Unit 10

Hey everyone, Sorry this is so late. 1) In unit 3 we assessed our physical, spiritual, and psychological well-being. As I mentioned in my final paper, my ratings have changed a little bit. In my physical well-being I rated myself as an 8. I would like to think I am still hover there between and 8 and a 9. There is still definitely room for improvement. This is why I do not think I will ever rank myself a perfect 10 physically. Psychological I rated myself as a 7. I would now rate myself slightly higher as an 8. This class has definitely helped me psychologically. Spiritually I had rated myself as a 5. In what I have learned about myself in this class, I would increase this to a 7. I am still working on my spirituality but I am definitely feeling much better about it. This class is the reason why I have improved so much. I definitely plan on taking what I learned with me and implementing it everyday. 2) In reflecting on my goals I set for myself at the beginning of term, I have improved a great deal. I saw the most improvement in my spiritual well-being. This was the part of me that was the hardest part to improve. I went through life thinking that spirituality meant I had to be religious. Now I know that I can be spiritual without following a certain organized religion. I definitely have a renewed sense of calm in me because of what I have learned in this class. 3) I have started to implement the activities I planned for myself. Physically, I have been remaining very active. I do still want to get a check up with a doctor and make sure everything is good with me physically. Psychologically, I have not yet sought out a therapist, but I have been journaling daily. Spiritually, I meditate everyday. It is my little me time. I usually do it right before bed as a relection of my day. I have been sleeping better because of it. 4) I definitely feel that I have developed improved well-being throughout this course. The most rewarding thing for me was starting to feel a little more whole with each passing week. The most difficult thing was finding the time for meditation. I struggled with this quite a bit through the term. I have now found that meditating was the best for me. There is less chance I will be interrupted and it helps me sleep at night. I feel I will be able to better assist others because of my greater sense of positivity. I am also much calmer which helps other to be calm as well. I also know how to deal with people as a whole and not just deal with one aspect of well-being.

