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?

The importance of a health and wellness professional developing himself/herself psychologically, spiritually and physically is, he/she will better understand the needs of the client, the more developed these areas are the more compassionate and empathetic they can be when dealing with others. The health and wellness professionals who go through the process of developing these things understand the struggle  that go along with the development and are able to help by giving advice on how to meet goals that a client my set for himself/herself.

It is hard for to choose which just one of these areas, believe me they all need work, however I the one that I feel should be addressed first is psychological.  I struggle with depression and am in a constant battle with negative thoughts vs. positive ones.  Being able to develop this aspect of myself will help to bring back out the positivity that I once had.  Having a positive attitude makes all the difference in health and wellness, I think of stories you hear of cancer patients that hold on to hope and fight and wind up going into remission and then there are the people who just see the illness and just can’t seem to grasp the hope, sad to say these people give up and give into the illness. Even though, they are all important I believe the key to integral health is developing a positive mindset.

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

 Spiritually, I would have to say that I rate myself at about a 5. I grew up going to church, I don’t currently go.  I have the background knowledge and believe in God, I am just not currently a fan of many people that go to church.  Seeing my family burned a time or two and seeing how hypocritical they can be turned me off. Physically, I would also rate a 5. I am overweight and I am not a fan of exercise. My nutrition has improved but I am still in search of an exercise program or physical activity that is fun and keeps me interested. Psychologically, I would rate at a 6. This class I think has helped to boost the rating.  The exercises that we have done throughout the class have opened me up more to my true self, who is a happier person and someone that I want to be again.

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

My physical goal is to increase the amount of time that I spend on my elliptical machine and to supplement the days that I don’t use it with another form of exercise instead of avoiding it completely, by finding either a fun DVD or a class that I can do with a friend.

My psychological goal is to reduce my stress which can deepen the feelings of depression when I am overwhelmed. By taking a few minutes and stepping back from the situation to clear my mind, practice the subtle mind exercise and focus on finding an answer to the problem instead of letting myself get caught up in the problem and the swept away by it.

My spiritual goal is to meditate daily.  The loving-kindness exercise has been the biggest help for me. At first it was very difficult I think because it opens you up to people that you may not really like or give much thought to. It is the fact that it asks you to consider those people that now makes it an important exercise.  I found myself going more out of my way to help strangers and being kinder to those I would normally just ignore because I don’t care for them.

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.

To foster growth in the physical domain I need to create a nutritionally balanced diet that is low in calories, and also come up with an exercise program.  Now that the weather is nicer doing family outings where we are physically active instead of just going to a movie will help with weight loss. Using the visualization exercise, envisioning the body and level of activity I would like to have will help to reach my goals.

Psychological growth can come from learning to control my emotions and learning to let things roll off my back, instead of giving them a hold in my life. Taking the minute or two to step back instead of immediately reacting to a person or situation and putting into practice the witness mind by letting all the snarky comments I would react with pass over until I can respond rationally.

I can foster my spiritual growth by reading a daily scripture verse that is applicable to my life or situation at the time and meditating on that, using the Bible verses like a daily affirmation to inspire and uplift. Also using the loving-kindness exercise which helps you see other in a better light so you are able to treat others the way you what to be treated.  

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?

My physical development can be monitored or tracked by using one of the online health sites like sparkspeople.com which will track your nutritional intake and also your physical activity and calories that are burned.

The psychological and spiritual can be measured in my attitude and the way I treat others. Having someone that I trust and am accountable to, who will tell me when I am getting out of hand and need to chill is a good way to keep me in check. I also think that journaling when I feel overwhelmed, stressed or slipping into my depression this way I am able to track the causes and also see how often these things occur. Hopefully as I continue to meditate I will see a decrease in the episodes that I need to write about.

Reference

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

Unit 8

The exercises that I seem to have benefited the most from are meeting Aesclepius and the Loving-Kindness.

The Loving –Kindness exercise puts me in the right frame of mind to deal with others who can be difficult or mean while I am at work.  The fact that in this exercise you include people that you may not care for yet still send out positive energy, it really puts things into perspective.

Meeting Aesclepius I like to do at night because the person that I use to focus on is a Great Aunt that I was very close to. I love to think about her when she was here she was awesome to sit with and learn from, so it only makes sense when things are bad or some lesson is needed that I learn it from someone that I loved and was good at giving me direction. I like to think of her as my Jiminy Cricket now.

