Unit 6 Blog: Universal Loving Kindness and Integral Assessment.

Hello Class,

Well, let's try this again I already typed this but somehow deleted it UGH!! The Universal Loving kindness exercise asks us to go beyond our personal love of say friends or family and project love and health to humanity at large. It asks us to repeat the phrases~

"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"

(Dacher, 2006, p.93). 

The phrases should be repeated in the stillness of our mind for ten minutes and will help us to dissolve hatred and anger (Dacher, 2006). This exercise helped me to focus on work and gave me hope that I can make a difference in the lives of the children and the families that I work with. 

The integral assessment asks us to go into a contemplative state and to analyze the four aspects of our lives, the psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, and worldly aspects that are in the greatest need of growth and development (Dacher, 2006). The area I have chosen to be a focus of growth is the interpersonal area and specifically interpersonal skills. I find it is hard for me to develop deep and lasting relationships with anyone other than my family. This is not because I am unlikable (I hope), but because I am scared to let down my guard and let others into my world. I find others will share their whole life story with me in a sitting and I often wonder how and even envy the fact that they can, but I cannot share my experiences with others because  my life was pretty dysfunctional and maybe even a little tragic compared to many others and I am afraid of being judged or thought of as looking for pity. I think this makes me look very closed off or maybe even stuck up. 

Having friendships and support is very important to being holistically healthy, but as for now I feel I am walking this world quite alone. My goal is to use self affirmation techniques and contemplative practice to convince myself that I am worthy of true friendship, that I can trust others and they are not out to hurt me, and that as much as I want to give loving kindness to others, I also deserve and need to accept loving kindness from them. 

I will use life-as-practice, "with each person we meet, we need to take time, listen carefully, create a heart connection, and act with skill" (Dacher, 2006, p. 127). I am a patient and empathetic, caring listener, but I also need to let people into my world sharing more of myself rather than putting up a wall that nobody can get through. Hopefully, this can help me to develop more balanced, equal, and lasting relationships to help my integral health. 

Thanks for listening to my rantings :),

Heidi Waldman

Reference

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Basic Health Publications.