Unit 10 - Final Post

In Unit 3 we were asked to score ourselves through a personal assessment of our psychological, physical and spiritual well-being.  I rated myself as a 7 or 8 in my physical assessment but then I developed Bronchitis last week and have not been active, I cough constantly and I am finding that I don’t take care of myself the way I need to.  Prior to this past week I would say that I felt I was at an 8 physically because I was running more and finding it felt great to be active.  Currently, I would have to rate myself as a 6, I am taking my antibiotics and using the inhaler and staying hydrated but I still have lack of energy, I actually took a 5 hour nap last Thursday, I do not recall the last time I “napped.”  Spiritually I have improved, I attend church with my boys and we started staying for the later worship service to hear the music; my youngest loves the Christian Rock that they play and I feel more connected to God.  I was a 5 two months ago but I have improved to a 7.  Psychologically I stated before that I was a 7 because I was facing my own demons.  I have faced some of my demons and I have laughed at them trying to bring down my day.  I ended a relationship recently with someone that was good to me but had a  lot of baggage and I feel free again and ready for the next step in my life.  I am also working on a better relationship with my ex-husband so my boys will be happier.  I was a 7 two months ago but now I would have to say that I am an 8 or possibly an 8.5.  I am not afraid to share what is on my mind and I do not fear the reaction I may get.

Physically I wanted to learn how to do other physically active things with my kids, we did take a bike ride to the park with me running along a couple of weeks ago, they enjoyed it and so did I.  Other than that I have backed off of exercise as I get well and get over the bronchitis.  Spiritually I wanted to be able to actually focus and clear my mind and I have found a bit more time for this.  With the passing of my Grandma I find myself pausing while completing my homework and thinking of the things I love about her.  I am not sure if it qualifies as meditation but it  has become my new motivation.  I do not know that I have done better in my relationships, I ended my 9month relationship two weeks ago but I do feel content with my decision.  Psychologically I began to trust that someone could be there for me but found myself alone, again, so I feel a bit defeated with that.  However, I had the courage to stand up and say how I felt.  Also, I learned that forgiveness can take a weight off my shoulders and I am ready to forgive my ex and move on to a healthier psychological self.

I have learned more about myself in this course than I expected.  I am a strong-willed person and I have found that I have areas that are weak and need improvement.  Being forced to take a look at myself and admit my flaws and shortcomings has better prepared me for assessing my clients and asking them what they think needs improvement for them.  In a way, the course has been a “taste of my own medicine” because much of what we did I can use with my clients to help them through issues they may be having.  I would say that I have definitely improved my overall well-being and I have become more confident.  I am ready to face the world with my head held high, my mind clear, my body healthy, and my spirit willing to face what is next!

A Plan for a Healthier and Whole Me - Unit 9 Project

I.  Introduction

            Being healthy, there are so many definitions and ideas about what healthy means.  According to the World Health Organization, “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” (WHO, 1948).  For over 60 years health has been seen as a state of wellness for one’s mind, body and spirit; though modern medicine does not always encourage this, health and wellness professionals know that it is an important part of the healing process.  I want to be healthy and be at a level of wholeness; I need to make a plan to improve my physical health, develop my spirituality more and to focus my mind to be more in-tune to myself.

II.  Assessment

            During the past nine weeks I have assessed my mind, body and spirit and I have seen where my issues in health are.  I am not concerned about myself physically as far as exercise is concerned.  I would rate myself at about a nine on my physical health because I know I always have room for improvement and could eat healthier but I am an active person without any medical issues.  Spiritually, I am a six but I am working my way up from the four I started at.  I have never understood how to improve my spirituality but I have learned.  Psychologically I am a six, many things have happened in the last 18 months that have taught me the necessity for inner-strength and forgiveness. 

III. Goal Development

            I believe that everyone has an addiction, something they do that they think helpls them focus.  My addiction is running, as long as I am able to go on a run the world is a very wonderful place.  However, my body does not always allow me to run because I have hip joint issues and osteoporosis which causes my bones to ache because they are weak.  My physical goal would be to learn other active things I can do that will give me the same stress relief that running does without the side effects.  I want to be able to learn to do new activities that get my boys involved but won’t break my legs, literally.  I also want to be more health conscious with the foods that I eat; working in the evenings does not lead to the best eating habits.

