It's personal assessment time!!

Hello my little spider monkeys!! (yes, I’m still on the monkey kick. I had to send the flying ones out a few times this past week. What can I say? A few people ticked me off.) Welcome to yet another week of adventures in psychological and spiritual healing. We are on week six now, so we don’t have many more to go. Last week, we discussed the Subtle Mind aspect. This week, we are asked to try a Loving-Kindness (yay, not really) exercise and to do an integral assessment of ourselves and see what we can learn. So, crack out the coffee, Mountain Dew, and No-Doz pills (and if you take all of those at the same time, please come to work with me. I would love to see how my boss and customers would react) and let’s see what we can learn about ourselves.

1. Practice the universal Loving Kindness (meditation) exercise on p. 93.

Yay, Loving-Kindness again (ugh). In this exercise, we are asked to clear our minds and to say a few lines for about ten minutes. The lines are as follows (and it would really help if I could type! Must be too much Mountain Dew):

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.

2. Complete the Integral Assessment discussed in chapter 11 (p.115).

The next part of the assignment asks us to do an integral assessment on ourselves. We use the four parts of integral health (psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, and worldly) to determine this assessment. The steps are below:

Step 1: Release all mental activity and when ready, ask myself “what aspect of my life is the source of difficulty and suffering?” Now, I can ask “what line of development is most essential for me at this time?” Next, I ask “what is my current level of development and what can I aim for?” It is said that this process can take a few days to discover. 

Step 2: This step moves us from healing to integral development. Now, I can ask “what area of my life is ready for growth and development?” I can also ask “Is this the same area that needs healing or is it another area?” as well as “what would the next level of development look like?”

Step 3: After doing this assessment, each day I can ask myself how I have handled these experiences, at what level am I functioning, in what ways can I improve, and how can I move my life towards a more sustained health, happiness and wholeness.

3. Describe the exercise and assessment process. What did you discover about yourself? What area have you chosen to be a focus of growth and development? Why? What are some specific exercises or activities that you can implement to foster greater wellness in this area?

Okay, all those that have done the exercise and assessment, raise your hand. (okay, be honest, how many of you just raised your hand to a computer screen? O_o Come on, I know some of you did. Set the coffee and No_doz down and back away slowly.)

Okay, first off, the exercise I would rate as a half and half. The first two phrases were not as hard to believe and were easier to concentrate on. Now, the last two were a bit harder. I don’t think asking myself to help others is too out of the question, but if I don’t make sure that I have health, happiness and wholeness first, how am I going to be able to help another person find theirs? It’s like the first Loving-Kindness exercise we did. If you can’t love yourself, how the hell are you going to love anyone else? (Thank you RuPaul) The same goes for this one. How can you help someone find health, happiness and wholeness if you can’t find it for yourself? I'm sure with some work that I will be able to accomplish all of these at some point. Perhaps not to the extreme effect that some take, but enough to be comfortable with myself and achieve my sense of balance.

Now, for the assessment. Right now, the difficult part for me is a tie between biological and worldly. The biological part being fitness and nutrition. I’m trying very hard to be healthier, eat what I should and become more fit. It’s not easy, but I’ve only been at this for a couple of months. The worldly part is work. It’s not that I don’t like my job, I do, but it’s getting to the point where I’m not sure if I can stay with it much longer. It doesn’t pay hardly anything, barely over the state minimum wage which is next to nothing, and it’s not paying the bills anymore.

I’m ready to grow and develop in these two areas as well. I’m ready to be fit and healthy, as much as I can be, and to integrate myself into a different job that will allow me to use the techniques I’ve learned in school and to help others. I also want to keep developing my psychospiritual and interpersonal areas as well.

I think, for the most part, I’ve managed to handle these experiences well and that I’m functioning at a fairly good level. The more I can learn about psychological and spiritual wellness, the better my physical wellness will be and hopefully, I’ll be able to achieve the highest level of integral health possible for myself. 

So, how did everyone else do with their exercise and assessment? I’d like to think that we are all learning new ways to enrich our lives and I believe that part of that comes from all of us giving each other encouragement and advice.

Well, my little monkeys, it’s time to fly back to the nest (no bicycles please), for we have come to the end of another week in our journey. Join me again next time to see what journey we will take next.

And so, I leave you with these words: Sometimes the best response in life is no response, and as long as you are always true to yourself, you never have to explain or justify who you are to anybody. Stay true, little monkeys. Until next time!