Here's to a New Beginning

I looked back at Unit 3 and can say confidently that my scores have gone up at least 1 point in each section. In Unit 3 I rated my physical health as a 7 and now I can say that it is probably closer to a 9. I have started Weight Watchers, which I did in the past, and this really helps me keep on track with what I eat and ensures it is healthy. I walk/jog to bring my daughter to school or pick her up and some days I do both. I try to do little things as well like park further away at stores and then walk in. I can definitely see a different. Since this class I have lost about 8 lbs and feel a lot stronger. As for my spirituality I rated that a 5 and now I could see it is a 6. Since I have learned more about spirituality and that it does not always require religion allows me to move up my score. I am able to connect with myself spiritually with the different techniques we have learned in this class. As for my mental health that was an 8 and I can now say this it is closer to a 9. I have begun using some of the relaxation techniques and it has really helped to keep me level headed in most cases.

I have definitely implemented my physical well being goal as well as made progress in it. I was walking/jogging 1/2 mile a day and now I am up to a minimum of 2 miles and sometimes 4 miles. This definitely makes me feel good about myself. However, I have had to stop doing hot yoga simply because my little girl has stranger anxiety, but I want to begin working out at home more. As for spiritual well being I wanted to find a church, and we have not found one yet but we are in the search. Our oldest daughter is very interested in religion now and it helps push me toward finding that perfect church for us here. As for my psychological well being I have been working on the relaxation techniques. They have helped me to keep a level head and not stress as much about issues going on around me.

Overall, this course has been an amazing tool for me. The main reason is that it has helped me take a step back and reflect on my overall health, not just my physical health. I did not know before this class how important spiritual and psychological health were for my overall well being. This class has showed me that it is important to find balance between all three to find the best me. I am slowly getting to where I need to be to enjoy complete happiness and wholeness. The hardest part was getting exercises and techniques down. I struggled at first, but once I full understood them they worked out great for me. This whole experience will allow me to help others by explaining to them there is more to life than just the physical being. I can explain my experiences and tell them how important it is to encompass all three aspects to achieve their own wholeness. This class has definitely been more to me than just a class.

That's a Wrap!

Introduction:

Health and wellness professionals have an important job in helping people find the way to human flourishing. These professionals have a more difficult job than medical doctors in the aspect that simply writing a prescription does not achieve the overall goal for their clients. It is important for health and wellness professionals to embrace the life they help their clients achieve. It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically because the ability to explain to the client that he/she has been exactly where they are is powerful. It shows the client that this professional can relate and can understand the obstacles they will need to overcome to reach human flourishing. Most of all when the health and wellness professional is living this life, the client can see and understand the positive affects it has on person and their life. In my personal life, I would have to say I need to work on all areas to successfully meet my wholeness and my ultimate happiness. Of the three areas though, I most need to work on spirituality because I know with hectic life it gets pushed to the side more so than the other two.

Assessment:

I decided to go back and look over what I had scored myself in each area when class first started. I was pleasantly surprised that I could add a point or two to each area. My physical fitness was a 7, and I can say that now it is closer to a 9. About three weeks ago I started Weight Watchers and it has definitely helped me eat better. I try to make sure we eat in all week and only eat out one night over the weekend. As for my spiritual well-being I scored myself a 5 and I would say now it’s a 6. Since class started I have tried incorporating some religion into our household. We discuss why were thankful and try eating dinner together every night. It has brought us closer as a family. Lastly, my psychological well-being was an 8 and I would say now it is a 9. This class has helped show me that I can train my mind. The different techniques have helped me see the positive things and not allow minor things to affect my mood. The relaxation techniques have helped me control my stress levels as well.

Goal Development:

            My goal for my physical health is to begin getting into a regular workout routine. I plan on getting a gym membership and making it an everyday routine after dropping my oldest daughter off as long as my youngest can get over her stranger anxiety. My goal for my spiritual health is to find a church that my family enjoys and begin going to services every Sunday. I want to expand mine and my family’s spirituality. As for my psychological health my goal is to continue doing the relaxation techniques to help my stress levels stay down.

Practices for Personal Health:

            To foster physical growth I plan on beginning to run and begin doing yoga again. Both of these will help boost my physical health. To foster psychological growth I will continue doing relaxation techniques as well doing number puzzles such as Sudoku to help keep my mind sharp. As for my spiritual health, I plan on doing more meditation to connect more with myself as well as begin volunteering to help others around the community.

Commitment:

            I will assess my progress over the next 6 months by begin a journal. I plan on starting a journal to discuss how my human flourishing takes place. Each night I will write about what I did to enhance my physical, psychological, and spiritual self. I will look over what I have done for the day and what I can do to make it better in the coming days. This will allow me to full embrace the whole experience and I’ll have references to go back to in the future.

            As for maintaining my long-term practices for health and wellness, I will have to commit to myself. I will continue to write in my journal to ensure that I am staying the course. After a year I plan on looking back at the beginning of my journal and seeing how much I have grown in all three areas. 

Time for a Little Review

All of the different exercises we have done throughout this class did not help me the first time I tried them. I had to do each one multiple times to fully grasp and understand how the exercise worked. After getting the hang of each one I would have to say that the Loving Kindness exercise and the relaxation exercise The Crime of the Century. I really enjoyed the Loving Kindness because it allowed me to feel as though I had the ability to help others while I was finding peace for myself. I did not know realize how important that to me until I did it a couple of times. As for the relaxation technique The Crime of the Century I really enjoyed this exercise because I could visualize the colors at each part the man was talking about. The first time I found it odd and kind of funny, but after a couple more attempts I got it and really grasped it.

