Integral Accessment

The Universal Loving Kindness exercise:

May all individuals gain freedom from suffering.
May all individuals find sustained health, happiness, and wholesness.
May I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering.
May I assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness.

This is my intention and has been and will continue to be.  I think being a parent allows us to practice and learn this lesson daily.  My integral assessment began at a point that I have been trying to come to terms with for the last year.  I decided to start here because this area is a daily occurance and a daily reminder of how I exclude myself.  This habit has kept me in denial of what is bothering me, and my greatest friend when it comes to procrastination.  Sometimes it includes me in social situations and at other times it will deny me the company of others.  It has been a way to keep me distant from family and friends.  This habit has kept me from truly being a part of anothers suffering.  Sometimes when it is hard to detach from the suffering of others I can exclude myself .  I am denied my health, my self esteem, my confidence.  I am a strong confident courages women except for taking on this one habit.  My health is very good, my outlook on life is very good and no one knows the depth of my despair on having and keeping this habit.  This habit is smoking.  Many times I will smoke and don't even enjoy it.  It is what has been my excuse, my refuge, my friend and enemy.  I am aware of the source of my suffering and know that if I can climb this mountain (make this mountain a mole hill) I can futher flourish and develop my inner life to help others in their struggle to release their suffering and help them on their journey to wholeness.  My daily intentions begin with being mindful of when and why I smoke.  I intend to continue with yoga and meditation.  I believe the shift will come and it will be easier than I am making it out to be.  I intend to change my perception of what quitting will be like and look at what being a non smoker will be like.

powerpoint

When you click on the link for my powerpoint it may not load all the way.  Right click and then click on reload.  That usually does the trick.  Enjoy

powerpoint project

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9ovJlOTa2BrODIyNGE3ZDktZDJiNy00MmY2LTkzNTktZmVlYzVkOTI2MmEz&hl=en


This has taken hours to figure out how to get this on this blog.  Hope you enjoy.  I am sooooo relived to finally get this.

unit 5 presentation

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B9ovJlOTa2BrODIyNGE3ZDktZDJiNy00MmY2LTkzN

the suble mind

The suble mind exercise was a practice that allowed me to see the vastness of my inner life.  Doing the loving kindness exercise I began to see how vast the heart and ability to love really is.  The suble mind exercise had the same feeling.  With loving kindness there was intention to do.  With the suble mind their was intention to just be.  When we open our hearts and minds to see more than our mental thoughts we open ourselves to a greater purpose and our fears and frustrations are seen as limited, not forever.  Spiritual wellness will release a harmonious balance that can heal us from the cellular level to our emotional and mental capabilities.  We become grounded.  When our lives become chaotic we can balance ourselves, see the chaos without being attatched and grabbing on to the drama.  I sure could have used this when I was raising my children, 1 boy and 5 girls.  The drama that filled our lives. 

loving kindness

Today's loving kindness exercise was deeper and less tears were shed.  I still don't feel like "I've got it" but while I just enjoy the feelings of love and kindness my hope is that my inner work will show in my outer world.  Today I am not devastated that I did very poorly on my midterm for my other class.  I studied, I wrote notes, I did all that I could.  I am quite shocked that my frame of mind is at peace and there isn't an inner dialog of negativity.  Life goes on and I wish all of you inner peace.  May love and kindness touch you today.

loving kindness

This weeks loving kindness CD was an experience that not only released many of my feelings of homesickness but also released my feelings of pain and rejection from others and a release of worry for the suffering of those close to me.  I am better able to be of help to those in need when I am not so overwelmed with my own worry and suffering of what they are going through.  I can think clearer. 
This is an expantion of many years of work and searching.  My sister has a masters in counseling.  She has counseled many people around the world.  My sister has been teaching counsciousness for over 50 years.  I was taught as a child that when you are sick you must look at what has been going on in your life.  My father was taught this from his father.  Life can interrupt the most devout was continueing the path of spirituality.  Making a living, children and family can challenge.  It is easy for us to forget the inner life when the demands outside of ourselves are great.  I am 53 and know that as we get older our outside demands are less and we can explore and dig deeper within ourselves.
Intentions and follow through with actions are necessary components to implement mental workouts.  It is a foreign concept to many of us in the western culture.  When we reach the point in our lives that our intentions and actions are the same, and as we continue to see the truth in this journey, our mental workouts will be as much a part of our lives as breathing.