Buddhist Teaching of the Day

"Speak few words, but say them with quietude and sincerity and they will be long lasting." -Lao Tzu

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Integral Assessment

In order to really explain my assessment, I will break this down into aspects and lines of development.
Psychospiritual-along the conative line, I looked at my motivation for my thoughts and actions. I believe I am at the mind level on this line, where I have mastered my instinctual motivations and have become concerned with my psychological well being, but have not mastered this. I am motivated most to control my depression/anxiety issues, but I am also concerned with ethics and doing unto others in order for them to do unto me as well. But is this motivation concerning my own egotistical motivations or am I truly concerned about others? Stay tuned. In the cognitive realm, I think I am still kind of sitting on the body area, whereas I am rather reactive and conditioned in my thoughts, but I can also see some logical thinking to lead me to right actions. I have the desire to find meaningfulness in my life and I try to use logical thinking in my life as a whole, but I have not yet come to grips with this. The emotional line is where I have the most difficulty, since I have not been able to control my fears and anger that drive my depression and anxiety. This will most likely be where I will begin, since it is my most urgent issue. I need to practice more mindfulness in order to still my thoughts and replace the negative with the positive. I think it is helpful to practice for a few minutes prior to a specific event that causes anxiety, in order to focus on what I need to do in order to succeed at that event. Eventually my focus should be on daily practice before or after work.
Biological-my fitness and nutrition lines do not need much work, although there is always room for improvement. I have not reached the spirit level of fitness, but I am at the mind level, since I do have a specific training program for certain improvements in fitness. My nutrition is at the mind level, but I do not always function at the spiritual level, I tend to focus on what will make me happy at that moment. Self regulation is the area that requires the most improvement, since focus on mind/body practices is something I need to bring into my daily practice, and not only every now and again when I think of it. I have begun to use hatha yoga weekly to improve on this, and my goal is daily practice.
Interpersonal-I think I am truly feeling an egocentric and personal focus right now, probably because I have to. The psychospiritual aspects of depression and anxiety affect this area of my life, and I feel like in order to maintain my daily focus and get through each day, I have to concentrate on myself completely. I do not think about my family a lot because they live far away and I do not have a very good relationship with them. I probably spend more time on community activities than my family focus, I volunteer my time in a medical reserve corp for the local community and my motivation here is truly for the community and not for myself, I can honestly say this. So although I think I am in the spiritual realm as far as community action goes, the majority of my life is spent on the body level, and I focus so much on myself I cannot spend much time on my family or friends. This is an area that I feel will improve if I can focus on my psychospiritual changes but I can also help those changes by focusing on this aspect as well. I need to remind myself to spend more time focusing on the needs of family and friends and showing them loving kindness once I have improved on loving myself.
Worldly-this goes along with the community action I involve myself in concerning the interpersonal aspect of my life. My social activism line is at the mind level right now but I don't think I am quite ready to expand that to the global level yet. Generativity is something that I am concerned with and I already try to teach others at the level of organization(mind)how to interact with others by my own example. I also try to help by listening and providing help by teaching what I have learned over the course of my life. I can expand on this by teaching others in educational sessions at work and in the community. Eventually I would like to become involved in community health teaching locally.
I think that if I can get my psychological issues under control by subtle mind techniques as well as mind/body techniques, this will help me improve all aspects of my life. I will be able to interact with others more effectively and without fear, as well as finding my own happiness by loving myself. This will bring me closer to true integral health by allowing me to focus my energies on healing my physical and emotional self to gain access to the spiritual level of being and not so much on my chaotic and external needs. Any suggestions on techniques that have been helpful to yourself and others is always welcome.

3 comments:

  1. Shelley, so much of your entry seems reflective of my own inner struggles on many different levels. I wonder if it is inherent in a nurse’s nature to feel we have to maintain control our depression and anxiety issues. As nurses we see people at their sickest and most vulnerable. Usually we see the cancer and disease cases that do not do well. It is easy to forget that many people do get to live healthy happy lives after a grim diagnosis and do not end up going back into the hospital because they are well.
    I also see so many nurses working extra shifts, double shifts, and second or third jobs and wonder if it is truly for the sake of the bills or an internal need to satisfy our Type A perfectionist character. Many healthcare workers seem to have a need to fix things and are often codependent personality types as well. Sometimes when I look back at my younger days and could kick myself in the butt. Especially when I was working 2 full time jobs at the same time. There are so many little things I missed when my daughter was growing up. I made it to her major things, band recitals or home games, but there is that quality time factor that I feel maybe I shortchanged her on.
    Your entry was really good and you put a great deal of time and energy into it. Thanks for sharing.
    Deb

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  2. Hi Shelly, I like how you stated " Worldly-this goes along with the community action I involve myself in concerning the interpersonal aspect of my life. My social activism line is at the mind level right now but I don't think I am quite ready to expand that to the global level yet." I to sometimes do not like to broad cast my personal matters regarding the past however this class has made realize that I am not the only one who has a sad story to tell that turned into a success . Thank you for sharing it help me.
    Darlene

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  3. Hi Shelley!

    I liked how you mentioned in the beginning of your blog about whether you were worried about ethics in regards of yourself or others. I think that is wonderful insight on your part. And I personally think sometime we don’t know exactly why we need to do something; why we feel compelled to it. But one of the main components is that we move ahead and do it. The why doesn’t always matter in the long run. Have a great weekend!

    Janena

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