"My Personal Experience Through the Creating Wellness Class" by Craig S Aronoff

Hi everyone

          We have finally reached Unit 10 and the final blog of the Creating Wellness class. I am going to miss you folks. Many of you have become my Friends and I consider all of you my Friends, especially Professor Mark. As I was reviewing my Unit 3 personal assessments of my psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being and reflected on these areas I realized I did make some improvements but not in all areas. Let me tell you how things have changed since the Unit 3 assessments were done.

Assessment Scores

          My score in Unit 3 for my psychological well-being was a 4 or less.  I would score myself with a 5 or higher this time around. It has changed because when I was in Unit 3, I was struggling with my ability to focus or concentrate on anything therefore I started to fall behind in the class and everything else in my life also was being affected. It became a life crisis at that point. As we come to Unit 10, things did get straightened out and started to get better over time. This was because I learned how to use contemplative practices to clear my mind of the mental chatter that was disturbing my focus and concentration. As my mind got better with daily practice I was able to do well with the school work and other things in life started working out again.

          My score in Unit 3 for my physical well-being was a 4. I would score myself with a 4 this time around also. The score has not changed because my physical well-being hasn’t changed for the better since we have been in Unit 3. I was not in good physical shape then and that is still the case. This is because of injuries I sustained to my legs in a walking routine accident earlier in the year. As we have come to Unit 10, I have not been able to engage in my walking routine since that happened. Parts of my legs and feet still have swelling in them. I have gained some weight because of that and it makes it harder for me to breathe properly. I am still battling with Type 2 Diabetes and Hypothyroidism on top of that.

          My score in Unit 3 for my spiritual well-being was a 4 also. I would score myself with a 5 this time around because there has been some improvement since we were in Unit 3. The score has changed for the better because I am going to Church more than I used to but still not as much as I think I should. As we have come to Unit 10, the thing about it is that it has become more important for me to be there. I also felt that my relationship with God and Jesus were in a disconnected mode although I now know that was not the case. Another thing was that back then I was having trouble with the higher levels of consciousness but I am able to get there at times now.

Goals

          One of my goals in the psychological area in Unit 3 was to clear my mind of all the negative thoughts and feelings that have brought me to the edge on more than one occasion. I thought if I could do that I would gain a lot more confidence in my abilities than I had at that time because it would also have helped to give me a much needed boost in my self-esteem I needed in order to move on with life. As we have come to Unit 10, I have made progress with this goal because I have learned how to relax and de-stress by using contemplative practices. This has made it possible for me to be able to go through the levels of psychospiritual flourishing and get my mind clear of mental chatter at least for a while. Another goal that I picked up is that I want to foster loving-kindness in my life. Also, as another goal, I would like to help other folks get on the integral health pathway.

          One of my goals in the physical area in Unit 3 was to go back to working out in order to lose weight. I wanted to get back in the shape I was before I got hurt.  That means that I would be able to walk two miles, twice per day, every day like before. I also wanted to go back to the gym to do cardio workouts on the machines and strength training exercises as well. As we have come to Unit 10, I find that I have picked up other goals since the last ones that were mentioned. One of the new goals was to change my eating habits to make sure I am making healthy food choices. Another goal is to get away from this sedentary life and start moving around with some daily physical activities.

          One of my goals in the spiritual area in Unit 3 was to attend Church every week. I have made progress towards this goal because I am going more than I used to even though it is not every week. Another goal was to make sure that my relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is reconnected to a point that I know we are together again. That is another goal that I am making progress in because the relationship was not really broken. I just wasn’t getting involved with spiritual things for a while. As we have come to Unit 10, one more spiritual goal I had was to reach the higher levels of consciousness in my mind and have done that so I am definitely progressing on that one.

Implemented Activities

           In the psychological aspect of Unit 3, I had talked about implementing activities such as continuing to do my school work the best I know how and to work on getting better time management skills together so that I can get all of my work done on time. As we have come to Unit 10, I have done that by setting up to-do lists and using a daily planner so I can keep track of when things need to be done.  As I have done this my grades have be very good through the term and have definitely boosted my self-esteem. I actually believe in myself now that I am able to do this work. Another thing that I have implemented is that I have been talking to people who care about me that have helped me through some hard times. That has helped me in a big way. I have also implemented contemplative practices such as the “Subtle Mind” meditation exercise to foster psychological growth on my way to integral health and human flourishing. That has helped me to go through the levels of psychospiritual flourishing. Another thing that I have implemented is the “Meeting Aesclepious” visualization exercise. This exercise made it possible for me to meet my “inner healer.” They give me the best benefits when I do them as a daily practice. These exercises have helped me work through some really bad mental problems this term.

