Unit 9

1. 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?

The best way to lead is through example.  As a health and wellness professional, once you develop these aspects of your own life you can use them to help teach others and to educate them.  Healing is strongly centered within oneself.  To fully heal a person is not to cure their symptoms, it is to help with the underlying problems that caused the symptoms in the beginning (stress, mental health).  Personally, I feel I need to develop my spiritual aspects more to have a healthier understanding of whole health.

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

Depending on what scale we are using I would say I’m healthy in all aspects: spiritual, physical, and psychological.  On an Excellent, Good, Fair, Moderate, and Poor scale I would be Excellent in psychological, Good in physical (because soda/caffeine/nicotine are my weaknesses), and Good in spiritual (I have recently started to develop this through meditation).  The realization that spirituality is not Christianity took a while to understand but I appreciate the difference between the two. 

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

Physical Goal- Strengthen my bones (Dr. Oz suggests hopping for 15 minutes each day to strengthen hip bones in prevention of osteoporosis.

Psychological Goal- Stop allowing my loving kindness to be victimized by people who aren’t willing to accept it.

Spiritual Goal- Work on developing patience and compassion for others.

4. 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 implementation-

1.      Sunscreen- The largest organ is skin and skin cancer is prevalent in my family.  I have switched to a moisturizer with sunscreen to help be proactive in my approach.

2.      Exercising- With spring here I have already started walking every evening after dinner.

Psychological implementation-

1.      Anger Management- Practice more understanding and stop expecting perfection from others.  Become a better teacher instead of being angered by mistakes.

2.      Be selfless- Selflessness in all your actions will help to realize that the result is not a reflection on yourself as long as you acted with a pure heart and good intentions.

Spiritual implementation-

1.      Develop patience- prayer and deep breathing exercises.

2.      Find inner peace- meditation exercises.

5. 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’m not sure these factors can be measured by tangible means.  As long as my psychological and spiritual aspects are in the right place my physical health will show improvements.  I’m sure the physical can be measured by the amount of exercise and weight loss/cholesterol/blood pressure.  However, the spiritual and psychological aspects do not have diagnostic tools so easily accessible to the common person.  That’s why personally, I have issues with physicians diagnosing a mental health disorder based solely on a behavioral checklist instead of a diagnostic EEG or MRI that would show brain cell/wave abnormalities.  Strategies to maintain long term health and wellness would be to continue to practice the goals in place and remember you are the key to your own health. 

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.

The loving-kindness and subtle mind exercises are the only two meditation practices that I have learned in this course that have been beneficial to me.  I suppose because they were in mp3 form and I am able to listen to them multiple times.  I like the idea of loving-kindness because I tend to put others before myself and have the motherly tendency to put try to take away others' pain.  The subtle mind exercise works for me because I force myself to intentionally clear my mind and focus my thoughts.  I have already implemented these into my personal mental fitness routine because whenever I am stressed I use them and get some stress relief.  Practices that I have never learned in this book closely relate to the visualization method.  I like to lay still and envision the hot sun on my face, feel the rays enter through my face and turn my whole body into a warm beam of light.  Once this has happened I let my physical body form dissolve and travel through space and time in my mind and eventually rest back down into my body.  This has proven to be the most beneficial to me, but I'm not sure it has a name exactly.  

Meeting Aesclepius

1. Complete the Meeting Aesclepius mp3 (located in the Doc Sharing area). Describe your meditative practices for the week and discuss the experience. 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?

The Meeting Aesclepius practice was very disturbing to me.  I wouldn't say it was healing to me at this point because it was difficult for me to visualize anyone as this type of wise healer and then putting a white halo beam around them. At this point it made me feel almost spiritual as if God were the only true wise one with this type of healing quality.  So I envisioned an image of Him.  Then it said for me to take this person into myself and soak up all their knowledge and wisdom and i kept thinking of what happened to Adam and Eve when they wanted knowledge and wisdom.  Trust me, those menstrual cramps and birthing babies are very painful... So I think I'll save this practice for the more advanced healers and I'll be happy giving loving-kindness.  

1. Describe the saying: "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?

 Psychological and spiritual growth comes to people in many ways.  For some people these types of exercises open the mind and heart, for others seeing the beauty in life itself can open you up to it.  It is only through our own experiences that we can choose how to respond anyway.  Saying "one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" is also taught in leadership classes.  To be an effective leader you cannot ask your subordinates to do anything you're not willing to do yourself.  How can you effectively lead when you only know something in theory?  As a healthcare professional I think having those experiences and sharing them through education is the only way to help others.  Think of the drug counselor.  I think the best ones are those who have been rehabilitated themselves or been on the opposite side of the spectrum and experienced it from a family member's perspective.  You can't understand the mind of an addict if you've never had an addiction or you can't understand the mind of the enabler if you've never watched someone suffer.  The best way to catch a fugitive is to think like one.  You have to put yourself in another's shoes, walk their path, experience things from all perspectives not just the less controversial one and empathize. 

Integral Assessment

·         Practice the universal Loving Kindness (meditation) exercise on p. 93.