            I am learning to be more in-tune to myself so I can gain a higher level of spirituality.  My spiritual goal is to practice more visualization and calming exercises to gain the internal peace and confidence I lack.  Meeting Asclepius is a wonderful exercise that helps one find their inner-healer and the inner-wisdom which I could definitely use.  I want to be able to actually focus and clear my mind; I am very high strung and it causes me to struggle in relationships. 

            Psychologically I said I was a six, I am not completely screwed up but I have my own demons.  I need to learn to remain calm even if am not in control and learn to trust that someone else can do things, even if it is not the way I want it done.  I need to learn more greatfulness for all the wonderful things that happen in my life and learn more forgiveness over all the not so wonderful things that happen in my life.  I also want to improve my ability to focus and concentrate even when I am under stress.

IV.  Practices for Personal Health

            For all my goals to be met I must first find the paths that lead to them.  Physically, I want to be healthier and learn to take care of myself better.  To be healthier physically I will make healthier food choices based off what I have learned in my classes for health and wellness.  I will practice smarter eating habits and try to avoid unhealthy snacking by reaching for a carrot instead of chips.  Also, my body needs more TLC so I can be more active so I plan to begin bike riding on the days that my hips hurt and only run when my hips and bones feel strong.

            I have already grown spiritually in the past couple months but I look forward to feeling a deeper sense of wholeness and connectedness through spiritual practice.  Meditation is used by many people to calm their mind and become more focused.  For my first spiritual practice I will use meditation for ten minutes a day.  As I mentioned before, I am very high-strung and this leads to stress in my interpersonal relationships so I will begin using meditation to calm and focus my mind.  I have also found Meeting Asclepius to be a beneficial exercise that I will practice routinely; I want to feel that I am wise to boost my inner-strength.  “Experience your mind, voice, and heart as you take on the qualities of the wise one.  Become this person.” (Dacher, 2006).  Also, I plan to use the most recent visualization exercise that I learned.  In this visualization, Dacher asks the reader to think of a happy time, a time of wholeness and a time of vitality to become more in-tune to one’s inner-self.

            Mental fitness is a way that I can improve my psychological self.  I can practice using my opposite hand when I eat to help strengthen my mind and I can also practice more thought exercises to become more contemplative.  I also plan to focus more on gratefulness and forgiveness as part of my plan.  I have been through a lot this past year and I need to let people that have been there for me know that I am grateful they are in my life.  I need to be able to forgive as well, holding a grudge will not help me reach a clam, peaceful inner-self.

V. Commitment

            I will implement my plan so I can reach my physical, spiritual and psychological goals.  After six months I will re-evaluate my mind, body and spirit to see if my ratings have improved.  Accountability is the main focus for reaching my goals; I have to hold myself accountable to make the changes that are necessary for growth.  I will also let my family know my goals so they can help me stay on the right track, I will learn to say “Thank you!” more and to stop and breath more often.  In the long-term it is up to me to make continued improvements.

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, Ca: Basic

Health Publications

World Health Organization. (1948). Definition of Health. Retrieved February 11, 2011 from

http://www.who.int/about/definition/en/print.html

My Mental Fitness Plan

I want to be a stronger and more centered person.  Recent events in my life have caused me to wonder where my path is, I need to check my GPS and make sure I didn't take a wrong turn.  Life can be complicated but I plan to use two of the exercises that we have learned so I can improve my mind to find my wholeness again.  I find that the Meeting Asclepius was a wonderful exercise and enjoyed thinking of a loved one that I found to be wise.  I want to feel that I am wise, a way to boost my inner strength and confidence.  I can practice this exercise to find my inner-self and inner healer to guide me to integral health.  “Experience your mind, voice, and heart as you take on the qualities of the wise one.  Become this person.” (Dacher, 2006).  The other exercise that I intend to practice is a visualization exercise that we completed this week in discussion board.  This visualization exercise can help me become more centered and calmed when things become hard to face in life.  The exercise is a creative visualization and, as Dacher explains, “By practicing the following creative visualization, you can experience a taste of human flourishing.” (Dacher, 2006).  There are three parts to the visualization, Dacher asks the reader to think of a time the experienced happiness, then think of a time they experienced wholeness and, finally, think of a time they experienced vitality.  Life can be overwhelming at times but I will be able to face things in my life if I learn to practice these exercises daily and when my stressors begin to overpower me.

