Unit 9 Final

Introduction

Health and wellness professionals should always be learning and evolving in their own psychological, spiritual and physical health. Those who practice what they preach have a better chance of having clients that actually believe in what they do and say. There is a certain comfort one gets when knowing that the person working with them believes in what they are doing. I believe that we never stop growing and learning about ourselves in any areas of our lives. I believe that I must develop in all the areas to reach the goals that I have for myself. Change is a never ending process that we go through every day of our lives. Change is good and I am always willing to look at what needs to be changed.

Assessment

Taking a look at myself to assess my health in each domain I have found that I am doing alright but need work in all of them. I would say that my physical well-being is at about a 6. I have been walking and I no longer smoke again. I am eating well but I need to get back to the gym as I never really started back since the last time we did this assessment. I did however finish the 5K at the end of last month and I am all signed up to run another one on July 3^rd. In my spiritual health I think that I am about a 6 also. I have been working on meditating more and just taking time to be still. This is the most important thing for my spiritual health. Psychologically I am doing much better. I am at about a 7. I ended a relationship that had been bad and I am getting over the whole losing my job thing. I have found someone new and he is amazing. This always helps to have someone you know you can talk to about anything.

Goals

My goal for my physical health is to be able to run the 5K without an issue. I want to start walk/running at least 5 times a week. Plus get back to lifting weights. For my psychological I am going to choose a meditation every day and do it for 5-15 minutes a day. I will also continue to talk to those that I can trust to listen and be fully understanding of me. With my spiritual health my goal is to continue with reflections every night. Taking inventory and knowing what to do with what you find is important. I will also love realty, live honestly and laugh for fun. My walks will also help in this area. There is something about being in nature that makes me feel whole.

Practices

The practices I will do for psychological health is going to be Loving-kindness and calm-abiding. I find that calming my mind is the most important thing that I can do for myself right now. My mind has been crazy with so much change lately. I love change but too much at one time can really take a toll on someone and I feel that it has for me. Also with loving-kindness I can feel a greater connection with those around me and feel that I am not alone which is important for mental health also.

Physically I am going to start cardio at least 5 times a week and lift at least 3 times a week both of these will be a good balance to get me back into the swing of things. It is most important right now to train so I am able to run the 5K.

Spiritually I am going to continue taking inventory or reflecting on my day every night. This brings me closer to who I am and how to change certain behaviors if needed. This is very good for spirituality. The other practice is going to involve the new man in my life. All my life I have not had the greatest relationships and I feel that it is time to allow myself that much. I am going to work on developing an inner witness. Developing a still mind will help me see what his needs are more and not so much my own.

Commitment

I will track my progress by sitting down at the end of every week and see where I am and where I need to go from there. I can make a calendar to track everything I do also. This way I will have it in front of me. This is important for me because I tend to put things off that is important for me to do to keep me healthy. I can also ask someone close to me to watch for changes and report to me about them. I like to have outside opinions. I can’t always see what it is that I am doing. Sometimes you just need someone who is looking in to let you know how they see things.

Unit 8 Blog

I really like visualization. I have used this exercise in the past few days at night to help me fall asleep. I used moments in Hawaii with my sons to do so. It does relax me but my mind has been unable to concentrate on much since I lost my job. It has been a real hard time for me. My thoughts have been racing like crazy, unable to sleep. Visualization has been helping with this a little. I think that if I just keep plugging forward and using the exercises that I have learned in this class I will get back my normal self again.

The other practice that I would choose is Loving-Kindness. This has been helping me not only see within me but others. This is a great exercise that helps you get closer to the human race. Gaining loving-kindness can show you things inside yourself that is also in others which bring us closer together. To know there is something inside you, which is also inside someone else is special. People need other people we depend on each other for so many things. This exercise can allow us to be more trusting an open to those around us.

Universal Loving-Kindness and Assessment

The universal Loving-Kindness exercise is a good one. I totally believe in positive affirmations and that’s what I see as it being based on. It is calming and I think that it can help some people open their minds and hearts more but they would have to be willing to do it and believe in it themselves.

There are so many things that I discover everyday about myself. I believe in taking inventory every moment. There are many areas that I would like to work on with growth and development. I think that I am always in need of work in many areas of my life but losing my job a few weeks ago I have slipped into a sort of depression. I am getting better and losing the job has actually made my life less stressful. But the way boss man went about it and knowing that we were actually kind of close made it hard on me. Being as I have gone through such a life change recently I feel like I need to concentrate on psychospiritual flourishing. This seems like the best area to start with at this point in my life. I have learned a lot from this class and it has actually been helping me through this tough time. I love the Integral Health book. It makes so much sense to me. I find myself rereading many things just to remind myself and I have never done that with any of my other school books.

Activities that I can do to help me grow in this area would be to do positive affirmations and using the universal loving-kindness exercise. I also think that the witnessing mind and calm-abiding exercises will help me get to where I need to be. I always feel mentally and emotionally better when I am physically active too, so I am making sure that I get to the gym and keep myself physically healthy as well.

Julie