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?
In unit three, I scored myself a 6 on my psychological wellbeing, a 5 on my physical wellbeing, and a 5 on my spiritual wellbeing. I would now score myself a 7 in my psychological wellbeing, a 6 in my physical wellbeing, and a 6 in my spiritual wellbeing. My scores may not have gone up a ton, but that’s because I have set high goals for myself. The fact that my score has changed at all in this short period of time, shows me that I have been working very hard at sticking to the exercises I have set for myself during the week.
2. Review the goals and activities you set for yourself in each area. Have you made progress toward the goals? Explain.
In unit three, I set a goal to workout at least twice per week, while mixing cardio and strength training together. I am now finding myself doing some sort of workout three times per week, sometimes four. I was also able to combine strength training and cardio by doing things like yoga, and tae bo. I set myself a goal of not giving up on meditation for my spiritual wellbeing. I still have not given up and actually find it more invigorating and much easier that I did in unit three. I set a goal of finding a way to step back, think, and observe my thoughts for my psychological wellbeing. I wanted to be able to decide which ones I wanted to focus my energy into. I have made a huge leap in progress with that, just but studying the witnessing mind and doing things like the subtle mind exercise.
3. Have you implemented the activities you chose for your well-being in each of the three areas? Explain.
I chose yoga, pilates, and tae bo to help boost my physical wellbeing and I surprisingly stuck to them, and was able to implement them into my busy schedule. I chose continuing to meditate for my spiritual practice since I was so new to it. I tried to do some sort of daily exercise regarding meditation. I was able to do this as well, and plan on continuing. The activity I chose for psychological wellbeing was flat out practice, and acknowledging the situations I was in. That was something I easily implemented by doing witnessing mind activities. I progressed from witnessing to learning what to do with the good thoughts I invest my energy in.
4. 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?
As you can see by my increased ratings on myself, and the fact that I was able to implement the activities I planned to, my overall wellbeing has increased. I may have not reached my goals yet, but I plan to! So many things have been rewarding. The increased inner peace is the biggest one for me. I feel like I woke up from a bad dream and finally started living an amazing life. My life wasn’t bad before, but the negativity and unnecessary self torture made it seem so much worse than it was. It has been difficult for me to fit all the exercises in that I want to do, but I keep doing it because I know it will continue to pay off. My experience in this course will give me the ability to understand the journey and hard work it takes to reach integral health. This understanding will help me to better guide and assist others on their own healing paths. Not only that, but this course has given me the ability to do it with joy, love, and a positive outlook. Good luck to everyone on your journey and I hope you all reach your integral health goals! :)
Friday, March 9, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Unit 9 Final Project
It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually
and physically because, without this personal development, they cannot effectively help current
and potential clients or patients. If the professional does not understand the journey it takes to
reach the spiritual, psychological, and physical goals of a particular patient or client, then they
are not able to be a true guide. The areas that I need to develop for the goals I have set for myself
are all of them. I plan on spending the rest of my life trying to become as integrally healthy as
possible. The short term goals I have for myself, that I have been recently working on, are the
biological aspects of myself and the worldly aspect.
I have assessed my health in the biological aspect by learning from the integral assessment. I
have asked myself questions like, what drives my life? What motivates my actions? Have I
mastered fitness, nutrition, and self-regulation to the level I want to be at (Dacher, 2006). I have
assessed my health in the worldly aspect by asking myself similar questions. I also ask if I am
where I want to be at with work, social activism, and generativity. I meditate on each individual
aspect in each category, and rate myself on a scale of where I feel I am. I score my wellness
spiritually, physically, and psychologically by measuring where I currently am to where I wish to
be in however long of time I wish to be there. Spiritually I score my wellness at about a six, on a
scale of one to ten, ten being where I want to be. Physically I would score myself a seven, and
psychologically about a six.
One of the goals that I have for myself in the physical area is to master a healthy diet. I seem
to know what is healthy and what is not, but I have had a challenge with putting it all together
and actually doing it. I always seem to have some sort of mental block or excuse preventing me
from doing it. A goal I have for myself is the psychological area is a combination of slowing
down all the mental chatter and stop worrying so much. A goal in the spiritual area that I have is
to become more in touch with the real me, my inner self, and master becoming a person full of
loving-kindness. Life is too short to be full of negativity.
Some strategies to help foster physical growth are doing different types of exercises. I
personally have chosen to do yoga, tae bo, and pilates. The way that I implement yoga in my life
is by setting aside a time in the morning twice a week to practice it before work. I implement tae-
bo and pilates once to twice per week on the mornings that I am not doing yoga. I give myself a
day or two break, at least, per week to allow the muscles to re-build themselves. Some strategies
to help foster psychological health are doing the subtle mind exercise and visualization exercises.
