IT'S BEEN REAL...UNIT 10 IS A WRAP

Based on your reflections, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being optimal weel being) where do you rate your A: physical well being B. spiritual well being C: psychological well being.

 My physical well being I would still rate a 9. I typically work out and/or teach group fitness classes six days a week for a minimum of one hour. I also incorporate yoga/tai chi/Pilates twice a week into my fitness routine. That has not changed.

 My spiritual well being I would still rate 7. I am a Christian believer, however, I do not attend church to get the word of God as often as I should. I wasn't raised in church but I was raised to believe in God so I do not fully understand the bible as I should.   I have gotten better with praying and connecting with my spiritual side but it still needs improvement. 

My psychological well being I would rate a 5. I am going through some tough personal times and it is extremely difficult to maintain my life as it is. Between my family, work, school, fitness, etc. I'm burning both ends of the rope with nothing much left to give. Exercising helps me release the aggression I'm feeling but I am in the process of restructuring my life.  My family situation has gotten a little bit worse than the last time I posted this but I'm making plans to attend counseling.  I feel this will help tremendously.

 Develop a goal for yourself in each area (physical, spiritual, psychological). 

Physical: My goal is to incorporate running into my weekly workout routine and eat a little better than I have been eating.

Spiritual: To connect on a deeper level with God and read the entire bible from beginning to end. 

Psychological: By restructuring my life I have to start over. One day at a time. I am working to create a better life for my family. Counseling will help put my life back on track.

What activities or exercises can you implement in your life to assist in moving towards each goals? 

Taking more walks and listening to nature is also something I can implement. It's so soothing to me.  I had a recent trip to the beach and it helped me so much.  I felt much better afterwards.   It helps me focus and have clarity on which directions I should take in life.

Homestretch!!! Unit 9

I. 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 was raised on the theory “practice what you preach”. I think it is crucial for professionals in any career to incorporate what they do into their own lives. I wouldn’t try to sell someone a let’s say for example a healthy eating product without trying it first and seeing what the results are. “To become agents of a more expansive health, we must begin with our own life.” (Dacher, 2006, pg. 167). When it comes to integral health, you can only learn a certain amount from the textbook. It is important to also experience the effects of a developed psychological, spiritual, and physical wholeness to fully grasp the possibilities of human flourishing. When we gain this confidence it gives us the ability to “help others and create a better world.” (Dacher, 2006, pg 167). Although I need help in all aspects I really feel like developing spiritually is where I need the most work. I am a very physically strong person than I am psychologically and spiritually. I would LOVE to find a balance between these three areas to obtain integral health.


  II. Assessment: How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically? I used Dacher’s six principles of integral assessment. These principles are to alleviate suffering and promote human flourishing, determining the difference between short and permanent suffering, immediate pleasure and long-term flourishing, the essential development of the psychospiritual, deep listening and guidance, and relevant development to current situation (Dacher, 2006, pg 106). My physical is strong. However, there is always room for improvement. I can sometimes be inconsistent. The only thing I see that is weak or lacking is the way I eat sometimes. I tend to not eat enough and it takes a toll on me occasionally . When I eat well, I take care of myself workout consistently, and have a general well-being. When I eat poorly, which is not too often, I still workout but I don’t work out as hard because I just don’t have the energy. I would score my psychological and spiritual areas of wellness very low. I have a very restless mind and tend to have no focus what so ever. My mind is constantly racing and I have been unsuccessful in being able to clear my thoughts. I never have been a spiritual person or even considered prayer as a way to reach integral health.

  III. Goal development: List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual. My goal for my physical wellness is to start competing in half marathons by the time I reach 40 years of age. This gives me two years to start training hard. My goal for my psychological/spiritual l wellness is to start meditating more (outside of my Yoga practice) and also pray more.