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

"One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself." (Schiltz, et. al., 2005). Simply stated, we cannot expect someone to do as we say if we don't do the same thing.  If you tell your child not to smoke yet you smoke you are misleading them.  As a helth and wellness proefssional you cannot expect to tell your clients about the benefits of cardiovascualr exercise if the only exercise you get is walking into work from your car.  You have to practice what you preach and set a good example for clients.  When working in the health industry it is vital that we also develop our helath through mind, body and spirit to be able to understand what our clients experience and relaly be able to explain things thoroughly to clients.  If we don't know first hand how something is than it is hard to set the client's mind at ease that we know what we are doing. "In the book it says . . . " is  a lot less inviting than, "when I did that meditation exercise last I . . ." things go much more smoothly when we know what we are talking about.  Creadability says a lot about soemone's passion for what they do and client's need to know that what you are saying is the truth so they do not beel lost in their way to a healthier mind/body/spirit.  Implementing psychological and spiritual growth can be added to my life through a more thorough udnerstanding of my spiritual self and noticing my wise self more.  I need to believe in myself so I can find the spirituality that is within me!

Schiltz, M., et. al. (2005). Consciousness & Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine. Elsevier Inc: St. Louis, MO. 

Meeting Asclepius

Meeting Asclepius was an interesting exercise.  Aslepius is the wise healer inside us that guides us as we move through the integral process.  For the exercise I chose to picture my grandmother, she has been waiting at deaths door for about a week and she touched my life greatly.  She is graceful, kind and loves to laugh; she is definitely someone that would lend a hand when she could and offered to help with the dishes well into her 90s as the Alzheimer's crept in.  The exercise was a great way to show you that you have a wise person inside you if you think about it and you need to welcome the wise person.  I am not sure if I truly feel that I have a wise healer inside me but I enjoyed searching for it and may do that again in the next few days to feel closer to my grandma. 

Mindfulness and meditation have helped me find a calmer inner self, one that is able to look at the calmer side of situations before becoming panicked.  I am sad to see my grandma passing away but I know that she will be at peace and she will be with our God so I am more at peace with it.  I have found that I am able to get along with my Ex-husband more since I started finding my inner self and started incoorporating more meditation into my life.  I find that my own variation of meditation works best because my time is so limited.  I spend a few moments each day just thinking about my day adn looking at the bright side of life even in the darkest hours.  I find that when I am in the shower I am able to concentrate enough to take that moment for myself to calm my mind and think about my day and focus on my tasks.  I plan to continue my moment of calmness each day and try to add in some more at the end of my day when I am not too tired.  Instead of falling asleep doing homework I will try to focus on my coursework and then relax for a moment as I calm my mind at the end of my day and prepare to sleep, if only for a few hours. 

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

Integral Assessment

I don't have to think hard about this to find what affects me in my life.  I would have to say the my psychospiritual aspect suffers the most; I am constantly battling with happiness and stressors.  I had court last week for custody and things seemed great then Sunday was a disaster and now today my ex is asking to take my oldest out of the state for his birthday.  I guess I have a lot of turmoil that causes me to struggle at calming my mind enough to find my spiritual self.  I am ready to calm and grow my mind and spirit but I need to have patience first.  I will work on my psychospiritual self and finding inner peace even when times are stressful.  I am ready to work on this part of my life, it is in need of healing and I am content in other aspects at this time. 

Loving-Kindness Exercise

As I calmed myself and began saying the exercise over and over I found myself rushing through the words at first.  However, as my body clamed I was able to slow down and really feel my mind and heart open up and welcome in the suffering of others.  I began thinking about the people I have read about in the news that have had sadness in their life and began to feel myself pull through suffering and wear their burden for a moment.  Now I need to find a way to help others, that is a great feeling!

