. . . Participating in a 13.1 miles race to help eradicate blood cancers!
Yes, you heard right! I am on my way to training for the Mercedes Half-Marathon in Birmingham, AL. I am training with the Team In Training program, and things are going great.
This is going not only going to challenge me physically, but it will also challenge me spiritually as I am completing this event in honor of a boy named Avery Heffernan. By committing to participate in the Mercedes Marathon, I have pledged to raise at least $1,300.00 by January 1. I am doing this for all of those who can't run anymore and who would do anything that may help save their loved one's life. Completing 13.1 miles and raising at least $1,300.00 seems simple compared to what those families have been through. What they would do for one more minute with a lost loved one is priceless.
I hope you will join me on this journey by making a donation to my campaign. I have a website that you can visit to follow my fundraising progress, as well as a complete bio on Avery! I am very excited for this as this makes things much more convenient and it is quick, easy, and secure.The link is below. You can also mail a check to me made out to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. If you choose this option, please email me and I will provide you with my mailing address. Do not forget, all contributions are 100% tax-deductible and 75% of every dollar goes directly to our mission!
Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.
-- Dr. Seuss
1.
In Unit 3, I gave myself a score of 8 out of 10 for my physical well-being, my spiritual well-being I gave myself a score of 8, and for my psychological well-being was the score of 7 out of 10. Now for how I score myself now for my physical well-being, is a nine. Yes, I feel I have moved up on the scoreboard. What has changed is since Unit 3, I have joined a group to help raise money to find a cure for Leukemia & Lymphoma and all of the other types of blood cancers by participating in a marathon. Training is involved and will challenge my fitness level as well as my psychological well-being. This gets me to my psychological level, I am proud to say that I am raising my score to an 8.5. No not quite a nine, yet. An old friend of our’s and his four kids has moved in with us. The mother of the children left them and it has been very tough. It has gotten very ugly; nonetheless, the children are the ones suffering. I have done my best in making them feel special with the help of our 4-year-old son. I am potty training the youngest that is 3, again with the help of my 4 year old. He is wonderful! So where I am getting at, I have moved from being mommy to my one little person to a mommy of five now. This challenging but I am being strong for them, I have a little ways to go on top of trying to raise money for my participation in the marathon, along with training, school for me and for my son, and taking care of home. Wow, I am out of breath now! HAHA All right, let us move onto my spiritual well-being score now, I move this to nine. This class has really help guide me into settling stress and I really will be exercising all we have learned to this point without a doubt! My plate is full and meditation is on the menu everyday!
2.My goal is being met for my physical well-being more than I even thought. I set a goal to do more yoga and Pilates and weight training. I am now training for a marathon! Need I say more?? My spiritual goal was to take more walk, well I am definitely doing that with 5 kids that need to work out energy as well as getting out and training outdoors and being one with nature, more than I intended but it is wonderful! With my new challenges I am facing, I have certainly needed to reach out to my friends and family more. I have made positive strides forward in meeting my goals.
3.My physical activities are being met as I explained I am training for a marathon and yoga and Pilates is a nice balance for peace and mind. I have yet to go a spiritual walk so that one is still in limbo but I have several lined on this month on each Saturday morning during out training and I cannot wait! As for my meditation, I have trouble finding more time to fit this in but I have done some implementation in my life for this and most definitely have it on my to-do list. With my new arrivals in my home I have needed to vent to my family or I sometime feel like I am going to explode. This is not because of the children, but because of their dad. Pet peeves are coming to surface that I never knew I even had. I have been with my guy for 15 years and let me just say that our new roommate that is a dear friend is NOT easy to live with!
4.Due to this course, my mind has opened up to the power of the mind. Learning about all the benefits one can receive through meditation and other practices that can help ease the mind, body, and spirit was amazing. The mind is truly a powerful thing and seeing how we can help overall well-being just being in the right frame of mind, thinking more positive, loving, calm abiding, and being a healer to everyone was and is totally a rewarding experience. It is difficult to reach these stages sometimes as it seemed different day by day but to try again and not give and knowing that these techniques do work. I love to talk about this class; I love to talk about what we have learned and share my knowledge with others. My experience has already helped my best friend. She is going through trying times right now and I have told her about different meditation exercises so she went out on her audible account and purchases some meditation exercises and found some for kids. Just has I have, she is introducing meditation into her son’s life and just the other night she found him asleep with his headsets on while listening to one of the children’s relaxation one!
Our last and final blog here and I just wanted to wish everyone peace and happiness. This has been truly a great class. Stay strong and spread the healing and do not forget, "I will focus on progress, not perfection"!