  IV. 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. Physical – Diet and Exercise – for the most part I am a pretty healthy eating individual who exercises quite regularly. I take a combination of vitamins. I can count on one hand the number of times I am sick but when I am it really takes its toll on me. My biggest vice is I do not eat enough and this is just a bad as eating too much. I need to seriously consider meal preparation for the week. This could be achieved by making a food schedule at the beginning of the week planning for times when I am in a hurry and want to grab fast food. This would make me more able to handle the before and after. Since one of my future goals is to compete in a half marathon, I need to begin a training schedule that focuses more on improving my endurance and strength without over-training. This makes eating right much more important in regards to performance. Psychological – Subtle Mind and Transforming Work Exercises. I have a one track mind that is easily distracted. By using the three steps of the Subtle Mind exercise, Witnessing Mind, Calm Abiding Mind, and Unity Consciousness, I can learn to not grasp at thoughts, but let them pass. Accomplishing that will be a huge task for me. One of my biggest stressors in my life is my career. I need to finalize a career path and stick with it “...transforming it into an act of service, artistry, and sacredness.” “What was previously seen as imposed is now reshaped as chosen.” (Dacher, 2006, pg. 102). This will be very difficult, but will come with practice and patience. Spiritual – Prayer and Volunteer Work. I do consider myself to be a Christian although I could certainly benefit from getting more in touch with my spiritual side. Prayer gives me a sense of calm that just isn’t achieved with anything else that surrounds me Right now I spend the first ten minutes upon wakening praying for forgiveness and safety of my family. I love volunteer work but due to my schedule it is so difficult. I need to make a commitment to do something once a week.

  V. 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? Physically, I will assess my overall eating habits by making sure I am eating correctly.I will start back with keeping an online food journal to document how I’m eating. My exercise regimen is fine but I will incorporate more running to build up my endurance for my half marathon. Psychologically will try to set more time aside in my schedule to meditate so that I do not become so overwhelmed…especially at work. Keeping a positive attitude at work is so hard to do but I will certainly do my very best to maintain. Spiritually, I will continue to practice loving kindness and possibly join a small group at church to connect with other people who are heavily involved with church and share the same purpose as I. I will also assess my progress by the amount of volunteer work and the service I can offer in six to twelve months.


  References Dacher, E. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA; Basic Health Publications Inc

Two Exercises I Found Most Interesting

The two exercises I found the most interesting and have made the most impact in my life are the loving kindness exercise and meditation. 

I've tried to incorporate loving kindness into my life more often because it was easy for me to connect with my spiritual side. After giving thanks to God for his mercy and presence in my life, I pray for my loved ones, myself, and others in the world. I am sending the loving energies out into the world for myself and others through prayer.

Prayer is a means of meditation for me. Even if I'm in a noisy place I can allow myself to go within to pray even if it's for a few minutes.  I can go to a place that is peaceful. I have increased my mental fitness as a result of this. It increases my spiritual growth, and strengthens my mind at the same time. I'm thankful to have for that.

Meeting Aesclepius Reflection

Meeting Asclepius was a little confusing to me.  As the orator said to envision a person that had wisdom, qualities, compassion love and joy my great grandmother came to mind.  She died in 2002 but she is still very much in my mind all the time.  My great grandmother raised me as her own child so you can understand why I chose her. She certainly did have all of the characteristics that were mentioned in the audio and much more. As I saw the white beam that came from her to the crown of my head, throat, and heart it made me smile that she could still be so much a part of my life. I loved her dearly and still do. When I need to go to my happy place I always think of my memories with her.

As for the statement we are to analyze this week, it sounds like they are saying "experience is the best teacher".  I do not think that is necessarily true or even safe.  I think learning by example can be just as effective.  I should not have to do drugs or have extra-marital affairs to share with someone that these things are detrimental to life.  Maybe I could liken them to some other experience I have had that they can possibly relate to and see that I am not standing in judgment, but I am being as open and honest as I can.

