Healing Mental Exercise

“Beauty above me

Beauty below me

Beauty around me

May I walk in Beauty”.

Navajo Prayer

For me the Subtle Mind where one moves from grasping and clinging to old patterns to witnessing feelings, thoughts and sensations has been the most effective exercise. I did not recognize how often my body fills up with stress related tension or how often I hold my breath during the day. By using the focal point of feeling the air go into my nostrils, I find my mind beginning to quiet down. Turning the loving kindness inward allows me to forgive myself for not doing “everything” needed in one day. I find more opportunity to send prayer and spiritual support to others by letting go of my self-criticisms.

Because of the nature of my life situation I began to do Dacher’s subtle mind taped exercise with my eyes open to train my body to relax even when positive visual stimulation is present. The other practice I work with throughout the day is to approach all people and tasks with the intent of completing interactions and tasks with loving kindness. Intention “to be” in a more spiritual manner has reduced my detours into negative thoughts. Spiritual intention makes it easier for me to manage glucose level changes and grumpiness when I do not sleep enough hours per day. Processing inner stimuli more efficiently gives me the ability to choose where to direct my mental and physical energy. : )

“Meeting Asclepius”

“Meeting Asclepius” helped me to understand the healer within me. The experience was peaceful in general. At the beginning of the exercise I feel momentary trouble in deciding who to visualize. Experience in helping situations has blessed my life with many mentors and exceptional healers! I like making an opportunity to examine the words and feelings they passed on to me in their writings, by example and interpersonally.

Exercising mindfulness and meditation allow me to improve my health and wellness in my daily life and to remain in contact with my spirituality. I may reap the benefits of health, flourishing, happiness and wholeness, simply by using persistence in these practices. When I become anxious and distressed, I make an effort to refocus on calming my mind and on spirituality. The calming helps me to heal perceived slights and to continue to self-regulate my diet to preserve my physical health. My spiritual beliefs allow me the strengths to carry on a healthy integral path. I gain the presence of mind to send out positive energy and call on the angels or God to help myself and others.

I see the principles of recovery as important to daily life and believe I as a professional would need to “walk the walk and not just talk the talk”. I learned this phrase from a coworker who specialized in addictions counseling. Those recovering from addictions tell me the most beneficial thing about 12 Step programs is reconnecting with their spirituality. I strongly believe any healing situation presents a spiritual aspect. The art and science of healing requires we evolve in psychological and physiological aspects as well. An effective and integral delivery of any type of service requires that we begin on the integral path ourselves.

Universal Loving Kindness and Integral Assessment

Universal loving kindness comes naturally to me so the practice felt like prayer. I noticed while I believe I live this daily, I have fallen down on the intent of this prayer/meditation. I begin to direct this energy into personal relationships which cause me suffering. Intent makes all the difference in the effectiveness of this prayer.

Integral self-assessment provided insights into areas for improvement in daily living and interaction with my mate. Because of my physical challenges with menopause, diabetes and IBS, I must routinely maintain and develop coping skills to remain in balance. Balance prevents relapse of these problems. I began to wear my step meter to see how far I walk each day with the goal of at least one mile excluding walking my dogs.

In the interpersonal area I find much stress in living with my mate as he grieves for his mother (who died in 2/2010) and tries to overcome a dysfunctional upbringing. To recover from providing temporary fixes to his situation, I have begun seeing a counselor. I focus on what I can change in myself to adapt and gain long term psychospiritual flourishing.

Because we live in a society where work is beneficial to us materially and to the world in general, I went to the community center for help finding a job. Panic and anxiety over worldly responsibilities had me running in circles mentally. I spend hours and hours applying for jobs---any job--- and feel as though I am unworthy of work.

To summarize what I will implement for wellness: Meditation daily (without falling asleep), prayer with intention, quality sleep for at least 7 hours, eat to soothe and heal diabetes and IBS, move a mile a day, live through my day with gratitude for all I do have. I use the employment resources without shame or regret (I will continue to “pay it forward”).

I humbly look for mental traps and gain the wisdom and feedback of someone objective about the changes I can make. I begin to organize my home with intent of making it healthier to live in. Commune daily, if only briefly, with nature to remind myself I am a small part of a greater whole!

Catching up With Loving Kindness and Subtle Mind : - )

Dear Friends,

I fell behind in publishing my work and ask for your forgiveness. I regret not witnessing your participation in our exercises and discussions in real time. I have not read anyone else’s posts until my work is current. Life circumstances required I rest and recharge in order to discern if I would continue the work I began on my degree. I decided to begin my recovery in my blog space !

To contrast the meditations of Loving Kindness and Subtle Mind I find I benefit more from the guided meditation on calming the mind. I do try to breathe in others suffering and breathe out healing energy as I go through my day…Many times my mind becomes pre-occupied with the suffering within and around me. I often concentrate on others to the point I forget to breathe. Calming my mind allows me to relax and to act in the best interests of those around me.

