focusing for me personally.

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

I personally feel that there is a real and tangible connection between the spiritual, physical, and mental. As Dacher described in our textbook, without a healthy mind, one cannot truly experience the benefits of a healthy body or soul. The same goes for any of the relationships between these aspects. If you are not in a place of health, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, or physically, it can be nearly impossible to ever be truly “well”.  In my life, I am currently striving to reach a place of wellness. I have recently gone through the breakup of my marriage and still struggle with losing time with my son, as well as losing my home. However, as stressful and depressing as this situation has been for me, I feel that I am starting to feel like myself again. I feel like the real me; the one who enjoys life, who is confident, strong, happy, creative, and resilient is starting to come through again. I feel as though a massive weight has been lifted off of me and as a result my stress level has gone down significantly. I have begun to be able to sleep again (insomnia for 3 years) and feel as though the stress-induced stomach issues have completely subsided. This has given way to an increased sense of happiness, of balance, and of peace. So perhaps stepping away from an oppressive environment has finally allowed me to experience a sense of the flourishing that we have studied thus far. Finally, it is the reframing of my thoughts which has allowed me to get back on track and eliminate the negative emotions which were changing me as a person.

Unit 4 Blog- Loving Kindness

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

Once again, I tried to approach this unit’s relaxation exercise with the same open-mindedness that I have in the last few units. I found that the audio was quite relaxing and it really helped me to escape my thoughts and explore the messages that were being conveyed. I relied on thoughts of my son for my calming source as he is the one area of my life that always brings me peace and happiness. The thoughts of him truly made me feel happy, peaceful and relaxed in a way that I hadn’t considered before. Perhaps there is something to these guided relaxation exercises! I would probably recommend this exercise to my wife as I feel that the same techniques would be helpful for her in dealing with her anxiety and depression. Im not thinking that I could sell the notion of listening to these files to the guys at the firehouse though. I think they’d make me sleep on the apparatus floor from now on! Lol

 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?

 The concept of the mental workout that Dacher refers to is based on the idea that we must make efforts to expand our minds and explore the techniques which lead to flourishing daily. By practicing these techniques regularly, you begin to train the mind to think in ways that are healthy and healing. I feel that reframing my thoughts to be more positive in nature and allowing my mind to explore the healthy approaches to flourishing as Dacher describes will begin to help me to mitigate my stress and overcome many of the negative thoughts which sometimes prevent me from truly ever finding happiness. In that way I feel that the mental workout will truly benefit my psychological health.

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

Reflections: Unit 3 blog post

After reflecting on my own levels of wellness I feel as though I can genuinely say that overall I am in good health mentally, physically, emotionally, as well as spiritually. For me I would say that my level of physical health could be rated as an 8 or 9, with room to improve my strength and cardiovascular fitness. I can say this as I have always lived a very physically active life, exercised regularly, eaten healthy meals, and remained relatively free of illness and injury. My spiritual wellbeing is likely on the scale of 7 out of ten as I feel that I have a good feeling of inner spirituality and wellness. I grew up in an Irish Catholic family and attended catholic school as well as served as an altar boy in my parish when I was younger. Although I have fallen away from traditional church services, I have remained connected with my beliefs and pray regularly. I also feel at peace and connected to my God as I feel that I live a good and respectable life, dedicated to helping others. In the case of my psychological and emotional wellbeing I would say that I am at about an 8 or 9 as well. I have lived through an immense amount of adversity and stress and always have found the way through and feel quite well balanced. I do not suffer from depression or PTSD as a result of my military service or as a result of my experiences as a firefighter/paramedic. I have a very good relationship with my friends and family and can easily talk about anything that is bothering me. I also pay close attention to my emotions and try to deal with them appropriately as they change. My training and expertise as both a combat medic and paramedic have prepared me well to recognize and manage the signs of mental illness, depression, anger, and remorse. As a result I feel that my acute awareness makes me uniquely prepared to handle the stresses of my job and life. For me my goals in each of these areas would be to continue to maintain my diet and exercise routine while also striving to improve my health and fitness, to pay closer attention to my spiritual beliefs and perhaps try meditation or some other form of spiritual exercise, and to continue to confront my emotions as they arise while also setting a good example for my son by striving to remain a kind, caring, and gentle man. In keeping with my goal to attempt to become more connected to my spirituality and attempt meditation, I gave a genuine effort to follow the steps as described in the “crime of the century” guided relaxation audio. At first I felt as though it wouldn’t be something which I could really get into or experience a sense of relaxation as a result of. However, I found that as the audio file continued that I could truly visualize the light as the speaker described. I also found myself feeling both relaxed and refreshed at the end of the audio. This was the first time that something like this helped me to feel at peace and invigorated. I will continue to follow these guided relaxation files as we move forward this semester. Once again, Thanks for reading my blog as we all progress though this course together.

Leo