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.