Unit 9 Final Project: My Plan

INTRO It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically. A professional who has developed in these areas are better able to understand and treat their patients. They are able to then treat their patients or clients as a whole (Dacher, 2006). They will know to look past just the symptoms. Knowing that there is a mind-body connection helps them to fully understand what is going with their patient and what is the best course of treatment (Dacher, 2006). Assessment In the beginning of this term, I never thought I would have the desire of growing in these areas. I have been able to embrace what I have learned in this course and have grown a lot psychologically, physically, and spiritually. I still have a lot of growing left to do. I really am in a good place psychologically now. Physically I am still a work in progress but I think I always will be. Spiritually has been the one I have struggled with most. I now realize that being spiritual does not have to mean being religious. I have now opened my heart to it. Now I can develop more as a whole. I can now go for my goals knowing all of me is present. There are many ways you can assess your health in each domain. These domains are spiritually, physically, and psychologically. The physical domain is probably the easiest to assess. This is because it is has to do with the physical body. This is something that can be see or examined to learn more about. So you can weigh and measure a person. You can also get blood work, take blood pressures, and learn about their diet. This is only one side of health though. The psychological domain can be a little bit more difficult to assess. This has to do with the mind. A good way of doing this is assessing your stress levels. Stress can have adverse effects on yourself as a whole (Dacher, 2006) (Reber, 2011). Once assessing you can decide what you can do to change these behaviors and help yourself become healthier psychologically. The spiritual domain would be the hardest to assess. This is because it is really looking inside of you. Some people may see spirituality as having to be religious. So they may shut down the idea of spirituality. This is something that I personally had problems with. You can assess your spirituality by doing some of the meditations we did this term. This actually will help you mentally as well. You will know right away if you need help in this area. Are you able to concentrate while doing the meditation or visualization? Does your mind wander? Then assess what you were able to get out of the exercise. You will then know if this is something you need to work on. In the beginning of the term we were asked to rate on a scale of 1-10 our wellness: spiritually, physically, and psychologically. According to my Unit 3 blog I rated my physical wellbeing as an 8 (Reber, 2011). I rated my psychological wellbeing as a 7 and I rated my spiritual wellbeing as a 5 (Reber, 2011). I do feel that these numbers have changed since the beginning of this course. I have really opened myself to all of the assignments. I would say physically I have pretty much stayed the same in my rating of an 8. This is just because I feel that physically there is always room for improvement. Psychologically I have slightly improved to an 8 because of the meditation exercises we used this term. I have found another release for stress other than exercise. Meditation has really helped me through some stressful days. It has kept my mind clearer. Finally my rating for my spiritual wellness has improved to a 7. I have really grown spiritually through this term. I have discovered that I do need to be involved in organized religion to be spiritual. I really have found an amazing place inside myself. I still am working on it though so that is why my rating is not higher than 7. Goal Development I have so many goals for myself. I look at my goals slightly differently now. I have noticed that my goals have gotten bigger. I guess maybe I feel like I am in a place physically, mentally, and spiritually that I feel I can achieve bigger goals. One of the goals I have for my physical health is to lose two inches off my waist. I want to ward off my chances of certain diseases that run in my family. I know having a smaller waist line will help me lower my chances of getting those diseases. Psychologically I want to keep my stress in check. I know I can do this now from the things I have learned in this term. Spiritually, I want to find an even deeper consciousness. Practices for personal health: There are many strategies I can use to implement in order to foster growth in each domain. Physically, I will maintain my exercise and nutrition plan. Some exercises I can do to ensure this happens are: keeping a food journal and tracking my exercise on a calendar. This will keep me accountable this way there are no excuses. Psychologically, there are a few things I can do to ensure growth. Some great activities for me to do are keeping a journal to help me through stressful times and to start working on my mental fitness. I can work on my mental fitness by training my mind to start thinking more positively and keeping away negative thoughts. Spiritually, there are also many things I can do to help in this area. My two favorite things I can do are visualizations and meditations. I really enjoy the guided visualizations. I was able to concentrate and keep away all outside thoughts. Meditations are slightly harder but I am beginning to enjoy them as well. I have even started to work on this while practicing yoga. Yoga is truly something that can help all three domains. Commitment I have now found such a good balance in my life and I am committed to keeping it and improving it over the next few months. I will do my best to ensure that I keep progressing and do not go backwards in anyway. I am very strong minded person and when I commit to something I stick with it. Over the next few months I will constantly reevaluate myself to make sure I am making progress. In my physical domain I will review my exercise and nutrition program and keep taking weights and measurements to ensure I am progressing. If I do find that I am not progressing I may have to adjust what I am doing. In order to keep these going long term it is going to take some discipline. I will keep practicing this discipline and focus towards my goals. Psychologically, the best way to assess my progress is to review my journals and see where I have struggled and where I succeeded. There will be some good days, and some bad days. In order to maintain this long term I will stay focused on it. I will open my mind to more compassion and less negative. I will surround myself with like-minded, positive people. Spiritually, I think will be the hardest to assess progress. It is looking inside of yourself. I am opening myself up to a much deeper state. I think the best way to keep assessing this is to keep doing the meditations and visualizations. I will know if it is working if I am able to let myself go more each time. To ensure I am maintaining this long term I will actually schedule meditations into my day and week. This way I make sure I keep it up after this term is over. This has been an amazing class. I feel slightly differently coming out of it than I did going into it. I have definitely learned some skills I will keep with me for life. References Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral Health The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health. Reber, K. (2011, February 20). Paying it Forward:Unit 3 Blog. Retrieved April 3, 2011, from Blogspot: http://kristinpayingitforward.blogspot.com/2011/02/unit-3-blog.html

Unit 8

As many of you who have been reading my blog know, I love the visualizations we have done in this term. I am a very visual person and it nice to know I can use that to my advantage. Out of all the ones we have done I can think of two that I enjoyed the most. The first one was from early on in the term. I believe it was called Crime of the Century. I just loved how it related each part of you to a color. It was so easy to concentrate with such a great visual. The second one I enjoyed was probably the last one we did. Track 4 on the Dacher CD. Again this was a visualization and being able to visualize my grandmother was amazing.

