Finally Free - Unit 9 Project

I.                    Introduction

Why is it important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically?

It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically so that they will operate in total balance of the mind, body, and spirit while encouraging their patients to achieve the same level of wholeness.  It is necessary for patients to be able to relate to those they seek treatment from. This will increase the level of confidence between each patient and their chosen wellness specialist.

What areas do you need to develop to achieve the goals you have for yourself?

In order to achieve the goals that I have for myself, I have to continue to develop both psychologically and spiritually. By focusing on clearing my mind, training my thought process, and meditating daily, I can reach my desired goals within a reasonable timeframe?

II.                    Assessment

How have you assessed your health in each domain?

I have assessed my health in each domain by analyzing the suggestions and exercises provided by Dacher throughout the course text.  By recognizing my strengths and improving my weaknesses, I can redirect my energy to the appropriate domains to create a balanced mind, body, and spirit connection.

How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?

Upon completion of this class, I can score my wellness as follows:

Spirituality: 7; My relationship with God was instilled in me as I was exiting my mother’s womb and reinforced throughout my childhood. My adult life has been filled with faith based instruction, regular church visits, and constant communication with God. There is always room for improvement in this area as I seek to deepen my relationship with Christ.

Physically: 8; There is always room for improvement and I am sure that I will never be completely satisfied, but I am the most physically fit I have ever been in my entire life. By using the gym as my outlet for stress, I have been able to lose a substantial amount of weight and have been able to maintain that weight loss through implementing necessary lifestyle changes.

Psychologically: 7; I had a floating mind with random thoughts that wander. Through the exercises taught throughout this course, I have been able to focus more, control my wander thoughts, and concentrate on one activity at a time, which has increased my multi-tasking ability. Although there is room for improvement, I have progressed a lot in this area and am very proud of my score.

III.                  Goal development

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

The goals that I have for myself are as follows:

Physical: To continue to live a healthy lifestyle in an attempt to lose my last 20 pounds.

Psychological: Continue to utilize the meditation practices that Dacher presented in an attempt to improve my mental health.

Spiritual: Focus on growing closer to God through prayer, daily Bible reading, and deep meditation

IV.                Practices for personal health

What strategies can you implement to foster growth in each of the following domains; Physical, Psychological, and Spiritual.

In an attempt to foster growth in each domain, I can implement the following strategies:

Physical: engage in some form of physical activity on a daily basis. By using a variety of exercises, the monotony of exercising daily will be non- existent. Workout DVD’s, skiing, tennis, swimming, gym machines, and basketball are just a few forms of physical activity that I can do on a daily basis.

Psychological: meditate daily both with a guide and on my own. In addition, purchasing a cd or electronic device that has relaxing sounds such as waves crashing or sounds resembling a silent country evening. I can use the CD’s to help calm any stressful thoughts and help to enter into a state of relaxation.

Spiritual: Apply the same strategy as mentioned in the psychological domain and use worship cd’s to start my day. Use my prayer and Bible reading time as my quiet sanctuary moments that are left undisturbed. By doing this on a daily basis, I can foster growth in this area of my life.

 V.                Commitment

How will you assess your progress or lack of progress in the next six months?

In an attempt to reassess my progress at a later time, I will use the same strategies that I used for the original assessment in addition to scoring myself on a scale of 1-10. By reading over my blog entries from the past, I will be able to track my progress as well.

What strategies can you use to assist in maintaining your long-term practices for health and wellness?

In order to assist in maintaining my long-term practices for health and wellness, I can begin to create a routine that will later transform into a habit so that performing tasks that are in line with my reaching my long term health and wellness goals will be second nature. I can also utilize a health and wellness journal to write down my goals and the path that I need to following in an attempt to reach each one. In addition, I can use my Blackberry as a way to create reminders and calendar entries regarding both my long and short term goals for health and wellness.

And The Winner Is......................

Drum roll please…..the winning exercises for this course have to be the two that challenged my mind the most. As I stand on top of this Dacher CD as though I am standing on a mountaintop, I scream at the top of my lungs with my eyes filled with tears………..I’ve conquered you! Finally….no falling asleep….truly aware of all of my feelings…experiencing every healthy human emotion known to man…..I did it…I finally did it! Did I doze off, NO! Did I have to start over because of a distraction, NO!

Each one of the exercises that we’ve completed for class helped me in some way, shape, or form, but these two in particular helped me the most. By weeding out the bad emotions, thoughts, and feelings, and replacing them with happy and heartfelt emotions, I successfully completed the “Subtle Mind” and “Loving Kindness” exercises.

My breathing has changed and I am more aware of my mood changes before they happen. Because I am able to do this, I can use deep breathing techniques to control any negative emotions before I unleash them. Upon completion, I was alert and felt very refreshed. The next item on my to-do list is to complete each and every exercise and rotate through them daily so that I can continue to reach a state of integral health and continue to foster mental fitness.

Drifting.....Drifting.......drifting................

After completing the  “Meeting Asciepius” exercise, I felt a closer bond with my deceased grandmother for a split second….the exercise was working and I could not believe it! And then it happened…I drifted off L. I tried to do better in this exercise than I did in the first, but those waves had me out on a beach with my grandmother.. and then she was floating away on the waves. Next thing I knew, Dacher was wrapping up the exercise! I was really ready for this exercise, I think that I will give it another shot and try hard to focus better the next time around.

Overall, mindfulness has fostered an increase in my spiritual wellness. For some reason I feel more whole, better in tune and connected to myself…if that makes any sense at all. I can continue to apply these practices in my life to foster greater health and wellness by continuing to embrace meditative practices, creating a stillness in my mind, and praying regularly.

