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 reviewing the personal assessment of my psychological, physical and spiritual well-being I rated myself a 9 for psychological, a 7 for physical and a 9 for spiritual. Currently I would rate myself at a 9 for psychological, a 9 for physical and a 10 for spiritual. This score has improved however I know that I have the ability to score a 10 in all areas of this personal assessment. I think that the process of achieving a 10 in all areas will still take some work for me. Every week I feel that I am closer to achieving a 10 in all of these areas I just need to continue to make more time for engagement in my life. Review the goals and activities you set for yourself in each area. Have you made progress toward the goals? Explain. I do believe that I have made progress towards the goals because my rating has improved. I found difficulty in the beginning to find time to devote to the aspects of my psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being. However, as I begin to engage myself I found that many of the activities that I was doing daily were not as beneficial as my psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being and I wanted to improve in the areas. Now that I have dedicated time to improvement I really see a difference in my life. Have you implemented the activities you chose for your well-being in each of the three areas? Explain. I have already changed many aspects in my life such as my diet, dedicating more time to mediating, praying and exercises like yoga. 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? My personal experience throughout the course regarding the course material has been very educational and informative due to the aspects that it provided to reach integral health and live a life full of wholeness. Overall, I think that mediation was rewarding for me from a personal perspective because it helped me to cope with life better. I personally only found one of the exercises difficult in this course.  This experiences that I have gain in this class will help me improve my ability to assist others because I have the knowledge and experience on practices that can assist in living a healthier lifestyle.

Katrina A. 

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?

            It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop themselves psychologically, spiritually, and physically so they can be of service to their clients. Developing these aspects will allow the professional to offer comprehensive health care to people (Dacher, 2006). According to Dacher, “to become agents of a more expansive health, we must begin with our own life.” (Dacher, 2006, p. 167). Psychological development creates self-discipline which allows an individual to prevent emotional and mental breakdowns. Spiritual development encourages physical healing. Physical development promotes better healing because an individual is in tune with their bodies enough to not push past their limitations.
            My personal area of growth is in the physical wellness area. Yoga would help me strengthen my body and also help my mind relax.  Relaxation will enable me to sleep better at night and concentrate on the more important things in life.  Engaging in Yoga will help me improve my overall psychological, spiritual and physical health.

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

I rank them as follows:
Spiritually – 9 I believe in God and believe in the power of prayer. I attend church twice a week and serve in ministry.  There is always room for improvement in this realm so that is why I rated myself as a 9.

Physically- 7.5 Since starting this class I have increased my workout days at the gym from 1-2 days a week to 4-5 days a week.  I’m following the Mediterranean diet which means I’m eating more raw food and less processed food.

Psychologically- 8 balancing being a full time student, working 60 hrs a week, the responsibilities of being a mom and wife it can get very hectic.  My brutal daily schedule leaves me wishing that I could take more time to practice the Loving Kindness exercise.

Goal development: List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area:

Spiritually-I would like to engage in doing more in-depth studies of the Holy Bible.  This would mean that I maybe find a character in the bible to study like Ruth or Noah.

Physically- My goal is to run in my first marathon June 2015 in preparation for this I’m going to join a local female runners group to get my body disciplined and in shape so I can achieve my goal.

Psychologically- I would like to mediate more.  Mediation will help to decrease my stress level and give me some needed unselfish me time.

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.

Spiritually- I can implement the Loving Kindness exercise by at least focusing on this activity twice a week.  Another strategy that I can implement is to volunteer more with my youth group.  Being around the youth will force me to study the bible more because I would want to always give them a positive and correct answer.

Physically-I will limit my eating out at restaurants to twice a month which will help me with keeping in line with my physical goal of running a marathon.  For the days I don’t go to the gym I would use an older DVD that I brought called Walk Away the Pounds.  This will keep me on track with my cardio.

Psychologically-I will continue to work on forgiveness that includes forgiving myself when I fall short on a goal.  When faced with a stressful difficult situation at work I will take a moment to mediate and calm myself down.

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? 

To hold myself accountable I will keep a journal to keep tract of progress.  It’s much easier for me to read back over different journal entries.  I will also have the group of ladies that I will be training with for the marathon to keep me motivated. I believe I will work out harder and achieve my goals easier when I have someone next to me pushing me to do so.

Katrina A.