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 will start saying that health and wellness professionals should practice what they preach. In order to help another individual, client and/or patient, the health and wellness professional needs development in all aspects, psychologically, spiritually and physically. By being in touch with their own mind and body, they can then better their patients and their practice as they can give true informed advice on health and wellness. In return, these listed developments help in a positive state of mind and spread the positivity through their profession and their patients and/or clientele. In all honesty, I have room for improvement in the development in all three aspects of psychologically, spiritually, and physically. I would put psychologically first as that needs the most attention this point in time. Life has thrown a lot of curves ball my way and I am trying to learn and adopt positive attitude and outlook in all that has come and that is to come. Spiritually is next, as I am still working with my meditation exercises and find certain moments difficult as finding quite time and stopping the mental chatter. Physically I would say this is my strongest as I have changed my eating habits and brought them into my home to better all but also training for a marathon you need to be physically fit! II Assessment: How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?
I have often thought about and evaluated my health and wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically. I rate them from lowest to highest, slow being needing more work and high being more developed. Starting from the lowest to the highest psychologically, spiritually, and physically; I give my psychological wellness the score of 5 out of 10, spiritual wellness the score of 6 out of 10, and physical wellness the score of 8 out of 10. For my psychological wellness, I score it a five because I need to reach out to others more than taking on the world and all their stress on my own. My spiritual wellness I give the score of six because, I still have troubles with loving-kindness and truly listening to my heart. My physical fitness would be my highest rating at the score of eight because in our home, our nutrition is very important but what makes it not a 10 is I need to add in more daily exercise. III Goal development: List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.
My goal for my physical wellness is to make the time and room to work out more. I have signed up for a marathon for a charity and I actually did this more my spiritual wellness but also for my physical wellness. We are to train 3 times a week with our team and then continue training at our homes and this will force me to get my physical fitness in check. My goal is to either walk or ride my bike once a day along side with my training with my team. My goal for my psychological wellness is to reach out and let others help. We have taken in a good friend and his 4 children. I have taken on the role of their caregiver in helping our friend out and it is challenging as I have the trouble to just stop and sit down and ask for help. It has been challenging this week to take care of them, then mine on top of it, and get my schoolwork in. My true goal is to hang up my supermom cape and let someone else try it on for size once in awhile. Lastly, a goal for my spiritual health is to take my marathon experience to the full length of helping others. I am doing this marathon in honor of a child that is suffering from a blood cancer, Leukemia. This experience will reach my spiritual wellness in all lengths for heartwarming to challenging my emotions. This in return can help in my goal to conquering loving-kindness. 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.
My first strategy to in fostering growth in my physical development is using the exercise, yoga. Yoga helps to give on balance mentally but as well as physically. Yoga can help in easing muscle aches and tension, tone muscles, and as well can help ease stress and anxiety, which in return can have a negative effect on one’s physical health (Ross & Thomas, 2010).
My plan for implementation of yoga is to practice this exercise once a day. My plan is to do my yoga workout in the mornings. I have used yoga for quite some time now but have fallen out of a daily routine and by me applying this daily exercise, I can honestly say this is a good way start my day off. I feel invigorated and alive when I do yoga and it really does help in positive emotions for the rest of the day.
The practice I can implement to foster growth for my psychological development also goes with my last strategy/practice for my physical development. Training the mind can enhance my mental and physical well-being (Dacher, 2006). Being in good health and practicing regular exercise of the mind using a carefully arranged procedure can help in the development of the inner self. This can have positive effects on stress management and help relax the mind. We train our minds to view the world in a more positive manner and in return, not only our minds reap the benefits, but our bodies as well. Stress and anxiety can alter our physical being and since the mind and the body are connected, training the mind would be a good recommendation for mental and physical well-being.
My focus will be to keep my mind and body healthy, to keep a healthy immune system. Other ways to implement this into my life is working on positive emotions and letting go of the negative ones. I can try mental imagery, focusing on my internal and external health to better my mind and my physical self.
The practicing of human flourishing for wholeness can help in fostering growth for my psychological development. Since wholeness is within us indefinitely no matter how negative and stressful emotions can get, it is in us to experience less stress in ways of learning how to still the mind (Dacher, 2006). For psychological wholeness, the outermost level and the inner level of wholeness combined together can then create a “higher level of wholeness” (Dacher, 2006, p. 141).
I can implement human flourishing for wholeness in my life by allowing me to feel, allowing me to see the happiness that lies beneath me and feeling the true wholeness, that life has to offer me. This will take much effort on my part as stress and negative emotions sometimes seem to want to take over the stillness but learning to control my mind and become truly aware. Reminding myself that it is ok and continue forth with exercising the mind for true wholeness.
Meditation is a spiritual and calming practice. By combining a still mind and special breathing, it can send one into a “state of deep inner peace” (Thibodeau & Patton, 2008, p. 417). Meditation can ease the mind while bring forth positive emotions and feelings.
