Unit 9

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?


- I believe it is important to have whole health (psychological, spiritual, and physical) because without all three you are not completely healthy. You can be physically fit but if you struggle with depression then you mind is unhealthy. Depression is disorder that takes over you mind and eventually your body. It’s important for health professionals to understand this because their jobs are to teach people in one way or another to be healthy. Spiritual health is something I struggle with. I use to believe that you can be “healthy” without being spiritual. After taking this class and reading about spiritual health and believing in something. I realized I am unhealthy when it comes to this. It’s hard for me to believe something that I cannot see. It’s also hard to start from nowhere. I have start to meditate and this has really helped me open up to the idea of spiritual health. I now know that you do not have to be a Catholic to be spiritual. Dacher writes that spiritual health is needed to become whole, to see life through different eyes so to speak. That we should be thankful that we are human and to live life to the fullest.


II. Assessment: How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?


- 1 out of 10 I would rate my spiritual wellness a 3. I am not spiritual but I am wanting to start opening up in that section and really digging deep on my beliefs. So this is why I scored myself a 3 instead of a 0 because I am starting that spiritual search.
- 1 out of 10 I would rate my physical wellness a 7. I am very active and work out 3-5 times a week. On the weekends we usually do something active with our dogs. I have started the paleo diet so since starting that I have felt even more physically well. I don’t rate myself a 10 because I believe I have more to learn about my body. I have started yoga and Pilates more intensely and would consider myself intermediate. So to reach a 10 I feel I have to work harder to get to advance in my practices. All in all though I think I am on the right track when it comes to my fitness and diet.
  - 1 out of 10 I would rate my psychological wellness an 8. I believe that I am in a great emotional spot in my life right no. I am the healthiest and happiest I have ever been. My husband grounds me and I am very confident in myself and my future. With this comes great psychological wellness. I use to suffer from anxiety but since starting working out regularly years ago I was able to cut that in half. Now with my paleo diet, meditation, and working out I do not suffer from anxiety every. It’s been nice to have a clear head and be able to be the person I have always known I was capable of.


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


- Goal for spiritual health- I do not plan to start going to church, my spiritual journey will start from within. My goal is to practice meditation at least 5 times a week for about 5 or 10 minutes a day. I hope to gain awareness from this and open up thoughts and emotions that I have never had. With this then I can decide if I want to go down the mainstream religion or stay spiritual in my own way.
  - Goal for physical health- I want to be in advance practice with my yoga and Pilates. I want to be able to do headstand, crow, and other balancing poses I cannot do right not. I also want to go 100% paleo. Right now with school, moving, and work it is very hard to be strict paleo. I hope with the end of school I can achieve this goal and concentrate on the paleo recipes.
- Goal for psychological health- I believe that physical health ties in with mental health. I cannot be mentally healthy without being physically healthy. If I slack off with my fitness and diet I suffer mentally for this. My anxiety comes back (mildly) and I suffer daily task because of this. I have learned that fitness and diet for me is key. So my goal is to keep my physical fitness and paleo diet going.


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.


- Physical growth- Since I work full time I have found that getting up in the morning to work out helps with my schedule more. Since this is my last term in school, I am going to try to incorporate a few night time yoga sessions. This way I do not have to wake up super early every morning and in the evening I have a different challenge. With this I think I will be able to work out 5-6 days instead of 3-5. Also I just joined yogadownlaod.com and this has been a very neat site so far. There are tons of different yoga, Pilates, and meditation classes. With all these options it will be easy for me to advance in my practice and never get bored.
- Psychological growth- meditation will be huge for me when it comes to my mental fitness. I believe that once I can accomplish shutting off my mind for a period of time, that I will be able to accomplish integral health. My mind is always going, it’s always thinking of things I need to do and I worry a lot so that takes up a lot of space! Meditation will calm my mind and give me peace for a short period of time. I also think once I accomplish this my mind will slow down throughout the day without being in meditation state.
  - Spiritual growth- this one is my hardest. I believe that for now I will just mediate to gain some kind of spiritual growth. When I practice yoga more often I feel connected with things around me more than I do when I work out in different ways. So through yoga and meditation I hope to gain spiritual enlightening.


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?


