Final Thoughts

After reviewing my Unit 3 personal assessment I had scores my physical wellbeing at a 5, my spirituality at a 6 and my psychological well being at a 5. I think that I did a realistic assessment on myself back then.

As of now, my physical wellbeing is still a 5, it has not changed, and I find it very difficult to find time to exercise. I have bought a video that allows you to do a walking exercise in a small area. It has you work with bands also and takes 15 mi or 35, depending on if you walk one mile or two. My spiritual self has actually gone up to a 7, I have been reading some of my books based on the scriptures of the bible. I feel that I have a new strength to draw upon, although it has always been there, I have just re-introduced myself to it. My psychological well being is suffering greatly; it has not improved from the 5. Although I have learned to ignore a lot of conversations that would otherwise get me annoyed, I still the stress. I am still keeping all my anger and frustrations in and not dealing with them. A lot of events that I was stressed about have come and gone, but none the less I still have a lot to work on.

My personal experience with this course has been very uplifting. I actually have an outlook on things that is bright and not gloomy. I have learned so much about how the mind can influence your health, and that I am the one that can control this. The most difficult thing about the course was assessing myself, because there was no way to sugar coat or exaggerates because I am the one I was looking at. I believe this course has helped me to be a better person, I feel I can help my clients better because I will be listening more closely to their needs and getting closer to their goals. I have enjoyed reading about everyone’s experiences and seeing how everyone had an uplifting attitude after learning a few practices. I wish everyone the best health and wellness possible.

Unit 9 - Personal Application

1. Introduction:
   Why is it important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically? What areas do you need to develop to achieve the goals you have for yourself?

When a person goes into the health and wellness profession, they are devoting their career to help others live the best life possible. If you do not develop your own spirituality, you cannot know how this would feel and how it actually is beneficial in a person’s health. We all know that keeping physically active is essential to health; it keeps your muscles, bones and organs in good condition to carry you through life. Professionals must also develop their minds; they need to have a calm abiding mind in order to find and share loving and kindness to others.

I have a ways to go to achieve my goals, but the areas that I need to develop the most are physical body. I am getting older and have added some extra weight. I am really feeling the effects that a less than toned body can experience. Fatigue, aches and pains are something that can be eliminated so this is why this is my most important development.

2. Assessment:
   How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?

When it comes to my spirituality I am very comfortable with where I am at. I have a strong bond with my religious beliefs and this guides me on the path of knowing why I am here and what is guiding me on the way. Psychologically I am in a mid point, I am aware of what is needed to be developed and have been introduced to some practices that will get me in the right mindful thinking. The practices are sporadic and are not second nature, setting a particular amount of time each day to do the mind exercises is the challenge at this time. I have a very low score when it comes to my body or physical aspect of wellness. I feel that although I am very happy with the other two aspects of health and wellness, the physical part is keeping me from reaching my goal of integral health. I realize that we will eventually achieve our goals, but we will then have the opportunity to create new goals and paths.

3. Goal development:
   List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.

In the area of physical health my goal is to start a regular daily work-out. I already have the gym membership, so setting a routine is my priority. A goal of my mental health is to practice both the subtle mind and loving kindness exercises on a daily basis. My spiritual goal is to meditate and concentrate on my faith in God. I gain all my guidance from my faith and a goal to spend more time with my religion is going to help promote a healthier person.

4. Practices for personal health:
   What strategies can you implement to foster growth in each of the following domains; Physical, Psychological, and Spiritual. Provide at least two examples of exercises or practices in each domain. Explain how you will implement each example.

The strategies that I plan to use for growth in the physical domain will be to set up my DVD player in the family room so that I can play one of my exercise DVD’s for a cardiovascular workout, this is for the days that I find it difficult to get to the gym. I am also going to implement a requirement that I eat at least five vegetables and three fruit during the day. The strategies that I am going to use for this is to either juice or puree the vegetables, because I will be more inclined to drink them rather than eat them. For the psychological domain I am going to ensure that I set a specific amount of time each day to practice the subtle mind and/or loving kindness exercises (Dacher, 2006). The best time for these are on my lunch break or an hour before I go to bed, these are times that I am not going to find something else to do instead. For the spiritual domain I am going to do two practices, one is to go out to the country or lake and spend some quality time with nature. I can do this on one of my days off and the drive to either place will take less than 25 minutes so there is not a time issue. The other thing that I can do to further growth in my spirituality is to spend more time reading the bible and praying. Unfortunately I work on Sundays but I think that if I can put aside at least 30 minutes when I get home from work, I can implement the habit into instinct.

