unit 10

1.        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?

My score in Unit 3:

Physical wellbeing – 7

I give myself a seven here because I am, in my opinion, above average in physical health. I rarely get very sick if I get sick at all. I am very capable of carrying out any task that I need to and I regularly eat a healthy diet. I did not rate myself as a ten because I do think that I could exercise more.

Spiritual wellbeing – 9

I give myself a 9 here because I am very satisfied with my place in this world and in the spiritual dimension. I am firmly planted in my faith and my beliefs. I did not give myself a ten because I do not feel that anyone can reach the pinnacle of spiritual wellbeing during this lifetime.

Psychological wellbeing – 8

I give myself an 8 here because I am very comfortable with my psychological wellbeing. However, there are improvements that I could make such as stress management, etc. therefore I did not give myself a perfect score here.

For the most part, I have remained pretty steady in my levels that I would score myself. Physically, I do not think that I have made any great steps. The best explanation for this that I have is my lack of time and commitment to this aspect. I plan on trying to make more of a commitment to see this number rise to at least an 8 within the next six months. Spiritually, I feel that I have grown some. However, I am leery to give myself a perfect score because I do not think that we can be perfect in this lifetime. Psychologically, I feel that I am now a 9 which does indicate growth. I have become better able to maintain focus and a peace of mind.

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

Physically, I do eat a healthy diet; however, I have made no progress with exercise. Spiritually, I feel that was already on a good track and have maintained this path of steady growth. Psychologically, I feel that I have made progress especially in the area of stress management by trying to hold on to a subtle and calm state of mind.

3.        Have you implemented the activities you chose for your well-being in each of the three areas? Explain.

I have not implemented the exercise that I chose for my physical health because I have not fully committed my time to it though I plan on doing this soon. I do practice spiritual growth that I set out for. I also do practice stress management in my life and have experienced growth consequencially.

4.        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?

Overall this course has exposed me to greater resources available for improvement and the idea of integral health. As a result, even in the areas that I have not grown in, I have been given the tools that will help me to grow and the understanding of the importance of growth to my overall health. I think a more difficult aspect of this course or the idea of integral health in general is the demand that it has on your life. This idea demands a commitment to a way of life that will require change. This is a difficult transition for me to make in some areas such as exercise. This experience will help me to help others by equipping me with a larger pool of resources available to people in leading them on their healing journey.

week 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?

It is important for the health and wellness professional to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically so that they can be better equipped to help others along the same path toward whole healing. Without having experienced this sort of wellness themselves, they will be unable to lead others successfully toward a greater since of whole health. Not only will they be uncertain of the way to get there, they will be ineffective by not leading by example. I myself need to further develop my physical fitness in the area of physical exercise in order that I will be better equipped to advise my future patients to participate in the same activities.

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

On a scale of 1-10 with ten being perfect, I would say that I am at an 8 spiritually. I have a peace about my spiritual health and am content with my growth in this area. I give myself an 8 because I do not think that it is possible for an individual to reach perfection in this area during this lifetime. I give myself 6 for physical health because I consider myself to be physically healthy for the most part. I am not overweight, I eat a healthy diet, and I rarely get sick. However, I do not regularly exercise and so I feel that I could accomplish more in the area. I give myself a 9 psychologically because I am able to maintain a peace within myself for the most part. I recognize that there is always room for improvement and so I did not rate myself as a 10 in any of these areas.

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

Physical – I want to implement a regular weekly exercise program into my schedule.

Psychological – I want to continue to practice subtle-mind exercises as a way to develop further into the universal consciousness.

Spiritual – I want to continue to grow in my faith by regularly participating in learning more and meditation on my faith.

              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 – I can practice yoga as a form of exercise and I can practice strength training thus accomplishing a greater physical health. I can implement this by setting specific time aside to commit to these practices on a weekly basis.

Psychological – I can practice stress relieving techniques such as breathing exercises and visualizations. I can implement this into my regular routine and use them in addition to this by implementing them in times of high stress.

Spiritually – I can practice meditation and loving-kindness exercises. By making specific time for these practices daily, I can incorporate these practices into my daily life.

               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?

