Unit 10

Hi everyone,

After looking over my unit 3 personal assessment in the area of psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being, I can honestly say that I’m still improving. To me it’s still the same for all three areas. The area that I’ve notice the improvement is where I’m doing more of the exercises to grow mentally and spiritually.  Until I can get to the stage of doing it every day, then I think I can move up on the personal assessment scale.

The goals and activities I’ve set for myself are realistic. I’ve stumble along the way with the mental and spiritual goals but I get back on track and try again. I can tell it’s going to take small step to achieve my goals.

The activities I’ve chose has been implemented into my daily activities. The questions are am I’m doing it as plan. For most part, but there’s days, I’ve have faltered. I’ve pray before I go to bed a couple of times and started to slack off-which I caught myself and even one time, I happened to just wake up in the middle of the night and jumped on the floor to pray because I forgot to do it earlier.  My physical health is good, I’m doing a 5k race this weekend and been training for it for the last couple of weeks. My mental health- not too successful, my allergies been acting up and cause headaches and I was in too much pain to focus mentally. I did the subtle mind exercise maybe twice last week and none for this week so far.

 Overall, I notice my weak area and struggles. I know if I just keep at it, it will become second nature and it would not feel like a chore but more as a habit. Like it second nature and if I don’t do it- there’s something wrong.  When I overcome my weakness then I feel that I’ll be capable of understanding other’s weakness and struggles to achieve health and wellness and grow mentally, spiritually and physically.

Unit 9 Project

I.                   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?

As a Health and Wellness professionals there are certain standards and integrity to uphold in this profession. A Client who is seeking advice or guidance from a health professional to develop themselves psychologically, spiritually and physically want to seek out those professionals who are actually achieve health and wellness  themselves.  The client can see it in that’s professional’s appearance and demeanor.  The area that I need to develop to achieve my goals is to develop myself psychologically and spiritually. I set this goal for myself because these are the two areas I’m weakest in. I do not put enough time aside to heal spiritually nor mentally. To do this I would set aside at least 5 minutes a day maybe twice a week to practice the subtle mind exercise and try to stay consistent with my practices.

II.                Assessment:

How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically? I assess my health by the way I feel, my attitude, behavior, and mental focus. From a scale of 1 to 3. 3 to be consider every day, 2 to be consider being often and 1 to being very rare. When it comes to my wellness in the area of spiritually wellness, I’m a one.  My assessment for physically wellness, I’m a three and my psychologically wellness, I’m also a one. I realize I do not put enough time aside for me to grow mentally and spiritually. I’m actually off balance when it comes to achieving integral health.

III.             Goal Development:

List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.

Physical goals- doing exercises that exert my body and make me sweat like running, weights training, and martial arts. I aim at five times a week.

Psychological goals – to practice the subtle mind exercise twice a week. Another exercise would be calm-abiding exercise every weekend. To take small step in practicing these exercises will help me achieve my goals.

Spiritual goals- Pray, five times a week. And also to set aside some time to focus on "me" and cater to my spiritual needs and healing.

IV.             Practices for personal health:

What strategies can you implement to foster growth in each of the following domains; Physcial, Psychological and Spiritual. Provide at least two examples of exercises or practices in each domain. Explain how you will implement each example.

Physical growth- running helps me to relax and focus on my breathing. I try to run 5 times during the week. Another form of exercise is Yoga; I practice Yoga each night to help stretch the body and unwind.

Psychological growth- to achieve mental growth for myself, I will try practicing the Subtle mind exercise and the Loving-Kindness exercise or guided imaginary types of exercises. I’m aiming at doing these exercises one time at the beginning of the week and one in the middle and one at the end of the week. With life being busy it is safer to start off small and add more days to do these exercises as I slowly progress.

Spiritual growth-I can try and reach this growth by being patience, learn to forgive and not worry about things that I have no control over.   I can practice this by using my manners when I’m in public or at work and just being kind and polite to others. I also can growth spiritually through prayer.  I know I’m slacking in the area of prayer. I aim to pray each night before going to bed. Prayer just heals the soul by giving thanks.