5. Commitment:
   How will you assess your progress or lack of progress in the next six months? What strategies can you use to assist in maintaining your long-term practices for health and wellness?

In order to assess my progress in the next six months I will have to sit down with this paper and make sure that I am following through with what I have planned. I can also seek out a mediation center and start going there to help me stay focused and to remind me to do my practices. I can take the hint from a well known weight program and journal every day to ensure that I am getting the correct amounts of fruits and vegetables. For my spiritual progress I can get study guides for reading the bible and this will help me to stay on course to read. Each week I will take this paper out and make sure I am doing what I wanted to do and if I am not then I will reread and possible re-evaluate another solution to maintaining my long term health and wellness.

Reference

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic

Health Publications.

Unit 8 Reflecting on the Exercises and Practices

I have two practices that have felt very comfortable to me and that I can call upon every day. They are the subtle mind and loving kindness exercises. The subtle mind gives me a great relief from the daily stress that I am experiencing. I can call upon this practice at any time of the day and even if I can only use it for five or ten minutes at a time, it is something that I can do a couple times during the day. I also felt very good using the loving kindness practice. This practice allowed me to draw off of the person who I felt was the most loving and kindest person in my life, and draw from her strengths. It then allows me to send out goodness and happiness to others in the room with me. For if you believe in it, it will come to pass. This has helped with many stressful and anger filled conversations at work. The greatest part about it was, they did not know that is what I was doing but yet they benefited from me sending out kindness. It is really a joy knowing that we do have control over our lives through the practices of calming the mind, witnessing and also sharing.

Unit 7 Meditative Practices

After doing the Meeting Asciepius practice I was not sure that I liked this practice. It made me sad that I had to think of bringing someone else (even if it was someone you loved very much) into my inner self. It made me feel like someone that I am not, I can take the persons qualities in but it does not feel right that I am replacing these good feelings and qualities with my own. 


I have been doing the loving kindness practice everyday this week. I find that it keeps me at peace. I am looking forward to doing longer practices because I am back at the gym. I plan to do these practices while I am on the treadmill so this will give me more time. 


The phrase, "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" is very true. An example that I think of right off the top of my head would be some that read extensively about cars and how to drive one but has not actually driven themselves. You can tell someone what to do but the minute you get in that car you are not sure just how far or long you have to turn the key in order for the car to start. In the health care profession people have a right to expect that the trained experts they are seeing actually know and live by the same standards that they want patients to live by. To implement growth in my own life I have begun a fitness program and have been practicing mind calming exercises daily. I am seeing renewal in my religious spirituality also. I am now very interested in finding others in my community that are like minded in order for me to get as much as I can for my mental wellness.

Unit 6 - Integral Assessment and Development

The loving kindness exercise is very rewarding; it really makes me see the positive side of life, even if it is only for a while during the day. As time goes on I will be able to develop my mind and learn to see things like this all the time. There are a lot of gossipy people who I work with and I really do not like this but you can get caught up in the emotions of the moment. I am hoping the practices will strengthen my ability to control my thoughts.

After stepping back and looking into all four aspects of human experiences, I have chosen to focus on the biological development in my life. I can see that getting back into a regular exercise routine, this will be build on the other aspects such as healthier eating and shedding a few pounds. I can see by choosing this one area to focus is a better way than looking at weight loss first.  I may eat healthier or I may exercise but possibly not both. By choosing exercise I will begin to lose weight because I will not want to eat all the heavy foods that I have been eating.

Mental Fittness (Unit 5)

As I compared the Loving –Kindness practice with the Subtle Mind practice I felt that with both of these you can come away with a peaceful, restful attitude. They both deal with the breathing aspect of healing and this really helps keep you focused on your emotions throughout the day.  Personally these two practices work really well for me and I will continue using these techniques in the future. Comparing the two practices, I think that some may feel intimidated by the fact that they need to take in someone else’s pain and angers.  For someone who is struggling with their own stress and emotions this practice may not be good for them.

I believe the connection of spiritual wellness is directly related to mental wellness, in that once you have trained your mind to sort out all of the noises, thoughts and feeling that are cluttering your mind, this gives way to really understanding your spirituality. This will also lead to wanting to keep your physical body in as good of shape as your mind. I think it is easier to see your goals of what you want if you keep your mind clear and focused. In my case I have a long way to go in training my mind to clear the clutter. One day I can do this but the next day may not be as good. Stress is a huge issue in my life right now and it is a big red stop sign for me. It is not allowing me to get back on track of exercising regularly and thoughts and fears cause me to be more emotional.