The beginning of the end

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? There is always room for improvement in all 3 of these areas. I don't remember what I scored myself at but right now I would give myself like a 6 or 7 rating in all of the areas.  I need to figure out how to make time for myself. I need to figure out how to let myself have the time. For me there are priorities like cleaning the house and all of my other chores then when those are done I can do the things that I want to do. I have to prioritize my priorities...it'll be a never ending process.
2. Review the goals and activities you set for yourself in each area. Have you made progress toward the goals? Explain. It is too early to say whether or not I have made any progress, to me it seems as though I am still in the same spot that I began in. It takes time to see results from any change that we make in our lives sometimes it might be as short as 9 weeks or it could take a lifetime.

 

1. 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? I have learned a lot about myself during this course, I realized that I spend a lot of my time doing things for my family, which I don't mind but sometimes I need them to understand that they are capable of doing most of the things themselves. My well being is the same, but again it wasn't that bad to begin with what I would like to improve is my weight which seem s to be stuck where it is no matter what I do. My eating habits are good, I don't drink soda and I eat healthy.

Integral assessment

1.      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 integral practice must follow the eight principles of healing and one of the eight principles states that “all integral practices must be supported by inner development” (Dacher 2006). A health care professional cannot or should not expect to be the best possible healer he can be unless he himself is healthy spiritually, physically and psychologically (Dacher 2006). When people seek the help of another they do so with faith in their knowledge not just from what they learned in school but from life as well. For me personally, I need to develop all areas of my life psychologically, spiritually and physically be for I can begin to give advice to others on the subject. Integral healing is a path of infinite learning, teaching and healing that I will forever be walking on.

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

When I see myself, I see a person that has it in their heart the things that need to change, but feel overwhelmed when it needs to get done. I feel compelled to keep pushing my needs to the back in order to keep my family happy, I take care of them first.  I would give my physical wellbeing a 6. When I was in younger up to 29 years old I was very active I worked out for 2 hours a day 4-5 days a week. Since the birth of my daughter in 2006, I have needed to lose about 30 pounds to put my 4’11” body at the weight that is optimal for me which is about 105-115. I am a chronic back pain sufferer so this puts a damper on my wanting to walk for long distances due to the fact that after about a half a mile my back gets extremely tight but I will not let this keep me down. Spiritually, I have always known that you don’t have to belong to a religious group to be in touch with your spiritual side you just have to have faith in what you believe. I respect others beliefs and practices, I consider myself to be generally kind and considerate of others as well as observant to the needs of others, so I might rate my spiritual health a 6, just because there is always room for improvement. Psychologically I give myself a score of about 7; I am a generally happy person, I don’t let things worry me so much that it makes me sick, I try to radiate my happiness with life into my kids with laughter and just being downright silly.

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

I have many goals for myself and am trying to be realistic with them. As far as may physical health is concerned I want to continue to be active even if that is just going for a brisk walk in the neighborhood, which will not only help me with my weight loss goals but leads my into my psychological health as well. Walking to me is very relaxing even when I’m doing it at a moderate pace. This helps me to clear my mind and think about things that might be bothering me. Walking can also help my spiritual wellbeing especially if I can walk in a quiet places such as out in the desert near my home, it is in this peacefulness that I can kind of step away from reality for a few moments and focus on the things in this world that mean the most to me such as having life and being able to care of the two most gracious gifts God has ever given me, my son and my daughter.

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.

There are many strategies that I can use to foster the growth of my physical, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing. To better my psychological wellbeing I will use the subtle mind technique (Dacher 2006).  I want to learn how to calm down, to concentrate on myself, to become more patient, to feel wiser and to become completely happy.  Along with the subtle mind practice I will also practice loving kindness, to send the same peace to the loved ones in my life (Dacher 2006). Spiritual training in my mind, coincides with the psychological and physical health, when doing anything that betters myself I am also becoming spiritually whole. Spiritual training can also be done using the subtle mind technique and loving kindness. Physical strength is what I desire perhaps more than spiritual and psychological strengths. I don’t want to be that little old lady that can barely open the fridge; I want my mental strength to match my physical strength. I am only 36, so that will be a few years away.  I will continue to get as much physical activity into my life as possible. I love to hike the mountains here in Arizona in the spring before the snakes come out, I also love to lift light weights and ride bicycle with my daughter. 

