Integral Assessment

·         Practice the universal Loving Kindness (meditation) exercise on p. 93.

·         Complete the Integral Assessment discussed in chapter 11 (p.115).

·         Describe the exercise and assessment process. What did you discover about yourself? What area have you chosen to be a focus of growth and development? Why? What are some specific exercises or activities that you can implement to foster greater wellness in this area?

What a perfect morning to read the chapter on integral assessment… The loving-kindness exercise reminds us to be selfless and place all of the love and kindness you have into your outward breathes and breathe in all of human suffering.  The integral assessment realizes that you will always have areas in your personal relationships of life (interpersonal), biological, worldly, and psychospiritual.  In doing this assessment I realized that today specifically, I need to focus on the interpersonal area for growth and development.  Dacher mentions a seminar he attended where the person next to him was disruptive and caused him to feel enraged while he was listening to the speech on loving-kindness.  How can you practice what you preach?  I’ve realized that the interpersonal relationship between myself and this particularly unfriendly and thoughtless maintenance worker in my house today could have been handled with loving-kindness if I were more developed in this area.  Although I am not a master at the practice, when the situation got heated because his disregard for my possessions and cleanliness while he was working irritated me to say the least, I lashed out at first.  Then walked away and grabbed Dacher’s book and started reading.  At this point in my development, that’s the best I can do.  But it helped! I’ve read the assigned reading, feel I have a personal relationship to the words he was speaking, and can related to the incidence this morning.  I can look at the situation now, while the maintenance man is still upstairs pulling insulation out of my ceiling and landing on all my clothes and shoes in the closet, and realize that he probably has never had nice clothes.  I’ve seen his house.  He lives in poverty and that might explain why he has no respect for the nice things I have.  So out of the loving-kindness in my heart, I’ll just say those sweet southern words that my mamma always taught me- Bless his little heart! He can’t help it; he doesn’t know any better.