Unit 9 Final Project
HW420-03
Heather Jenkins
9/27/2010
The unit nine projects is an opportunity for you to create a plan that applies concepts you have learned regarding holistic/integral health. The plan is created to foster growth and health spiritually, physically, and psychologically in your personal life.
Complete each of the five sections below and post the project in your blog, also submit it as a single Word document in your drop box.
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?
For wellness and healthcare professionals to be truly successful in their field, a true understanding and participation of spiritual, physical and psychological practices is necessary to completely understand and identify with their patients to make them feel as if the practitioner is not only knowledgeable but empathetic as well.
The areas where I would feel I need the most work as for integral health would be psychologically. I do have some self-confidence and self-love issues to deal with. I understand the importance of loving yourself and that is something that I would need to definitely apply to my daily growth.
II Assessment:
How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?
My growth in my spiritual, physical and psychological arenas have grown at different paces. Physically I have for the most part, always been very active and educated in how to take care of my body and keeping my motivated on growing and staying healthy. Spiritually I feel that my trust in my Creator and where I feel I need to be is slowly coming to a balance. I have been praying more and growing my faith which has been a great help. Psychologically, even though there has been growth as far as my ability to control stress, I am still creating a block mentally towards allowing myself to love myself. This is an area that will need to be constantly addressed. Out of a scale from 1-10 I would rate my physical wellness at about an 8, I do very well form myself but there is always room for improvement. Spiritually, I would give myself a 7, much better than at the beginning of class but there is still a lot of growth left to work on. Psychologically, I would put myself at a 4, loving myself is a necessity that I am not currently allowing myself to experience.
III Goal development:
List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.
• Physically- one goal I currently have set for myself would be; to compete in a biking marathon. I have grown a love for bike riding and have implemented it into my weekly exercise routine. How I plan on accomplishing my goal would be to, first find a race that I plan on doing, researching training schedules for routines that will allow me to build conditioning in order to complete the race and then coinciding the two to come to a feasible time schedule for this goal.
• Spiritually- to become more active physically in my spiritual life, by attending church and or a bible study. In order for me to accomplish this goal, I will first need to learn to trust in God and in myself. To apply this trust I have planned on selecting a date and time of a church service and going with a support system (some friends), so that I do not feel alone. I plan to start going at least once a month for the first month or two then moving up to every two weeks for the next two months then finally every Sunday. I believe by implementing this plan in this way I will not feel overwhelmed or intimidated and can let the trust come back naturally.
• Psychologically- this area is the hardest for me to tackle, due to my inner reluctance. I plan to start with a small goal, one that will be a little easier to accomplish and that is not to overwhelming, I will tell myself something positive about myself every day. When I wake up in the morning before I enter the shower I will look myself in the mirror and tell myself that “I am beautiful and God made me in his own image, so that makes me perfect in Gods eyes.” By allowing myself to start talking to me in a positive way will hopefully allow my mental process to see myself in that light.
IV Practices for personal health:
What strategies can you implement to foster growth in each of the following domains; Physical, Psychological, and Spiritual. Provide at least two examples of exercises or practices in each domain. Explain how you will implement each example.
• Physically- I plan to continue increasing in speed and distance on my bike or in the gym on the spinning bikes in order to reach my goal of completing a marathon. By going to the gym at least 3-5 days a week and committing to increasing in performance each time will be a way of showing growth. Another area of growth for my physical wellbeing would be; stretching and improving flexibility in my joints. By increasing flexibility and range of motion will keep my joints and muscles from getting overly fatigued and prevent the overabundance of lactic acid build up, which in turn will help with the goal of increasing my speed and distance on my rides.
• Spiritually- a way I can measure growth spiritually would be by reading every day and keeping the “word” in my mind and heart. By reiterating this daily, will bring my spiritual wellness more consistent and allow the fostering of growth and trust. By fellowshipping more with fellow believers will also allow a consistent degree of spiritually and oneness with God and his people.
