My Unit 9 Final:"My Journey towards Integral Health and Human Flourishing"

My Journey towards Integral Health and Human Flourishing

Introduction

           My thoughts on why it is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically is that without first experiencing the knowledge and the growth on this path to integral health and human flourishing, we would be like empty bottles on a shelf somewhere.  If we are to have any effect on anyone in this life pertaining to these three aspects of their lives, that bottle has to be filled with not only the book knowledge of these aspects but with first hand experiences of how they can reach these levels of the human condition.  

           In order for us to fill that bottle with experience I would say we need to look into getting on the path to psychospiritual flourishing before anything else.  Let me tell you why I would do it this way.  Psychospiritual flourishing is the most untrained area of our lives, and it is a major cause of modern epidemics concerning psychological distress and premature disease (Dacher, 2006).  Psychospiritual flourishing is the one area of our growth that will most directly cause the full development of our lives to happen.  The development of our inner life is the most exceptional and valuable opportunity that is given to us as human beings (Dacher, 2006).  This makes sense because we then have the opportunity to alleviate needless suffering and to gain health, happiness, and wholeness (Dacher, 2006).

           So as far as psychologically, I would say it is important for us to be working on the four steps to psychospiritual flourishing.  All four of these steps relate to an increasingly more advanced level of awareness (Dacher, 2006).  We can see how psychospiritual flourishing is intricately related to the growth in this awareness. The first step is having the “sensorimotor consciousness” (Dacher, 2006).  This is the primal consciousness that we are born with.  We experience things through our senses at that point and act in response to them instinctually with slight or no awareness (Dacher, 2006).  Sensorimotor consciousness matches up with the higher level of Primal Unity.  Primal unity is lost pretty quickly in life but its loss is essential for additional growth because an unconsciously attached mind and body cannot develop any further (Dacher, 2006).  So we become entrenched in a mental existence with all of its problems.  There is a way out of that situation, though.

           For us to effectively pass through this phase of psychological growth, we must invest in our inner life (Dacher, 2006).  We have to first become mentally knowledgeable and fit.  This mental practice concentrates on pinpointing damaging feelings and dysfunctional patterns and exchanging them with new sets of healthy outlooks and conducts (Dacher, 2006).  This will call for the growth of the second level of consciousness, which is known as the “witnessing consciousness” (Dacher, 2006).  This witnessing consciousness lets us rest, perceive, understand, and then make the choices we need to about our thoughts and feelings.  At this point intention replaces unconscious reactivity (Dacher, 2006).  We can then observe these and other mental chatter passing through our mind but we don’t have to reach out and grasp them or even pay attention to them (Dacher, 2006).  We just “witness” them and then let them move on.  The witnessing consciousness matches up with the higher level of The Psychological Life (Dacher, 2006).  As soon as we have accomplished a healthy psychology, we move on from our mental concentration and begin to search the deeper nature of our mind.   It is at this point that psychological development turns out to be a launching pad for spiritual development (Dacher, 2006).

           So as far as spiritually, I would say that the practice intention is to penetrate the deeper layers of the mind to discover the natural wisdom, inner peace, and loving-kindness that are the essential causes of us having a continuous well-being of body, mind, and spirit (Dacher, 2006).  This movement into spiritual development will call for the growth of the third level of consciousness, which is the “calm-abiding consciousness.”  Our capacity for intention becomes fully grown in this area (Dacher, 2006).  It turns out to be clear, focused, unbiased, and confident.  This calm-abiding consciousness matches up with the higher level of The Spiritual Life (Dacher, 2006).

           As we move up the steps to an even more advanced inner growth, we develop the utmost subtle mind and experience once again the ease, singleness, and unity of our childhood stage of life (Dacher, 2006).  The last step I wanted to talk about concerning our psychospiritual path will call for the extensive and pure awareness of a “unity consciousness.”  There is one major difference between this level of consciousness and primal consciousness (Dacher, 2006).  This developed “purity” comes with wisdom and awareness.  This lets us know about our interconnectedness with everything; we can profoundly use it to help other folks, and it also helps in creating a better world (Dacher, 2006).  This is the area that we can see things as they really are and not necessarily as we perceive them.  This unity consciousness matches up with the higher level of Conscious Unity (Dacher, 2006).