·         Complete the Integral Assessment discussed in chapter 11 (p.115).

·         Describe the exercise and assessment process. What did you discover about yourself? What area have you chosen to be a focus of growth and development? Why? What are some specific exercises or activities that you can implement to foster greater wellness in this area?

What a perfect morning to read the chapter on integral assessment… The loving-kindness exercise reminds us to be selfless and place all of the love and kindness you have into your outward breathes and breathe in all of human suffering.  The integral assessment realizes that you will always have areas in your personal relationships of life (interpersonal), biological, worldly, and psychospiritual.  In doing this assessment I realized that today specifically, I need to focus on the interpersonal area for growth and development.  Dacher mentions a seminar he attended where the person next to him was disruptive and caused him to feel enraged while he was listening to the speech on loving-kindness.  How can you practice what you preach?  I’ve realized that the interpersonal relationship between myself and this particularly unfriendly and thoughtless maintenance worker in my house today could have been handled with loving-kindness if I were more developed in this area.  Although I am not a master at the practice, when the situation got heated because his disregard for my possessions and cleanliness while he was working irritated me to say the least, I lashed out at first.  Then walked away and grabbed Dacher’s book and started reading.  At this point in my development, that’s the best I can do.  But it helped! I’ve read the assigned reading, feel I have a personal relationship to the words he was speaking, and can related to the incidence this morning.  I can look at the situation now, while the maintenance man is still upstairs pulling insulation out of my ceiling and landing on all my clothes and shoes in the closet, and realize that he probably has never had nice clothes.  I’ve seen his house.  He lives in poverty and that might explain why he has no respect for the nice things I have.  So out of the loving-kindness in my heart, I’ll just say those sweet southern words that my mamma always taught me- Bless his little heart! He can’t help it; he doesn’t know any better.

The Subtle Mind Exercise

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 differed from the Subtle Mind exercise in that last week's was designed to focus your thoughts to your outward aspects of your life- loved ones, friends, other person's pain, and your enemies.  This week it was an inward focus on your own levels of witnessing mind, calm/abiding, and then awareness/unity.  I enjoyed the exercise this week better than last week because I actually had uninterrupted time to complete it! At first as I was focused on the breathing, the woman's voice scared me when she started to talk again.  As it progressed I was expecting her voice but still remained focused on my breathing.  I think that's a sign it works. The only problem with this was all the work to get you to a relaxed state, then she just bounced out.  Wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, BOOM there it was-goodbye. I think she could have brought you back to awareness better, as I was almost asleep and then it was over. 

1. Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.

When the mind is rested and making spiritual connections the body benefits from it.  It reduces stress and allows you to focus on taking complete deep breathes (creating more oxygen saturation in your cells). I have noticed personally, when I am able to participate in structured meditation time I am able to handle the aggravation of daily life much better.  I come up with simpler solutions to problems and I am generally friendlier.

Exercise on Loving Kindness

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 truly am enjoying Dacher's book on Integral Health and am trying to not only read the words on the pages but find meaning behind them.  They problem is that I know exactly where the stress in my life comes from.  A controlling jealous husband that is convinced if I shut the bedroom door alone for more than 15 minutes I must be up to no good or sending a misfit text to some imaginary person he's created a world of jealousy toward.  Did I find this exercise beneficial? No! Not because the program was designed poorly.  Not because I didn't attempt on multiple occasions.  Probably because he's so scared of losing something that he's pushing it away.  Sorry this isn't beneficial to the advancement of the assignment but it's a blog, and it's honest.  I took 2 years off work to finish my BS degree and attempt to complete my Masters.  I got married 2 months ago and am realizing that I really had the world in my reigns until I tied the knot. Would I recommend this to others? Sure.  I'd recommend it to myself if I could have a moment's peace in this house. 

1. What is the concept of "mental workout"? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a mental workout? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

A mental workout. There are proven benefits to mental workouts.  Meditation can alleviate the stress in your life and is statistically proven to increase gamma waves in the brain and structurally change the way the body reacts to stress.  I need to implement mental workouts in my daily health because within the last 2 months my health has seriously degraded.  I don't sleep, I struggle to complete assignments, my day feels hopeless from the moment I wake up and I find it hard to enjoy tasks I have always loved.  I'm not depressed.  I'm angry.  It's hard to find loving-kindness when you can't even find yourself under someone else's reign of negativity. 

Journey on Relaxation Exercise

Sitting here this morning trying to do this relaxation exercise and learn how to start blogging all at the same time.  Interestingly enough I find that I'm not the least bit relaxed.  The guy's voice in the exercise was very soothing and the music was tranquil.  However, he didn't give me the time I felt I needed to really move the blood from my abdomen to my arms and back.  I've done many guided relaxation techniques in the past and have enjoyed them.  This one was not very beneficial to me.  I think when you know you are completing a mandatory relaxation exercise to write an evaluation on it takes away from the purpose of the exercise.  I wasn't able to rest my mind.  All I kept thinking was "how is this going to make me feel" and "what will I say in the blog".  Then the phone rang and that really didn't allow me to reap any benefits.  I assume I will try this again later after I'm certain that my blog was published and working.