• Psychologically-scheduling a time each day in the morning when I first wake up to meditate and clear my mind so that I can focus on positive aspects instead of the stressors of the day, will help to train my mind to become quieter instead of being chaotic with all the things of the day. Learning to speak positively to myself in all areas will assist in my overall outlook upon myself which will help with my self-image.
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?
Physically I am always motivated and passionate to grown physically, so accomplishing my physical goals I am very confident in. Spiritually I feel meditation allows me to feel closer to God and puts me in a spiritual state. Visualization techniques I believe will help me with accomplishing my spiritual goals. Psychologically, the exercise that would be the most beneficial would be, the loving-kindness exercise. By showing myself the love I already have for others and allowing myself to feel that way about me, would help in my quest to become more balance psychologically.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Unit 8
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.
One of the exercises that we were assigned, I found the most beneficial would be; the Loving-Kindness exercise. The Loving-Kindness exercise was a confirmation of what I tend to do on a daily basis. My job entails me to focus on others wants and needs and to be selfless to my own thoughts and opinions. The Loving-Kindness exercise really made me feel good about myself and my desire to care for others.
I also truly enjoyed the visualization exercise from “Integral Health, by; Dacher”. Being an individual that is always visualizing thoughts and ideas this exercise came naturally to me. I visualized myself at a friend of mine’s house, where I was house sitting. It is a mid-summers day right before it rains; there is a beautiful overcast to where the clouds look voluptuous. The wind is blowing about the trees form left to right almost like they are dancing. I am out on the back patio surrounded by nothing but dancing trees and open sky, beautiful. I can smell the refreshing smell of rain in the air along with a hint of warm wet dirty, very energizing scent. For the 30 minutes I am outside waiting for the storm to come in, I am calm, relaxed by this state, feeling of invigoration, a feeling of wholeness, I am not worried about what I have to do today or what I have to do tomorrow or even what I may think about myself or what others may think, just truly in the moment of awe towards the beauty of a storm. To apply this to my daily life, I would have to train myself to find those little things in life that I cannot control that bring me joy and focus on them. Learn that control does not equal happiness and learn to live in the moment.
One of the exercises that we were assigned, I found the most beneficial would be; the Loving-Kindness exercise. The Loving-Kindness exercise was a confirmation of what I tend to do on a daily basis. My job entails me to focus on others wants and needs and to be selfless to my own thoughts and opinions. The Loving-Kindness exercise really made me feel good about myself and my desire to care for others.
I also truly enjoyed the visualization exercise from “Integral Health, by; Dacher”. Being an individual that is always visualizing thoughts and ideas this exercise came naturally to me. I visualized myself at a friend of mine’s house, where I was house sitting. It is a mid-summers day right before it rains; there is a beautiful overcast to where the clouds look voluptuous. The wind is blowing about the trees form left to right almost like they are dancing. I am out on the back patio surrounded by nothing but dancing trees and open sky, beautiful. I can smell the refreshing smell of rain in the air along with a hint of warm wet dirty, very energizing scent. For the 30 minutes I am outside waiting for the storm to come in, I am calm, relaxed by this state, feeling of invigoration, a feeling of wholeness, I am not worried about what I have to do today or what I have to do tomorrow or even what I may think about myself or what others may think, just truly in the moment of awe towards the beauty of a storm. To apply this to my daily life, I would have to train myself to find those little things in life that I cannot control that bring me joy and focus on them. Learn that control does not equal happiness and learn to live in the moment.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Unit 7
1. This week’s exercise was very interesting; I enjoyed the visualization of the wise individual, because it gave something for my mind to focus on. I found the visualization of the light beams to be a bit disturbing at first, having an overly active mind can take such visual stimuli to all different plains of thought. I saw in the beams the words floating from my head to their head and from their head to my head, which was a little strange. Overall I did gain teachings from this exercise about focusing on things/people that can help you grow and teach you about become focused and that learning from one who has already mastered what you are trying to obtain. I believe by taking the time out and focusing on either people or situations that are supportive or influential to my goals, will assist me in focus and balance towards those goals.