- I have started a meditation, fitness, and food journal. For me I have to see that I am showing progress. I can feel good but I want to see why I am feeling good. So I plan to do a daily journal and mark my progress and how I feel daily. I know I will be able to keep the journal going because I am very organized in work and life. I think this will collect all the feeling and thoughts and put them in one place. So I found a print out of this chart that I will start to use. I will most likely just buy a journal and use that instead of printing out these pages every day. The format is to list foods you eat, what time you eat it, how much water/fluid you intake a day. Since I am on the paleo diet this will help to ensure that I will stay on track. It also has a section to write how you feel that day, both mentally and physically. So if I mess up on my diet I will be able to determine if I feel bad, why I feel bad. Also I want to track when I start my mediation, how I felt when I started, how long I lasted and then compare that throughout the months. My husband also decided that he is going to start integral health, so with his support and I think we can do this together. If he was against the whole thing it might be harder for me to accomplish my goals.

Unit 8

1st Exercise/Pratice Dasher page 144-145. I choose this practice because during and afterwards I felt loved, at peace, warm, protected, and grateful. I remember things from my past and thought about my future. I had no negative thoughts, I just only thought of the postive that has gone on in my life. It made me completley grateful for my life. I just recently did this exercise so I still feel these feelings after. I hope to continue to practice this exercise throughout my life. Maybe new memories will come throughout my life. I believe this is a great practice becuase most people focus on the negative parts of their lives, I work to much, my family stresses me out, I had a bad childhhod, etc. This practice lets you visualize the good in your life, even if you cannot find something good it allows you to make something up. I still believe that making something up will open up your mind to what you want in life and hopefully go in that direction. I however believe that no matter who you are there is always a few good points in your life. This book just really makes being human a good point. Mental fitness is something I never thought much about until recently. Now that I have experience some of the benefits of training the mind, I know I will continue practicing. I have already started to build my meditation library after this class is over. I plan to take at least 10 minutes every night and meditate. I believe this is a good starting point and I can really build on this. I will also refer back to this practice throughout my life. I find that I want to feel all these feelings that this practice offers. I do not want to go throuh life with negative emotions. I want to better myself, people around me, and enjoy life to the fullest. I believe that mental fitness is one of the keys to doing this. 2nd Exercise/Practice Loving Kindness is the other practice I choice. I have never felt more relaxed than when I did this practice. The water/ocean sounds might have played a big part in this as well. I love the sound of water, I love the ocean it brings me great peace. But this practice was one of the first that I have done where felt that I truely was able to let go over everything. It was a awesome feeling. I beleive this experience has helped me determine if meditation/mental training is something I can accually do. Know that I know I can actually practice, even for a short time, that I can continue this on into my life. Again I have already started thinking about after class and what to do from there. I recently signed up for yogadownload.com and this site has over 400 different yoga, pilates, and meditation classes. I workout at home so this is perfect. I plan on setting up an area in my basement where I can go and close the door and practice in a peacful setting. I have also signed up for 10 classes at a bikram yoga studio. I love this practice. I find it challenges your mind and body. Afterwards I feel like I could rule the world! I also think that if I every get stressed at work or in a situation I will be able to refer back to one of these practices and calm myself. Taking some deep breathes and removing my mind from that moment, at least for a few breathes.

Unit 7

Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness. How can you continue to apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness?


Last night I did the Meeting Aesclepius mp3 . I was super stressed and tired, I had worked from 7:30 to 6 pm and have an hour drive. I had to cook diner and really just wanted to sit on the couch and relax. Instead I went upstairs and laid down on my yoga mat with a small pillow under my head. About 5 minutes into the meditation I was super relaxed. I for some reason had a hard time visualizing someone at first. Tons of people went through my head and it was hard to pick one person. Once I found a person I was very relaxed. After I felt awesome, like my stressful day had just melted away. If I would have sat on the couch and watched TV I would have felt worse, not any better. After I was done with meditation I decided to do some stretching and do some things around the house. I was happy and had energy to do this. Again if I would have sat in front of the TV that is where I would have stayed till I went to bed. Last night really helped me figure out that this is something my mind and body need after long hard days. So I will be utilizing meditation more from now on. I actually signed up for yogadownload.com and they have a lot of audio mediation's. I am excited to start taking care of my psychological needs.


One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" (p.477). How does this apply to the health and wellness professional? Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not? How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?


I believe this saying is saying that you cannot teach someone to be health, mentally or physically if you are not yourself. If you are struggling with mental health, how are you going to educate your clients on whole health? You can educate yourself in whole health but if you don't practice it yourself than you are truly not learning anything. I do however believe that you can be indifferent to spiritual beliefs in order to educate in health. If I believe in Budha and you believe in Jesus that does not matter, it's spirituality that makes someone whole.


I believe that meditation will help guide me through both psychological and spiritual growth. I have learned so much already and I just started. Meditation has just made my mind and heart clearer and I am able to start listening to what I have to say and what I believe in.