Final Blog

1. 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 Unit 3 I scored myself:

Physical well-being- 8. 

Spiritual well-being- 8.

Psychological well-being- 8.

I score myself now:

Physical well-being- 8. 

Spiritual well-being- 8.

Psychological well-being- 9.

My scores have not changed much at all.  Basically I think because it takes a lot more time than 10 weeks to develop in these areas of life.  I have gained knowledge that has helped me to improve in my Psychological well-being but I am still working on all three areas and I think it will be a continuous process through life.

2. Review the goals and activities you set for yourself in each area. Have you made progress toward the goals? Explain.

My goal for my Physical well-being was to continue to strictly manage my diet and incorporate exercise more often.  My biggest battle is still a battle to find the time to work out as many days as needed to change my body as I want to.  With working and school it is hard to have time to work out.  Therefore not much progress so far.

My goal for my Spiritual well-being was to start reading the bible.  Again with working and school work, I have not found the time to read from any other source.  Again, not much progress so far.

My goal for my Psychological well-being was to incorporate meditation to my life on a daily basis.  I have to admit, I have failed to do this daily as well.  Not much progress so far.

3 Have you implemented the activities you chose for your well-being in each of the three areas? Explain.

I often feel overwhelmed.  I have a lot on my plate with work, school, kids, and a new relationship.  My life is too busy and I don’t know how to find the time to do these things I want to do for myself.  It seems all I have time for are the things I Have to do.

4. 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?  

As I have mentioned sadly, I have not made much progress in improving my wellbeing.  However, I have gained knowledge of how I am able to do so.  What has been difficult is having the time for myself.  Assessing this has been a reminder for me of what improvements I need to make and I think this will help me to help others because I am sure I will meet people who will be in the same position I am in right now being frustrated with lack of time for myself, so if I can figure it out for myself I will be able to give suggestions to others on how to make it happen.

Kristine

Final Assignment

 It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically because being able to understand the process from an emotional, physical and spiritual standpoint is more effective than just having the knowledge.  To try to teach and instruct anything on book knowledge alone without having practiced or experienced the personal benefits is possible but not as effective as instructing something that has been personally practiced or experienced.  If we teach health and wellness and do not follow what we teach we may be considered less reliable to the learner.  We look at healthcare professionals as being role models for us. If the professional has never experienced any of these practices in their own life; they cannot truly be mindful in helping others obtain that feeling of well-being. I believe you need to know what the person you are trying to help is going through and trying to accomplish, and this way it gives a deeper understanding in the element of guiding a person to a new level of wellness.  We need to set an example and be living proof to our clients that living a healthy lifestyle will bring results.  We need to represent success in our field within our self.  The health and wellness professional will not be viewed as a credible source if they don’t ‘walk in the shoes’ they are demonstrating or giving advice about.  I believe a professional who does integrate wellness practices in his/her own life will be more passionate, believable and successful when assisting others.     

  I know that I have more than one area in my life that I need to develop.  They fall in areas of all four areas of psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, and worldly.  On a scale of 1 to 10 these are my ratings on myself:

Physical well-being- 8.  I am still currently working on achieving my personal fitness goal.  I strictly manage my diet and incorporating exercise is very important to me.  My biggest battle is fining the time to workout as many days as needed to change my body as I want to. 
Spiritual well-being- 8.  I have always found it important to go to church every week.  However, I have never read the bible and don't really know that much about it besides the basics.  I am currently going to a bible study once a week and I have really been enjoying it.  With this class I desire to build a stronger relationship with God and grow in my faith.  I am still a work in progress.
Psychological well-being- 8.  I have been going to therapy for a few months to help me "get past my past".  I think I am getting better but not 100% yet.

  I am still currently working on achieving my personal fitness goal.  To reach my goal I strictly manage my diet and incorporate exercise daily.  My biggest battle is finding the time to workout as many days as needed to change my body as I want to. 

There are a few things I can do to foster greater development in this area.  I think it would help if I reread the books that inspire me.  I also need to get back to planning and cooking my meals ahead of time.  I think it would be a great help if I had the company of other people with the same beliefs in eating healthy as I do.  A goal I have in the area of psychological development is to incorporate meditation on a daily basis.  Meditation or time for myself coupled with stress management is the most difficult integral health practices for me to maintain. One of the best things I can do to foster greater development in this area is to simply commit to meditating regularly again. I can do this if I schedule a time to meditate just as you would an appointment then I know I will actually get around to doing it.  I can also go to yoga class at my gym.  To develop my spiritual wellness I can have a goal to read from the bible each night for ten minutes and increase that amount in time.  I can also continue to go to church each week; this will help me grow in my faith.  Lastly I can sign up for future bible study groups at my church.   

             I will assess my progress in within the next six months by using “Smart Goals”.  S- Specific- A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal.

M- Measurable - Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set.  When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal.

A- Attainable – You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. 

R- Realistic- To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. 

T- Timely – A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency. 

(Top Achievement, 2011).

 Strategies I can use to assist in maintaining my long-term practices for health and wellness would be to have a secondary assistance avenue by having someone hold me accountable in maintaining my goals.  Another way is to track myself in a daily journal.  Not only would this monitor my daily performance but will generate trends in my success and or areas of improvement.  I can use my heart rate monitor during exercise to access my calories in and out to track my weight loss goal.  Lastly, if I could have someone with the same goals to team up with me we could encourage each other, push each other, and hole each other accountable. 