Along side with practicing yoga in the mornings, I can implement meditation into my daily workout as well. Yoga is a calm-binging practice as well as meditation. I will not just stop there, I have new challenges in my life and practicing meditation can help me get through them. I plan to practice meditation in the evenings as well to help wind me down as I have late nights of homework ahead of me; this will help ease my mind.
Universal loving-kindness is a spiritual practice that one concentrates on to send positive emotions and loving all including your enemies. Loving-kindness can help one reach out to all and get past the ugly negative emotions that one can harbor.
For class we were to practice the universal loving-kindness exercise. I had a bit of trouble with fully completely this exercise. This is reason why I chose this one exercise for an example how to foster growth in my spiritual development. My issue with this exercise was, loving my enemies. I plan to implement this exercise into my life by practicing each week and not give up on fully completing it. I feel with combining all meditation exercises with the universal loving-kindness exercise that one day I will be able to love my enemies. This is a deep exercise and one I am determined to complete!
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 decided to start journaling. I may keep up with my blog but I feel the need to write. I feel by me journaling I can keep track of my goals and since it is on paper, I will be more apt to sticking with them. Alongside with journaling, I have downloaded audio meditation exercises to practice in several different aspects as well finding one for children. Having my son join me in will help me set forth a continuing goal that I will set for life, not in 1 year I will reach this goal, but one that is never-ending. I am looking at my progress as a continuation to the next, when I reach a certain height, I can go further. There is no end to this path, there is just consistent learning and new challenging to meet and I am exciting. I will do this for the next 6 months and long-term to keep up with the maintenance. In return, my family will be by my side joining me in this journey to better all our health and wellness.
References
Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health.
Ross, A. & Thomas, S. (2010). The health benefits of yoga and exercise: A review of comparison studies. Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine 16 (1), 3-12. Retrieved August 7, 2010, from Academic Search Premier database.
Thibodeau, G. A. & Patton, K. T. (2008). Structure & function of the body (13th Edition). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.
The Meeting Asclepius and the Creating Visualization exercise were on the top of my list of exercises and practices we have done in this course. I benefited from these two the most and very much enjoyed them as well. I struggled with many but these two in particularly I found come so easily to visualize and truly gave me a sense of peace. It is hard to explain why they worked so well but maybe that is because for both, I was to use my imagination for the most part. I have a very vivid imagination so maybe that helped. For Meeting Asclepius, a wise healer I can do as I did when practicing this and that is to imagine myself as a true wise healer. I love to help others and to imagine myself as healer and for someone to see me as wise give me a sense of great wholeness. I plan to implement this practice/exercise into my life by doing this once a month to remind me that I too am a wise healer.
As for the Creating Visualization, exercise this maybe feel so pleasant and harmony within. To visualize a moment in my life that gave me a sense of great happiness, wholeness, power and well-being was so profound it reminded me that all those things do remain inside of me. I plan to implement this exercise into my life continuing to visualize, continue to use my imagination just as we use to do when we were younger. Think about that. When we were younger, we used our imaginations to no end. Watching my son uses his and the expressions that illuminate from him make me wish I were a kid again. They look so happy and so at peace. Just as I had felt when I was doing this exercise. I used a real moment for this exercise but if you could not think of one you can use your imagination to create one just as I did for the Meeting Asclepius practice. Channel your inner self; you will be amazed what you will find!
I found the “Meeting Asclepius” more spiritual and inviting than the Loving Kindness Practice and Subtle Mind Practice.I found it much easier to listen to the voice & guide me into the steps that were needed.At first when we were told to focus on a wise individual, I honestly had no clued whom.Then we were told to make one up if we did not know of one.The first image to come into my head was a wise Indian Chief.I went with that as I felt at peace with this imagine.The image was of this wise Indian Chief sitting among his tribe/people.There were sitting around a campfire under the stars.He was talking in his native tongue sharing his stories and I just pictured once becoming the chief looking around and seeing the faces focused on every word that is being spilled.There was so much love, trust, and wonderment in their eyes.The belief they felt for their chief and the wisdom that spilled from within and out as the chief sat there.I then felt at peace, I felt wise, and true loving kindness as I imaged myself becoming the Indian chief.I experienced what it may feel like to be a wise individual, one that has met Asclepius; a wise healer.
Meditation has increases my spiritual wellness without a doubt.I have found ways to calm my spirit when I feel my stress will take over me just by doing a simple quick breathing exercise.It has helped in teaching my son on how to calm his spirit when his tired impatient little 4-year-old mind goes out of control.I see that as an adult we can benefit from meditation but so can children.It has really opened up my mind and makes me want to continue to find a meditation exercise that truly works for me but also continue to stride forward in conquering the path to human flourishing.For this, I will not dismiss my stresses anymore, I will heal them through meditation and continue to teach and encourage this practice in my home.
