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.