Unit 6

I practiced the first exercise, Universal Loving Kindness twice. The first time was at home when I was alone and the house was quiet. The second time was at work/school, Kaplan Lincoln Campus. When I practiced it for the second time, I wasn't busy with other students but the Academic Success Center was indeed full of students. I tried to quiet my mind and read the phrases over and over. I thought that this setting would be impossible to tame my mind for ten minutes. Much to my surprise this specific exercise worked more efficiently. The students that were around were all accounting students and we were not staffed for them at that time, I have no knowledge of accounting. As I'm becoming the slightly stressed I realize as I'm reading those four lines I was becoming more tolerable of the students that had high stress levels. This book is definitely going on my book shelf at work; the exercise provided me with enough calmness to get through one of the roughest parts of the day at the Lincoln Campus.

The Integral Assessment I have only practiced once. When I did practice this assessment I realized there is a lot for me to work on in my life. I was able to answer a lot of the questions with confidence within myself then as the questions progressed and became harder I realized there are still a lot of areas needing improvement. My ratio is about 4:10, four being the areas which I feel I have mastered and or focused on. The rest is up to me to work on and focus on. One specific area I need to work on is the too much on my plate. I rarely have too little on my plate so that is something I’ve always counted on, kind of how an addict depends on a drug to silence the world. I just keep myself busy, as if I’m constantly in a race to keep things off my mind. However, with the recent practices that I’ve enjoyed, I have been able to confront my thoughts and assess them in a positive way. The other aspect I would like to work on is how much I can contribute to a better world. My attitude and acceptance of other people can no longer be the only aspect that I excel in; I need to now move to helping take better care of our environment. For example, plant trees within my community and recycle, drive less and walk more, etc.

While working on my full plate issue I can listen to exercises that allow me to focus on me instead of constantly thinking I need to do other things. I can also implement a rest time for at least an hour every day, probably more like two hours. The other issue, helping to better the world around me, I can dedicate sometime to put in place a system of recycling, reusing items, and when going out, try to ride bikes or walk. I can also use exercises that focus on others as well.