Unit 10: Final Assessment.

My personal assessment for unit 3 had my physical aspect rated at an 8, my psychological at a 6, and my spiritual at an 8. Now I feel that my physical is still a strong 8 bordering on 9, my psychological is at a low 7, and my spiritual is at a 6.
The scores have changed, physically I have increased running more and hiking, psychological has increased a bit due to more meditation and clearing my mind of negativity and stress, but spiritually I have lost sight of my goals and need a lot more work.
The goals and activities I set in unit 3 I have put a lot of positive effort towards, my physical goals and activities have definitely been met, I am running more, I have been hiking every weekend and I feel that I have gained muscle. Psychologically I have not reached my goals but feel that I am making good efforts to let go of the things I can not control, to be happier and reduce stress. Spiritually I need to find faith and believe more often which is a struggle.
I have implemented most of my activities I set for these goals and will continue to work on them in my future.
I do believe that my well-being has improved, this class has made me more aware of things in my life which cause me struggle and through many interesting aspects such as meditation, loving kindness, and subtle mind exercises I feel more awake. The reward has been that I can clear my mind, relax, and just sit quietly for a bit without constant noise inside my head.
I find difficulty in letting go of thoughts and feelings, I can not heal spiritually at this point and it concerns me.
This experience has helped me understand myself and that will allow me to be more patient, loving and understanding towards others and their struggles.

Unit 9 Final Project.

 I believe it is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically so that they can completely understand their own mind, body and spirit, then they can teach and treat others not as a one size fits all but individually. I think that it is impossible to help others accomplish their health goals when the professionals do not implement good nutrition, or practice physical or mental fitness in their own lives.

In my life there are still many areas that need development to achieve my goals. One goal is to increase my physical fitness and get in better shape. To implement this goal I have recently started running two days a week with a great motivating partner, as well as hiking when I have the chance. I also want to make healthier nutrition habits, which I already have but I feel that too often I give in to sugary temptations. Implementing healthier snack choices with little or no sugar as well as avoiding temptations by reminding myself of my goals will be how I work on my nutrition. A very important goal I am currently working on is to reduce stress and worry from my daily routine. When things happen that cause stress or things I tend to worry about occur they consume my entire mind for the rest of my day. Working on this goal has been hard so I am using visualization, meditation, loving-kindness and the subtle mind practices and I am seeing some improvement.

            My assessment of these goals has improved in each domain as I have been very proactively working on each aspect. Physically I am feeling much better and getting closer each day to my goals, being more active and making healthier choices. I am also seeing improvement psychologically, situations that have upset me in the past are fading away quicker after they occur and when I meditate my mind seems more clear than before. My nutritional choices have improved greatly with less unhealthy cravings which makes me happy. And spiritually I feel better as I have been allowing myself to be more open to change as well as new things as they come into my life. I score my wellness spiritually, psychologically, and physically at a 7 for all three, which is good but leaves room for improvement.

            One goal I have for myself physically is to be able to jog for a full thirty minutes without stopping to walk or being out of breath. Psychologically I would like to lessen the amount of stress that fills my mind and consumes my every thought, so my goal is better stress management, with longer meditation sessions. Spiritually I want to allow myself to be more open to things instead of being closed minded to certain aspects.

            To implement growth physically I am putting in more effort, finding time to walk more, getting up early to jog, taking the steps instead of the elevator, parking further out instead of close to the building, as well as fitting in sit-ups, push-ups and triceps dips whenever I have some free time during my day. Spiritually I am opening my mind, allowing new experiences to present themselves, also I am practicing loving-kindness and opening my heart more often, being more patient with people as well as situations. Psychologically I am meditating for longer periods of time, allowing my thoughts to become clearer and more focused. I practice visualization when I feel upset, stressed or worried, which have lessened their effects on my day.

           In the next six months I will assess my progress by how I feel physically, psychologically and spiritually. I will see if my overall health has improved and by how much I have gained in these aspects of my life. I also think that the best assessment will come from the change others will see and with their reactions to them I will know that all my efforts have been worth it.

My strategy for long-term practice of health and wellness is to stay motivated and clearly focused. I will remain as positive as possible and place people in my life that also think positively and contribute to my health and wellness journey.