I implement the subtle mind exercise by practicing it every morning that I have the extra time,
and at night as well. It helps to prepare my mind for the day, and for sleep. I implement the
visualization exercise by setting aside time once per week to practice a visualization, like
meeting aesclepius. Even that once per week has made a significant difference. Some strategies
to help foster spiritual growth are meditation and silence. I say silence because it requires
strategy to find it in our busy lives. I have a specific time and place that I have found I am able to
go and be in almost complete silence. The therapeutic effects I found silence to have on me
spiritually, have been amazing. Silence alone was able to remind me what is real, and what is
most important in life. I implement meditation by doing the loving-kindness exercise, along with
other exercises as many times per week as possible.
I have already been assessing my progress, or lack of it, and I will continue to use my current
strategy over the next six months. I have created a chart with all the different exercises and
meditations that I do. I mark which ones I do on which days. At the end of the week, I assess
how I feel and whether or not I have progressed or regressed. If I regress, I change up my routine
to something that fits me better. Learning the dynamic principle really helped me with this. I am
a visual person. I learn better visually, and am motivated by seeing my progress in front of me.
The chart I have created will help me maintain my long-term practices for health and wellness
because just seeing how far I have come, and having that match with how much better I feel,
motivates me to not give up. In fact, I have found myself asking myself recently why I did not
start this sooner. It all has been such a big help and has turned my life toward many positive
directions. It has given me hope that I will someday be developed enough to help others on their
journey to integral health.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Review of Exercises
Of the different exercises that I did during this course, the ones that I determined most beneficial were the loving-kindness exercise and the subtle mind exercise. They really made a strong impact on me spiritually and psychologically. I can implement loving-kindness and the subtle mind exercise into my personal and professional life by continuing to practice them every single day. Even after this course ends. In the morning before work, I will allot time to do the loving-kindness exercise, which helps with my day. After work I set aside a half hour to do the subtle mind exercise to calm my mind, and clear my racing thoughts, if any. This really helps me to wind down and to sleep. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have taken this amazing class!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Meeting Aesclepius
This week I only focused on the meeting aesclepius meditation. I like to focus on one each week, and as I get better, I will incorporate more. The meeting aesclepius meditation was difficult at first because I didn't know who to pick as my wise teacher. Then my loving, compassionate, joyful, humorous grandpa Jack, who passed away when I was younger, came to me. He has been my guiding light through this practice. I feel more in touch with who I am, and more compassionate and understanding towards others. This meditation has made it so the little things that used to bother me so much, don't seem like such a big deal anymore. My mind is attacking itself less, and the spontaneous thoughts that controlled my actions have calmed down. This meditation, mixed with the subtle mind practice and the loving-kindness practice have helped tremendously. I will continue to apply these practices to my life, daily, by continuing to set aside time in the mornings and evenings to do at least one of the practices per day.
The saying "one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself," means that if you have not been spiritually, or psychologically where you think someone else should be, you cannot lead them there. You have not been there yourself, so you do not yet understand the journey. A health and wellness professional cannot expect to help a patient develop much further past where they themselves are developed. A health and wellness professional has an obligation to the clients to continue their own development in every way. It's important for a health and wellness professional to keep up daily practice to further their own growth, because the further they are developed, the further they can help others develop.
In my own life, I can foster psychological and spiritual growth by focusing daily on my inner development and my physical development. Yoga and meditative practices are some of the ways this is being done, and I am slowly starting to see the results, and the light at the end of the tunnel.
The saying "one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself," means that if you have not been spiritually, or psychologically where you think someone else should be, you cannot lead them there. You have not been there yourself, so you do not yet understand the journey. A health and wellness professional cannot expect to help a patient develop much further past where they themselves are developed. A health and wellness professional has an obligation to the clients to continue their own development in every way. It's important for a health and wellness professional to keep up daily practice to further their own growth, because the further they are developed, the further they can help others develop.
In my own life, I can foster psychological and spiritual growth by focusing daily on my inner development and my physical development. Yoga and meditative practices are some of the ways this is being done, and I am slowly starting to see the results, and the light at the end of the tunnel.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Loving-Kindness and the Integral Assesment
The universal loving kindness meditation was harder than I thought it would be. I had a hard time memorizing the four lines so I could relax and repeat them in my head, but once I did, it got easier. I found I felt a little more connected and less worried about little things after I completed the meditation. I also found after about 6 solid minutes of the meditation, I actually felt a loving energy start to build up inside me for all those people.
