Unit 9

Introduction:
                It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically because they need to be at their best in order to be able to help their patients. I need to work on all three of these areas, but I am making improvements and feel like I am going in the right direction.

Assessment:
               I have assessed my health in each domain, and these are my scores. My spiritual wellness is scored at a 7. I have a close relationship with God and with Jesus Christ, but I need to work on my church attendance and on my bible reading. I am learning to spend more time each day in prayer; which is very good.

My physical assessment is about a 5; but I am expecting that to improve soon. I have run out of all of my medications because of my move, so I do not have the medications I need for my diabetes and my chronic pain. I am walking at least 2 miles each day, and I am trying to work out whenever I can. As soon as I can get back on my medications, my physical health should improve dramatically.

Psychologically, I am at a 3. I do not have my friends available to help me with my issues as much; and I am dealing with some pretty tough situations in my life right now. I am looking for a counselor, and I need to get back on my medication as well. I have not given up hope, though and I know that life will get better.

Goal development:
            I have a couple of goals for my spiritual development. I want to improve my church attendance to at least 3 times a month; but I would rather be going 4 or more times each month. I also want to increase the time I spend reading my bible each day. Physically, I need to get back on all my medications. I would also like to spend at least 2 hours each week at our work-out room. Psychologically, I am a mess. I need to make finding a counselor a priority.            I am already practicing stress relief through meditation and prayer, but I need to find more time for myself. I need to spend at least 30 minutes each day in quiet solitude so that I can get my head back on straight.

Practices for personal health:

            To improve my spiritual health, I am going to make reading my bible a priority. To accomplish this, I am going to start getting up 15 minutes earlier each day and then spend those 15 minutes reading my bible. I also want to improve my church attendance to at least 3 weeks each month. To do this, I am going to start going to bed earlier on Saturday nights, and setting out the clothes I want to wear in the morning before I go to bed.

            Physically, I need to get back on my medication, and exercise more. I am going to start walking at least 3 miles each day, and set aside at least 30 minutes each day to work out in our exercise room. I plan to use the stationary bike, the free weights, and some of the other weight machines in the exercise room. I am also giving serious thought to joining Weight Watchers. They can help me to meet my weight goals much faster and easier than I can do it myself.

 Psychologically, I need to make finding a counselor a priority. I need to have someone I can talk to about some of the stuff that is going on in my life. I also need to set aside at least 30 minutes each day to spend in quiet solitude. I can spend that time meditating and/or praying; but I will not allow myself to dwell on my problems. Since I have not really found the guided meditations to be all that useful, I will probably just relax and work on my witnessing and calm-abiding mind.

 Commitment:

            In order to assess my progress, or lack thereof, in the next six months; I am going to use a calendar to mark down what I did towards each goal, each day. To assist me in maintaining my long-term practices, I can focus on what my goals are and how to reach them. I can also make myself accountable by keeping track of how I am doing and how often I practice each step. If I join Weight Watchers, they will help me to be accountable to them for my weight loss goals. If I feel like I am losing sight of my goals, I can talk to someone about them and what I am trying to accomplish. My husband is a great listener, and encourager.

           

Unit 8

After reviewing the exercises and practice sessions we have completed in this course, I find that the only one that I found to be at all useful was in unit 3; The Crime of the Century. This was the only practice in which I could actually feel like I accomplished anything. I did manage to block everything out that was going on around me with this exercise, and I found the phrases he had me repeat to be somewhat helpful. However, I truly feel that I will be at my best if I just practice meditating on keeping my mind witnessing and calm-abiding. I am going to start setting aside a few minutes each day to do this.

Unit 7

I did not find the Meeting Aesclepius mp3 to be the least bit helpful or useful. I found the spaces between her instructions to be too long and I found my mind wandering all over the place. I found it to be so unhelpful that I only listened to it once. I did try to spend some time this week meditating by myself, but I was very busy and my daughter was sick. I am not really sure that meditation has increased my psychological wellness at this point; but I am hoping that will change as I learn to practice it more.

The saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" means that we cannot lead others in practicing something we don't practice ourselves. We need to practice meditation before we can teach someone else to do it; this is true with anything that we might want someone else to do. This applies to the health and wellness professional because no one is going to listen to a doctor who smokes tell them to quit. In the same way, we cannot teach our clients to meditate for better health and less stress if we don't practice it ourselves. I do have an obligation to my clients to be developing my health psychologically, physically and spiritually; because I need to be at my best to be able to help them be their best. I can implement psychological and spiritual growth in my personal life by continuing to practice meditating and praying.

 

Unit 6

I am still having difficulty with this exercise, although it is much easier and I am getting a lot more out of it now than when I first started with it. I am having a hard time with the suffering of my loved ones; this has always been a hard thing for me to deal with. It is as if I can physically feel what they are going through, and I wish I could take it away from them. It does help when I send them loving and healing thoughts.

As for my assessment, that was pretty easy, the area of my life that is giving me the most trouble and that needs the most work are the same one; biological. I am having a hard time with some of my illnesses, and I really need to find a doctor who is willing to work with me on these areas. My psychological wellbeing could also use quite a bit of work as I am facing not only the possibility of yet another serious illness for myself but the possibility of losing my child. In spite of all of this, my spiritual wellbeing is at a pretty good place; I am working hard to put my faith in God and know He is always there for me, and He is in charge.

Unit 5

To be perfectly honest, I did not find either Loving Kindness or The Subtle Mind to be very helpful. Apparently, I do better when someone is telling me what to focus on and then continuing to speak. I think part of the problem may be that I am still not doing very well with visualization, and I need more help maintaining my focus. I found my mind wandering all over the place with The Subtle Mind and this was very frustrating.

Spiritual wellness is totally connected to physical and mental wellness. If you are spiritually unwell, you are going to have more problems both physically and mentally. I find that the more I have my spiritual life in order, the better my moods are and the more I am able to focus on whatever task is at hand. My mind is clearer and I am better able to complete everything I need to do each day. I also find that the better my prayer life is, the better I feel physically. Although I still have several health problems, the better I am doing spiritually the less I focus on those problems and the better I feel in general.