2. "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself”, I believe is describing anyone who tries to give advice about a topic they either know little of or have not put into practice themselves. I feel that following that saying is important in all aspects of life including the medical profession. If your doctor tells you that you are overweight and need to lose 20 pounds and they themselves are at least 40 pounds overweight, which may taint your judgment of that doctor and their true devotion to their job. I do believe that health care professionals have an obligation to their patients to either be or practice being balanced physically, psychologically, and spiritually in order to be of value to them. Being a personal trainer I expect myself to follow the practices that I instill in my clients; I watch what I eat, I exercise daily, and focus on positive growth. I know that if I did not do these things and put the shoe on the other foot that I would not take myself seriously.
2. "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself”, I believe is describing anyone who tries to give advice about a topic they either know little of or have not put into practice themselves. I feel that following that saying is important in all aspects of life including the medical profession. If your doctor tells you that you are overweight and need to lose 20 pounds and they themselves are at least 40 pounds overweight, which may taint your judgment of that doctor and their true devotion to their job. I do believe that health care professionals have an obligation to their patients to either be or practice being balanced physically, psychologically, and spiritually in order to be of value to them. Being a personal trainer I expect myself to follow the practices that I instill in my clients; I watch what I eat, I exercise daily, and focus on positive growth. I know that if I did not do these things and put the shoe on the other foot that I would not take myself seriously.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Unit 6
The loving kindness exercise made me think of my many prayers I recite to God. From the assessment, it seems to me that the quadrants I have the most difficulty with are; my interpersonal and my psychospiritual quadrants. I feel I lack confidents and control in my personal life and my subconscious thinking. The area that I feel I need the most growth in would have to be, my psychospiritual area. I feel I need to learn how to truly love myself and trust my thoughts and decisions without focusing on the perceptions of others.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Unit 5
1. Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.
The loving kindness exercise I felt, that I was more able to focus and accomplish the tasks that were given. I felt more relaxed and eager to go along with the loving kindness exercise. As for the subtle mind exercise, I have not been so frustrated trying to complete a relaxation task in my life. I suffer from having a very active mind, that the only way I can focus on relaxing is if I have a task to relax to. Just sitting there trying not to think, felt like punishment, the quieter it got the angrier I got. The subtle mind exercise stressed me to the point of nausea and anxiety. I have tried for several years to quiet my mind and have found that I do better with a non-stressful activity or thought to focus on works a lot better than, no thoughts at all. Every time I attempt to convert how I relax, I feel stressed and almost as if I am betraying the truth about whom I am. My acupuncturist told me that my element is water, water is always flowing. If water stops moving it is no longer productive. I need to be moving to feel balanced.
2. Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.
The spiritual, mental and physical wellness, as described in “Dacher Integral Health”, is through the psycho spiritual connection. Connecting the biological with elevated levels of consciousness, assist in true balance of the body as a whole.
The loving kindness exercise I felt, that I was more able to focus and accomplish the tasks that were given. I felt more relaxed and eager to go along with the loving kindness exercise. As for the subtle mind exercise, I have not been so frustrated trying to complete a relaxation task in my life. I suffer from having a very active mind, that the only way I can focus on relaxing is if I have a task to relax to. Just sitting there trying not to think, felt like punishment, the quieter it got the angrier I got. The subtle mind exercise stressed me to the point of nausea and anxiety. I have tried for several years to quiet my mind and have found that I do better with a non-stressful activity or thought to focus on works a lot better than, no thoughts at all. Every time I attempt to convert how I relax, I feel stressed and almost as if I am betraying the truth about whom I am. My acupuncturist told me that my element is water, water is always flowing. If water stops moving it is no longer productive. I need to be moving to feel balanced.
2. Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.
The spiritual, mental and physical wellness, as described in “Dacher Integral Health”, is through the psycho spiritual connection. Connecting the biological with elevated levels of consciousness, assist in true balance of the body as a whole.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Unit 4
1. Describe your experience. (Did you find it beneficial? Difficult?) Why or Why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or Why not?
I enjoyed the part of the exercise, where I focused on others and loving kindness towards them. I love caring for others, that is where I find my happiness through work and with friends and family, being selfless makes me feel whole. The part that I felt a little disturbing is where I had to focus on myself and loving kindness towards myself. I tend to lack trust in others, my emotions and the future, so I have doubts about where I am and where I should be emotionally. I feel that I know that I will truly care for others but don’t rely on other to do the same. I felt myself tuning out the speaker when she was focusing on self verses others.
