Unit 10 - Final Blog

     My personal assessment scores in Unit 3 were: psychological 4, physical 4 and spiritual well-being was a 7.  I can remember feeling lost seven weeks ago and reviewing what I wrote brings it all tumbling back.  I definitely feel and see a great improvement in the three areas as this term comes to an end.  Meditation has brought a sense of calmness and has helped me manage my stress much better.  I now score my psychological well-being a 7, physical 5 and spiritual well-being 8.

     I have not started my walking regime but have been exercising at home about twice a week so my physical well-being has not increased as much as I was hoping for.  I make it a point to start taking more time myself and it has helped bring more calmness in my life.  Meditation has helped to increase both my psychological and spiritual well-being.

     I have implemented daily prayer each morning before I start my day which is similar to the Loving-Kindness meditation.  Praying for the people in my life whom I love and for those who have been giving my anxiety does help to make me see the innocence in people.  The activity I have not implemented quite yet is walking.  I have been walking more at work and taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

     In the beginning, I had a hard time with the meditation but as this course progressed, I was able to find meditation techniques that helped to bring more peace and calmness to my mind.  This course has given me many tools to use in order to bring greater psychological, physical and spiritual well-being into my life from meditation to visualization.  This experience will improve my ability to assist others.  This course has helped me to have more empathy and understanding for others.  I am very glad that I chose this elective.

     

Unit 9 - Final Project

I.                   Introduction:  It is very important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically because by developing these areas in their own life, they can be more compassionate and understanding towards their patients.  They will be able to offer their advice of what practices worked and not worked for them.  A patient will also be more likely to follow their health or wellness professional’s advice if they knew that their professional was also doing the same in their own life.  I need to develop physically in order to achieve my goal.  Exercise is lacking in my life.

II.                  Assessment:  On a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, I would score myself an 8 in wellness spirituality.  I try to stay positive and focused.  I try not to let stress get the better of me and I have always lived by the Golden Rule; do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I also am a great believer in karma so I always make sure that I have the best intention in everything that I do.   Psychologically I believe I would score a 7.  I definitely need to get myself better motivated to start exercising.  I know once I finally start and start seeing the positive results such as feeling healthier and lighter, it will be a great motivator for me.  Physically, I would score myself a 5.  I know this is the area where I need the most development and improvement. 

III.               Goal Development: Physically my goal is to lose at least 10 pounds by my birthday in July.  Psychologically my goal is to wake-up 15 minutes earlier than my usual time and meditate before starting my day.  Spiritually my goal is to now write seven things that I am grateful each day instead of five.

IV.             Practices for personal health:  Physically exercise has been lacking in my life.  My plan is to start exercising at least three times a week for 20 minutes and start walking our dogs at least every other day in the late afternoon.  I am also going to start being more aware of the type of food I eat.  My sister was just diagnosed with thyroid cancer.  This is a wake-up call to start taking better care of myself inside and out.  Psychologically I will try and meditate before I get up in the morning.  By meditating, I will have a head-start to a less stressful and a more aware day.  I am also going to try and take some more time for myself; reading and spending more time outdoors gardening.  Spiritually, I will try not to fall asleep before praying each night and thanking God for all of the blessings I have in my life.  I will also continue to keep family and friends in my prayers who are in need of divine intervention.  I’m also going to try and volunteer more; at our local animal shelter and at a shelter for abused women.

V.                Commitment:  I will assess my progress or lack of progress in the next six months by my state of mind.  If I am feeling improvement physically, psychologically and spiritual from where I am now, I will know that I am making progress and heading in the right direction.  If I feel no change in six months, I will know it is time to regroup and rethink my goals.  The strategies that I will use to assist in maintaining my long-term practices for health and wellness is to not procrastinate and to not be hard on myself if I have a momentarily lack of judgment; I will just pick myself back up again and continue on where I left off.  I will not be hard on myself and think that I have failed in reaching my goals.  My main strategy is to be a role model for my girls.  If I can show them instead of telling them the importance of being healthy physically, psychologically and spiritually, I have achieved success!

