Crossfit, Loving-Kindness, and My Integral Assessment

Holy Crow! It is Unit 6!
I know it is a day late, but Happy Turkey-Day everyone!  I hope y'all did what I did and just overdose on some really good food and enjoy some extra special time with family!

Okay, onto my blog.
I realized something this week.  Crossfit is a source of meditation for me.  I guess it would be an active meditation, if that is even a real term.  If not, I just coined a new term.  Crossfit clears my mind; makes it still.  Thoughts that normally invade the meditations that we have had to do for this class, just float in the background.  How weird is that?  In the middle of pushing my body past its limits, my mind is still and at peace.  I guess that is how I found myself doing my Loving-Kindness meditation.

My Crossfit box had a 10am Thanksgiving Day workout.  We did the named wod "Eva": 5 rounds of 800 meter run, 30 kettlebell swings (I used a 35 pound kettlebell), 30 pullups (they were banded, yuck).  The coach put a 40 minute time cap so we weren't there at the gym for the whole day lol.  I will say that I hate to run, but over the years I have gotten better.  It was during this brutal beat down that I shocked myself in doing my loving-kindness meditation.  I actually pictured my loved ones, those near and far, and I could feel my love for them swell and pour out to them.  I didn't breathe in their distress; I just let the love and light I was feeling during my physical beat down pour out of me and into them.  I have to say that it was an awesome experience.  My body is sore, but my spirit feels even more content for having done that meditation.

As for my integral assessment, I will admit that I had to read the chapter a few times before I fully understood what I was suppose to do.  I had to draw the map on some paper and list each line of development and then re-read each section and then I was able to do the assessment.  I circled the development that I felt needed some attention.

In the psychospiritual quadrant, I felt that my emotional development needed some attention.  I am currently doing some work in the emotional department.  I am the type of person that usually keeps my negative emotions in a bottle.  I guess this stems from being an only child and always wanting to be pleasing.  I understand that this bottling behavior is not a good thing to do and can lead to physical problems.  The work I am doing is being more vocal about my emotions, but do it in a tactful way.  It's not easy because I still want to bottle the negative ones up, but I have made some improvement.  I am more likely now to say if something bothers me, which is HUGE.

In the biological quadrant, my self-regulation development needs some attention.  From my understanding of the reading, this has to do with mind-body practices.  I have mentioned that I practice Krav Maga and while it is important to breathe during punches, it doesn't really focus on mind-body.  However, with my recent epiphany about how my mind is at peace during Crossfit, I think I will start to try to utilize that perfect moment to expand my consciousness.

In the interpersonal quadrant, this might sound selfish, but my personal development needs a little help.  I think every mom can relate to the feeling of just wanting some personal time.  From the moment I wake, until the moment I go to bed, my thoughts and actions reflect my dedication to my family and making sure they are taken care of.  This makes personal time something that gets pushed to the back burner.  I feel selfish for even wanting it because it feels like I am betraying my family for wanting just a moment for me.  I am not even sure exactly what I would do if I did get some personal time.  Isn't that crazy? I have no clue what I would do.  I could very well just use it for sleep.    I don't really know how to even go about increasing the development of personal time.

In the worldly quadrant, I have to say that each of the lines of development need some attention.  Being a housewife, my work environment is the house; not much interaction.  My social activism I guess would be my Paleo lifestyle.  I tend to eat a lot of local produce and meats.  I believe that this falls under the "Think Globally, Buy Locally" theme.  As for the generativity, I think my teaching and passing values and beliefs onto my son falls under this category.  I am having trouble thinking of how to help develop this quadrant.  This could be because I am really tired and full of food and my brain is feeling content and sluggish.

I think I will end this post.  Tomorrow when I am fresh and awake, I will give more thought to this last quadrant.  If I can think of something to help develop this aspect of my life, I will do another post.

TTFN: Tata For Now
-Mel