Week 10 Final Thoughts

Rating my Physical well being – Well, I’m not dead so I don’t think I’m a one but I admit that I’m relatively unhappy with my physical anything although I admit it could be a whole lot worse. I’d say I’m a strong 5.



Goal – Stop playing games with this diet thing and get up off my @*# and do it.



The tools: Go back to my meditation series on weight loss and get exercise motivation



Re-evaluation Week 10



Well, I must have been having a really good day that day because today, I don’t feel that I’ve even begun my journey to Physical Well Being.  I think that I am more of just existing.  So, rating myself today, I give myself a 3.  Now to anyone reading this I’m not being hypercritical of myself I’m 70lbs over weight, I can’t walk up and downstairs easily,  I have back problems and a myriad of self-inflicted chronic problems could easily be addressed by dietary changes and exercise.  I’m being realistic; it’s easy to candy coat things and fool yourself into thinking that things are better than they truly are.



My goal is still to stop playing games with it but also get to the psychological roots of why I’m struggling with this area of my life.    







Spiritual Well being– I’m working on. Since I’m a religious mutt it’s been difficult for me to discern fact from religious fiction because everyone has an opinion and everyone believes that they’re right. I’m starting to see the inter connection between all religion. So I’d give myself a 7 because my spiritual walk is a developing work in progress



Goal – Spend 2 days with God a week (and not just Sunday)



Tools: Read the Bible and other books





Re-Evaluation Week 10



Well in week 3 I was just beginning may walk and spiritual understanding and I now understand that I still have a lot of work.  Soooo, I’m going to take this down too because I recognize that I’m still in my infancy in my spiritual walk.  I’m like a baby standing for the first time, my legs are still a little wobbly but I’m pulling up on things and can make my way around the table if I hold on.  So, I give myself a 5.



Goal – My goal is still sort of on track, I’m spending more and more time reading my Bible and spend a lot of time in reflection.  At the beginning, it was easy because I was hyped about the external things of ministry but now, there is less excitement as the responsibilities of Ministry begin to show up.  When I say responsibilities I mean what is expected of me my God.  I’m learning how to unwrap myself from my own drama and look at the bigger picture and realize that it’s not about me.  



Psychological well being- Let’s just say working on it



Goal – keep doing what I’m doing – Work on Forgiveness, learn to use my fear as motivation and stop sabotaging myself.



Tools: Getting help from my friends JTherapist.







Re-Evaluation Week 10



Yup, uh, still working!  My Therapist is non-traditional so we talk about a great many things.  She helps me to look deeper within myself to find the answers that I’m looking for while teaching me skills that I will use in my Ministry counseling others and in my Medical Practice.   We share theories and modalities and since she is Christian we share a lot of spiritual as well.



Goal – My goal is to continue to grow- Continue to work on forgiveness and learn to God which will lead to trusting myself.





When I first began to think about going into the medical field, I truly struggled with my belief system.  I believed that I had to less emotional, give up my beliefs in God and believe in the science.  That troubled me greatly.  This class has shown me that while you can’t wear both hats at the same time, it is ok to be spiritual and believe in a higher power and to teach others. 



How I view things is different because of this class.  My well being has been disturbed but has improved because I had to give in to the process and let go of some ideas that I had previously.  I’ve meditated for relaxation for years, but never for world peace or for spiritual enlightenment; my favorite mediation is Meeting Asclepius because this meditation allows me to practice self healing I got to see and remove the pain within.



The lesson that gave me the most difficulty was “Learning from a Woodcarver and a Psychologist”.  This lesson really disturbed me.  In the passage where he talks about how the Woodcarver was not happy about being assigned the job and he wouldn’t approach the job until he was in the right frame of mind.  How he fasted and prayed to remove those things in him that was not like God before he even attempted to approach the project.

I know that I don’t think about doing that with any task weather it’s one I want to do or one that is assigned.



The other part of that lesson that really hit home was transforming my Relationship to Work.  I don’t know how many day’s I’ve left my house just mad because I had to get up and went to work and took my frustration for my career not being where I think it should be out on my co-workers and all of the people around me.  Reading the quote by Gibran



“And if you cannot work with love but with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy”



This quote gave me a lot of food for thought and helped me to let go of the anger and frustration that I felt towards my current job and has allowed me to work with joy. It is better to be grateful for where you are instead of bitter because you’re not where you think you should be.   That lesson helped me to stop picking and choosing what I’m going to be grateful for and just be grateful for it all.  I know that God has greater things in store for me and I need to exercise faith and patients and praise him for where I am now.



This experience has already helped me to assist others and I know that it will continue to help me grow spiritually and as a physician.