Project!!!

Unit 5 Project

Subtle Mind Exercise

Before beginning this exercise I recalled my experience with the loving-kindness exercise and decided that I would wait until the house was calm and quiet so I am able to relax.  I found that this track was able to calm me more than the loving-kindness track and I found myself able to handle the noise better.  The biggest difference, for me at least, is the time of day I listened to this track.  I am the only one awake in the house because it is just passed midnight and I found that this is the best time for "me" time and listening to the track.  I have enjoyed each and every one of the relaxation exercises that I have completed in my courses though some of the voices can get annoying at times.  I am trying to keep my mind open to different possibilities and remember that change can be good.  I have never been trusting of meditation/relaxation exercises because I am so high strung but I learned about one a few years ago that I use to calm and clear my son's mind when we are doing homework and it seems to re-focus his mind and he is able to calm himself enough to complete homework.

Spiritual Wellness

For me, spiritual wellness is something that I am working on and striving for in my life.  I have learned, through several of my KU courses, the importance of the spirit in mental and physical health.  When we are hurt physically we have to believe in ourselves and our ability to strive and overcome obstacles that we face in life, this is spiritual wellness.  Having the right attitudew can affect the way we think about things and the way we react when we are facing these obstacles.  It is through a healthy spirit that we are able to find our stable and healthy mental state and our healing process can begin.  Physical ailments are much more difficult to overcome if our minds are being weighed down by our spirit and mental health.  When our spirit is well we are well mentally and physically.

Mental Workout

The basis of a mental workout is practice.  Dacher points out that an hour a day is most effective for a mental workout.  I would love to be able to have an hour a day to workout my mind to be able to b in touch with my higher thinking more often but I have kids and a job so an hour a day is not going to work for me.  However, I believe that, as with anything, any kind of practice is better than no practice at all so I am going to attempt to complete some type of mental workout daily for 5 to 10 minutes so I can increase my mental capacity.

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Loving Kindness

This is my second attempt to post, I had technical difficulties after I had typed everything so I guess I will learn to save everything before I submit it.  Ironically, I completed this exercise twice as well.  When I completed the exercise the first time I was distracted and did not feel that I had gained anything from it.  So, I decided that I would try again and the second time felt much more beneficial.  Before starting the exercise again I took precautions to assure that I would be relaxed for it and focus on the exercise without distractions.  I completed the exercise the second time after everyone in the house was asleep while I drank a cup of citrus tea.  I found my second attempt worked much better and would recommend that anyone that had trouble with the exercise try the same thing.  This was a great exercise despite the annoying voice over that was not at all calming.  I loved how the relaxation exercise not only instructed us to draw in loving-kindness to our heart but to also draw in another's sorrow into our heart to ease their pain.  I would definitely recommend this to someone but I would warn them about the not so calming voice. 

Crime of the Century Reflection

I still do not like the creepy man's voice!  However, I liked the exercise.  I found myself imagine that I was literally bloted to my seat when he directed me to imagine myself grounded.  I think I imagined myself botled to the ground because I have trouble feeling safe and secure; I have had a rough past year and it is still difficult for me to trust others and allow myself to feel safe again.  When he directed me to imagine the bright yellow my eyes could feel the brightest pour from the color like I was staring into a light bulb.  I had trouble repeating the phrase "I feel loved" because I have had so many issues with that but I am healing from my past and learning to be loved again.  The light for willpower made me feel motivated to succeed, I have felt discouraged lately with my learning and work so this helped re-center me and re-focus me to what I want to accomplish because I know that my life has a meaningful purpose.  The indigo blue was calming, I was able to feel more relaxed as I listened to how blue is the sense of balance.  I was very tired when I did this exercise and found that I was able to concentrate better.  Although I felt more concentrated during this relaxation exercise I still had trouble focusing untill the end, I have a short attention span and the exercise was a bit long for me.  The lights remninded me of another class that I took last term that reviewed Chakras in one unit, the light seemed to represent different Chakras of the body.