The saying, “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” means if you have not seen it or done it, you cannot say that this is the right way.One needs to actually live a certain way before teaching someone about that certain lifestyle or leading a spiritual path.It goes to say if one is telling you that you need to find god or you need to be more spiritual but they themselves do not do the same, they have no right to tell you to do this.They do not have the right to point you in this direction, as they do not know themselves.So in order to “lead” you need to have been led towards the path before and experience those skills before you can “lead” another.WOW what a mouthful there!But as it goes for my “future” clients without a doubt I need to “lead” a spiritual life before I am to help guide them with my suggestions on how they can do this their selves.Therefore, the saying applies to my “future” professional as well.I can implement psychological and spiritual growth by making my inner development my goal.Becoming more aware of the world around me, but becoming aware of self can give me greater knowledge of my true needs and teach me how to touch the more positive side of things than the negative.
The Universal Loving Kindness exercise is a little 10-minute meditation exercise to practice open up your mind and your heart in greater lengths than they are currently.This meditation can help in displeasure and enmity.Universal Loving Kindness is to practice loving everyone, even your enemies.This exercise can be done anytime.
After completing this meditation exercise I discovered that I had no problem falling into a relax state, no problem spreading my loving kindness to others but I did notice that my enemies were not among them.I still left them aside, inside their bubble that I left them when I did the first Loving Kindness Practice.So I have not reached the final leap into our interpersonal development and have not conquered Universal Loving Kindness.This is the area that I still know that I need to focus on for growth and development. This is one of the steps that need to be addressed for interpersonal development and I am having problems with what steps I need to take in popping that bubble.I think it is time that I need.I acknowledge this but this process is still new to me, so please hang in there with me.
The Integral Assessment is personal program that we develop to assess where our strengths and weaknesses are and will give a better picture where we would like to make improvements to promote human flourishing.This is done using the Lines of Development using the four aspects of human experience; Psychospiritual, Biological, Interpersonal, and Worldly Flourishing.
The Integral Assessment help me discover in psychospiritual flourishing in the cognitive level I had problems in the reactive pattern.I do tend to be reactive… but mostly in this aspect for my emotional development I discovered that again have tend to have uncontrolled reactive emotions and anger and fear.This is where I need to address my issues if you will.I need to learn to let go, stop the metal chatter and discover my deepest calling, I want to be like the Woodcarver!!For interpersonal flourishing, I would like to reach out to my community more.I tend to do everything for my family so I would like to get my son involved in helping others as well.When it comes to my health, my eating is under control and the choices I make for me and my family is balanced.I tend to lean towards helping the environment by having my own organic garden and purchasing from my local farmers.Therefore, I was happy with that.I think that falls under biological flourishing and worldly flourishing.As I have completed this assessment, I plan to do this again.Reason for this is I feel I have a better understanding of the breakdown of this assessment than when first applied.Continue to balance everything out and I do know I have work ahead of me!
I began with setting the scene for my mental fitness practice.As I sat down comfortably and put in the CD, I listened to the woman’s voice and the waves and music that played in the background.I was just getting relaxed then all of a sudden I was RUDELY interrupted by static!!!Grrrr the first 2 tracks were fine so I thought YAY, I am one of the lucky ones to receive a decent working CD, NOT!Therefore, I had to go back out into class, grab the audio from there, and start over setting the tone again….
Mental fitness take two: Maintaining a relaxed yet alert witnessing awareness is going to take some effort.I was pulled to my thoughts; it was like a flash just as you see when you rewind or fast-forward a movie, just flipping through the images in my mind.I had much trouble with this exercise in witnessing the mind.I felt myself grasping and clinging with little to no stillness.I understand that I will have sessions when I can achieve this & others I will not but I think that will take a few sessions going by today.This really takes a lot of effort and concentration!
As for comparing and contrasting this exercise to the Loving Kindness exercise they both did set the elemental stage for relaxation as I mentioned above but the Loving Kindness I could spread my feelings out further and beyond onto others.The subtle mind was dealing with me, with my mind.My mind would not SHUT UP!I find my mind doing this at night when lying in bed to fall asleep sometimes.I focused on my breathing, in and out, in and out, and then moved onto the waves that seemed to sing in melody with my breathing.Then I would try to focus on the task at hand, witnessing instead of grasping and clinging.I failed… so frustrating!
The connection in spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness most definitely starts with the mind.One needs to be at the right mindset or frame of mind to work on their physical wellness.Yoga takes both the body & the mind.You work slowly into each move using your mind to breathe and concentrate on the right move and your muscles to contract and build strength for each next move.Yoga is just one example.Dealing with stress inside the home and out is just like that as well… take it slowly into your next move, your walk through life.The body or physical wellness is and has been shown to be affected if the mind is not at ease.These things are connected and can manifest it anyone of our lives.Take a deep breath and move slowly to your next move.Witness the stillness.