Universal Loving Kindness Reflection

The Loving Kindness exercise placed me into a dreary type of mood. I am not sure if I was too tired when doing the exercise or if I had difficulty focusing, but whatever it was that I should achieve did not really materialize. However, I did experience the ease and stillness of my mind and body and I found that I had difficulty with the experience of separateness. Perhaps I could say that my experience was more of “a sense of oneness” which the text states “arises from a subtle consciousness” (Dacher, 2006).  Given this explanation, I would therefore prefer to have the “oneness” as the center of my experience. I believe this would be a focus of growth and development for me as it would allow me to identify my true self being someone who likes to give of myself to others. I believe this is where true integral health comes in as it would make me feel quite happy to know that I can give to others and at the same time receive the same benefit in return.

Specific exercises that I could recommend would be regular, physical activity and mental activity.  My personal physical activity favorites are group fitness classes such as:

Body Pump (weight lifting class)
Kickboxing
Zumba
Aqua Zumba
Running/Jogging
Walking
Pilates

My favorite mental exercises are :
Yoga
Tai-Chi
Meditation

Reference:

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral Health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach

Love and Kindness

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

The loving-kindness experience was a much easier exercise than the subtle mind exercise.  I found that the loving kindness practice #1 exercise was more intriguing than the subtle mind exercises. In the first practice exercise we were asked to visualize a loved one who was suffering while we breathe in our in-breath. We were asked to allow the “dark cloud of suffering to ride the in-breath into our body” and then allowing them to completely dissolve in our heart (Dacher, 2006). The idea was to welcome all the loving-kindness into our heart thereby diminishing our self-centeredness and being able to share loving-kindness with others as we breathe out health, love and happiness. This exercise helped me to rest and be at peace while eliminating the stresses of life and leading me into the path of integral health and human flourishing (Dacher, 2006).

The subtle mind exercise reflects on three levels of the psychospiritual flourishing, namely the witnessing mind, calm-abiding and unity consciousness (Dacher, 2006).It took more effort to keep my attention with this exercise versus love and kindness but I really don't know why.  I think it was the voice in that lesson that distracted me.  

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

The connection of spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness is vital for an individual if he or she is to experience human flourishing. It is important for one to maintain a spiritual connection to the your higher power, meditation, and prayer.    In doing this it does not only help the individual spiritual connection that gives the individual a deeper sense of his or her spiritual awareness but it also helps the mental and physical aspect of the individual’s life. Proper nutrition and exercise are vital for the body if one is to experience physical and mental wellness. However, without a spiritual connection, proper nutrition and exercise alone would not create the spiritual wholeness that is needed for an individual to sustain a spiritual connection. 
For me personally my spiritual wellness needs some work but my physical wellness is pretty much on point.  It helps me cope with the daily stressors of life.  I have noticed lately that I work extra hard in my fitness workouts and when I'm home relaxing I can tell I pushed really hard.  While I do believe I have a decent spiritual wellness I could definitely brush it up a little.  My mental wellness is all over the place as it is always hard for me to stay focused on one  task.  I am trying to train my mind to be stronger than it is.  I can do it when I am working out but that's it.  Everything else gets jumbled in my mind as I do not have the peace I need at the moment.  

Health, Happiness, & Wholeness/Human Flourishing

This week's blog was quite interesting. Since I am counting down the days till I am able to hear real ocean waves I found this to be quite the enjoyable experience. I did think this week's audio was quite long, but nonetheless enjoyable. By the time I got to part about taking on other's pain it sort of brought me out of my calm state. Meditation to me is letting the negative energy go. I don't want to burden my calm state with my own problems let alone someone elses. For me meditation is letting go of the negative and bring in the positive. I cannot take in someone's suffering and put out positive energy. I would choose to deal with helping someone in another way. Meditation requires a great deal of mind control which not many have (including myself). I work very hard to stay focused when I meditate but often my mind drifts to the many things I need to do. If I focus to hard I fall asleep. Falling asleep is definitely a new way for me to "let it go." :) Ash