“One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” …this saying applies to the health and wellness professional. In layman’s terms…you have to have walked the walk in order to talk the talk! Who wants assistance from a wellness professional that can’t relate to their journey or even understand their goals and objectives? I for one, want to work with someone that I can relate too…we’ll have a better working relationship if I can relate to my wellness professional J. As a wellness profession, I also feel as though I owe it to each and every client to develop my own personal health psychologically, physically and spiritually. If I can become whole and work on pursuing integral health, I will be a better leader as I continue to lead by example (www.leadersbyexample.org). 

All In My Head....

After practicing the Universal Loving Kindness exercise, I can conclude that this exercise was the best out of all of the ones that I’ve completed to date. This exercise was short and the point. As a matter of fact, in my opinion it was a prayer. I felt as though I were speaking directly to God asking him to help free individuals, allow them to be whole and allow me the opportunity to assist them to to get to where they need/want to me.

After completing the Integral Assessment, I realize that I have come very far, but there is still so much more for me to do. There are many facets of my life that need to grow and develop. Each area of my life is like a newborn child, ready to take off in a million different directions, but the stillness of my mind helpa me to refocus my thoughts so that I can address and mature each of these areas one at a time.

The assessment process was a calming and eye opening process. I discovered that I can control the thoughts that race through my mind. It takes me less time to enter into a state of calmness than it did when the exercises were first presented. The area that I have chosen to be a focus of growth and development is the worldly aspect of my life. I tend to stay to myself and not allow anyone outside of my immediate circle to enter into “my world” but this blog, my weight loss group, and facebook have all allowed me the opportunity to share pieces of myself to the world as I see fit. Addressing the worldly aspect of life isn’t so hard, just as long as I can do it at my pace in my own time

-OLP

Subtle Mind Exercise

The Loving Kindness Exercise was quite an experience for me. I was focused and driven to complete it in the beginning, but as time passed, I became quite bored and found it very hard to focus. With this Subtle Mind Exercise, I was very impressed. I actually enjoyed completing the exercise and focusing on my breathing was actually a piece of cake. While completing the exercise, I felt like my breathing had so much control over my entire body and thought process. I felt as though I had something that I had control over to focus on rather than in the Loving Kindness exercise.

Spiritual, mental, and physical wellness all go hand in hand. As we go more in depth with each lesson, it is evident that the mind, body, spirit connection is both complex and intense. Each of these areas needs the other to create a sense of wholeness and balance amongst the entire body. In my own personal life, I try to create a calming atmosphere to surround myself in and meditate, exercising my mind by utilizing various techniques allows me to cultivate my mental state, and my physical wellness is fostered through my life filled with my daily physical fitness regimen.

"Loving Kindness Attracts Loving Kindness" -Dacher

Today I performed the relaxation practices that were required for class this week in my dining room while sitting in a chair. After reading Chapter 6 of Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing, I listened the tracks 1 and 2 of The Path to Human Flourishing CD and completed the Loving Kindness exercise.

Upon completion of the exercise, I felt completely exhausted as though the exercise took every part of me to complete. I felt like a needed a cat nap just to recoup.  Overall, I found the experience did relax me…go figure! But that was just in the beginning of the CD.

In the beginning I felt my body growing limp and my head rolling…I had to open my eyes to make sure I was still in my dining room.…lol, But after about 7 minutes or so, I felt my Adult ADD kicking in and could not focus or concentrate on the woman that was instructing the exercise. At one point I heard myself say huh? out loud...i needed her to repeat and break down exactly what she wanted me to do because I was thoroughly confused!

I would recommend this exercise to others but will advise that it takes patience in order to get the best results. It’s a great relation exercise because you couldn’t tell me that I was not on a desert island with just me and my thoughts…..o the memories….maybe I’ll do it again when the kids stress me out….lol

After reflecting on my experience with this Loving Kindness Exercise I realize that it was truly a mental workout, it exercised my mind and allowed me to practice and reinforce mental concepts such as relaxation and happiness. Research indicates that there are proven benefits of a mental workout. Some of those benefits of regular mental workouts are: boosted reasoning skills, increased mental processing and increased memory speed (Fleming, 2011). In an effort to foster my psychological health, I can increase the amount of “brain games” that I play such as Sudoku, puzzles, and word games.

We'll see....

-OLP

Reference:

Fleming, V. (2011, January 06). Mental Workout Benefits Validated. Retrieved January 06, 2011, from http://memphisdailynews.com: http://memphisdailynews.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=55354

Reflection Time!

Based on my reflections on a scale of 1-10 (10 being optimal well-being) my ratings and goals for each are as follows *deep obnoxious sigh*

A.      Physical Well Being : 7 - I am so much better in this category now that I have embraced my passion of healthy living but there is always room for improvement

Goal: I will think outside of the box when it comes to my physical health and challenge myself to do new and exciting things to increase my overall wellbeing.

B.      Spiritual Well-Being: 7: Once again, I am coming along very well in this area, especially as I grow older and wiser, but there is always room for improvement

Goal: I will continue to pray daily and seek God in all that I do. Being diligent in this area is a must!

C.      Psychological Well-Being: 8: I can take a bow as I am pleased to announce that I am both mental and physically healthy and on the same page….at least for today ;-)

Goal: I will take more vacation where I am able to relax and reflect in an attempt to de-stress myself which if not done could cause harm to me both physically and mentally

In order to become a better person and strive to live a healthier life, I will participate in yoga activities (eventually) *pouts and stomps feet*and continue to surround myself with people that have the same goals as I do.

After completing this week’s relaxation exercise entitled: The Crime of the Century, I found that I was at peace and rather relaxed…hey wait…did I say that…I guess I did...I was actually forced to relax and it felt good J