I will foster both of these techniques into my life by doing them when I feel it is necessary. The Loving Kindness exercise is something I will do when I feel like I am losing control and I can help my mind come back into focus and "help" other people rather than worry about myself and my problems around me. As for The Crime of the Century I will use this exercise when I need to just take time to myself. I will try doing this 3-4 times a week just to help me keep my mind relaxed. I want to help reduce my stress and just be able to see things in a positive way.

The Week of Leaders

This week I did Meeting Aesclepius and I really did enjoy this exercise. I envisioned my Aunt Eileen who passed away 5 1/2 years ago. She was sick with cancer and at the time I was deployed in Iraq and we always had communication going on. She was so strong  and was always there for me so she was definitely perfect to envision during this exercise. As I envisioned her throughout the whole exercise I felt at peace and could definitely connect completely to myself and everything around me. Each week I have built more and more on my meditation practices and I can definitely feel like I am getting it and it does help me relax. It allows me to gain the focus I need to get through whatever is bothering me. I will continue to use these different exercises after this class is over so I can enrich my well-being and foster greater health and wellness.

As for the quote "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself," I would have to say it does apply to the health and wellness professional. I say this because before doing this class I could not see myself explaining to someone the importance of meditation because I had never done it before. I did not know what all it could do for the body and person as a whole. It is hard to tell someone to do something or try something when you have not the slightest idea of how it will play out. I believe as a health and wellness professional you do have an obligation to your clients in developing your own health psychologically, physically, and spiritually. If you are not at your optimal level of health it will easily show through to your clients. Obviously, lack of physical health will clearly show through, but the other two will as well. It is just too hard to cover up the lack of  spiritual connection or the lack of consciousness of your mind. Clients look to you for ideas and to see the end result, and if you're not doing anything to help yourself than why would they want to waste their time "learning" from you. I can implement psychological and spiritual growth into my life by doing more of the meditation exercises. I can do different things to help train my brain such as brain exercises as well as being active and eating a healthy diet. Exercise and diet can help all aspects of wellness and should be done by the professional as well as the clients. 

Discovering More About Myself

Every week there is something new to try in this class and this week was no different. This week had us try the universal Loving Kindness exercise and complete the Integral Assessment. I did both and has good results from both.
The universal Loving Kindness exercise basically allows you to relax and connect with someone you love. It wants you to see how it feels to be open and to give to others. This exercise for me allowed to have an open mind and want to help people in my life that I can. It helped me feel empowered to do good.
The Integral Assessment seems to focus more one the person taking the time and deciding what they want to focus on fine-tuning. It is the same idea of meditation like the universal Loving Kindness with closing eyes, visualizing, and breathing. The difference is that throughout the Assessment you're asking yourself questions to help adjust your mind to where you feel it needs help.
After doing both of these, I found that I have a hard time just focusing on one thing like Loving and Kindness. I am more for Integral Assessment because it allows me to ask myself questions and help me adjust what I need to work on most.
I have chosen biological development to focus growth on and develop more. I have a busy life with two little girls, keeping house, going to school, and working from home. So I know my fitness and nutrition get put on the back burner. I am slowly beginning to make a stand in my health and have been trying to walk/jog every day at least 2 miles and eat healthier. I pay attention to what I put in my mouth now, and have actually signed up for Weight Watchers to help get to my goal. I love my children, but I want my old body back! I'm sure many moms know what I am talking about.  Along with walking/jogging I am going to start a workout routine and keep track of my food intake to foster greater wellness.

Subtle Mind or Loving Kindness

Now that we are in the middle of our class I would have to say I am beginning to really grasp meditation. To me the loving kindness worked better, but I still had some relaxation occur with the subtle mind. I think it has to do with thinking about others and trying to "help" them in a sense. I know by breathing in the bad and breathing out good things for the person I am thinking of actually does not do anything for them, but I believe it allows me to feel in control and feel like I am doing something for them. I do like the ocean sound in the meditations. To me this is the most relaxing sound, and I would have to say this is probably why both of these worked so well on me. 

The connection between the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness is simple. They all work together to give you the feeling of being complete. By spiritual it does not mean having to go to church or pray every single day it is just connecting with yourself and getting into your spirit. I believe that the mind can't work without the body and the body can't work without the mind. They work together wonderfully as we have seen through different research. I believe that when you put spiritual wellness in the mix it just enhances your overall well being. In my daily life this connection is manifested when I run in the morning. I have to get myself into the right state of mind before I run. My body knows it can do it, but I need my mind to continue to reassure it. As I am running, I let go and just connect with myself and things around me. I embrace the time I have to run. I am not a huge fan of running, but I know it does me good physically, mentally, and spiritually. 

Loving Kindness

Each week so far I have begun to get the relaxation techniques down after a couple of attempts. The loving kindness exercise definitely was easier to grasp and during my first attempt I connected with what it was saying. I am not sure if it was because it had to do with loving others and and just letting go or I am just getting better at listening and allowing myself to relax. Either way I am definitely glad to see how well the exercise worked for me. I would definitely recommend this because it had such an effect on me I would love others to experience it too. I also think overall people could really benefit from it and grasp it easier than others.

The concept of "mental workout" is that you are doing what you can to train your brain. You are keeping your mind busy and it can be done different ways. "Mental workouts" allow the brain to grow and become stronger and sharpen all aspects of the mind. I can implement workouts by doing puzzles, number games, or memory games to help sharpen my overall mental state and allow my brain waves to register higher. The brain can always learn more and it seems to completely take it all in when you do different mental workouts.