Unit 6

The exercise was calming to me and gave me a natural sense of serene openness. In allowing the suffering of others into myself, dissolving and breathing out health, happiness and wholeness I felt serenity. This exercise would have given me the peace I have sought when I had taken care of my parents in hospice or when I worked with dying patients and their families.

The loving kindness exercise is understandable for me. Love and compassion is easy to express to others whether they are family, friends or strangers. Place yourself in their shoes and feel their feelings. I once took an assessment as part of my career and development plan when I taught at Kaplan College called Strengths Quest.  My main strength out of five major strong points or character strengths was “Empathy”. “People who are especially talented in the Empathy theme can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others’ lives or others’ situations” (http://www.strengthsquest.com, 2013). I believe this gives me the ability to practice love and compassion naturally, almost to the point that it hurts. Have you ever felt a stranger’s pain to a point that it made you cry? Well, that is me and this is the main reason why it is hard for me to work in certain departments in the hospital.

This exercise might have benefited me when I worked with high to moderate risk patients in Utilization Review and Case Management. Most of my patients were extremely ill and it always hurt my feelings and it was extremely disturbing to my heart. If I could have just observed and given them peace and gentleness flowing from my heart, it might have been calming to my mind and soul.

In assessing myself, I know I have issues relaxing my mind, but none whatsoever with regards to the loving kindness portion. I always want humankind’s suffering to end. That was the easy part, unfortunately I have an overactive brain and have been known to be a little ADHD. It is hard overcoming my brains inability to sit still. I choose however to believe that if I continue to practice I may have a glimmer of hope!

I must say the best experience in all of these exercises so far has been the subtle mind practice and its breathing exercise. I feel that if I can be successful in this exercise, I can incorporate this and be successful with the above exercise. It is important that I continue with all of these practices so I can catch a glimpse of these temporary states that Dacher speaks of and be able to apply health promotion and gain an understanding of all human possibilities (Dacher, 2006). “We will be able to choose and apply the most appropriate integral practice toward our goal of needless suffering, enhancing recovery from disease, and promoting authentic well-being” (Dacher, 2006). My progress will be in incremental steps towards the full peak experience; I will just continue to work at it and just believe.

Reference:

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral Health-The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach: Basic Health Publications, Inc.

http://www.strengthsquest.com. (2013, March 10). Retrieved from http://www.strengthsquest.com: http://www.strengthsquest.com/content/cms.aspx?space=SQ&ci=144437&title=Brief-Theme-Report