Final Project

I. Introduction
It is essential as health professionals that we maintain a level of health in all areas of our lives and that we are continually striving to better ourselves. We need to set an example for those that are coming to us for assistance in wanting to better themselves. As health professionals, we need to lead by example and to be able to draw from our own experiences to assist others.  I wouldn’t get fitness advice from an overweight, smoker and I wouldn’t expect others to want my help if I was depressed or mentally ill. Personally, I would like to see development and growth in all three areas of my being: psychologically, spiritually, and physically. There is always room for improvement and growth when it comes to our health and wholeness.

II. Assessment
I used the basic scale of 1-10 to assess my physical, psychological and spiritual health.  Physically, I scored a 9 as I am engaged in a regular fitness program and I eat relatively healthy. I didn’t give myself a 10 because I know that I do tend to eat sometimes out of sheer boredom, stress, or just because it looks good.  I have been trying to lose 5-7 lbs. for about 2 years now, but I tend to sabotage myself every time I drop 1 or 2 lbs. Spiritually, I rated myself at an 8.  I have a personal relationship with God, attend church, pray daily by myself and with my family.  However, I do not actively do things to grow and mature in my faith.  Psychologically, I rated myself at a 8. Through taking classes I’m constantly challenging what I know and learning new things.  I do my best to maintain an 4.0, and to put into practice what I am learning. I did not give myself a 10 because I feel that there is always room for improvement.

III. Goal Development
My physical goal is to achieve a point in which eating becomes more intentional: based on need and not on emotions.  My spiritual goal is to set aside 30 minutes a day in studying the Bible and communing with God through prayer and quiet meditation.  My psychological goal is to maintain my 4.0 through the next year until I am finished with my studies at Kaplan.

IV. Practices for Personal Health
In order to reach the physical goal that I have set for myself it may just come down to a matter of will; however there are a couple of things that I can try. The first thing is to stop and ask myself, “Is my body hungry?” when I get the urge to start grazing in the kitchen.  The second thing that I can do is to determine why I want to snack and find a more positive way to deal with the stress, boredom, or other emotional trigger that is causing me to snack. And finally, I can keep a food journal to determine when and how much unnecessary snacking I do. To achieve my spiritual goal the first thing that I’m going to do is schedule a 30 minute block on the calendar, for each day of the week.  I think that the best place to spend these 30 minutes will be in my closet, where I can lounge on some pillows, close the door and not be distracted or interrupted.  To achieve my psychological goal I will need to continue to give 100% to my classes for the next year.  This will work as long as I continue to do all of my readings, engage in the discussion posts, and complete assignments to the best of my abilities.

V. Commitment
Six months from now (Oct. 2013) I will assess where I am at in regards to achieving the goals that I have listed above.  Physically, I hope to have finally lost the last 5-7 lbs. that I have been working on for the past couple of years. As far as my binge snacking, I can refer to my food journal, but ultimately, I will know if I am still eating for emotional reasons rather than biological reasons.  Spiritually I hope to have developed a habit of daily growth time, one that I don’t have to schedule but that I enjoy setting aside time for without the use of a calendar.  I also hope to see myself acting more intentionally and less reactionary.  I believe that improvement in this area is something that my family will notice as well and their input will be helpful.  Psychologically, I will assess where I’m at in my classes and refer to my degree plan to make sure I’m still giving 100%.

Reference
Dacher, E. (2006) Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Practicing Mental Fitness

Thinking back over the past few weeks and the different mindfulness practices that we learned, I would have to say that the Subtle Mind and the Loving Kindness exercises would be the most beneficial for me. The subtle mind is a great practice that doesn't require very much time. It can be done at any time, anywhere.  If things are getting stressful at home, chasing kids around or trying to do school work, I can take 10-15 minutes to go somewhere quiet and focus on clearing away all the distractions.  As for the Loving Kindness exercise, I like to do this one at night when everyone is asleep and the house is dark.  I usually start out with prayer time and that just flows into praying for others. It's amazing how hard it is to stay mad at someone when you are praying for them, instead of frustration and anger my feelings turn more into empathy and consideration for whatever situation they may be going through.

