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.