Unit 9 Blog: Project

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?
It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically. If they are to promote or encourage Integral Health, they must themselves develop in mind, body, and spirit so they cannot only be a role model but do their job with passion. To do a better job as a Health and Wellness professional, you must be able to transmit your knowledge and experience to your patients and fellow practitioners. This can only be done with developing in these areas. A patient or client can be more willing to heel advice if you exhibit development psychologically, spiritually, and physically. Development in these areas will certainly show, even if not developed to the fullest. Helping yourself help you to help others better and therefore do the best job possible.
Personally, I need to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically. The readings, discussions, and awareness from taking this course have helped me in my development in these areas. I have realized the importance in developing my mind, body, and spirit to achieve short term and long term goals especially to attain a general feeling of well-being. Practice of loving-kindness, subtle-mind, visualization, meditation, yoga, Pilates, and exercise, all are helping me develop in these areas.


II Assessment:
How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?
Spiritually and Psychologically, I can assess my health in these areas by feeling a sense of happiness, contentment, and a good feeling inside. Through love and kindness, I realized how important it is to give to others and not to focus on myself. When I exhibit feelings of selfishness, defensiveness, being angry or judge-mental, I know I am loosing focus and must get back to loving kindness and he importance of giving. My religion also tells us to give ourselves to others and I must continue to practice my religion in my actions as well as attending mass.
Mentally through meditation, I am able to experience a sense of calmness. When things get too hectic or stressful at work, I take deep breaths, clear my mind and eliminate all the negative things that causing the stress and then I can get back to doing my job and helping my patients. I can assess how I am doing in these areas by my ability to focus and feeling of well-being.
Physically, I can assess based on my stamina and strength. When I walk up and down the stairs all day at work, I know if I feel tired and it is a struggle taking the stairs, then that is the time to exercise more and develop in this area. When I feel energetic and I have the stamina to make it through the long day, I know that I am keeping up physically. As long as I stick to my regular routine and not live out from my 2 mile walk, I know I am doing well. When I can do more exercises and more repetitions in Pilates, I know I am doing well in this area. When I make sure I eat healthy foods and I can see in the mirror that I look thinner and better, I can see the results of physical development.
In the area of spirituality, I rate myself an 8. I have a strong belief in the Lord and practice my religion. I practice loving-kindness and feel good about making others feel good and feel good about helping others. Spiritually, I have the ability to calm myself and not let outside distractions stress me out. I have a general feeling of wellness, enjoyment of nature and its beauty and inner peace.
Psychologically, I also rate myself an 8, and as I stated above, I have a general feeling of happiness, calmness, the ability to focus and a general feeling of contentment and wellness.
Physically, I rate myself a 7. Although I am in good shape for my age, I know I can be in better shape. I need to exercise more or harder to get to a higher level of development. I need to make sure I eat properly and not give in to unhealthy eating of sweets, such as ice cream which I really enjoy and some other unhealthy food choices, even though they taste good. I must realize and focus more on healthy, nutritious and balanced diet to go along with my exercise.
III Goal development:
List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.
Some physical goals of mine will be to lose about 10 pounds, increase my walk from 2 miles to 5miles, to lower my cholesterol level by about 20 points, gain strength and stamina in Pilates, and increase to 3 repetitions and 15 exercises and eat healthier, all by October 2010.
My goals in psycho-spiritual development are to practice meditation exercises everyday for 30 minutes instead of 15minutes sporadically. By October I have it as a natural everyday exercise. This plus practicing loving-kindness ability will hopefully bring me to a higher level in my development psychologically and spiritually. Doing my daily Pilates, although it helps me develop psychologically and spiritually, my goal is to increase the exercise and continue on a daily basis. I will also attend mass on a weekly basis to help me spiritually.
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.
The practices toward Integral Health which includes psychological, spiritual and physical will include loving-kindness, subtle mind, visualization, meditation, Pilates, yoga exercises, and nutritional improvement. My strategy toward implementing these practices will be getting up earlier each day so that I can a lot my practices that I do before work each day. If I get up earlier, I can do an extra 15 minutes of meditation and an extra 15 minutes of Pilates making it 30 minutes each morning. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I will do my walking after work. Monday and Friday are too busy and longer working days so there’s no time to do the walking. However, an addition strategy will be to give an extra 15 minutes during every work day to do some focus- meditative breathing to clear my mind and maintaining calmness.
My strategy for practice of loving-kindness will be to make sure I say and do something consciously several times a day to make others feel good whether it is a patient or a fellow staff member or a loved one.
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?
Firstly, I will make a commitment to develop on the areas of Integral Health. In order to assess my progress over the next six months, I will maintain a chart showing how often, how long, and any further development. If I see any regression in any area, I will concentrate on that until I am back on the track. I will have a section for comments to describe how I feel spiritually and psychologically. I will also monitor any weight loss in my physical practices. Another strategy will be to continue to team up with a friend to do my walking. This will ensure daily walking exercise including weekends, and monitor and record increased distances.
I will stick to a regimen in all the practices, continue my learning and knowledge in Health and Wellness by reading and perhaps take on new practices. All with the general goal of wellness and well being.