2. What is the concept of “Mental Workout? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a Mental Work Out? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?
I believe that trough mental workout, one can learn to become less focused on self and learn to care for others, which in turn will show others kindness and will intrigue them to return the same loving kindness. Also by training your mind, we can also learn how to truly love ourselves ( which is a topic I need much work on), from the reading and listening exercise, by learning to love ourselves will allow us all the better to love one and other.
I enjoyed the part of the exercise, where I focused on others and loving kindness towards them. I love caring for others, that is where I find my happiness through work and with friends and family, being selfless makes me feel whole. The part that I felt a little disturbing is where I had to focus on myself and loving kindness towards myself. I tend to lack trust in others, my emotions and the future, so I have doubts about where I am and where I should be emotionally. I feel that I know that I will truly care for others but don’t rely on other to do the same. I felt myself tuning out the speaker when she was focusing on self verses others.
2. What is the concept of “Mental Workout? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a Mental Work Out? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?
I believe that trough mental workout, one can learn to become less focused on self and learn to care for others, which in turn will show others kindness and will intrigue them to return the same loving kindness. Also by training your mind, we can also learn how to truly love ourselves ( which is a topic I need much work on), from the reading and listening exercise, by learning to love ourselves will allow us all the better to love one and other.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Unit 3
1. Based on your reflections, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being optimal wellbeing), where do you rate your A-physical wellbeing, B-spiritual well-being, C-psychological well-being? Why?
As for reflecting on my current well-being states, I would have to give myself an 8 for my physical, an 7 for my spiritual and an 6 for my psychological well-being currently.
I gave myself a 8 for physical, because being a personal trainer I believe in taking good care of your body through healthy food selections and daily physical activity. I currently am at an athletic body fat percentage, with a great deal of energy. I only gave myself an 8 because I was diagnosed with lupus when I was 16 years old that affects my joints and sun sensitivity; I also have very bad allergies towards processed foods, pesticides, insecticides, tree nuts, animal dander and other allergens.
I currently feel that I am around a 7 in my spiritual well-being. I am a firm believer in my faith as a Christian and my love and obedience for God. The reasoning for a 7 instead of a 10 is due to my mother’s passing the beginning of the year. After her passing and the way it came to pass, slightly shifted my understanding and faith.
As for psychological I currently feel I am around a 6. This current state I believe is contributed to my mother’s passing, current work schedules and other stressors in my life for the time being.
2. Develop a goal for yourself in each area (physical, spiritual, psychological).
My current goals for my physical well-being would be to; improve my endurance and strength, possible strives for getting back into competition condition.
For my spiritual well-being goals; I need to start fellowshipping with other believer again and replace my faith.
Then for my physiological well-being; start retraining my mind to not stress the things that I cannot control.
3. What activities or exercise can you implement in your life to assist in moving toward each goal?
In order to achieve my physical goal; I would need to construct a workout schedule, with days and times designated for strength and endurance training and workouts with exercises for each of those days. Also constructing a dietary plan, that will assist in balancing out my nutrient intake, to compensate for my goals.
To achieve my spiritual goals; I would include in my Sunday schedule time for church and fellowship, also scheduling another time throughout the week for reading and other activities to help to strengthen my faith, through bible studies.
For my physiological well-being goal; daily taking time out of each day to apply relaxation techniques, to allow myself to learn to not stress and take time to reflect and calm down.
4. Complete the relaxation exercise The Crime of the Century. To hear this exercise, click here. Describe your experience. (What it beneficial? Frustrating? etc.)
This relaxation exercise was not as stressful as last weeks. I have been trying to apply some of my goals and the integral healing to my daily life. Taking time out for me is not an easy task; I tend to focus my time and efforts on others. I have been trying to apply, taking care of my own well being as well.
The positive words related towards the different parts of your body, helps you to visualize the positive about yourself.