Mindfulness and Spiritual Wellness

This week, my meditative practices included listening to the Meeting Aesclepius mp3, prayer, and quiet time in which I practiced the Subtle Mind meditation.  I really feel that the quiet and still meditative practices are easier to do throughout the day, because they don't require much of anything.  Instead of trying to remember specific things to say or trying to visualize specific things, I can just close my eyes, breathe deep and feel myself relaxing.  I will continue to do the Subtle Mind practice regularly. I also found that after a couple of minutes when I have cleared my mind from distractions I seem to have a more thoughtful, intentional prayer time with the Lord.

According to Dacher (2006, p. 477), "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself".  I think sometimes the best person to help another through a any situation or new practice is when one can relate to that person because of a common experience. An example that comes to mind is teaching someone to knit. I don't know how to knit, I would be a horrible teacher.  Sure, I could probably read all about it and explain how to do it to someone, but I wouldn't be able to answer any of their questions or actually show them how.  When a person speaks from experience, there is a lot more validity and strength behind what they have to share.  I would rather learn things from people who have some sort of experience or expertise in what it is they are teaching.  In applying this as a health and wellness professional, it is important to model what I teach.  In order to lead others to a place of spiritual, psychological, and physical wholeness, I need to be in a place of wholeness in these areas.  I know that I need to become more consistent in practicing psychological and spiritual health. I would like to set aside at least 15 minutes per day to work on this, I just have a hard time remembering because it's not as high on my priority list as it should be.  I think that leaving little notes around the house will help me remember; like, on the fridge, the bathroom mirror, in the laundry room, etc..

Reference: Dacher, E. (2006) Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Universal Loving Kindness and My Personal Assessment

          As instructed I spent some time meditating on the universal loving kindness exercise.  It was very interesting. The phrases that I was to repeat for about 10 minutes were: "May all individuals gain freedom from suffering, May all individuals find sustained health, happiness, and wholeness. May I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering. May I assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness." After stilling my mind and body for a couple of minutes I began to repeat those lines.  Immediately faces started popping into my head very clearly.  It started with family members, then friends and neighbors, and even the village of people that I visited in Nicaragua.  What surprised me is that faces of children started coming to mind in regards to the little punks in my neighborhood that I have repeatedly battled to try and stop them from continuously tromping through my yard.  When  I realized who they were, a part of me wanted to exclude them from this exercise, but it was just a fleeting thought. About halfway through this meditation exercise I began to feel bit of apprehension mixed with a feeling of being overwhelmed.  There is no way on earth that I can assist ALL individuals - that is one enormous feat.  At this point I may have hindered what was the original intention of this exercise, and now I'm not sure what to do with it. 

          As for my personal assessment to discover what area of my life is causing me stress and needs some development, I feel that it is my biological self.  After really thinking about it, I spend much of my time fretting over my workouts, my calorie intake, my reckless amounts of snacking.  I have been trying to lose 5-10 lbs for about 3 yrs now, and I am realizing that it consumes way too much of my time.  However, the reason I have not accomplished this simple goal during this long period of time is simply that I sabotage myself on a daily basis. If I lose a pound, I celebrate with ice cream.  If I gain a pound, I comfort myself with pastries.  I will have 3-4 amazing days of nutritional eating and then go out to dinner and lose all self-control. This is an area in my life that is way more of a distraction then it should be! I use a nutrition tracker every day, but I'm not very faithful at recording all the extra little bites through out the day.  I need to figure out why I sabotage myself so much in this area, what the root cause is, and go from there.

The Subtle Mind vs. Loving Kindness

For starters, I believe the Subtle Mind exercise should have been done before the Loving Kindness exercise:  maybe that's because it seemed to be easier for me to do.  In the subtle mind exercise I was able to get comfortable, close my eyes and focus on my breathing.  The only time I was distracted was when the lady would start talking again.  In the loving kindness exercise I recall the water noises being distracting and making me feel cold; however, the noise did not bother me at all this time.  I actually found myself starting to doze off a couple of times, and thanks to my head falling backwards I was snapped back into the present.  I find it much easier to clear my mind and keep it 'deliberately empty' during meditation than to try to make things happen - like, taking on someones love or suffering.  I still have a hard time observing my random thoughts. I don't find them distracting, I just discard them as soon as they show up.

In my life, maintaining a good relationship with God is how I maintain my spiritual wellness.  Through prayer, reading, and just talking to Him throughout the day.  I give him my problems, I thank him for my blessings, I pray for those around me, and I feel that worship music is a great way to be in His presence.  As we have been reading in our texts, studies show that mental and spiritual health and focus can affect the physical body whether it be negative (anger - high blood pressure) or positive (love- lower heart rate).  I believe in the min-body-spirit connection very much so and that they play off of each other continuously.