. . . Participating in a 13.1 miles race to help eradicate blood cancers!
Yes, you heard right! I am on my way to training for the Mercedes Half-Marathon in Birmingham, AL. I am training with the Team In Training program, and things are going great.
This is going not only going to challenge me physically, but it will also challenge me spiritually as I am completing this event in honor of a boy named Avery Heffernan. By committing to participate in the Mercedes Marathon, I have pledged to raise at least $1,300.00 by January 1. I am doing this for all of those who can't run anymore and who would do anything that may help save their loved one's life. Completing 13.1 miles and raising at least $1,300.00 seems simple compared to what those families have been through. What they would do for one more minute with a lost loved one is priceless.
I hope you will join me on this journey by making a donation to my campaign. I have a website that you can visit to follow my fundraising progress, as well as a complete bio on Avery! I am very excited for this as this makes things much more convenient and it is quick, easy, and secure.The link is below. You can also mail a check to me made out to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. If you choose this option, please email me and I will provide you with my mailing address. Do not forget, all contributions are 100% tax-deductible and 75% of every dollar goes directly to our mission!
Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.
-- Dr. Seuss
1.
In Unit 3, I gave myself a score of 8 out of 10 for my physical well-being, my spiritual well-being I gave myself a score of 8, and for my psychological well-being was the score of 7 out of 10. Now for how I score myself now for my physical well-being, is a nine. Yes, I feel I have moved up on the scoreboard. What has changed is since Unit 3, I have joined a group to help raise money to find a cure for Leukemia & Lymphoma and all of the other types of blood cancers by participating in a marathon. Training is involved and will challenge my fitness level as well as my psychological well-being. This gets me to my psychological level, I am proud to say that I am raising my score to an 8.5. No not quite a nine, yet. An old friend of our’s and his four kids has moved in with us. The mother of the children left them and it has been very tough. It has gotten very ugly; nonetheless, the children are the ones suffering. I have done my best in making them feel special with the help of our 4-year-old son. I am potty training the youngest that is 3, again with the help of my 4 year old. He is wonderful! So where I am getting at, I have moved from being mommy to my one little person to a mommy of five now. This challenging but I am being strong for them, I have a little ways to go on top of trying to raise money for my participation in the marathon, along with training, school for me and for my son, and taking care of home. Wow, I am out of breath now! HAHA All right, let us move onto my spiritual well-being score now, I move this to nine. This class has really help guide me into settling stress and I really will be exercising all we have learned to this point without a doubt! My plate is full and meditation is on the menu everyday!
2.My goal is being met for my physical well-being more than I even thought. I set a goal to do more yoga and Pilates and weight training. I am now training for a marathon! Need I say more?? My spiritual goal was to take more walk, well I am definitely doing that with 5 kids that need to work out energy as well as getting out and training outdoors and being one with nature, more than I intended but it is wonderful! With my new challenges I am facing, I have certainly needed to reach out to my friends and family more. I have made positive strides forward in meeting my goals.
3.My physical activities are being met as I explained I am training for a marathon and yoga and Pilates is a nice balance for peace and mind. I have yet to go a spiritual walk so that one is still in limbo but I have several lined on this month on each Saturday morning during out training and I cannot wait! As for my meditation, I have trouble finding more time to fit this in but I have done some implementation in my life for this and most definitely have it on my to-do list. With my new arrivals in my home I have needed to vent to my family or I sometime feel like I am going to explode. This is not because of the children, but because of their dad. Pet peeves are coming to surface that I never knew I even had. I have been with my guy for 15 years and let me just say that our new roommate that is a dear friend is NOT easy to live with!
4.Due to this course, my mind has opened up to the power of the mind. Learning about all the benefits one can receive through meditation and other practices that can help ease the mind, body, and spirit was amazing. The mind is truly a powerful thing and seeing how we can help overall well-being just being in the right frame of mind, thinking more positive, loving, calm abiding, and being a healer to everyone was and is totally a rewarding experience. It is difficult to reach these stages sometimes as it seemed different day by day but to try again and not give and knowing that these techniques do work. I love to talk about this class; I love to talk about what we have learned and share my knowledge with others. My experience has already helped my best friend. She is going through trying times right now and I have told her about different meditation exercises so she went out on her audible account and purchases some meditation exercises and found some for kids. Just has I have, she is introducing meditation into her son’s life and just the other night she found him asleep with his headsets on while listening to one of the children’s relaxation one!
Our last and final blog here and I just wanted to wish everyone peace and happiness. This has been truly a great class. Stay strong and spread the healing and do not forget, "I will focus on progress, not perfection"!