After I completed the integral assessment I discovered that I am finally clear on the areas that I want to start focusing on first. This was a huge relief because earlier in the term when learning about integral health, I was feeling overwhelmed and didn't know where I needed to start. The area that I have chosen to start working on is biological. There are things in other areas I could work on, but I chose biological because fitness, nutrition, and self regulation are three of my weakest areas. I also picked it because I feel if I can develop those areas first, developing certain other areas will come much easier. Some activities I have chosen to focus on to develop the biological area are meditation, yoga, palates and tae-bo. I also have written down what foods I will give up and have started menu planning so I choose less impulsive eating choices.
After I completed the integral assessment I discovered that I am finally clear on the areas that I want to start focusing on first. This was a huge relief because earlier in the term when learning about integral health, I was feeling overwhelmed and didn't know where I needed to start. The area that I have chosen to start working on is biological. There are things in other areas I could work on, but I chose biological because fitness, nutrition, and self regulation are three of my weakest areas. I also picked it because I feel if I can develop those areas first, developing certain other areas will come much easier. Some activities I have chosen to focus on to develop the biological area are meditation, yoga, palates and tae-bo. I also have written down what foods I will give up and have started menu planning so I choose less impulsive eating choices.
Monday, February 6, 2012
The Subtle Mind
The loving-kindness exercise, in my opinion, took more effort than the subtle mind exercise. It required more thinking, and actions. It also requires sending loving-kindness to enemies .It has gotten much easier with practice though. It also has shown to have noticeable benefits such as, I find myself being more understanding, kind and forgiving without even trying. I also have a higher tolerance level for things that should not really bother me in the first place. I absolutely loved the subtle mind exercise. I had never tried focusing on the breath to clear my mind until that exercise. It required very little effort for me and I realized that once my mind was clear, it was pretty easily kept that way. Not many thoughts tried creeping in. I also feel like with practice I could master it.
Spiritual health gives us the ability to flourish in the area of mental and physical health. Having spiritual health gives us the tools we need to manage stress, negative emotions, and the negative aspects of our lives that place wear and tear on our minds. It also teaches us to be calm, understanding, forgiving, and connected to all around us. Preventing the wear and tear on our minds leads to healthy physical health. Our thoughts send neuropeptides that carry messages to different parts of our bodies. If the thoughts our unhealthy, the message carried is unhealthy, leading to illness, disease, pain and other negative aspects. Doing mental workouts before my day has helped me manage my stress levels and mood. Exercises such as the subtle mind exercise help me at night when im trying to fall asleep. My racing mind is shut off and I sleep so much better.
Spiritual health gives us the ability to flourish in the area of mental and physical health. Having spiritual health gives us the tools we need to manage stress, negative emotions, and the negative aspects of our lives that place wear and tear on our minds. It also teaches us to be calm, understanding, forgiving, and connected to all around us. Preventing the wear and tear on our minds leads to healthy physical health. Our thoughts send neuropeptides that carry messages to different parts of our bodies. If the thoughts our unhealthy, the message carried is unhealthy, leading to illness, disease, pain and other negative aspects. Doing mental workouts before my day has helped me manage my stress levels and mood. Exercises such as the subtle mind exercise help me at night when im trying to fall asleep. My racing mind is shut off and I sleep so much better.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Loving-Kindness
My experience with the loving-kindness exercise was a good one for the most part. I felt something start to open up inside me that I have built a wall around over the years in order to protect myself from whatever it was I thought I needed protecting from. I feel like I really need to re-connect with the tiny glimpse of a much better me that I saw. I am going to continue this loving-kindness practice in the following weeks. I found the very end, where we are sending out loving-kindness to strangers and taking in their suffering a bit challenging. I hope this will become easier as I learn more about loving-kindness and practice the exercises. I would highly recommend this exercise to others because of my own experience with having a glimpse of how amazing I could feel all the time, instead of just when I am focusing on it. I believe that the more people that learn loving-kindness, the less useless suffering and heartache we will have in the world.
A mental workout is when we take the focus off of outer things and work on our inner development. Some research has showed that a major benefit from mental workouts are actual physiological and structural changes in the brain to reflect a specific mental state (Dacher, 2006). Something as formless and immaterial as a thought or image can change the physical make-up of our body (Dacher, 2006) Mental workouts have been proven in certain ways to change our bodies in positive directions. Doing daily mental workouts of some form or another can reduce negative psychological thoughts and emotions that hold us back in our daily lives. For example, I have a plan of setting aside time before and after work for mental workouts so I can feel prepped for the day, and then relaxed afterwards. My job is one of the biggest stressors on my psychological health.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Self Reflection
A. Physical well-being-5-I rate it this because my body-fat ratio is not where it should be and I know it is part of the reason why I have less energy and other issues. I am not 'overweight' but I am not at a healthy level either. My endurance and cardiovascular health could use some improvement as well.