Loving Kindness

     Where to begin??? First of all, I have to admit that I wasn't able to practice the loving kindness exercise until yesterday.  All of last week I was in Canada for my grandmother's funeral and my mom was here through the weekend. I have spent yesterday and today playing catch up in both of my classes. That being said, I did finally get a chance to listen to the Loving Kindness mp3 and found it to be pretty difficult.  I was able to still myself and focus, but I had a hard time actually doing what I was told to do.  I really couldn't seem to 'send loving kindness' to other parts of my body, or to 'observe' my inner thoughts and feelings. The water in the background was very disturbing to me and not at all relaxing.  It actually reminded me of the ocean and I found that I kept feeling cold whenever the water sound would replay. I have found from experience that I prefer to do my meditations in complete quiet, without any background music or noises. I'm not sure if I would recommend this to others simply because I had such a hard time with it.
     To me, mental workout simply means practicing control over your thoughts.  By meditating and focusing our directing our minds on a daily basis we can in turn see progress toward a more complete level of psychospiritual wellness.

The Crime of the Century???

I'm not sure if I did the correct relaxation exercise because of the title "The Crime of the Century".  The relaxation exercise that the link directed me to was a meditation exercise that involved focusing on the colors of the rainbow shooting out of my body like a prism.  Each color and area of the body that it was associated with represented something different. For instance, red coming out of the tailbone and leading to the floor pertained to feeling grounded.  I was able to focus on all that he was saying without getting distracted in thought or from people walking around my house; however, I had a hard time envisioning the colors.  Near the end, I was directed to picture myself being surrounded by a bright, white light: I was able to do that.  The experience itself was relaxing and my hands actually warmed up much more so than during the previous relaxation exercise. I do like making declarations over myself, like "I am loved", "I can love other", etc... I feel that overall this was a very positive experience!

My Level of Wellness

This unit's blog is in regards to my physical, spiritual and psychological well being.  When it comes to my physical well being, I would give myself an 8.  I workout at least five times a week doing combined cardio and strength exercises; and I maintain a healthy weight for my height. A goal that I have for my physical health is to maintain a healthier diet.  I tend to eat well for a few days, and then binge for a few days on high calorie, sugary foods. An activity that I can do to help with this goal is to start a food journal.  Concerning my spiritual well being, I would rate myself at an 8 also.  I believe in God and in having a personal relationship with Him.  I attend church every Sunday and a life group on Tuesdays.  A goal that I have for my spiritual well being is to spend more alone time in prayer and meditation.  An activity that I can to help achieve this goal would be to schedule 20-30 minutes of quiet time each day. I'm more apt to do this if I set aside a specific time in my schedule.  Psychologically I would give myself an 8 also.  (Apparently, I like the number 8).  I maintain a pretty stress free environment and am not a worrier; however, I do tend to see the glass as half empty.  One goal to increase my psychological awareness is to engage in more fun activities.  Planning a family game night will help keep things light and would be quality relationship building time with my children and husband.

Welcome to My Blog!

I'm completely new at this, so bare with me.  I started this blog as an assignment in a current class that I am taking as I work towards my BS in Health and Wellness. I hope that you will find my posts to be fun, interesting and informative.  Thanks for stopping by. Please leave me comments, I'd love to know what you think!

Reflection Post for Unit 2

To give you a little background of how I was feeling before starting the Journey On relaxation exercise, I would just like to say that my whole body has been freezing cold all day, particularly my hands. I must have the draftiest house ever. So I settled in at my computer to listen to the relaxation guide and was pretty skeptical at first; however, I did follow all of his instructions.  My arms and hands did not feel any heavier during the exercise, from start to finish.  As I mentioned above, my hands were freezing cold. I could feel the coolness through my jeans and my legs were getting cold because of it.  About 7 minutes into the exercise (I peeked at the time) my hands and arms were still cool but not as cold as when I started the exercise.  I really didn't think that there was much improvement in 'warmth'; however, once I was directed to start focusing the blood from my arms and hands back into my abdomen, I definitely felt my arms and hands getting colder.  So, as a result of feeling the coldness come back, I can assume that I was actually able to focus some blood from my abdomen to my arms and hands and that they did warm up more than I realized.