           In the physical aspect of Unit 3, I had talked about implementing activities such as starting up my walking program again. I have not been able to implement this yet because I still have leg and foot issues I am dealing with due to the injuries sustained on my walking routine earlier in the year. I had also talked about going back to the gym to continue to do cardio work on the machines and strength training. I have not been able to implement these activities either for the same reason. As we have come to Unit 10, I thought that maybe I can implement the activity of eating the right foods.  Making the right food choices would be good for my health in light of my medical issues. I have implemented this activity partially because we don’t always get the right foods in the house. I will soon be able to implement some physical activity exercises that I thought about recently. I will be able to implement some stretching exercises pretty much right away because that will help with my flexibility. I will be able to implement the use of my exercise bike when I get done with some maintenance on it. I just have to make sure that I get at least 30 minutes of physical activity exercises daily in order to get in shape.

           In the spiritual aspect of Unit 3, I had talked about implementing activities such as going to Church every week. I have only partially implemented this activity but I still go to Church more than I did before. I will be able to go more when I cut down my time on other things that I am doing in that time slot. Another activity that I talked about implementing was to find time to pray at least once a day. I have not been able to fully implement this activity because of time constraints. I will have to implement better time management skills in order to make that happen. I had also talked about implementing the activity of working on the steps that it takes to get to the higher levels of consciousness. I have implemented that with contemplative practices.  As we have come to Unit 10, I would say that the contemplative practices that I have implemented have caused me to be able to get into the deeper layers of my mind in order to find the inherent natural wisdom, inner peace, and loving-kindness that is there and that helps me to have a continuous well-being of my body, my mind, and my spirit.

Summary of My Personal Experience in the Class

           I have to say my personal experience in this course started out with me being a self-destructive despondent person with little or no self-esteem after failing a class last term and having medical issues on top of mental issues seeking my own death. Now I have learned how to de-stress with relaxation visualizations like “Journey On” and the “Rainbow Meditation” which really helped me a lot early on in the class. I do not live on the 24 hour stress response mechanism anymore because of my being able to remember the meditations and visualizations in my mind whenever I need to. So once I learned how to do that, I was able to get into the other meditations like the “Loving-Kindness” exercise which made me have more compassion, empathy, and love for others.  Then there was the “Subtle Mind” exercise in which I was able to move through the different levels like the “witnessing mind” level where I was able to “witness” my negative disturbing thoughts come and go through my mind without reaching out to grab onto them. In that way I learned how to get rid of the mental chatter that was causing interruptions in my focus and concentration.

           After that I was able to reach the “calm-abiding mind” which came about because my mind became calm and I could enjoy the stillness that was there at the time. I was then able to get into the “unity consciousness” which is a great awareness of how things really are and not necessarily what I perceive them to be. This is where I find wisdom for myself and my life. Then came my Integral Assessment where I realized that I was making progress in my psychospiritual growth but needed to make sure my practices were being done on a daily basis. Also I was able to do the “Universal Loving-Kindness” exercise which helped me in a deeper way than the “Loving-Kindness” exercise. I have to say here that all of these exercises did not come easy for me. I had to really work through a lot to get them to happen and it has not worked the first time in every case. If anyone has a problem doing any of these exercises try again and do not give up. The last exercise that I did was the “Meeting Aesclepius” visualization. This is where I was able to meet my “inner Healer.” So, yes, I have improved in my well-being, especially in the psychological area. All that I have mentioned in these last two paragraphs were rewarding for me. The most difficult for me was when I had to fight a lot of mental chatter in order to do a lot of my mental workouts. This experience improves my ability to assist others because I have learned and have grown in many different areas on the integral health pathway. This way I believe that I should be able to assist people in overcoming a lot of mental issues, especially what I have been dealing with.  I will be adding things from time to time on my blog so feel free to check it out any time. It has been great to be in this class with such a beautiful array of Friends like you folks. Take care of yourselves and please feel free to leave comments on my blog. If you should want to speak to me personally on the phone or email me let me know through the Kaplan email system and I will give you the information on how to contact me.

Craig S Aronoff