This chapter is very salient to my life right now. I am a
full believer in holistic health; I see a chiropractor on a regular basis (to
the dismay of some people in my life) and, as some of you know, I recently went
through a nutritional detoxification in an attempt to reverse almost 23 years
of not eating a single vegetable (It’s true). In order to properly attain my
goals for wellness, I followed Corey and Corey’s (2008) outlined plan of
setting personal goals to reach. I often blamed my perpetual sickness (sinus
infections, colds) and exhaustion on the stressors I encountered in my
day-to-day life. I was not taking responsibility (Corey & Corey, 2008, pg.
109) for the other choices I was making (i.e. the processed foods, lazy
attitude toward exercise, and the occasional glass of wine). Because of this, I
believe that in addition to my physical suffering, I was experiencing a
spiritual fatigue, or as Bernie Siegel (1998, as cited in Corey & Corey,
2008) might say, my reason for living became muddied.
It was
shocking to me to see that people who sleep more than eight hours have an
elevated mortality rate (Corey & Corey, 2008). I know that oversleeping can
cause a lackadaisical attitude in the subsequent day, but I never realized that
my ten hours a night were sucking years off of my life. Yikes!
As
suggested in the article from Luan Khong (2007), right concentration is crucial
to developing one’s spiritual wellness. I feel that, especially for me, this is
something that is almost impossible to fathom. An anecdote from my life that
illustrates this took place a couple months ago. I was incredibly stressed
(about what, you may ask? It could have been anything: the laundry didn’t get
done, I needed to schedule a haircut in the morning. . .it doesn’t take much
for me) and I was laying in bed at my friend’s house. We had the TV on, I was
on my phone looking at Pinterest, and text messages were coming through
frequently. She looked at me during my stressful freak out and said, “Turn off
the TV. Put your phone down. Just lay in silence.” I never once thought that
being surrounded by technological stimulation was contributing to my level of
anxiety, but when I let myself relax in darkness and silence, or eliminating
the outside stimuli (Khong, 2007, pg. 12), I would be able to center myself and
refocus on my personal wellness. This is something that is important to
remember at all times.
Corey, G. , & Corey, M.S. (2008). I never knew I had a
choice: Explorations in personal growth
(9th ed.). Belmont, California:
Thompson Brooks/Cole. ISBN: 9780495602293.
Luan Khong, B.S. (2007). The Buddha's influence in the
therapy room. Hakomi Forum, 18, 11-18.
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