Unit 8

I really enjoyed all of the exercises and feel as though with time and patience they could all be very beneficial. I really enjoyed sitting quietly listening to the speaker, the background sounds (waves and flutes) and trying to visualize the colors from each body part, as well as seeing the wise person, allowing their wisdom to become our own. I think the two I will implement for my regular mental fitness will be practicing loving kindness, even when I am frustrated in my daily life I am going to put kindness and love in my heart for others, also I would like to practice meditation daily. I have been working on my meditation, mostly in the car on my commute to work as well as the drive home. I turn off the radio and hear only background sound, clear my thoughts and just drive. I feel as though clearing my mind is becoming easier it keeps me focused on things I can control at the moment allowing the worry and stress to melt away.

Unit 7: Meeting Aesclepius.

My experience this week was difficult, when asked to picture a wise loving person I could not stop picturing my great grandmother. I can only remember small bits of her but when we were to sit imagine sitting across from this person I became emotional. I then made up this person, I thought of someone who had no worries, no stress and was very loving and kind. I imagined that the light from their head, throat and heart beamed from them into me and then that their energy and being poured into me from the top of my head to the bottoms of my feet. This was very soothing and made me feel very calm, as well as the sounds of the waves crashing in the background. I do feel that these exercises have increased my psychological and spiritual wellness because I am dealing with situations in my day differently allowing things that would upset me greatly to rush over me like water and I am letting go easier rather than holding on to them. To continue my health & wellness I will practice these exercises and allow myself to cultivate good thoughts and abandon bad ones.

The saying "one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself " is like the old saying " practice what you preach " if you tell others they should get more exercise and eat healthier foods while sitting on the couch with greasy fast food you not practicing the advice you are providing. In the healthcare profession this is very common, doctors and nurses work odd hours, get little sleep, little exercise and poor nutrition then they tell their patients that all these things are bad and lead to poor health.
I do feel as though I have an obligation as a professional to do the things that I advise these clients to do in their lives. You can only describe experiences you have had which will ultimately assist clients in their goals and help us support them with their struggles if we understand and have dealt with the same.

Unit 6.

May all individuals gain freedom from suffering.
May all individuals find sustained health, happiness, and wholeness.
May I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering.
May I assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness.

I really enjoyed this exercise, I found that just saying these things made me smile and feel something inside. That to me is what Loving Kindness is all about, "feeling" something inside us and sharing it with others. This is an exercise I want to use more often I think it will continuously remind me of my goals and will keep feeling happy, healthy, and whole.

The Integral Assessment was interesting, I quietly sat and asked which aspect in my life: psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, or worldly is causing me suffering or difficulty.  I then realized that it is a combination of all four that I struggle with sometimes at the same time and separately at other times. I believe that discovering that we need some focus and change is our first step to growth and development. I am focusing at the moment on reducing the amount of daily stress in my life, more quiet, calm and stillness to refocus my goals and set them clearly in my mind.

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

Ali

The Subtle Mind.

I liked the subtle mind exercise, it was very relaxing and I adore the sound of the waves it takes me to the beach and I can almost smell the saltwater. I have difficulties staying still, as well as the breathing but I am working on them. Both of these exercises allowed me to sit quietly and slip into my mind, focusing on the words of the speaker which was quite relaxing and calming to me. I was uncomfortable with the loving kindness exercise due to all the love thoughts, and found it easier with the subtle mind exercise to tame my busy mind for a bit. I really enjoyed the flute sounds that played in the background.

I believe the connection of mental wellness to spiritual wellness is very important, with an open mind we are more aware and embracing spiritually. When our mind is free of chatter, thoughts, and feelings we allow clarity to shine through like sun through a window.
When we have physical wellness our body is calm, our mind still and worry free and spiritually well. This is when we have found wholeness when mind, body, and spirit all have balanced wellness.

In my personal life I struggle a bit with the balance and staying well. I let people's thoughts and words affect me way more than I should. I do however pride myself on the progress I have made I have lessened my temper, focused on goals and achieved inner strength.

Loving-Kindness.

After reading chapter 6 and listening to the loving-kindness mp3, I realize that I already practice loving-kindness on a daily basis. I say good morning to all who come by at my work and show kindness to most all people I come in contact with. I increased my loving-kindness this week and it made me feel good, it made my insides feel warm and fuzzy. So yes I found it beneficial, I would definitely recommend that others try it because it may make them feel better inside as well. The mp3 exercise was relaxing and I enjoyed listening.
The concept of a mental workout is the same as a physical workout, to keep the mind in proper functioning order it needs to have a good workout daily or several times a week. This is done progressively developing the expansion of our consciousness and understanding our healing capabilities (Dacher, 2006). To benefit psychological health we can practice loving-kindness and training our minds to control and choose our thoughts, and emotional states.