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 will start saying that health and wellness professionals should practice what they preach. In order to help another individual, client and/or patient, the health and wellness professional needs development in all aspects, psychologically, spiritually and physically. By being in touch with their own mind and body, they can then better their patients and their practice as they can give true informed advice on health and wellness. In return, these listed developments help in a positive state of mind and spread the positivity through their profession and their patients and/or clientele. In all honesty, I have room for improvement in the development in all three aspects of psychologically, spiritually, and physically. I would put psychologically first as that needs the most attention this point in time. Life has thrown a lot of curves ball my way and I am trying to learn and adopt positive attitude and outlook in all that has come and that is to come. Spiritually is next, as I am still working with my meditation exercises and find certain moments difficult as finding quite time and stopping the mental chatter. Physically I would say this is my strongest as I have changed my eating habits and brought them into my home to better all but also training for a marathon you need to be physically fit! II Assessment: How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?
I have often thought about and evaluated my health and wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically. I rate them from lowest to highest, slow being needing more work and high being more developed. Starting from the lowest to the highest psychologically, spiritually, and physically; I give my psychological wellness the score of 5 out of 10, spiritual wellness the score of 6 out of 10, and physical wellness the score of 8 out of 10. For my psychological wellness, I score it a five because I need to reach out to others more than taking on the world and all their stress on my own. My spiritual wellness I give the score of six because, I still have troubles with loving-kindness and truly listening to my heart. My physical fitness would be my highest rating at the score of eight because in our home, our nutrition is very important but what makes it not a 10 is I need to add in more daily exercise. III Goal development: List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.
My goal for my physical wellness is to make the time and room to work out more. I have signed up for a marathon for a charity and I actually did this more my spiritual wellness but also for my physical wellness. We are to train 3 times a week with our team and then continue training at our homes and this will force me to get my physical fitness in check. My goal is to either walk or ride my bike once a day along side with my training with my team. My goal for my psychological wellness is to reach out and let others help. We have taken in a good friend and his 4 children. I have taken on the role of their caregiver in helping our friend out and it is challenging as I have the trouble to just stop and sit down and ask for help. It has been challenging this week to take care of them, then mine on top of it, and get my schoolwork in. My true goal is to hang up my supermom cape and let someone else try it on for size once in awhile. Lastly, a goal for my spiritual health is to take my marathon experience to the full length of helping others. I am doing this marathon in honor of a child that is suffering from a blood cancer, Leukemia. This experience will reach my spiritual wellness in all lengths for heartwarming to challenging my emotions. This in return can help in my goal to conquering loving-kindness. 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.
My first strategy to in fostering growth in my physical development is using the exercise, yoga. Yoga helps to give on balance mentally but as well as physically. Yoga can help in easing muscle aches and tension, tone muscles, and as well can help ease stress and anxiety, which in return can have a negative effect on one’s physical health (Ross & Thomas, 2010).
My plan for implementation of yoga is to practice this exercise once a day. My plan is to do my yoga workout in the mornings. I have used yoga for quite some time now but have fallen out of a daily routine and by me applying this daily exercise, I can honestly say this is a good way start my day off. I feel invigorated and alive when I do yoga and it really does help in positive emotions for the rest of the day.
The practice I can implement to foster growth for my psychological development also goes with my last strategy/practice for my physical development. Training the mind can enhance my mental and physical well-being (Dacher, 2006). Being in good health and practicing regular exercise of the mind using a carefully arranged procedure can help in the development of the inner self. This can have positive effects on stress management and help relax the mind. We train our minds to view the world in a more positive manner and in return, not only our minds reap the benefits, but our bodies as well. Stress and anxiety can alter our physical being and since the mind and the body are connected, training the mind would be a good recommendation for mental and physical well-being.
My focus will be to keep my mind and body healthy, to keep a healthy immune system. Other ways to implement this into my life is working on positive emotions and letting go of the negative ones. I can try mental imagery, focusing on my internal and external health to better my mind and my physical self.
The practicing of human flourishing for wholeness can help in fostering growth for my psychological development. Since wholeness is within us indefinitely no matter how negative and stressful emotions can get, it is in us to experience less stress in ways of learning how to still the mind (Dacher, 2006). For psychological wholeness, the outermost level and the inner level of wholeness combined together can then create a “higher level of wholeness” (Dacher, 2006, p. 141).
I can implement human flourishing for wholeness in my life by allowing me to feel, allowing me to see the happiness that lies beneath me and feeling the true wholeness, that life has to offer me. This will take much effort on my part as stress and negative emotions sometimes seem to want to take over the stillness but learning to control my mind and become truly aware. Reminding myself that it is ok and continue forth with exercising the mind for true wholeness.
Meditation is a spiritual and calming practice. By combining a still mind and special breathing, it can send one into a “state of deep inner peace” (Thibodeau & Patton, 2008, p. 417). Meditation can ease the mind while bring forth positive emotions and feelings.