           The way that we can use to move through the levels of psychospiritual flourishing and accomplish this complete inner flourishing is to engage in contemplative practice (Dacher, 2006).  This is the way and the device that we use to discover the inner world in us and develop our psychospiritual lives.  There are three ways that we use these contemplative practices (Dacher, 2006).  One way we use it is to tame our mind’s unending mental actions that make the higher states of our consciousness seem unclear.  Then, another way is through psychological training, where we get into to the more subtle levels of our minds, the witnessing consciousness, the spiritual state of calm-abiding, and the pure awareness of our unity consciousness that I touched on earlier (Dacher, 2006).  The last way is that our completely developed mind can be used as a specific and subtle method for inner review, mind/body self-regulation, and the cultivation of the qualities of human flourishing, which are health, happiness, and wholeness (Dacher, 2006).  As we can see, this three-step route to psychospiritual flourishing can facilitate us in knowing and experiencing our minds and the multiple levels and capacities that we have in them (Dacher, 2006).

           As far as physically, I would say that, for example, if I wanted to become a personal physical fitness trainer at a health club I would have to look and be physically fit.  Certainly if that was the case the client would be more apt to believe what I was saying.  On the other hand, if I was overweight or obese and carried around the instruction manual I don’t think they would believe much of what I was saying.  This is why we have to experience things before we can tell anyone about them.  What kind of credibility would I have with the folks if I don’t do what I instruct them to do?  I take this example right out of a real life experience I had earlier in the year when I went to a fitness club.  It just makes sense that we as health and wellness professionals lead by example and then I believe there will be many folks that would be willing to listen to us.

           I would say that I need some development in all the areas I have discussed in order to achieve the goals that I have set for myself.  The Navajo say that healing is never complete (Schlitz et al, 2005).  So that means that I will always be on the path to integral health and human flourishing, tweaking the different areas involved along the way, looking to perfect how I change things for the better for me and those that I help to get on the same path.

Assessment

           As I assess my health this time around, I would score my wellness in the domain of spirituality as a 5 on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the lowest strength and 10 being the highest strength.  It is a step up from where I assessed my health in this domain some weeks back.  At that time I assessed my spiritual wellness in the 4 range.  I am not yet going to Church every week but I am going more often now.  I would have to say that it is becoming more important to me.  I was there this weekend and the Pastor told me that when I am not there “it leaves a hole in our fellowship.”  I still need to tighten up my relationship with Jesus Christ, although I believe He is my Lord and Savior.  My connection to Him seems to be distant but in reality He is in my spiritual heart.  The other thing about my spiritual wellness is that I am having more success with moving into the higher levels of consciousness.  I still am not able to practice everyday but I am working to change that. 

          Now, when it comes to my physical wellness I would actually score it the same as last time, which was in the 4 range because I haven’t been able to improve the situation in that area.  I continue to fight with Type 2 Diabetes and Thyroid issues.  I was injured back a while ago in my legs when I was power walking earlier in the year and wound up with “shin-splints” which don’t seem to bother me right now.  I did, however, wind up having swelling in my legs with edema.  Most of that has gone down except for by my ankles.  I am told that I need many physical therapy sessions and some lymphatic massage in those areas to make things right but they want too much money to do that so in the meantime I can do no impact exercises on my legs.  Before I got hurt I was somewhat overweight but I was working on that problem and trying to get the weight down and this is something that I will need to continue to do.  

           My psychological wellness has improved so I am going to score it as a 5.  This is because as I have been involved with the weekly mental exercises I have been able to calm down and be somewhat relaxed.  I have been able to reach all of the levels on the psychospiritual pathway at least once, if only for a few minutes at a time.  My focus and concentration have improved over the last several weeks but my physical conditions sometimes cause problems with that.  I will be realistic enough to say that even though I have improved some it will take much time and effort to get to where I want and need to be.  There is hope, though, because I have learned things in this class that can help me to get there like contemplative practices.

Goal Development

           One of the goals for my physical development is to change my eating habits to make sure my meals balance out between carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.  The carbohydrates should be the complex type, which are slow burning.  The fats should not be saturated nor should I eat any trans-fatty foods.   The protein should be from lean meat and dairy.  I want to make sure I have plenty of vegetables and some fruit.  The fruit should be limited because of the sugar content even if it is “natural” sugar because in reality sugar is sugar.  Since I deal with Type 2 Diabetes I am looking to have foods that are low on the glycemic index.

           Other goals for my physical development are to get away from this sedentary lifestyle I have been in for most of the year since I got hurt, lose some of this weight that I have gained since then, and set up a workout routine to get it done.  If it is really necessary for me to get the physical therapy and lymphatic massage I was talking about earlier that would be another goal because I want to be able to do my walking regimen again.