One of my cats stepped on the mouse button and paused the Subtle Mind exercise! I continued anyway. I find I am too dependent on my computer. I loaded the exercise on my Walkman to carry it with me outside!

While I achieve the calm abiding state with my  eyes closed in meditation, I struggle to maintain this clarity on some days. When I open my eyes, the visual disarray around me triggers feelings of anxiety and fear. Feeling uneasy and anxious brings another string of feelings of anger, resentment and frustration.

I direct the second string of negative emotions toward myself for: not being stronger, not being wiser or better at planning ahead. I feel angry with myself. I could not prevent my physical and mental sensitivities and failings.

By seeking to remove myself from these emotions and thought patterns, I feel a lightness of spirit. Some of the physical and emotional symptoms improve as I continue. My journey has become easier when I view the events around me with a witnessing mind. I strive eliminate the false self-judgments systematically to feel more present in daily living.

Subtle Mind Practice

I really enjoyed Dacher’s (2006) second exercise. Focusing where I “think” my “third eye” or indigo chakra is I immediately felt the breath in my nostrils. The witnessing aspect became clearer as I continued to breathe. I released even positive ideas I tend to cling to. For most of the 15 minutes I managed to become still and calm-abiding! I did not get enough sleep last night so for part of that time I noticed passing dreamlike images which I could not immediately recognize or recall later. I noticed that physical aches continue, but the sensations felt less troublesome. I feel alert, yet peaceful and whole 8)!

Loving Kindness

I found this exercise from Dacher’s (2006) Integral Health book to be extremely helpful! A focus on the breathing and getting a guide to walk me through felt wonderful. The exercises give me practice at being still mentally and help with relaxation breathing. With breathing in the suffering it was easier for strangers rather than the one I am intimate with. This is probably because the suffering of those we know feels more intense because we are close to it emotionally and empathize. Loving kindness did put me in touch with the actual amount of physical pain I feel from over exerting my muscles on Wednesday. Toward the end of the exercise my physical aches were stronger than I notice during the course of the day. I did ignore them, but know I will need to take better care with the physical activity I do : ).

Rainbow meditation

I had a difficult week and my school work suffered for it. I find it hard to rate myself accurately because I feel like a RTA bus ran over me! I struggle to concentrate. My ratings are probably going to be lower than they actually are. My physical well being is around a 6 because I do not sleep long enough in order to complete my responsibilities. I find I either nod off at my key board or look at it with a blank stare because I cannot remember what I wanted to type next! Obtaining at least 7 hours of restful sleep and continuing to walk my dog Eli every day is my goal for this week.

My spiritual well being is around an 8. I have trouble remembering to pray and send out positive energy into the world because my psychological well being has slipped this week. I find negative thoughts, sadness, and anxiety sneaking into my daily experience. My boyfriend is having a terrible time with the death of his mother and his family being malevolent and malicious about settling her estate. I feel depressed for him! My psychological well-being has slipped to about 5. I have four goals in mind for this week. I will find little spaces to read affirmations. I will pray for positive energy from God and all my wise angels every time I feel unsettled or anxious. I will try to move through my day with skillful actions instead of reactions based on stress and anxiety. I will count on my boyfriend to have the inner wisdom to resolve his feelings and conflicts with his family.


The first time I tried this exercise I began to cry and had to stop. There was so much emotional and physical pain that day it was as if a darkness covered my vision of the colors except for the ruby red that grounded me. I knew I was overwhelmed so I decided to go outside into the sunshine and allow the experience of nature to soothe me on all levels.



The second time I did this exercise, I focused on filling my mind with each color. I associate the red in the rainbow with rubies which come from the ground. The day lilies in my yard are the vibrant orange. I drew color studies of the day lilies in pastel several times over the years. Yellow is one of my favorite colors and it was easy to see late day sunlight and lemons.



For the green I associate clover and grasses, although I also see real emerald stones. Aquamarine is my birth stone so I see the depth of color in the earrings I never take off. I see the water in the Bahamas where I once took a vacation to sit on the beach every day. For indigo I envision the color of my boyfriends eyes when he smiles and comfortable blue jeans. My use of purple and violet in drawing gave me a vision of purple petunias and their comforting smell. The white light of the moon bathed, surrounded and comforted me in a warm, safe way.



During this rainbow experience I persisted with each stage... My dogs barked. Cats asked for attention. I noticed body fatigue and lack of enough quality sleep as well as every ache in my muscles and joints from my feet to my neck because the day before had been difficult and demanding in terms of mind-body-spirit. Speaking the suggestion/affirmation with each body area helped me to integrate my functioning as I opened my eyes. The remembrance of each area and its importance in my life restored my optimism. I feel the certainty that, no matter what goes on with others around me, I am going to be healthy and whole.