Unit 10 the final scale-

In unit 3, I rated myself as the following:

Physical wellbeing -(scale TOTAL 10) My physical well-being is in “excellent ” status, due to the fact that I keep a healthy diet of organic fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and mostly Mediterranean diet. I also attend exercise classes 7 days a week. Spiritual well-being - (scale TOTAL 6) spiritual well-being is just okay, due to the fact that I must have more faith in myself and god. Incorporate about 1 hour throughout the week for prayer and meditation (a” one on one” talk with God and a meditational listening. Psychological - (scale TOTAL 9) My psychological well-being, would be at the “good” stage, due to the fact that I try to take mental breaks throughout the day to help sort, relax, and inspire my mind.

In unit 10 I rate myself:

I now rate myself a 10 on the scale for Psychological and Physical wellbeing, but my spirituality is still lower than my expected goal. In spirituality I am only at an 8 and I only reached this goal because I started listening to gospel music and watching programs about faith. I plan to reach my goal of 10 in spirituality by incorporating church and reading into my life. I could truly use it. I pray all the time for God to give me the strength to pass this class and lower my body aches from 14 hours of labor at UPS. I had to learn that this could also be achieved through meditation and other CAM practices like Acupuncture. I recently felt great body wise due to yoga and daily physical fitness. I added 15 more mins to my daily 20 minute routine and it got me to my goal marks for Physical and Psychological well-being.

I implemented activities like Yoga, music meditation, an extra 15 mins. into my workout(circuit training, Pilates, and recently Tai chi. I always love to try new things, especially activities that lower my stress level. I just have to master improving spirituality. To do so, I must trust in my own faith and read the words for myself.

 I enjoyed this Blogging experience minus the writing, but my well-being has increased greatly because I learned to open my thought process and just listen to the sounds of peace that surround me. Have a clear mind took away my body pain, helped me make better decisions, and forgive others because life is too short to hold in all that evil.  

Unit 9: Personal Application of the Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing Blog:

HW420: Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

 

                  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?

A health and wellness professionals must understand that accepting one's spirituality may or may not be tied to a specific religion or theology. It’s also important to note, over the lifespan their understanding of spirituality and/or religion often changes. Wellbeing psychology’s ancestry are in the belief that everyone deserves proper medical and psychological care even when daily habits, career, or family life problems contribute to the decrease in physical health and/or psychological well-being. Being dependant on Western medicine and healing only caters to the biological functions of the human, so if one is educated on the other aspects of holistic healing, the faster one can get onto the road to recovery in all aspects of health. Professional approaches treatment of the whole individual by forming powerful and efficient joint treatment teams of multi-disciplinary and traditional and complementary-alternative professionals who communicate, integrate and team together to allow for balance, integration, and restoration of the individual in order to achieve true and complete healing and wellness.

 

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

Physically I rate myself an A+ because I have stuck to a fitness plan for over two years and lost 80 pounds, because mentally I decided physical health prevents disease and my family suffers from diabetes II. It is important to not just eat correctly, but also to keep the body active. In my last class on vitamins and supplements, I learned that some individuals replace working out with supplements and others work out daily, but still eat poorly. Exercise has to be combined with a stable pyramid diet because no pill can replace these two essentials when properly executed.

Psychologically I rate myself an A because I learned years ago that people who eat regular meals, maintain a healthy weight, do not smoke, drink little alcohol, receive adequate sleep and exercise regularly are in better health and live longer. Psychologists were also discovering associations between psychological and physiological processes. These include the influence of anxiety on the cardiovascular and immune systems and finding that the functioning of the immune system could be modified by training mentally. Anxiety management begins with identifying the sources of stress in your life. You should look closely at your habits, attitude, and excuses then start a journal to keep track of the anxiety. My stress comes from drinking too much, working long hours without proper sleep, and family problem solving. I had to learn to reduce my alcohol intake and Psychologically take control of all my thoughts with meditation. Meditation can be used as a form of alternative medicine. It is considered mind-body medicine. Meditation is the ancient practice of applying focus and breathing techniques to induce relaxation, relieve worry, and rid the mind of anxious thoughts .

 

Spirituality is my weak point because I have a hard time believing in its healing practices while my parents are ill. I learned from Dancher.s book that, Spirituality empowers all dimensions of health, and provides continuity between each aspect. Spiritual Health care consists of the activities of care that bring quality of life, well-being, and function to patients that spiritual care may include the transcendent, meaning making, and religion. I rate myself a B- because I have a hard time recognizing, accepting, and realizing the atmosphere of God, or the perfect spiritual idea of being, in the individual. It removes the toxins of distorted self-acceptance that appear to have separated the person from wholeness. My parents taught me, you can release all your physical pain through spirituality just though prayers and hope. Most days, they do not even suffer because of mental relief.

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

Spiritually my goal is to acknowledge the fact that when we perceive the reality of wholeness, then Truth takes over our lives. Mental/spiritual treatment must come after a spiritual awakening. I would also like to visually view a health patient receiving spiritual healing and then recovery in a positive light.

Physically I have reached my weight goal but not my BMI GOAL. I mentally crave certain foods and have a hard time balancing my work and exercise schedule. Stress also contributes to my fat intake and only certain areas of my body display the hardship. This is why I have incorporated yoga in my daily life; it deals with mental and physical. Yoga is considered a mind-body type of complementary and alternative medicine practice. Yoga brings together physical and mental disciplines to achieve peacefulness of body and mind, helping you relax and manage stress and anxiety. My plan did not include a start date and sometimes I went off the plan, therefore my fitness was not consistent.