Along side with practicing yoga in the mornings, I can implement meditation into my daily workout as well. Yoga is a calm-binging practice as well as meditation. I will not just stop there, I have new challenges in my life and practicing meditation can help me get through them. I plan to practice meditation in the evenings as well to help wind me down as I have late nights of homework ahead of me; this will help ease my mind.
Universal loving-kindness is a spiritual practice that one concentrates on to send positive emotions and loving all including your enemies. Loving-kindness can help one reach out to all and get past the ugly negative emotions that one can harbor.
For class we were to practice the universal loving-kindness exercise. I had a bit of trouble with fully completely this exercise. This is reason why I chose this one exercise for an example how to foster growth in my spiritual development. My issue with this exercise was, loving my enemies. I plan to implement this exercise into my life by practicing each week and not give up on fully completing it. I feel with combining all meditation exercises with the universal loving-kindness exercise that one day I will be able to love my enemies. This is a deep exercise and one I am determined to complete!
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 decided to start journaling. I may keep up with my blog but I feel the need to write. I feel by me journaling I can keep track of my goals and since it is on paper, I will be more apt to sticking with them. Alongside with journaling, I have downloaded audio meditation exercises to practice in several different aspects as well finding one for children. Having my son join me in will help me set forth a continuing goal that I will set for life, not in 1 year I will reach this goal, but one that is never-ending. I am looking at my progress as a continuation to the next, when I reach a certain height, I can go further. There is no end to this path, there is just consistent learning and new challenging to meet and I am exciting. I will do this for the next 6 months and long-term to keep up with the maintenance. In return, my family will be by my side joining me in this journey to better all our health and wellness.
References
Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health.
Ross, A. & Thomas, S. (2010). The health benefits of yoga and exercise: A review of comparison studies. Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine 16 (1), 3-12. Retrieved August 7, 2010, from Academic Search Premier database.
Thibodeau, G. A. & Patton, K. T. (2008). Structure & function of the body (13th Edition). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.
The Meeting Asclepius and the Creating Visualization exercise were on the top of my list of exercises and practices we have done in this course. I benefited from these two the most and very much enjoyed them as well. I struggled with many but these two in particularly I found come so easily to visualize and truly gave me a sense of peace. It is hard to explain why they worked so well but maybe that is because for both, I was to use my imagination for the most part. I have a very vivid imagination so maybe that helped. For Meeting Asclepius, a wise healer I can do as I did when practicing this and that is to imagine myself as a true wise healer. I love to help others and to imagine myself as healer and for someone to see me as wise give me a sense of great wholeness. I plan to implement this practice/exercise into my life by doing this once a month to remind me that I too am a wise healer.
As for the Creating Visualization, exercise this maybe feel so pleasant and harmony within. To visualize a moment in my life that gave me a sense of great happiness, wholeness, power and well-being was so profound it reminded me that all those things do remain inside of me. I plan to implement this exercise into my life continuing to visualize, continue to use my imagination just as we use to do when we were younger. Think about that. When we were younger, we used our imaginations to no end. Watching my son uses his and the expressions that illuminate from him make me wish I were a kid again. They look so happy and so at peace. Just as I had felt when I was doing this exercise. I used a real moment for this exercise but if you could not think of one you can use your imagination to create one just as I did for the Meeting Asclepius practice. Channel your inner self; you will be amazed what you will find!
I found the “Meeting Asclepius” more spiritual and inviting than the Loving Kindness Practice and Subtle Mind Practice.I found it much easier to listen to the voice & guide me into the steps that were needed.At first when we were told to focus on a wise individual, I honestly had no clued whom.Then we were told to make one up if we did not know of one.The first image to come into my head was a wise Indian Chief.I went with that as I felt at peace with this imagine.The image was of this wise Indian Chief sitting among his tribe/people.There were sitting around a campfire under the stars.He was talking in his native tongue sharing his stories and I just pictured once becoming the chief looking around and seeing the faces focused on every word that is being spilled.There was so much love, trust, and wonderment in their eyes.The belief they felt for their chief and the wisdom that spilled from within and out as the chief sat there.I then felt at peace, I felt wise, and true loving kindness as I imaged myself becoming the Indian chief.I experienced what it may feel like to be a wise individual, one that has met Asclepius; a wise healer.
Meditation has increases my spiritual wellness without a doubt.I have found ways to calm my spirit when I feel my stress will take over me just by doing a simple quick breathing exercise.It has helped in teaching my son on how to calm his spirit when his tired impatient little 4-year-old mind goes out of control.I see that as an adult we can benefit from meditation but so can children.It has really opened up my mind and makes me want to continue to find a meditation exercise that truly works for me but also continue to stride forward in conquering the path to human flourishing.For this, I will not dismiss my stresses anymore, I will heal them through meditation and continue to teach and encourage this practice in my home.