5. 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 assessment will hopefully come in the form of a moderate weight loss, only about 10 pounds. I can possibly do this with the nearly 3 mile walk to and from work a day. My diet needs only minimal modification; I actually need to eat more.  Psychologically I will hopefully be able to meditate longer in 6 months, which is if I can convince my family that they can live without me for about 15 to 20 minutes a day. Spiritually, I want to be at peace with everything in this world even though I don’t like a lot of the things I am seeing. Being a Christian, I notice all of the bad things going on in this world that might cause some people to lose faith in what is good about the world, I don’t want to lose faith. I believe that there is a divine plan for us all and God is out there on our path waiting to walk it with us. I want to find my path.

Nearly there

In the last 8 weeks we have learned how our minds control more than our bodily functions, they can control how we feel and our general well being both sensually and physically. I think that I have benefited most from subtle mind training. This technique is a great relaxation skill that allows the practitioner to bring forth in themselves a sense of calm and relaxation through breathing. This technique allows me to be able to focus my attention on one thought at a time or simply on your breath. I also like the loving kindness practice. We should all be doing this on a daily basis and our world would be a much better place. We should want health and happiness for our fellow humans whether they are close to us personally or not. I want to feel a sense of calm and love everyday, and I don't want to have to wait to get it from someone else. I can easily take a moment for myself in the car where it is usually very quiet, or even before getting out of bed in the morning. I want to feel better about myself and the crazy world around me and I believe that these practices can help me.

Meditation

I have enjoyed these last couple of weeks, learning to meditate and relax a little. I think the point behind meditation is not necessarily to stop thinking about all of the things that are going on in your life, but to prioritize your thinking. To concentrate on one thought at a time and become more aware of your thoughts. Sometimes we are so busy that all of the thoughts in our mind just get all jumbled. In my journey these past 7 weeks I have become more relaxed, and mindful of the goings on around me. 
"one can not lead another where one has not gone himself" is a great statement that everyone should kind of live by. How can you help someone with no experience in there needs is basically what the saying says.   I can not help someone lose weight if I am overweight, but if used to be overweight and have lost the pounds I now have the experience to help someone in the same boat. I would not want a doctor to lecture me about my weight if he too is overweight. I have had that happen before.

To change or not to change

As I have said before, I am new to this meditation and such but I like it. I am beginning to have an awareness of my own needs. I believe that I am a mindful person, I pay attention to those around me and the things that are goin on around me. I am mindful of others feelings and how the decisions that I make have an impact on them. But there are some aspects of my life that I can not change, and that is the attitude of those around me. I can only shine my light for them so much and have positive thought that my energy will flow over to them. My job on this Earth is to care for people, I will work on doing more for others and teaching my kids to do the same.

Loving heart = happy mind

Loving kindness, we should do this everyday. By thinking of others we are helping ourselves to live longer and be happier. The idea is to set all of your own thoughts and feelings aside for a bit and put forth all of your healing energy into your thoughts for a loved one or someone who truly needs your positive emotions. Much like prayer. While the subtle mind technique requires a different type of thinking, one that puts your emotions first, because how can you have positive thoughts for someone else' well being if you are not well yourself. Both of these techniques require a  quiet environment and lots of breathing. It would be easy to do this had I had the quiet environment. I have know and believed in the power of thought for a long time. I have always believed in the power of positive thinking even though sometimes that seems hard to reach. In a world where all we see and hear about is violence we could all benefit from a world wide day of meditation or prayer. Everyday our spiritual, mental and physical well beings are being tested, they are all links in a chain and if one is not complete then the chain falls apart.

pheww, now that was a workout!!

1. Describe your experience. Did you find it beneficial? Difficult? Why or why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or why not? I am new to this meditation business, but I like it. I find it helpful to only be thinking about one person at a time, including myself. I am already a a pretty thoughtful person, I'm not just tootin' my own horn either. I love to do things for other people, and I don't care about the material rewards. Knowing how I make others feel is good enough for me. I believe that this type of reward is beneficial to our well being. This exercise helped me to reflect on the time I told my boyfriend of 10 years I love you for the first time. I remember the feeling I got, and how nervous I was to say it, and how good it felt. I reflected on the birth of my kids and how I love them so much I can literally feel it in my core.
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? Just focusing on yourself, or someone else, letting in only positive energy.  How those positive thoughts poor out of your body, like a light in the darkness.