Two Practices to Bring Mental Fitness

As I read, learn, experience, and try to implement what we have learned in this course it is still a work in progress for me.  I realize that things take time and new habits aren't easy to incorporate.  I believe in the health benefits of meditation, I just feel like my life is so filled with other commitments that I don't find the time to give the effort of practicing meditation in my daily life.  I think practicing the 'subtle mind' would be very good for me and I enjoyed this meditation exercise.  I would like to perfect taming my mind, observe and witness thoughts and feelings before reacting to situations.  When I feel stress, I find myself taking a deep breath, as this is how the Subtle Mind exercise begins I feel very comfortable and relaxed.  I like the concept of bringing your attention to a chosen focal point.  As learned years ago in lamaz when you focus on something it doesn't allow anything else to have much of an effect on you.  As having so much on my plate, it feels good to let everything go for a while.
I also found the Integral Assessment very beneficial.  I think taking some time to take inventory of the four aspects of my life; personal relationships, emotional development, fitness, work, or even other concerns to determine which area needs attention will keep all areas in a healthy balance.  When there is an area in our life that is in distress it can snowball into an urgent problem causing difficulties and suffering.  If we take some time periodically to evaluate each area then we can stop the snowball from rolling, address it and incorporate a change to bring it back to balance. 
Kristine     

"One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself"

I cannot agree more with this statement. I am hoping to be a Wellness Coach when I graduate and I am on a mission myself while in school to reach my own personal health goals because I strongly feel that I can not advise other people to lose weight when I have weight to lose and I can not advise people to eat healthy and make the right choices when I do not.  I believe in not just talking the talk but also walking the walk. Sometimes I think the reason why I am on my own journey is so that I will have the experience of being in my future clients shoes and completely understand what they go through and how they feel. This will make me very successful in the future. I need to find more time to practice meditation on a regular basis to help develop my psychological and spiritual growth.
Kristine G.

Meeting Aesclepius

This weeks meditation exercise was different for me because previously we were able to read exactly what to expect in our book before listening, this week I had no idea what I was to expect.  Again, I have mixed feelings about "Meeting Aesclepius".  The guide said for us to think of someone whom we respect and believe has great knowledge etc. dead or alive. I kept going back and forth between my grandfather that has passed away and my father who I greatly respect and is still alive.  I understand where they were going with this exercise but it felt awkward.  It sounds good to feel as if you can take these attributes of this person whom you believe is wise and admire and respect and transend them all within your inner self.  The guide told us to "fully become this wise person". I just think this meditation exercise will take many times of practicing to maybe be able to respond the way they want us to. The only thing that really bothered me was when the guide said," It is now time to know the healing God Aesclepius.....". I'm sorry but that made me uncomfortable.  I only believe in one God and his name is not Aesclepius.
Kristine G.

Unit 6 Blog- Loving Kindness Exercise & Integral Assessment

Describe the exercise and assessment process.
The Loving-Kindness exercise was interesting.  It was hard to repeat the four statements over and over for ten minutes with my eyes closed. I thought I should record myself saying them and then playing it with my eyes closed.  I believe that saying positive statements will convince your brain to be positive.  As I was saying these statements my brain was thinking of who needs help out there in the world and how can I give of myself to help them?
The Integral Assessment seems like a very good resource to explore aspects in our life that we can work on improving. 

What did you discover about yourself?
I know that I have more than one area in my life that needs attention.  They are areas in all four areas, psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, and worldly.  Maybe I should determine which area is urgent to begin with?  The concern is doI focus on one area at a time? Or do I work a little on all at the same time?

What area have you chosen to be a focus of growth and development?
I think the most urgent area I need to give attention to is in my psychospiritual life.  I am still struggling with my trust and jealousy issues (emotional).  It causes me stress and aniety which are no good for either my health or the health of my relationship.  I think I have improved but I am not even close to healed.

What are some specific exercises or activities that you can implement to foster greater wellness in this area?
How do we know this? Ideas anyone? The only thing I can think of is to work on my self condifence.  This is supposed to be why people have these issues. I would love some ideas. 

My experience with the Subtle Mind exercise was so much better than the Loving Kindness exercise.  If you read my post with my feedback on the Loving Kindness exercise you know that I did not enjoy it and it gave me uneasy feelings when we were instructed to breath in our loved ones and others suffering.  I did not want to bring pain and suffering into my body.  I understood where they were going with this but I don't agree with how it was done.  I felt like I was being forced to focus on negativity instead of being instructed to focus on positive, loving thoughts and feelings.  However, the Subtle Mind exercise was nothing like that previous experience.  I was impressed with myself that I was actually able to be pretty successful with this exercise.  It was getting late in the day when I listened to the exercise which is naturally time to wind down because it's close to bedtime.  I turned off the lights, closed the door in my room and had one candle lit.  So with a calm and relaxing time of day plus atmosphere I was creating a successful environment.  I began to listen and I found it easy to concentrate on my breathing.  Yes, I had some occasional thoughts and images that appeared in my mind as expected but I was able to notice them and return to my breathing.  As I eased up on the grip of my breath and told to become more of a witness to my mental activity I visualized in my mind exiting my body and looking over myself like you would look at a picture of yourself.  As any random thought entered my mind I was able to acknowledge it and return back to my breathing.  As I listened to the ocean waves I imagined myself in my favorite place to relax- the beach.  As I relaxed 'on the beach' and felt calm and peaceful focusing on my breathing and it felt like the moments just before you go into a deep sleep and i consciously kept myself awake with my eyes closed. I was so relaxed that every time the lady began to speak it startled me. 

The connection of my spiritual wellness to my mental and physical wellness is obvious to me.  As I concentrate on relaxing, peacefulness and quieting my mind, it clears my mind up of busyness and noisy mental chatter which makes my mind healthier and with my mind being healthier brings healthiness to my body since our body follows the mind.  This is important for me to work on in my personal life because if I allow things that upset me 'get to me' then I am only hurting myself with possibly creating premature disease within myself.  I need to practice daily the witnessing mind so to avoid 'knee-jerk' actions.