Week 9 Project

               I.               Introduction:
As Health and Wellness professionals, we experience a lot of great joys and sorrows and everything in between.  It is our duty to our patients to be prepared physically, mentally and spiritually to be able to deal with the demands of our jobs.  In most other service industries, workers see people at their best, not when they’re sick or even dying as we do as Health professionals. It is our job to be a smiling emphatic face that they can rely on.  If we are not prepared by addressing our own mental, physical and spiritual needs we can’t be prepared to meet theirs.

All of the areas of Integral health are important to develop and I would be remiss in saying that I don’t feel that I need any work in any area.  The truth is that I need to continue to work in all areas.  People often view the role of a Health Care professional as easy, weather in a hospital or private practice setting the job is physically demanding. Hours of walking bending over lifting or assisting can take a toll on your body; being physically fit should be a pre-requisite for any Health Care position.  My goal for this area of my life is to lose weight that I’ve gained sitting for 8 hrs a day for the past 20+ years and regain my good health. 

Health care requires that you remember large quantities of information because one poor calculation or misdirection can lead to serious and sometimes deadly consequences.  My goal for this area is to keep my brain sharp, study and read as much information regarding Health Care as possible.  Also to do mental exercises to help strengthen my ability to recall information, games like “Brain Age” and doing crossword puzzles help mental fortitude.

I believe that in Health care you must have a strong belief system or system of spirituality weather you be atheist or somewhere in between.  The reasons I believe this is because you can’t take in that much suffering and pain and have no way to release it.  My goal spiritually is to continue to grow and explore my spirituality through meditation/prayer and Biblical understanding.  

              II.               Assessment:
I wish that there were some written test you could take to say “nope” you’re not there yet or “yes” you are right on the mark.  The truth is that only you can judge yourself.

If I had to score myself on the area of Wellness on a scale of 1being poor and 10 being the best I would score myself a 4.  I have quite a few issues that I need to address in the area of Wellness, including some chronic issues such as Type 2 Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, and Weight issues.  

In the Area of Spirituality, using the same scale, I would give myself a 4.  While I have some very strong beliefs I do believe my relationship with The Creator is still in its infancy and I have a lot to learn.

The Physical Domain has been my Achilles heel of sorts.  I have as a skeletal muscle problem with my legs since I was a child and because of that I was excluded from a lot of physical activity as I matured I began to use that problem as an excuse to keep from being more active, or physically fit.  I understand now that it my choice to continue to believe my programming or to transcend it.  Using the same scale as the previous questions, I would give myself a 3 as this is an area which still needs lots of work.

I think this class has done a lot to help me grow physiologically and has allowed me to explore avenues which I would have previously discounted or over looked.  It has helped me gain a greater understanding of myself.  On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest I think that I am a 6.  I believe that I still have a lot of work to do in this area but I am growing.

             III.               Goal development:

Physical Goal –

           Lose 20lbs by the January 31, 2012 (already have lost 9)

Spiritual –

           Meditate every morning

Mentally –

           Learn Spanish this year

            IV.               Practices for personal health:
What strategies can you implement to foster growth in each of the following domains;

1. Physical -  

In the physical area I need to get an exercise routine and stick to it.  I recognize that because I have not exercised in some time that I can’t just jump into something and expect over night results.  It is important that my support group recognizes this as well and is not pushing me beyond my physical limitations.

I also need to commit to eating properly and refrain from over eating or making a habit of eating out because I feel pressed for time.

                    II.        Psychological

Growth psychologically and spiritually are interdependent on each other because I feel as I grow spiritually, I have a better understanding of what makes me tick psychologically. 

Learning the power of forgiveness is a great tool for psychological growth.   Allowing yourself to let go of the baggage and the pain that you’ve been carrying is liberating.

Learn to release psychological stress by eliminating patterns which cause me stress.

There are two great books I’ve discovered, “The Law of Forgiveness” and “Be Set Free Fast”.  Working though the exercises in these books will help to foster my psychological growth.

             V.               Commitment:

I’m finding in life you need a road map (GOALS) to help guide you to where you’re going by setting goals on paper you are able to see where you are headed and where you need to be this is how I will keep myself on track and focused on my commitment to become healthy.

I will also ask for support from friends and family to help me remain on track.

Maintaining  my long term practices for Health and Wellness include making sure that I get regular physical checkups, making sure that I feed my body only things that are good for it, exercise regularly, reduce the stress in my life, sleep, pray regularly, continue other meditative practices, develop a satisfying social network, and work on my self-esteem

Unit 8

Unit 8 Almost Home

Well folks, we're int he home stretch does your brain feel stronger?