In the next six months I will assess my progress by doing a monthly assessment using the 1-10 scale in each of the domains of health. By understanding where I am in each of these areas, I can regularly adjust my strategy for improvement according to my needs. In order to maintain long-term progress, I can continue to learn more in order to utilize the newest information and practices available. By understanding that this is a life-long process, I can be motivated to continue to grow as a whole person and experience a whole health.

unit 8

The two practices that I have found most helpful that we have reviewed in this class are the loving kindness exercise and meditation. The loving kindness exercise has made me aware of the power of love. That in showing love and feeling love toward myself and others, I begin to heal. I will continue to use this practice by trying to foster a love for myself and others through constant awareness of the process of healing that this can help to grow. For instance, I can do the practice on the CD, I can serve others thus growing my love, and I can consciously choose to foster love for myself. I have found that meditation is an excellent tool for the growth of the subtle mind and inner peace in my life. Through meditation I can gain a greater awareness of where I am physically, mentally, and spiritually. I can implement this continually by setting aside specific time during my days and weeks that is dedicated to meditation. Through this this I will continue to further my journey toward wholeness in health.

week 7 question two

1.        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?

The idea that one cannot lead somebody where they have not gone themselves means that an individual loses credibility without personal, proven ability and experience (Dacher, 2006). For instance, a dietician will have little effect in persuading an individual that they need to eat fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet when they themselves only eat meat and complex carbohydrates. In the same way a doctor who smokes a pack a day has little impact when they advise there patients not to do the same because it is bad for their health. I think that I do have an obligation to my future clients to continue to develop my overall wellness. After all I will ask no less from them as their health care provider. By continuing to gain awareness of where I am in my journey and where I need to grow, I will become a better health care provider to my patients.

Reference:

Dacher, E.S, Integral Health, The Path to Human Flourishing, 2006, Basic Health Publications Inc.

week 7 meditation

1.        Complete the "Meeting Asciepius" exercise on track #4 of the Dacher CD. Describe your meditative practice(s) 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?

My father passed away a couple of years ago. Those who did not know him well would describe him as a quiet man. I, however, have never thought of him in this way. He simply knew what was and was not important and acted accordingly not wasting his time and strength on the unnecessary practice of commenting on things that didn’t matter or that he could not change. My father loved God and his family and these two were all that mattered. I think that he could literally let the rest of existence fade in the light of these and be completely content. During this week’s meditation, my father was the wise man that I pictured. I focused on the way that he loved his enemies and spoke encouragement to those around him. My father was a truly wise man in that at the end of his life he had no regrets because he understood that he had fulfilled his purpose. I had a hard time imagining myself becoming this wise man. As his daughter I can only hope to finish my journey close to being as fulfilled in my purpose. Through these meditations and exercises, I have become more aware of myself psychologically and spiritually. I have gotten a better understanding of the ability and practice of setting goals in these areas and forming strategies to attain them. To continue these practices and to continue in the journey of growth and awareness I will continue to find new ways that will help me to grow.

unit 6 blog

I did the Loving Kindness exercise on page 93. I found it difficult to say the phrases for as long as ten minutes and did not last the whole time. However, by reading the phrases, I was reminded of the rest of the world and how we all work together as a unit. I was filled with more of a desire to help others and be empathetic to their situations. Overall, the experience was enlightening. (Dacher, 2006)

In doing the assessment on page115, I discovered that I can spend more of my time and energy of becoming more physically fit. I have therefore chosen to focus on my growth in the area of physical fitness in order that I may enjoy better overall health. In order to do this I can set aside an amount of time each week to dedicate to physical activity such as yoga, exercise, etc. In order to do this, I may have to reduce the amount of time that I spend doing less productive things such as watching television or other static activities that may rob me of productivity. (Dacher, 2006)

Reference:

Dacher, E.S, M.D, Integral Health, The Path to Human Flourishing, 2006, Basic Health Publications, Inc.

spiritual wellness

Spiritual wellness allows us to fully embrace overall wellness including mental and physical wellness. It allows us to deepen the experience of better health and to flourish as human beings. With this flourishing our mental stress are diminished and our physical wellbeing in enhanced. For instance, by understanding our connection to God, others, and the world around us, we are better able to understand our place in this world. We are then able to let go of the uneasiness that comes with confusion of identity and the stress of trying to be something that we are not. By letting go of these things we can also let go of the mental anguish that comes with them. In turn, the release from the mental anguish can help us to avoid stress induced physical health problems such as high blood pressure or ulcers.

subtle mind practice

I enjoyed this week’s subtle mind practice. It was similar to last week’s loving kindness practice in that it required focus on specific objects or ideas. The difference was that the breath was the focus of the practice this week instead of the feeling of loving kindness. This week subtle mind practice helped me to go deeper inside of my mind and allowed me to be able to relax my mind for a time. I was able to acknowledge thoughts but not grab on to them. I found it helpful to use the breath to hold on to in order to refocus when I started to wander. The most difficult or frustrating part of the exercise was the fact that I had to continuously make an effort to stay focused. I think, though that this will become easier with practice. Halfway through the exercise the recording turned into white noise and remained that way through the end of the exercise. I was disappointed that I was unable to hear the rest of the practice; but I did enjoy what I heard and the feeling of peace that came with it.

mental workout

A mental workout is basically what it sounds like. It is a workout for the psychospiritual self in order to experience the best psychospiritual fitness level that an individual can experience. We can do this with things like contemplative exercises such as the loving kindness exercise that we practiced this week. Much like physical or intellectual fitness training, we will need to regularly practice these exercises in order to discover the best psychospiritual fitness that we can. Studies show that as we continue to practice this sort of workout, our capacity grows as well as our entire wellbeing.

