Final Post!

Review your unit 3 personal assessment of your psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being. Reflect on these areas . How did you score yourself on a scale from 1 to 10 in unit 3? How do you score yourself now? Has the score changed? Why or why not?

I gave myself between a 4 and 5 in my physical well-being, and honestly that's still about the same. I have made more of an effort to workout but I am not doing all that I could. I have too much going on in other parts of my life to worry about working out everyday. My spiritual well-being I rated at a 5. I think that is definitely higher now. I feel that I would be about at a 7 now. I  feel more calm generally and I have started to get back into prayer. As for my psychological well-being I gave myself a 5 I would say that is now a 7 also. I have worked through a lot of issues I had with my fathers death last year and I am trying to move forward.

Review the goals and activities you set for yourself in each area. Have you made progress toward the goals? Explain.

As for the goals list, I did not complete going to the gym three times a week. I am lucky if I make it there once a week! I did go for a while, however life got in the way. ( I know, I know..excuses! haha) Spiritually I have grown, I have started to talk to God again. I am starting to feel a connection again unlike before. Psychologically, I started a journal however, I did not keep it up! I hope to pick it back up, because it was a good outlet when things get rough!

Summarize your personal experience throughout this course. Have you developed improved well-being? What has been rewarding? What has been difficult? How will this experience improve your ability to assist others?

I really had a struggle with this course at first, I never really thought about all the aspects involved in health besides the obvious which is physical. But this class has opened my eyes to the idea that you really need to treat the whole body and not just the symptoms you have for a cold. If we can blend these worlds together we can help a lot more people than we ever imagined. I think this class has helped me learn compassion, and understanding and patience. Meditation has taught me patience quite a bit! I learned a lot and I really enjoyed this class!

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?

I believe it is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically because we need to look at a persona as whole, not just physical ailments. If we look at everything instead of a small part of a person we will have a better understanding of who they are and how to help. The area’s I need to develop for myself have to be physical, and stress related. I am horrible about going to work out, and I tie myself worth up in it sometimes. I mentally kick myself when I miss working out which causes me to stress over small things.

Assessment:

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

I believe I have tried my best to assess my health in each domain. I have tried to open myself up to all I can in this class and I think I have succeeded for the most part.  I would score myself in spiritually slightly low right now, I am dealing with faith issues, and however I have worked through some of them in this class. Physically, I am working on myself I know I can do better, but I am putting forth an effort even if I miss a few days a week, I do my best to eat healthy and try to maintain my physical being. Psychologically, I am kind of messy, it’s been crazy these past few months, dealing with my mother moving, my father’s death, and pack up my family home.

Goal development:

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

My goal physically for myself if to run a 5K in the fall, I have always wanted to complete a race, and I think I am ready to start to commit to training. Psychologically I want to keep up with meditation, and incorporate that with yoga. I think it would do wonders for calming my mind, and giving me peace. Spiritually, I want to go back to church. I still have faith in God, but I have been angry with him and I have worked some of that in our class. I want to start to go back and have the community also that come with going to church.

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.

Some strategies I can implement to help foster growth physically for me, could be to start using the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator. Also another small thing would be to park farther away in parking lots, just to get that extra exercise in. They are small steps but every step adds up in the end.

Psychologically some strategies I can implement might include, cutting out negative energy in my life, by that I mean stop hanging out with people who are only negative or always have drama. Also I can implement it by giving myself positive affirmations daily. Can do this by leaving little notes around the house or on mirrors or even by just telling myself I look nice today or that I am a good person.

Spiritually some strategies I can implement include daily prayer. I use to pray before going to bed every night when I was younger. I think starting that up again can help me open up spiritually. Also going back to church, I think will help the most. It will give me that sense of community and also make me feel close to God. I always had my best ideas when I would go to church it was like God opened up my mind.

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?

I think the best way to assess my progress or lack of progress in six months would be to keep up with my blogs from this class. Filling it out once a week, and really looking back and what I have and haven’t accomplished is powerful. I know I will keep doing the Loving-Kindness meditation, I really enjoy that one and I have started to research other types of meditation and I am very much enjoying it. I think that will be my strategies to maintain my long-term practices for health and wellness.

Review the exercises and practice sessions you have completed in this course. (Loving Kindness, Subtle mind, Visualization, meditation etc.) Choose two practices that you have determined to be most beneficial. How can you implement these practices in your personal life to foster “mental fitness”? Provide specific examples.