B. Spiritual well-being-5- I rate it a five because that is where I personally feel I stand in the journey I am on to reach the spiritual goal I have set for myself.
C. Psychological well-being-6-Maybe I am being hard on myself but I don't feel I am as psychologically healthy as I could be. I think its because my mind races alot and causes me to think random things that don't even make sense. I need to learn to control what I call a 'monkey mind.' A mind that jumps from one place to the other, never holding still.
Goals
A goal that I have set for physical well-being is to work out twice per week. I always seem to have an excuse of why I don't have the time to work out. I just need to do it and stop making excuses. I will do a combination of cardio/strength training.
My goal for spiritual well-being is to not give up on the meditating that I started. Its been a challenge but I feel that meditation will get me past the barrier I feel (whatever that is).
My goal for better psychological well-being is to find a way to "step back", think, and observe the thoughts that are going through my mind a choose the ones I want to focus my energy on and discard the rest...So much easier said than done :)
Activities
I tried to think of some realistic activities that I could try to help me reach my goals. I am open to new ideas and suggestions so feel free to comment! I chose yoga, and Pilate's and tae bo for the physical well-being. I chose meditation for the spiritual since I am new to it and need to focus on actually sticking with it to see if it helps me. For psychological well-being, I am not sure of an activity that will help me with that. I think just flat out practice, and acknowledgement of the situation is where I need to start.
The Crime of the Century
This exercise was definitely more difficult for me than the last one. I think it was because I kept trying to memorize the colors that I was beaming out. Even though the exercise was difficult, I can see myself getting better at it. I really liked it overall. There was a point in the exercise where I started getting a little emotional for no apparent reason, but I felt refreshed and more connected afterwards. I found it fascinating that the colors that were chosen seemed to really represent what the speaker said they were to represent.
B. Spiritual well-being-5- I rate it a five because that is where I personally feel I stand in the journey I am on to reach the spiritual goal I have set for myself.
C. Psychological well-being-6-Maybe I am being hard on myself but I don't feel I am as psychologically healthy as I could be. I think its because my mind races alot and causes me to think random things that don't even make sense. I need to learn to control what I call a 'monkey mind.' A mind that jumps from one place to the other, never holding still.
Goals
A goal that I have set for physical well-being is to work out twice per week. I always seem to have an excuse of why I don't have the time to work out. I just need to do it and stop making excuses. I will do a combination of cardio/strength training.
My goal for spiritual well-being is to not give up on the meditating that I started. Its been a challenge but I feel that meditation will get me past the barrier I feel (whatever that is).
My goal for better psychological well-being is to find a way to "step back", think, and observe the thoughts that are going through my mind a choose the ones I want to focus my energy on and discard the rest...So much easier said than done :)
Activities
I tried to think of some realistic activities that I could try to help me reach my goals. I am open to new ideas and suggestions so feel free to comment! I chose yoga, and Pilate's and tae bo for the physical well-being. I chose meditation for the spiritual since I am new to it and need to focus on actually sticking with it to see if it helps me. For psychological well-being, I am not sure of an activity that will help me with that. I think just flat out practice, and acknowledgement of the situation is where I need to start.
The Crime of the Century
This exercise was definitely more difficult for me than the last one. I think it was because I kept trying to memorize the colors that I was beaming out. Even though the exercise was difficult, I can see myself getting better at it. I really liked it overall. There was a point in the exercise where I started getting a little emotional for no apparent reason, but I felt refreshed and more connected afterwards. I found it fascinating that the colors that were chosen seemed to really represent what the speaker said they were to represent.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Relaxation Eercise
I am posting this post literally after I did the exercise. I feel somewhat disoriented, but in a good way. I am new to relaxation techniques, and I am glad that I did this particular one. It opened up a whole new world of relaxation to me. I think this will help me to sleep at night since I have always had a hard time clearing my mind and falling asleep. I find it absolutely amazing that a single suggestion/thought can redirect a person's blood flow! I could actually feel it working like the speaker said I would. I was a little skeptical at first, but now, not at all. I feel more clear-minded, not so worried, and less stressed out. I hope everyone had a good reaction to this exercise as well!
welcome everyone!
Hello everyone!
I am new to the blogging world. I saw that many of you were as well. Hopefully we can help each other out! I am REALLY looking forward to taking this class with everyone. Your feedback and comments are appreciated and welcome! I will check in on my blog at least every other day.
I am new to the blogging world. I saw that many of you were as well. Hopefully we can help each other out! I am REALLY looking forward to taking this class with everyone. Your feedback and comments are appreciated and welcome! I will check in on my blog at least every other day.
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