I can and plan on utilizing such visualizations on a daily basis. I think it will help me grow mentally, physically and spiritually. It will help me through stressful time and time where I really need keep my eye on the prize. I can visualize my goals and make them so much easier to achieve.

Unit 7

The meditation on track 4 of the Dacher cd was amazing! Now, I actually wasn't able to finish it. This was because I fell asleep. The CD asked us to think of someone important to us alive or passed. I thought of my grandmother who passed away 8 years ago. I felt really connected to her during the meditation. When I fell asleep I actually dreamt of her. I never dream so this is quite amazing to me. I dreamt I was talking with her. It felt so real. I don't know if this was still me meditating but unconciously. I never felt so connected with her. I woke up crying.

The saying "one can not lead another where one has not gone him or herself" can mean something different for everyone (Amorok, 2005). To me it means that it is hard for someone to take advice from someone who is not following the path they speak of. This definitely is something that is important in my profession. Being in the health industry someone is less likely to take nutritional or fitness advice from someone who is not fit. I am still on my fitness journey so my body is not perfect but most people I talk to know my story and know I live a healthy lifestyle. I would not feel comfortable guiding people to a healthier lifestyle if I was not in fact doing the same.
I can implement psychological and spiritual growth in my life by just keep pushing for improvement. Just like I work on my physcial fitness it is important to work on my mental and spiritual fitness as well. I can continue to do this through journaling and meditation.

Amorok, M. S. (2005). Consciousness & Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine. St Louis: Elsevier Churchill Livingstone.

Unit 6 Blog

In this weeks blog we were asked to do a couple assessments. I really enjoyed the Universal Loving Kindness meditation. I actually recorded myself speaking it and I kept repeating it with my eyes closed. It sort of reminded me of prayers of the faithful from church. I think this is something I would definitely like to add into my daily affirmations.

The second assessment I did not like as much. I did however get something out of it. I discovered that my psychospiritual aspect of my life still needs a little bit of work. I think a lot of that has to do with faith. Since this is all about integral health I think I would get a lot more out of it if I was able to use each quadrants effectively. So I have chosen to focus more on this part of my life. This way I can function more as a whole. To do this I will participate in some form of meditation every night. I will also journal my thoughts. Hopefully I can find some help in doing this. I welcome any kind of advice.

Unit 5 Blog

I was looking really forward to doing this weeks audio. I made sure to find a quiet place to listen without interruptions. I started listening. I was doing well. I was actually starting to enjoy it. Then about 10 minutes into it this terrible sound came into my ears. It was just a loud screeching sound. I tried to forward through the cd a little bit and it did it throught the rest of the track. I am going to try my best to answer the questions given to me with this audio.

Until the technical difficulties I was enjoying this audio much better then the loving-kindness audio. I think that had a lot to do with my surroundings. I had no kids running in and out of the room. I was able to enjoy the breaths. So those would be the benefits. My frustrations was really just the issue with the CD.

I think there definitely is a connection between spiritual, mental, and physical wellness. For example someone who is happy is more likely to be healthy physically as well. Someone who may be angery may also show signs of stress in the body. Everything is connected. This why we can't just think of our physical body when we think of health. We have to treat all aspects of our life in a healthy way.

Unit 4 Blog

Hey everyone. First I want to apologize that this is such a late posting. I was having trouble getting into the Kaplan site all weekend. I am assuming that was due to the renovations they were doing.

I listened to Loving Kindness Practice by Dacher. I have to say honestly I was not that thrilled with it. I did fine when the person was talking. I was able to do what she was telling me. However, the periods of silence were way too long and my mind started to wander. Also, I did not enjoy the sound of the waves after a while. This one might not be a bad one to listen to right before bed but during the middle of the day was a little bit more difficult.

The purpose of a mental workout is to keep your mind fresh. It is a way to always keep the mind active or evolving (Dacher, 2006). Some of the benefits of a mental workout are being able to open the heart and mind, and help with better understanding (Dacher, 2006). Incorporating mental workouts into my life can definitely help me psychologically. It will help me think more clearly and open my heart to others. This will not only help me with decision making but also to have empathy for others.

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