I almost can't choose between which meditation I thought would be most helpful as I use all 3 usually at night 1 after another.   I although if I had to choose I think that the Loving Kindness Mediation has to be my favorite.  It reminds me that life isn't just about me and allows me to open my heart to people I don't know which isn't always an easy task.  I believe that, this meditation has given me the most growth.  However a strong second for me is the Meeting Aesclepius meditation, I was soo shocked and delighted that the pain I had in my back for days was gone after doing this meditation unfortunately I had another injury and couldn't think quick enough to work this meditation.  I really believe that if I continue to do this meditation I could be completely free of pain which is a huge thing for me (fybromyalgia). 
I like all of the medications we've done so far even the one in the book, I can't wait to get that on CD!   I think they're all pretty cool.

I think the biggest hindrance into incorporating the medications into my life it taking time to do them but with a measure of discipline, I believe that they all could be a great benefit to me.

Unit 7 Blog

1.          Complete the Meeting Aesclepius mp3 (located in the Doc Sharing area). Describe your meditative practices for the week and discuss the experience. Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness. How can you continue to apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness?

I really enjoyed this practice.  I imagined my vision of Aesclepius healing my back which has really been bothering me and my knees. The first time I listened to it, I had a hard time staying in the moment but I did it again as was really pleased with the result.  My back is not hurting for the first time in days! This was truly a positive growth experience. Of course, I think having faith that these things were being healed had a lot to do with it.  I will be using this practice more frequently.   

2.          Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" (p.477). How does this apply to the health and wellness professional? Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not? How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?

A lot of people say those that can’t “teach” but I don’t think that that is the case.  I think you have to have the experience for yourself before you can help or tell someone else about it.   I had a doctor tell me that I needed to lose weight and I might have been a little more receptive to the idea if he himself wasn’t 300+ lbs.  If you’re in a position to lead then you must also set the example.

Meditation - Week 6

The assessment is to take each part of the levels of development and choose a quadrant to focus on.   I chose the psycospiritual quadrant to concentrate on this week because it is where I am growing the most rapidly and it has added some stress to my life because my paradigm is shifting and my focus is changing from myself to others as I am learning to walk in faith.  Even though that is the area where I’m spending the most time, they are all inter connected so one can’t help but effect the others.  As I’m learning to quiet my mind, I am also learning to look at things and break them down to their smallest part and begin working from there.  I’m easily overwhelmed by tasks because I like many women pride themselves on being able to multi-task and I often have trouble focusing.  I have a bad habit of being impatient and stressing about everything.   I have two illnesses which are exacerbated by stress, high blood pressure and diabetes.   I realize that I don’t have to have these issues but before I can address the biological I need to address the phychospiritual to slow down and stop worrying about everything.  Meditation and Prayer are a big factor in helping to reduce my stress levels. This week, I’ll be adding yoga as part to help the physical part and help to reduce the physical stress manifestation very tight muscles.  I’m finding that as I remove the focus from myself and start focusing on other people that it’s easier.  Two things happened today that would have normally sent me into a fit but I prayed about it and let it go and one of them has worked it’s self out and I’m sure the other one will too.  Is I started to get upset and worry about how I was going to meet the deadline I was facing I decided to let tomorrow take care of it’s self.   I recognized last week that there are so many other people in the world with bigger problems than mine.  The loving kindness exercise also is a great way to foster selflessness.

Unit 5

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

• I think both were interesting meditations.  I especially enjoyed the Loving Kindness Exercise.  However the Subtle mind practice made me more aware of my breath during the week.  I found that I was holding my breath and when I tuned into what was going on I realized that my mind was busy, being busy thinking about absurd things that really shouldn't have been allowed to enter my consciousness because I definitely don't want them to manifest in this reality.

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

•  4 years ago I was severly stressed out. We'd just purchased a house and my husband wad being deployed to Iraq 2 weeks after we made settlement. For that entire year I was sick, I mean sick, sick. in and out of the hospital had every test know to man it was horriable.  When he got home things started getting better my stress levels went down a little. Im not on the volumes of medicine that I was on previously and I'm actaully getting my health together.   As I grow spirtually and mentally I feel like my physical improves.  I'm still very much a work in progress.

This week has been super busy so I’m behind on doing my practices and making my entries (again).

I admit I’m having some difficulties with this class, mostly because it has given me permission to explore my mind and between this class and my pastor giving me constant confirmation about what I’m reading is even more frightening.  I feel as if the path that I am suppose to be on in being revealed to me when before I felt like I was walking in the dark.  To me seeing and knowing what’s in front of me is more freighting than stumbling around in a dark rom. 

My pastor has us meditating (reading the bible or listening to religious music) 2 days.  He’s calling it the 80/20 rule 80 for the world and 20 for God.   We give God 20 percent of our time and use the other 80 as we see fit.   Gradually we’re to work up to 100 percent for God.   Other people in my congregation may not have got the same message that I got but to me it served as confirmation that of our reading last week.   The reason why this conformation for me is so important is because when I first started reading about the metaphysical and became fascinated by Eastern Religions and practices, my very religious friends and not so religious friends call me a devil worshiper and told me I was going straight to hell.  Now I understand that sometimes even our Pastors and others fear what they do not understand and their fear causes them to attempt to hold us back.   Even though I call myself a Christian, I can’t help but look at other religions and see the commonality in them all and I can see that through the years religious documents have been edited to meet the needs of the time and to suit the culture that was doing the editing.  

