Last blog post

For my physical health I assessed myself at an 8 and I would still rate myself at an 8.  I have been working out a lot more and am actually starting to see muscles I have not seen since high school so I am happy about that.  The number on the scale has not changed though which is frustrating.  I still let my stress levels affect my health and I was just sick last week because of over stressing myself due to finals.  I need to work on keeping my stress levels in check so I stop getting colds from it.  My goal was to love my body more for how it is.  I really have been working on that a lot lately.  It has improved a little.  I have not stuck with saying something I love about myself every time I see a mirror but I still do it occasionally.  I need to really stick with this one more. 

For my psychological health I assessed myself at a 6.  I would currently rate my mental health at an 8.  Even though I still let stress get to me on occasions (such as finals week) my overall stress levels have gone down.  My goal was to meditate.  I do not meditate every day but I have been doing it more often.  It is a work in progress still but it has come a long way. 

For my spiritual health I scored myself at a 7.  I would currently score myself at an 8.  My goal was to tell my boyfriend about my beliefs and I did and he completely supports him and I discovered that even though his family is strict catholic that he does not follow his family’s beliefs as strictly as he does and that he supports whatever I believe. 

I think that everything I learned in this class will help me in my future career.  It has opened my eyes to other people’s beliefs and has taught me to be more accepting of others beliefs.  Meditation was hard for me and still is but at least I do it occasionally now as opposed to never. 

Final Project!

    1.        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?

People want to learn from those who have a life of success in the area they are trying to learn.  If a health and wellness professional does not have success in their psychological, spiritual and physical health, who will want to follow them?  Your clients will want to know that you have succeed in these developmental areas so that they can follow in your footsteps.  If it looks as though you have not reached your full potential in one of these areas, your clients may not want to use you as their health and wellness professional because they may not trust your ability to get them to the level they would like to be at. 

Also if, for example, you have never meditated, how can you teach others how to meditate?  Meditation takes practice and determination to keep at it.  How can you motivate others to work through the difficulties associated with meditation if you yourself have never gone through them?  It is the same with physical activity.  If you look like your body is not healthy, people are not going to believe that your body is healthy.  If you seem to be against spiritual beliefs or are judgmental of others spiritual beliefs, who will come to you for spiritual health?

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

I would assess my physical health at a 8.  I would like to lose weight and become healthier.  I often get colds during the winter and I think that exercise, combine with healthy eating and meditation for stress relief will help that.  I would assess my psychological health at a 7.  I often feel stressed and overwhelmed and react to situations too emotionally.  I feel like meditation will help me to learn to think through things instead of feel through things.  I rate my spiritual health a 7 too.  I have faith in God and often find myself talking to God.  I feel that I need to let go and realize that everything happens for a reason and feel more of a connection with God. 

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

One of the goals I have for my physical development is to run a half marathon by fall.  This means that I need to continue increasing the amount I run with the running group I recently joined as well as at the gym.  This will lead to losing weight, feeling more comfortable in my body, and having a stronger and healthier body.  My other physical goal is to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and less processed foods.  This will also lead to me losing weight and feeling more comfortable with my body as well as having a healthier body. 

My psychological goal is to learn to meditate and to make the time to meditate.  I recently checked out a book from the library about meditation and I will continue to use the guided meditations from this class.  During the break between classes at Kaplan I intend to make some time every day to start making meditation more of a habit for me in hopes that when classes start back up again it will be easier to make time for it.  I also need to set aside time for it every day so that I will have time to practice to make it easier for me to do. 

My spiritual goal is to learn to focus more on my connection with God.  There are many times in my life when I am stressed and forget to focus on God’s ability to take care of and protect me.  I need to start remembering that everything happens for a reason and that each little bump in life’s path is God’s way of teaching me an important lesson.  I will start using positive affirmations to build my relationship with God.

                4.            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.

For my physical development goal I will need to increase the number of days I run from two to four days a week.  I am also going to ask my new running group questions on how to prepare and train to run the marathon.  I figure that the more I know, the more likely I am to succeed and stick with it.  I also have created a weight training 30 day challenge for myself to increase my overall strength and running ability.  If the challenge goes well then I will continue it and probably add more exercises and weight to it. 

To complete my goal to eat more raw foods I will start going to the farmer’s market every week and see what foods I like to eat.  I will also buy a few healthy eating cookbooks so that I can learn how to cook more healthy foods.  I already try to eat healthy and have incorporated more fruits and vegetables into my diet but I have a hard time finding healthy recipes that taste good to me.  I will be more likely to stick with my goal if I can find good tasting ways to prepare the healthier food.