V.                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 keep track of my progress in the next six months, I can keep a journal of when, where and how often I’ve actually done the practices and achieve my goals. This way I can compare my strength and weaknesses and make necessary changes to work on my weakness or find alternative exercises or practices that will improve my weaknesses.

References

Dacher, Elliott S. M.D (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing.

      Retrieve on February 12, 2012.

Schlitz, Marilyn, and Amorok, Tina, and Mizozzi, Marc S. (2005) Consciousness &

      Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine. Retrieve on February 12,

      2012.

Unit 8

1. Review the exercises and practice sessions you have completed in this course. (Loving Kindness, Subtle mind, Visualization, meditation etc.) Choose two practices that you have determined to be most beneficial. How can you implement these practices in your personal life to foster “mental fitness”? Provide specific examples.

The two practice that has help the most is the Loving Kindness practice and the Visualization practice. I'm a visual person and especially after a long day, I'll do my yoga exercise and sit for a bit with my eyes closed and visualize a beautiful scenic or majestic view and get totally relaxed. Secondly, the Loving Kindness exercise, just the title itself  helps me to focus just on those words and be thankful and that usually helps me to relax and de-stress.

Unit 7 Blog

The meditation practices for the week have improved my psychological state some. I’ve been more focus and I don’t feel anxious recently. I know the last time I’ve did this exercise. I couldn’t focus or stay on the path. I just gave up. I"m more focus this time much better than last time. I still see it hard to seek out a stranger for  wisdom and guidance. I usually seek out my uncle who I think has lots of wisdom and understanding. But I notice that when I exercise, do yoga or even clean house, I'm more relaxed and happy. I'm more restful and mentally clear of any negative thoughts and unnecessary suffering.

The saying “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself”. Basically saying that if you have not achieve that state of health and wellness or experience it how can you help someone else to achieve the state of health and wellness. As a health professional, we do have the obligation to our client to develop our health psychologically, physically and spiritually. How can we help our client grow and develop integral health in the body, mind and spirit if we as professional haven’t’   developed it ourselves.  When a health professional achieve integral health and wellness, clients tends to listen, respect and weigh what that professional has to say more because that professional has gone through it and  has gain experience and knowledge to direct others to achieve the state of human flourishing.

Integral Assessment

Hi everyone,
After doing the exercise on pages 93 and  115. I've notice that my concern lately has been my  fitness level. I've learn that to grow and develop myself  in this level ,I need to stay focus and find more time to train for an upcoming race in February.  I focus on exercise to help relieve stress from deadlines to other non priority tasks that still need to be done. To enhance my wellness in this area, I want to incorporate more cardio days during the week and have longer runs on the weekends. I can also incorporate free weights three times a week in the morning before going in to work .  Just taking small step and being consistence will help me reach my goal and achieve greater wellness.

The Subtle Mind Exercise

Hi everyone,
I don't know about everyone else. But I'm having a hard time doing this exercise. I'm able to do it for the first three minutes and then my mind started to wonder again. It maybe because I'm a little sleep deprived and stressed from work. The sound of the waves is relaxing but I can tell that mentally and physically its not going to be today. LOL.
I can see that I'm going to have to take small step and try a little more to stay focus and concentrate on my breathing, this way , I can reach the stage of awareness. I guess depending on the person, when that stage will be reached. I can see where I'm able to practice more, then I can see or become aware of the small accomplishments. Wish me luck as I try to practice this throughout the week.

Sabrina

Loving Kindness Exericse

Hi everyone,
after listening to this exercise. I actually felt very relaxed immediately. The soothing sound of the tides coming in and out very effective. Its  a calming affect.  I can see that this is beneficial especially coming home from a hard day at work and you just want to be kinder and not agitated and flustered due to a stressful work environment.  I would recommended this to others. Its a great way to practice inner peace.

The concept of "mental workout" is imagination. To mentally create a picture being loved and suffering. Its interesting to see that by visualizing a loved one suffering and to practice breathing, taking in the suffering and to kind at first it was hard to do, how can one be calm while imagining a love one suffering. But I can see where this "workout" is trying to achieve. Its easier to visualize your loved ones being happy and loved than to see them suffering. It will take practice to try and dissolve the suffering from a group of strangers and loved ones.