Unit 6

I would have to say that the area I feel that I need to work on after the assessment is interpersonal; this is the area in my life that causes me the greatest stress.  I knew it did but did realize how much until I started the reading and exercises for this unit. I think that the loving-kindness exercise that was in the book this week fits in nicely with something that I could do to support my growth and development with my interpersonal relationships.  I really liked it because it can be used like a daily (or several times daily depending on how much people annoy me) affirmation to focus me more on others and making sure that are happy and healthy instead of worrying about how people and their actions will affect me.  Since taking the class I am better at the introspective reviews or glimpses during meditations but there is still the underlying unease that they cause.  I think that is why I would rather do some sort of affirmation either verbal or written each day… The meditations are still a work in progress as far as I am concerned. 

Thoughts for unit 5

I think that my mind is a little bit too subtle during this exercise. I tired do the meditation twice and each time I tried to do it I would fall asleep when she stopped talking, then she scared me each time she talked again.  I preferred the loving kindness exercise because there was more guided.  I tend to drift off when there are long pauses during the meditations.

Spiritual wellness is connected to mental and physical wellness because what you believe at your core makes you who you are.  I think of it like stacking blocks… the spiritual wellness is the base, then you mental wellness… if you have something to believe in and hope for… your mental health is better, your outlook wouldn’t be as negative. By having a better mental outlook this helps to improve your overall physical wellness.

Week 4

I1.    I like the idea of the Loving – Kindness exercise in our book Integral Health, The Path to Human Flourishing much better than the actual mediation that we listen to. I found this exercise to be much easier without the lady giving the guided tour.  This exercise for me was much too long. I think that I might continue with this meditation but in smaller increments. I like the idea of taking what you feel for a loved one and turning it inward because most people seem not to have the same amount of love for themselves that they may for a parent, spouse or child. There was only one part that I am unsure of and that was taking in the suffering of another, only because that could bring negativity into yourself if you are not able to let it go properly. But I totally agree with sending out the healing and the love to someone that is.

2.    The mental workouts are important to help us all flourish so that we are healthy, happy and whole. That is why we must practice the activity like loving-kindness which opens the heart and the subtle mind which helps to expand our wisdom. If we are able to have both and open heart and an open mind then we would have the ability to be open to ourselves. We would know ourselves much better and be able to access parts of the mind that are usually under used by most people.

I really like the quote from the Torah that was in the Consciousness and Healing book…

“Happy are those who find wisdom. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. Get wisdom. Get insight. Do not forget”

Week 3

With the rainbow meditation it took me a moment or two but then I realized that he was going through the chakras. I like the idea of chakras and the meditation using them was much nicer for me because I didn’t have to focus as hard on intricate parts of the body, like the redirecting blood flow. It was still focused on specific areas but with the colors I imagined with the color a more broad area and was able to relax and focus on the colors. The funny part was at the end when he tried to bring us out and say that we wouldn’t be sleepy… LOL that doesn’t work for me, I usually am.



It really didn’t take any extra reflecting to realize where on the scale I fall for any type of well being… Physical is I think about a 5, Spiritual is a little higher I think probably a 6 maybe a 7 and Psychological is a 4 but I am hoping for a 5.


I am far from a goal oriented person so to develop any goals for me a difficult in itself. I think though if I had to pick something for Physical it would be exercising more and that would mean making an attempt on a regular basis to at least get out and walk for 10 or 20 minutes every other day at least to start. Spiritually, I should make the attempt to make it to mass. That’s something I have slacked on but know I really shouldn’t have. Psychologically, since I struggle with depression this one is a little harder to judge what type goal I should choose. I think more than anything I guess it would be finding a way to reduce stress because that just piles onto the depression sometimes. Finding a way to let things go of those petty things that get to me and cause me stress would be a goal. That would be the most important goal really.

Thoughts about Unit 2 meditation

I have like doing guided meditations. I have done them for my son for years. I used to do them with him to help him sleep, when reading a book just didn’t do the trick. He liked it when he would get so relaxed that we would talk about him flying or floating on bubbles. Sometimes while doing the guided meditations with him I would talk myself to sleep, that always upset him alittle. LOL


I enjoyed listening to someone else guiding me through the meditation. I could almost feel myself sinking into my bed as I listened. I it seemed like I could feel the blood actually flowing more to different parts of my body. I was able to fall asleep quickly after I was finished listening to the meditation.

Welcome to my blog.

I am not a fan of blogging so this part of the class I think will be my biggest problem. That said ...

I am almost done with my BS for Health Science. I have taken a lot of class about health and wellness. I used to be a massage therapist so the whole idea of Holistic medicine appeals to me. I look forward to what we will be learning in this class, since everything is connected, learning more about the mind body connection and how the mind can heal or at least keep the body healthy is important.