For my psychological goal I plan to read the book about meditation I got from the library and if it helps buy more.  I also plan to find more guided meditations as I think that is a good starting place for me instead of just hoping I can completely rid my mind of thoughts on my own.  I will set aside at least 15 minutes a day for meditation and increase the length of time as meditation becomes easier for me.  

For my spiritual goal I will sit down and decide what my positive affirmations will be.  I recently bought a new Louise Hay book filled with positive affirmations that I plan to read on our break from school.  I am hoping this book will help me figure out some positive affirmations to help me find my connection with God.  Once I decide on the affirmations I will use them in my daily life as well as during meditation.

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?

For my physical development goal I can assess the progress of my 30 day challenge with the chart I drew to help me keep track of which days I have completed my required tasks.  Also my ability to run the half marathon in September will be a good way to assess if I have trained enough.  If I have not then I will have to reassess how best to train because my next goal will be to run the half marathon at the Cellcom run next year.  As for the healthy eating part of my goal I was planning on using a weekly meal planner to help me figure out meals.  My ability to follow the meal planner and keep a larger percentage of my food intake healthy foods will allow me to see how I am doing.  My continued dedication to running and healthy eating will increase my health and wellness over the long term.

For my psychological development goal I will write in my gratitude journal that I recently purchased.  In the journal it has spaces to write down how I feel, what I am grateful for, what I have achieved spiritually, and goals and ideas for the next day as well as space to write whatever I would like.  In this journal I could write down my progress with meditation.  What struggles I have and how I feel I have succeeded as well as how I think I could improve what I am doing. This would give me a way to track my progress and give me something to assess myself in six months or whenever I feel I need to assess how I am doing.  This journal may also be very helpful when I get clients because it will help me to remember my struggles with meditation and give me a way to share those struggles with them. 

For my spirituality goal I can use the same journal I mentioned above.  There is a space in the journal to write how I am doing spiritually and in this space I can record how I feel my affirmations are doing, write though any spiritual or personal problems I may be having and how I feel things are going and how I can improve.  It will also give me a way to look back and reflect on my progress. 

Unit 8

The loving kindness exercise was the most beneficial with me.  It had us take our feelings of love and kindness and expand them from just one person, to ourselves, to others around us to even our enemies.  A lot of the personal work I was doing, even before this class, is to try to love everyone, even my boss and be kinder to those around me.  This visualization was also the easiest for me.  I tend to base a lot of my life around my emotions of things.  Having an exercise that was based on my emotions made it easier to do and clearer in my mind.  I plan to continue to use this meditation in my life to help me learn to accept others as they are and see the positives in them.  

Meeting Asclepius was my other favorite.  Although it was difficult for me to decide on a person, so took me another time of doing it to get the desired effect, it still helped me find my self-esteem.  Going into this field and being new to Kaplan made me feel a little behind everyone else and made me wonder if I had picked the right career field.  After doing this exercise it made me realize that I too could be like the healer I envisioned, I just needed to work hard and believe in myself.  It gave me a lot of self-confidence to visualize myself as the healer I thought of.  I will continue to use this practice so that I can build up my confidence and do well in my chosen career.  I feel this exercise will help lead me in a positive direction in my life. 

This makes me realize that when I have clients of my own that giving them a variety of meditations, exercises and practices will be important as everyone is different.  I work better with emotion based exercises but my client may not.  I like that we were exposed to a variety of exercises and were allowed to choose which one best fit us as an individual.

Unit 7

Complete the following and post in your blog:

1.        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?

I was not sure who to visualize.  I do not currently have anyone that fit the description so it took me awhile to figure one out.  Because it took me awhile to decide on a person, I feel that my wandered much more easily than it did for the loving-kindness meditation.  Eventually I picked a friend of my mothers who is also a massage therapist.  She is the most open-minded, spiritual, loving, nurturing person I know.  I hesitated using her at first because it has been awhile since I have seen her.

I’m not sure what it is about using light coming out of a body that bothers me.  Something about it didn’t seem natural and so I had a hard time focusing on it.  I don’t know why, but white light was much easier than the previous meditation where we used multiple colors.

The longer it went on the easier it got to focus.  I like the thought of actually becoming the person that I was imagining.  I would love to be as positive a healer as she is.  It gave me a little self confidence that maybe one day that I can be.  It made me realize that those same traits are inside me, I only need to develop them. 

2.        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?  If you have never meditated, how can you truly explain to someone how to meditate and the benefits of it.  Any aspect of health that we need to teach to another, exercise, diet, stress management, spirituality, etc. are hard to teach if you have never done them or if you don’t believe in them.  For example, if you don’t see yourself as a spiritual person and have no faith or beliefs, how can you help someone further develop their spirituality? 

Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not? If you do not progress in your own development, how can you teach it to others?  Also, others will look to you for guidance, if it seems like you are an unhealthy person, who will want to follow you?  People want to follow people that they admire and people who seem to have all the answers.

 How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?  I need to work on my stress management, use more positive affirmations and make meditation a regular practice in my life. 

Complete the following and post in your blog:

Describe the exercise and assessment process. What did you discover about yourself? What area have you chosen to be a focus of growth and development? Why? What are some specific exercises or activities that you can implement to foster greater wellness in this area?
I liked the loving-kindness exercise.  It definetly made me focus on being more kind to others around me, especially my boss.  I have been having a hard time with her lately and this helped me alot.

As for the assessment, my emotional development is the area that I would like to work on most which is part of the psychospiritual flourishing.  The book asks “is our emotional life dominated by uncontrolled desires, anger, fear, and other reactive emotions.  Or do we live in a more neutral state where we move between afflictive emotions and transient pleasures?” (Schlitz, Amorok, 2006).  I would have to agree that I tend to over react to my emotions.  I let negative thoughts get into my head and have free reign.  I really need to work on controlling the sway my emotions and fears have on me. 

It is hard for me to control these emotions and fears because I often do not realize that I am reacting to something and that I need to not until the situation has passed.  It has become a habit of mine, and a hard one to break it seems.  I need to try being more aware of my thoughts and feelings so that I can change them to more positive ones.  Once I realize when I am having these feelings I can work on using positive affirmations to change them, relaxed breathing to calm myself and meditation to resolve some of these feelings. 

I could use work in all areas of integral health, but more seem more important to me at this point in my life.  I would like to work on the emotion/psychospiritual aspect as well as the biological flourishing.  I have really been working on becoming a healthier person and I would love to lose some weight and one day be able to run a half marathon. 

Relaxing subtle mind

Complete the following and post in your blog:

Your mental fitness practice this week incorporates the concept of the subtle mind (Dacher p.75). This week, replace the Loving Kindness exercise of unit four with Practice 2: The Subtle Mind practice mp3 (located in the Doc Sharing thread).

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

After reading the text and really understanding and seeing the importance of calming the mind and detaching from feelings and emotions of a thought, I think I tried harder for this one than the last.  I found this one easier to relax to.  I liked the wave sounds, the music was distracting when it played.  The woman’s voice scared me when she started talking after the second stretch of silence.  Then I think I didn’t relax as well for the next stretch of silence because I was waiting for her voice again.  Overall very relaxing!  The most effective so far in completely relaxing me.  I think this is something I will stick with for a while and see if I can become better at it.

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

When I am feeling frustrated, stressed and overwhelmed I talk to God.  I am not Christian, but I do believe in God.  I talk to him and work things through in my head.  I believe that everything happens for a reason and that God is guiding us.  This gives me some mental wellness because I feel like I am not alone which reduces my stress and helps me deal with things easier.  When my mental health is in good condition, so is my body.  I feel less stressed which results in less wear and tear on my body. 

Unit 4

Upon completion of reading chapter 6, review the section ‘Getting Started’ (p.66). Begin practice 1: Listen to the Introduction mp3 and Loving Kindness mp3 (both located in Doc Sharing). Practice the Loving Kindness exercise this week. In your journal (blog), record your reaction to the exercise.

Answer each of the following in your blog:

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

Very relaxing!  I am an emotional person and so talking about love and what to do with that love was easier for me than the other guided relaxation things that we have done in this class so far.  Some of the pauses between the things we needed to think of were a little too long so my mind would wander.  Turning the love inward at first was hard for me and as my back was sore I could not completely be at ease with my body’s sensations but was definitely more at ease with them then before.  When she asked us to let our negative and positive emotions flow I became less relaxed.  I think that there is some negative feeling that was trying to surface but my mind wouldn’t let it.  Overall I think it was a great experience and I would recommend it to others.  It is very relaxing, and has you dig through some emotional stuff as well. 

2.        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?

We use contemplative practice when having a “mental workout”.  There are two types of contemplative practice explained in the book.  The first one is loving-kindness.  “The great sages have continuously reminded us that an enduring well-being requires a diminished focus on ourselves and our own needs and an enhanced concern and compassion for the welfare of others” (Dacher, 2006).  Practicing loving-kindness on a daily basis can be a lot of work for those who are new to it.  However the longer that you practice it for, the easier it becomes.  Going out into the world and looking for people that you can help is a great way to start you on the path to skillful loving-kindness. 

The second contemplative practice is the subtle mind.  “We cultivate wisdom by taming and training our mind, accessing its deeper levels, and exploring the essential nature of mind and experience” (Dacher, 2006).  Once we learn how to slow down our thoughts and emotions we can develop a witnessing mind.