           In the psychological (mental health) domain, one of my goals is to continue to de-stress and push out the mental chatter from my mind so that I can lead a productive life of health, happiness, and wholeness.  Another goal I have is to foster loving-kindness in my life.  That kind of thing never came easy for me but I have no doubt that it will become part of my life.  I would say I also have the goal of wanting to help other folks get on the integral health pathway.

           As far as my spiritual goals one is definitely to be able to go to Church every week for worship services and Bible studies.  I am also making it a goal for me to get closer to God and to make sure that my relationship with Jesus becomes stronger.  One more goal I have is to reach the unity consciousness realm some more so that I can receive wisdom for myself and my life and to see things as they really are.

Practices for Personal Health

           In the physical domain, two strategies that I can implement to foster growth are to set up meal plans where I can make healthy choices concerning the foods I eat and to exercise more.  I have been working on an action plan for my physical exercise activity to happen.  Because of the issues with my legs I am not supposed to do any exercises that impact my feet.  There are some ways I can still exercise, though.  I will do different stretching exercises to work on my flexibility and I will fix my exercise bike and use that for leg workouts that don’t impact my feet.  That will also help with my cardiovascular system.  After I get through the leg issues I will start up my walking routine again and work my way back up to walking a little over two miles, twice per day most if not all days of the week like I used to do.  That will give me more stamina so I will be able to breath right again.  As like many other times when I come off my walks I am very clear minded and can study very well.  I will also see about doing strength training exercises to work on my muscular strength and my muscular endurance.  The last thing I can work on is for me to lose the 60 or so pounds extra I am carrying around.  I should be doing at least 30 minutes of physical exercise activity every day.

           The first exercise I can use is the “Subtle Mind” meditation to foster psychological growth on my way to integral health (Dacher, 2006).  Right now I can use relaxation meditations to relax and de-stress.  Then, I can go from there and get into the “Subtle Mind” meditation which will bring me through the levels of psychospiritual development (Dacher, 2006).  The witnessing mind will help me to lose the grip of mental chatter in my mind.  In that way I can see the disturbances coming my way but I just acknowledge them for a second and let them go by without grabbing onto them (Dacher, 2006).  As I witness this happening my mind becomes calm and I can then sense the still mind or the calm-abiding mind, and that eventually makes it possible to cross into the unity consciousness where all the wisdom I need for life is found (Dacher, 2006). 

           This can certainly help me grow in my psychological domain, especially if I do theses exercises every day.  Another exercise I can use is the “Meeting Aesclepious” visualization which helps me to create the vision of my inner healer (Dacher, 2006).  My inner healer helps to transform my mind, through the cleansing and refining of my thoughts, feelings and images. Then he helps me transform my speech by cleansing and refining that also (Dacher, 2006).  One more thing that he does is to transform my heart by cleansing and refining it with kindness, love, and compassion (Dacher, 2006).  This visualization can help me with my self–esteem which took a big hit earlier in the year.  It has already helped me in that area (Dacher, 2006).  The purpose of doing both of these types of exercises is to be able to daily grow towards a better integral health but for me they are going to have to be done daily because I have many mental issues that still need work.  Fortunately, some are already being worked out.

           I can implement prayer for myself as a way of fostering growth in the spiritual domain.  There have been many occasions that this method has worked to change the outcome of different things in my life.  I can also implement Church attendance because there are Biblical life lessons being taught that would help me to grow in this domain.  Another thing would be for me to get into the higher realms of consciousness (awareness) so that I may hear God impart wisdom and purpose to me for my life while I am in these areas. 

Commitment

           One thing I know I can do to assess my progress in the next six months is to write down all that I am doing in my journal.  That is one thing I can do to assist myself in maintaining my long-term practices for health and wellness.  When I write in the journal I can track any variations in what I am doing and evaluate where changes need to be made.  Another thing I can do is use a planner with schedules in it for all aspects of what I am working on. I can also use to-do lists.  That way, I can keep track because I have to follow the schedules listed and then I could check off items on the to-do list as I get them done.  To progress on this path to integral health and human flourishing, it is going to take time and effort from me in order to succeed.  It is a lifelong journey and I hope to help many folks get on the path with me.

References:

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. (Preparing the
           Ground, pp. 56, 57, Psychospiritual Flourishing, pp.59-62) Laguna Beach, CA:
           Basic Health Publications.

Schlitz, M., Amorok, T., Micozzi, M. S. (2005).  Consciousness & healing: Integral Approaches 

           to Mind-Body Medicine: Integrating the Wisdom of the World’s Healing Systems (p. 405)  

           St Louis, MO: Elsevier Churchill Livingstone Publishers.