As for reflecting on my current well-being states, I would have to give myself an 8 for my physical, an 7 for my spiritual and an 6 for my psychological well-being currently.
I gave myself a 8 for physical, because being a personal trainer I believe in taking good care of your body through healthy food selections and daily physical activity. I currently am at an athletic body fat percentage, with a great deal of energy. I only gave myself an 8 because I was diagnosed with lupus when I was 16 years old that affects my joints and sun sensitivity; I also have very bad allergies towards processed foods, pesticides, insecticides, tree nuts, animal dander and other allergens.
I currently feel that I am around a 7 in my spiritual well-being. I am a firm believer in my faith as a Christian and my love and obedience for God. The reasoning for a 7 instead of a 10 is due to my mother’s passing the beginning of the year. After her passing and the way it came to pass, slightly shifted my understanding and faith.
As for psychological I currently feel I am around a 6. This current state I believe is contributed to my mother’s passing, current work schedules and other stressors in my life for the time being.
2. Develop a goal for yourself in each area (physical, spiritual, psychological).
My current goals for my physical well-being would be to; improve my endurance and strength, possible strives for getting back into competition condition.
For my spiritual well-being goals; I need to start fellowshipping with other believer again and replace my faith.
Then for my physiological well-being; start retraining my mind to not stress the things that I cannot control.
3. What activities or exercise can you implement in your life to assist in moving toward each goal?
In order to achieve my physical goal; I would need to construct a workout schedule, with days and times designated for strength and endurance training and workouts with exercises for each of those days. Also constructing a dietary plan, that will assist in balancing out my nutrient intake, to compensate for my goals.
To achieve my spiritual goals; I would include in my Sunday schedule time for church and fellowship, also scheduling another time throughout the week for reading and other activities to help to strengthen my faith, through bible studies.
For my physiological well-being goal; daily taking time out of each day to apply relaxation techniques, to allow myself to learn to not stress and take time to reflect and calm down.
4. Complete the relaxation exercise The Crime of the Century. To hear this exercise, click here. Describe your experience. (What it beneficial? Frustrating? etc.)
This relaxation exercise was not as stressful as last weeks. I have been trying to apply some of my goals and the integral healing to my daily life. Taking time out for me is not an easy task; I tend to focus my time and efforts on others. I have been trying to apply, taking care of my own well being as well.
The positive words related towards the different parts of your body, helps you to visualize the positive about yourself.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Unit 2
Welcome to my blog page for "Creating Wellness Psychology and Spiritual Aspects of Healing". The following blog will be about an exercise for unit 2, that we had to participate in which was titled “Journey on relaxation.
From listening to the exercise, in theory I can tell that it would assist in relaxation. Currently my life state does not allow me free time for myself and I found that the exercise actually caused me more stress than it was meant to relieve. I believe this was based on the fact that deep down I was concentration on the other many things I had to get done and a little resentment towards the exercise, because it was taking up time from me accomplishing those tasks. I have never been very good at relaxing; I tend to find sitting around and doing nothing as more of a stressor that actively having things to do. I tend to let my mind fill up with negative thoughts when I am "meditating", so I feel more comfortable keeping my mind busy, so as not to have time for negative thinking. I feel that for me to honestly "relax" the way the exercise describes, I would have to schedule a free time in my schedule to "relax" and find a way to train myself to learn how to relax, instead of having an over-active mind.
From listening to the exercise, in theory I can tell that it would assist in relaxation. Currently my life state does not allow me free time for myself and I found that the exercise actually caused me more stress than it was meant to relieve. I believe this was based on the fact that deep down I was concentration on the other many things I had to get done and a little resentment towards the exercise, because it was taking up time from me accomplishing those tasks. I have never been very good at relaxing; I tend to find sitting around and doing nothing as more of a stressor that actively having things to do. I tend to let my mind fill up with negative thoughts when I am "meditating", so I feel more comfortable keeping my mind busy, so as not to have time for negative thinking. I feel that for me to honestly "relax" the way the exercise describes, I would have to schedule a free time in my schedule to "relax" and find a way to train myself to learn how to relax, instead of having an over-active mind.
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