Out of all the exercises and meditations we have done through-out this class; my favorites have to be the Loving Kindness and Subtle Mind. Those two types of meditation have really helped me learn to focus my thoughts, and to put the knowledge I learn about myself to good use. I have learned how to calm my mind, more than I ever expected to be able too. I have ADD so I am a constant ever moving train of thoughts, and meditation has really helped calm that down and I am so thankful, because I hate to take medications for it.

You can really achieve mental fitness through meditation by learning to calm yourself when situations get tough, or when you are down on yourself. I have learned that when I get upset I start to really put myself down, but with meditation I take a few minutes out and just focus my mind, and I can calm myself down and really turn my attitude around. It has also helped with headache. I use to get stress headaches very badly, but recently I realized I have no had as many and I think meditation is the reason!

Complete the Meeting Aesclepius mp3 (located in the Doc Sharing area). Describe your meditative practices for the week and discuss the experience. Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness. How can you continue to apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness?

For this week’s meditation I listened to the Meeting Aesclepius, it was an interesting yet difficult thing to focus my mind on. The person I picked to be my wise teacher was my father. He passed away about a year ago and he was such a caring and compassionate person, so wise and friendly. This mediation really helped me however, foucs on myself and really helped me center myself. However, I kept finding myself going back to other meditations like the loving-kindness meditation.  These meditations are getting easier to focus on each week and its becoming something I look forward to participating in.

Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" (p.477). How does this apply to the health and wellness professional? Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not? How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?

I think the phrase “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself “is a very true statement. I think as humans we can learn to empathizes but if we have never ourselves been in a position to understand the circumstances, then we cannot really lead. This topic really applies to health and wellness because, when working with clients they are going to be in situations that you may never has been in.  The best thing you can do is to listen and give them steps to help themselves worth through issues that they are having. Meditation can help them pull their thoughts together and help make them realize what they need to do.

Integral Assessment & Loving Kindness Meditation.

Loving Kindness meditation was interesting, I found myself trying to repeat those phrases over an over, and I ended up mixing up the phrases and spent most of the ten minutes looking back at the book and making sure I said the right phrases! Haha!  Now when it came to Integral assessment I really enjoyed doing. It was peaceful, and it helped me think about things in my life that I wanted to focus on, and what I want to change and how I want to grow in the future.

 It made me re-evaluate my goals now and help me think about new ones for the future.  I have decided to focus on the interpersonal. I want to learn more about myself, and learn about my interactions with others.  There are activates that I can participate in to help with my growth and development could be something as simple as spending time and listening to a friend, exchanging ideas and creating a deeper relationship. 

Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.

I had a very difficult time, just focusing on my breathe alone, I would be doing very well for a few moments and then my mind would wonder to something that I needed to be working on or a task that needed to be completed or even some random thought, or idea that I had no idea where it came from.

The exercise really showed me that I have too many things going on in my life and I might need to try and work on a balance between work, school, and family.  It made me realize that the balance I thought was working is actually not, because if I cannot get myself too focused for longer than 30 seconds without worrying about something, there needs to be a change made.

Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.

All of these concepts are intertwined into my life , in ways I never really thought about before. From this class I have learned that you really need to be able to find a balance with all these concepts to really have a truly happy life. My physical and mental wellness is certainly tied together because when I miss working out I kick myself mentally and talk down to myself, where I should try the opposite and tell myself I will do better next time.  Spiritually, it’s difficult I believe in a lot however, I have a hard time incorporating that into the rest of my life anymore. I have been so angry and that effected my spiritual wellness without a doubt, and with that it has affected my mental wellness because I let myself be angry with a situation I can’t control. It really amazes me how closely related everything really is!

Loving-Kindness exercise experiences!

Describe your experience. Did you find it beneficial? Difficult? Why or why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or why not?

When practicing the Loving-Kindness, at first I felt a little silly. I like I said before had doing things that are like a relaxing technique. However, this was different. It really made me feel happy when I was done with it. The feeling of silliness was gone and I felt good after. It’s an interesting idea, and I would keep doing it to see where it takes me. I would recommend this to others because if it made me feel good then I can imagine it can make others feel the same ways.

What is the concept of "mental workout"? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a mental workout? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

A mental work out is something that strengthens your mind, it’s a way to not only open your mind more, to help keep you sharp and well in tuned with your body. Research states that there are many benefits to a mental workout, it stimulates parts of the brain and it can help with memory retention, thought processes, and understanding. You can implement a mental work out that helps your psychological health by doing brain workouts, games to stimulate and help create new neuron passage ways.