Reference

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications

Unit 8

I found Loving Kindness and Visualization the most beneficial for me.  Both of these meditations allowed me to concentrate on someone I knew.  I noticed when I concentrated on someone, especially a loved one; it helped prevent my mind from wandering off to other thoughts.  I can implement these meditations in my life by alternating between the two each evening before going to sleep.  This will help relax my mind and help to melt away all of the stresses of the day.  This will also help me have a more peaceful sleep so that my mind will be mentally prepared to face the new day along with the stresses it may bring.

Unit 7 - Meeting Aesclepius

1.       I enjoyed this week’s meditation because it involved two of my favorite things; the sound of water and my grandmother.  My grandmother was such a driving and positive force in my life. She passed away 16 years ago so I had lost touch with that force.  By remembering her love and wisdom for me, I was able to connect with the meditation easily.   Meditation has fostered an increase in my spiritual wellness because meditation requires me to slow down and clear my mind.  This allows me to reconnect again with a higher source.  I can continue to use this type of meditation in my life by taking a moment to meditate on my grandmother and connect to her mind, speech and heart to dissolve any stresses I may be having.

2.      The saying “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” applies to the health professional because I believe a health professional that has experience with what I am currently going through has more compassion and patience with any fears and or questions that I will have.  I definitely will have an obligation to my clients by developing my health psychologically, physically and spiritually.  By doing this, my patients will feel my passion and I will be able to share my own experiences.  I can implement psychological and spiritual growth into my life by taking the time to meditate each morning, continuing to write in my gratitude journal each night and prayer each night.

Unit 6 - Universal Loving Kindness & The Integral Assessment

 With the Loving-Kindness exercise, I discovered that even though there is a lot of suffering in this world, I can still do my part by helping those around me.  It does not need to be anything huge; it can be a kind word, a smile, even a heart-felt thank you.

With the Integral Assessment, I have known for quite some time that I need to focus on my biological domain.  I have been procrastinating for quite some time about starting an exercise plan.  When I read about the Integral Assessment, I knew it was another sign to pay attention and just do it.  Lately, my blood sugars have been getting progressively higher with each blood test so I vowed to my doctor that by the next blood test (in May) my numbers would be lower.  Though I have been watching what I eat, I had not started any type of exercise plan.  I am finally taking notice of the signs that keep knawing at me and I am starting Pilates. I was watching TV late one night and I saw an advertisement for Malibu Pilates.  I took it as a sign and it really got me motivated.  It is scheduled for delivery on Monday.  So by this time next week, either I will physically feeling better or regretting another online purchase.  To be continued….

I was finally able to follow through with an exercise this week.  I found it was easier to focus on my breathing and I was able to "witness" my thoughts and let them go instead of hanging on to them.  

Spiritual, mental and physical wellness need to be connected in order to have balance in life.  I have noticed that if one is lacking, it can throw everything else off.  Right now in my life, I do not feel that my spiritual, mental and physical wellness is connected.  Life seems so chaotic for me right now.  I have started being more conscious of what I eat; I am starting to work out.  All I need to find is some time to myself to find my spirituality again.

Next week does not look so busy; I can finally take a breather and take some time to myself.

I just realized that my initial blog post is due on Saturday so going forward; I will post my blog by Saturday.

Cheers to a balanced week!

Maria

I found the Loving Kindness exercise somewhat difficult this week.  I have the same issues of trying to keep my mind focused instead of drifting off to other things.  I also found it difficult trying to stay focused for 15 minutes.  I would recommend this practice because we can all use daily practice in loving and kindness.

The concept of mental workout is working out our mind just like working out our body.  In order to expand our mind, daily exercises are needed to help get our mind into shape. Research has shown that mental workouts will lessen the effects of stress on our mind and body.  The practice of loving-kindness only takes 15 minutes, which is really not that much time in the long scheme of our day.