The Bible say’s “Love thy neighbor as thy self” which means to show loving kindness towards everyone around you including your enemies.  The Loving kindness exercise was interesting I wish that the audio was a little better and the loops were a little smoother but that was just the distraction my mind focused on at first to keep me from focusing on the exercise.   Once I was able to push that aside and concentrate on the exercise, I thought that the exercise really didn’t mean much but as I started writing I felt a wonderful sense of peace come over me, and my shoulders which by 5:00pm are usually pulled up past my ears because of stress were relaxed.  So my conclusion would be that the exercise was very successful. I wish that I would have started it earlier so that I could have had 5 days of observation to see how it really affected my life.  I’m going to add it to my MP3 player and do the meditation when I wake up and before I study daily for the next two weeks.

I don’t recommend things to people anymore especially if they are not on the same level as I am because of previous reactions to my strange ways but If I were speaking to a colleague who has experience with meditation yes I would recommend it.

A mental workout is teaching your mind to think in different ways and fosters psychological growth.  Studies have shown that people who pray, meditate and focus on more than just themselves and their situations are happier and healthier. 

I think that I am in the beginning stages of implementing mental workouts in my daily life.  Meditate, if you can’t meditate by yourself there are guided meditations just make sure they are from trusted sources because when the veil between the conscious and subconscious is lifted, you become venerable to whatever is suggested.  

Just plain old answers

Rating my Physical well being – Well, I’m not dead so I don’t think I’m a one but I admit that I’m relatively unhappy with my physical anything  although I admit it could be a whole lot worse.   I’d say I’m a strong 5.

Goal – Stop playing games with this diet thing and get up off my  @*# and do it.

 The tools: Go back to my meditation series on weight loss and get exercise motivation

Spiritual Well being – I’m working on. Since I’m a religious mutt it’s been difficult for me to discern fact from religious fiction because everyone has an opinion and everyone believes that they’re right.   I’m starting to see the inter connection between all religion. So I’d give myself a 7 because my spiritual walk is a developing work in progress

Goal – Spend 2 days with God a week (and not just Sunday)

Tools: Read the Bible and other books

Psychological well being - Let’s just say working on it

Goal – keep doing what I’m doing – Work on Forgiveness,  learn to use my fear as motivation and stop sabotaging myself.  

Tools:  Getting help from my friends J Therapist .

The Crime of the Century

Very interesting mediation I wish I could have relaxed and enjoyed it.   My mind was too busy analyzing and anticipating what was next but when I have time to truly relax I’ll try it again.  I did notice that all the tension that I hold in my back and shoulders did leave which was really cool.   As we progressed through the chakra’s I felt a cool/warm feeling in each area (sort of like icy hot).  I have to admit that I’ve been doing exercises like this on and off since I was 10. 

Forgot the question

The question:    Ponce’ de Leon looked for the fountain of youth as a physical place on the map what if what he was really seeking was internal?  The secret to youth and longevity and good health, wellness are all internal things not an external elixir that can be taken.  Would or existence be different if Ponce de’ Leon found the internal truth, the mind body connection and was able to create the physical manifestation of eternal life?   

On my way to Shangri-La

So, our first job is to post something then pose a question.  Sooo, here we go.  I think I have more questions than reflections but maybe one of you can give me some insight.   I’ve been sort of on this journey for a while now.  I found the road by accident looking for the road to success.  I was watching TV one day and saw an Interview with Bill Gates and I remember thinking well “he’s not that smart” so what made him who he is?  Why is he where is and I’m sitting here watching him on TV?  So, I decided to find out how to find success.  I went to the bookstore to find a book on Success and I found one,  “SUCCESS for Dummies” by Zig Zigler surely this would give me the road map I was looking for.   Once I read this book, I will have everything I need to conquer the world!  Well the book left me with more questions than answers. Which lead to more searching which lead me to meditation, yoga and “New Aged” thinking?  That was 10 years ago and it’s just now that I’m starting to understand how it all fits together .

New Aged, hummm something that the Asian culture has been practicing forever.  It always amazes me that we have try to create something new out of something we don’t truly understand.  Our relationship to the universe and thing that are around us how we are all connected.    I can’t really understand how it took the medical field so long to recognize how the mind and body are one and the same.

I still haven’t found the road to success mostly because my western mind could only see success in terms of monetary or material wealth but I have discovered that without a road map finding success material or not.

Well, this is my blog for my creative medicine class.  We’ll see what comes of this.