The saying, “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” means if you have not seen it or done it, you cannot say that this is the right way.One needs to actually live a certain way before teaching someone about that certain lifestyle or leading a spiritual path.It goes to say if one is telling you that you need to find god or you need to be more spiritual but they themselves do not do the same, they have no right to tell you to do this.They do not have the right to point you in this direction, as they do not know themselves.So in order to “lead” you need to have been led towards the path before and experience those skills before you can “lead” another.WOW what a mouthful there!But as it goes for my “future” clients without a doubt I need to “lead” a spiritual life before I am to help guide them with my suggestions on how they can do this their selves.Therefore, the saying applies to my “future” professional as well.I can implement psychological and spiritual growth by making my inner development my goal.Becoming more aware of the world around me, but becoming aware of self can give me greater knowledge of my true needs and teach me how to touch the more positive side of things than the negative.
The Universal Loving Kindness exercise is a little 10-minute meditation exercise to practice open up your mind and your heart in greater lengths than they are currently.This meditation can help in displeasure and enmity.Universal Loving Kindness is to practice loving everyone, even your enemies.This exercise can be done anytime.
After completing this meditation exercise I discovered that I had no problem falling into a relax state, no problem spreading my loving kindness to others but I did notice that my enemies were not among them.I still left them aside, inside their bubble that I left them when I did the first Loving Kindness Practice.So I have not reached the final leap into our interpersonal development and have not conquered Universal Loving Kindness.This is the area that I still know that I need to focus on for growth and development. This is one of the steps that need to be addressed for interpersonal development and I am having problems with what steps I need to take in popping that bubble.I think it is time that I need.I acknowledge this but this process is still new to me, so please hang in there with me.
The Integral Assessment is personal program that we develop to assess where our strengths and weaknesses are and will give a better picture where we would like to make improvements to promote human flourishing.This is done using the Lines of Development using the four aspects of human experience; Psychospiritual, Biological, Interpersonal, and Worldly Flourishing.
The Integral Assessment help me discover in psychospiritual flourishing in the cognitive level I had problems in the reactive pattern.I do tend to be reactive… but mostly in this aspect for my emotional development I discovered that again have tend to have uncontrolled reactive emotions and anger and fear.This is where I need to address my issues if you will.I need to learn to let go, stop the metal chatter and discover my deepest calling, I want to be like the Woodcarver!!For interpersonal flourishing, I would like to reach out to my community more.I tend to do everything for my family so I would like to get my son involved in helping others as well.When it comes to my health, my eating is under control and the choices I make for me and my family is balanced.I tend to lean towards helping the environment by having my own organic garden and purchasing from my local farmers.Therefore, I was happy with that.I think that falls under biological flourishing and worldly flourishing.As I have completed this assessment, I plan to do this again.Reason for this is I feel I have a better understanding of the breakdown of this assessment than when first applied.Continue to balance everything out and I do know I have work ahead of me!
I began with setting the scene for my mental fitness practice.As I sat down comfortably and put in the CD, I listened to the woman’s voice and the waves and music that played in the background.I was just getting relaxed then all of a sudden I was RUDELY interrupted by static!!!Grrrr the first 2 tracks were fine so I thought YAY, I am one of the lucky ones to receive a decent working CD, NOT!Therefore, I had to go back out into class, grab the audio from there, and start over setting the tone again….
Mental fitness take two: Maintaining a relaxed yet alert witnessing awareness is going to take some effort.I was pulled to my thoughts; it was like a flash just as you see when you rewind or fast-forward a movie, just flipping through the images in my mind.I had much trouble with this exercise in witnessing the mind.I felt myself grasping and clinging with little to no stillness.I understand that I will have sessions when I can achieve this & others I will not but I think that will take a few sessions going by today.This really takes a lot of effort and concentration!
As for comparing and contrasting this exercise to the Loving Kindness exercise they both did set the elemental stage for relaxation as I mentioned above but the Loving Kindness I could spread my feelings out further and beyond onto others.The subtle mind was dealing with me, with my mind.My mind would not SHUT UP!I find my mind doing this at night when lying in bed to fall asleep sometimes.I focused on my breathing, in and out, in and out, and then moved onto the waves that seemed to sing in melody with my breathing.Then I would try to focus on the task at hand, witnessing instead of grasping and clinging.I failed… so frustrating!
The connection in spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness most definitely starts with the mind.One needs to be at the right mindset or frame of mind to work on their physical wellness.Yoga takes both the body & the mind.You work slowly into each move using your mind to breathe and concentrate on the right move and your muscles to contract and build strength for each next move.Yoga is just one example.Dealing with stress inside the home and out is just like that as well… take it slowly into your next move, your walk through life.The body or physical wellness is and has been shown to be affected if the mind is not at ease.These things are connected and can manifest it anyone of our lives.Take a deep breath and move slowly to your next move.Witness the stillness.