Reference

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

The two practices that I have determined to be most beneficial are the loving-kindness and subtle mind exercises. The loving-kindness exercise that I first did on October 11th was a really good exercise because it allowed me to fully embrace the loving kindness. The benefits of the exercise is that it can re-train your mind to release stress more easily which allows the mind to be calmer. The subtle mind exercise that I experienced on October 18th was beneficial to me because it taught me how to regulate breathing and use it to relax my mind. I have practiced this exercise several times over the last couple of weeks. This practice really helps me because when I am stressed overwhelmed or frustrated, the deep breaths helps my body and mind calm down. The subtle mind and loving-kindness exercise can be utilized in in my personal life to foster "mental fitness" in different ways. The subtle mind exercise encompasses breathing to calm the body and to relax the mind. This helps me to train my brain through mental fitness to regulate my emotions and my body response to it. The Loving-kindness practice helps me in my personal life because it lets the love in my life by reaching deep down to open my heart. This process allows me to be more open with the interactions that I have with other people and let love flow in my life. It can also reduce negative moods, anger and emotional pain while increasing positive emotions and positive social emotions. I hope you all have had a positive week!

Katrina A.

Reference

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

Hello Everyone,

This week I have been under high stress as I was in a car accident that left me with a compression fracture of spine.  The mediation helped me to calm down and not focus so much on the pain I am enduring.  I can continue to apply the practice of mediation to help foster greater health and wellness in my life.

The saying” One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” from a wellness perspective means that one can’t lead someone to wellness aspects if they have not practiced and experience it themselves (Schlitz, Amorok & Micozzi, 2005, P.477). The health and wellness professional can’t effectively assist another person in obtaining wellness if they themselves are not engaged in practices of health and wellness. Hope you have had a positive week.

Katrina A.

Exercises for Mind-Body-Spirit Wellness and Healing

Practicing these exercise and assessment process, I have discovered that before taking any action in whatever situation you might find yourself in. Analyze the situation before taking action, measure every detail do what feels best and appropriate.  

While I was reciting this, I felt a universal connection to all of life. Since I have no prejudices to anyone in regard to race, ethnic group or religion, this exercise was not too difficult for me to do. As an additional touch, I also visualized the consciousness level of our world, surrounded by the beautiful light of God’s love to help promote a higher understanding of differences. 

These four lines of development, requires intimacy, letting your guards down and allowing other to enter. Strengthening relationships where [me] is no longer the center focus. Doing my contemplative time I will visualize my growth in this area, and see myself doing for others, also I think that I will bring my wife in on this one – we will practice standing or kneeling face to face, maybe joining hands, looking deep into one another’s souls and without taking or asking for anything, just giving, listening, and offering myself. I think this will do.    

Katrina A.

Subtle Mind

The difference between the loving-kindness exercise and subtle mind is that in loving-kindness you have to use your mind where the subtle mind exercises you get to relax your mind as well as your body.  The benefits I got this week were I was able to focus my thoughts and actions after doing the exercise.  I have never been a person who had any trouble in expressing my love and kindness towards others and myself. According to Dacher through loving-kindness one matures through the mind. I’m happy that I’m still in the process of maturing 

The connection between spiritual, mental, and physical wellness is that they all lead to integral health also known as holistic health, happiness, and wholeness. In order to achieve health, happiness, and wholeness we need to mentally focus on calm-abiding consciousness as well unity consciousness. I am able to connect the spiritual, physical, and mental wellness into my personal life by praying, meditating, and understanding the feelings of others. Hope everyone has had a positive week!

Katrina A.

Loving Kindness

Describe your experience. Did you find it beneficial? Difficult? Why or why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or why not?

I had to practice this exercise two times as I couldn't find that inner peace the first time.  It was too many distractions in my home.  After the second time I was able to fully embrace the loving kindness.  I did find it beneficial and would recommend it to others.  The act of taking on the suffering of my love one on my in breath and on my out breath giving them healing and peace was amazing.  This is an exercise that anyone could easily incorporate it into their daily lives.

   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?

The concept of “mental workout” is exercising your mind daily.  Without this daily exercise you won’t be able to fully evolve your psychospiritual life.  Research has suggested that consistent daily mental workouts have proven results.  A healthy mind is just as important if not more important than a healthy body.  This week while driving to work I have focused on the beautiful things that I pass. Like the changing colors of the leaves on the trees, the beautiful blue sky and puffy white clouds.  This honestly eased my frustration of sitting in miles of traffic.  

I hope you all have had a very positive week on purpose!

Katrina A.