Reference:

Dacher, E.S, M.D, Integral Health, The Path to Human Flourishing, 2006, Basic Health Pubications

loving kindness exercise

The Loving Kindness exercise helped me to stop and remember what it is to love myself and in turn to love others. I found this exercise to be beneficial because it is good practice to take a pause from the hectic, task oriented world and to refocus on the important things in life. Really, after all, loving kindness is a major stepping stone in the healing process. I would recommend this exercise to anyone that wants to grow as an individual and to anyone who has the desire to help others. I think that this exercise would be a good one to do on a regular basis in order to keep our priorities straight and to help us to step out into our world fully prepared to begin to serve others.

unit 3

Hello everybody. I found a bit of insight from this week's questions and exercise. The following are a few of these:

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

In reflecting on my wellbeing, if I were to rate myself on a scale of 1 to 10 with ten being optimal wellbeing, I would rate myself as follows:

Physical wellbeing – 7

I give myself a seven here because I am, in my opinion, above average in physical health. I rarely get very sick if I get sick at all. I am very capable of carrying out any task that I need to and I regularly eat a healthy diet. I did not rate myself as a ten because I do think that I could exercise more.

Spiritual wellbeing – 9

I give myself a 9 here because I am very satisfied with my place in this world and in the spiritual dimension. I am firmly planted in my faith and my beliefs. I did not give myself a ten because I do not feel that anyone can reach the pinnacle of spiritual wellbeing during this lifetime.

Psychological wellbeing – 8

I give myself an 8 here because I am very comfortable with my psychological wellbeing. However, there are improvements that I could make such as stress management, etc. therefore I did not give myself a perfect score here.

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

My goals for myself in each area are as follows:

Physical – To continue on my journey toward physical fitness and make the improvements in exercise habits that could help me to experience even greater physical wellbeing in the future.

Spiritual – To maintain the level of spiritual wellbeing that I am currently experiencing and continue to grow in my faith and understanding.

Psychological – To strive toward an inner calmness and try to better handle stress in my life or else be able to cut out the unneeded stress where I can.

3.        What activities or exercise can you implement in your life to assist in moving toward each goal?

I can implement a few simple exercises or practices into my life in order to strive toward these goals. In order to reach a greater level of physical wellbeing I can start a regularly daily exercise routine. In order to achieve my goals in spiritual wellbeing I can continue to seek direction in my faith by having a specific time each day dedicated solely to this purpose. Finally, to achieve greater wellbeing psychologically, I can practice stress management techniques and cut out any unneeded stress.

4.        Complete the relaxation exercise The Crime of the Century. To hear this exercise, click here. Describe your experience. (What it beneficial? Frustrating? etc.)

My experience with the relaxation exercise was relaxing. It was very much like some of the guided meditations that I have experienced in doing yoga. I always come away from these kind of exercises with a renewed since of awareness and a feeling of being in control of everything that really matters yet able to let the less important things go. I enjoyed this exercise.

I hope that this week has been as beneficial to you each. Hope you all have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Relaxation exercise

So... clicking on the 'click here' to listen to the exercise did not work for me. I can only assume that the exercise had to do with the health tip on the announcements. My experience with that was refreshing. To give you some background, I grew up in a very rural area in Virginia. My home was surrounded by fields and mountains. As a child I remember many occasions where I would sit outside finding solitude in the stary sky on a crisp winter's evening. As I practiced this relaxation technique tonight outside of my home in rural Virginia I found myself once again in the shoes of that child. Staring at the stars and listening to the soft rustle of the breeze in the trees. There was the unmolested clear smell of winter mixed with a faint hint of smoke from a near by chimney and a dog barking in the distance. This exercise made me completely relaxed and for those five minutes I was that child again full of possiblities and a bright future... I had gone back home.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog everyone! I have to be honest, this is my first experience with blogging. Hopefully it will work out though. I appreciate everyone stopping by to see my thoughts. I hope to update the look soon and maybe add some pics so that it will not look so plain. I am enjoying the class and finding new perspectives on health and wellness. See you all on blog!