Psychologically my goal is to make may mind, body, and soul develop as one. Dancher states, you can control you mental thought process though practice. Wellness acknowledges that attaining optimal wellness is a lifelong process and that behavior change comes as a result of clear and consistent education and support. It means being responsible for your own wellbeing. I plan to mentally incorporate integral practices because in some way support your inner development expands your consciousness. You can transcend any past trauma, negative pattern of behavior, belief systems, and any other limiting understandings. Mental training and subtle consciousness practice will provide the opportunity to take you through the steps of moving the body to mind to spirit in each aspect of your life.

 

 

            IV. 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.

           

            Personal responsibility through self-management helps me develop my inner           Psychological, strengths. This does not mean I do everything on my own. People who do not add physical exercise and proper nutrition to their lives, will be more at risk for illness like, diabetes, cardiovascular failure, and osteoporosis. It is important for our youth to instill these traits within themselves at an early age, so they may carry it   over  into adulthood.

            The Integral existence offers a path of balance and wholeness. The integral paradigm         represents a holistic approach to wellness and healing, considering the entire being in the           context of his or her environment. Spiritual guides of the world are helped by a variety of        practices-which might include prayer, meditation, yoga, psychological therapy. I make them part of my integral spirituality, since those measures can help increase my person's capacity for various sorts of practice.

           

 

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 personally plan to make a written schedule for my Yoga classes, exercises meditation and church schedule. This will allow me to stay on track and reach my goals. I also plan on asking a couple of my family members to join me on this wholeness retreat for moral support. Sometimes the buddy system gives you great motivation.

 

Dacher, E.S. (2006). Integral Health the Path to Human Flourishing, Basic Health Publications,

 

Unit 8 Blog: Reviewed Past Practices

Complete the following and post in your blog:

1.            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

 

 I find, being kind others makes me feel really good inside and out. I even learned why they say forgives helps clean the soul, because if you do not release it, it will take over your life.    Loving-kindness is a sense of goodwill, or friendliness, often accompanied by sensations of warmth and receptivity. The essence of love to me is a kind of ambition or desire that one’s self and all others may find the cause of happiness. This provides openness and degreases the weakening tendency of the mind to constantly judge. Breathing into the center of the chest, which is an essential aspect of the Loving Kindness meditation, somehow changes the firmness of our judgmental mind, and allows us to access this capacity to be open and let others let in.  

 

Anxiety is a cognitive state connected to an inability to regulate your emotional responses to perceived threats. Mindfulness meditation strengthens a person’s cognitive ability to regulate emotions. Mindfulness is premised on sustaining attention in the present moment and controlling the way we react to daily thoughts and feelings. Meditation is cognitive-behavioral therapy has been scientifically proven to produce a deep state of relaxation in the body as well as brain wave coherence. I use three forms of meditation:

 1. Yoga for my physical and mental health

2.  HERBAL sitting hot stones meditation which also influences all my five senses

3. Tai chi which teaches mental balance and proper concentration

 

Unit 7 My mother the life Jacket

 Complete the following and post in your blog:

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?

This week’s meditation Write up on the Aesclepius mp3 assignment was greatly needed. Thank goodness for great role models because I contemplated leaving Kaplan due to person stress in my life.  I find that lately, I have no me time and my weight increase is a big sign. I still meditate and say a prayer nightly like clockwork but my exercise time has been reduced to 20 minutes a day due to my class/work schedule. This tape helped me focus on a more positive approach to dealing with my personal life, especially since my mom has continued her education after the age of 35 and completed the goal. I look up to her because she has mastered what I am trying to at this point in time, a career. In the meditation technique I mainly focused on thinking about my family strength and passion for education. I am not a defeatist, but judging by my attitude that day; you would believe I was a perfect example. I collected my thoughts while listening to the mp3 player and then began to type how I felt at that moment in time.  I felt the stress ooze off my body in to the drain where it belonged.

 

2.      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?

 My mother is ill right now, but never lets life stop her from achieving her everyday goals. My faith in god and love for school has been nurtured since my childhood. I have a great work ethic because of my mother, but she finds time to release her stress by having self alone time. This point was never understood until last week when I began mentally breakdown and give into the self pressures.  I expressed my feelings to her and she had me lay down, close my eyes, and then played Nina Simone. Born the sixth child of a preacher's family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be a concert pianist; her songs always displayed  life’s hardships as a hurtle that required a major jump of self esteem in order to rise above it. This music gave me the boost I needed in order to stay in the race. Sometime depression keeps you from total wellness and someone wiser like my mom has to toss you a life jacket of knowledge to keep you a float.

 

 I f I NEVER said it before, Thank you class for all your kind and important words. I read your Blogs and it gives me hope.Stress is a powerful thing that seems to get overlooked daily; without positive people I would remain lost at sea.

Unit 6 The universal Loving Kindness (meditation) exercise

In this loving kindness meditation exercise I began to truly believe that all individuals could very well gain freedom from suffering. Most of my days I sustain happiness and wholeness though a 30 minute sitting herbal meditation. The scented burning herbs relax all my senses at once and allows me to release mental and body stress. But when I suffer from a hardship, I do not always feel free! I had to learn that suffering could be physical or mental, and you can never know peace as long as this unprocessed misery remains. Now when I suffer, I think of something pleasant or beautiful; it helps me except the hardship. When that doesn’t help, I turn to spiritual relief; God is the first one I turn too through prayer.  It helps to remember that suffering is a life process that can be controlled mentally if you allow it to spears your soul.

I developed a personal program by writing down the areas of my life that require the most attention, and then I mentally decided how to deal with each one in a calm rational manner. For example, my greatest suffering comes from worrying about my sick parents because lately they’ve been hospitalized at the same time. I took the steps to emotional except the fact that in life people become ill and need all your support and strength, not your pity. My mental suffering soon ended and the love I have for them began to peak out. If you acknowledge your fear then it stops having power over you and your life.

What I discovered through the exercise is there is short term and permanent relief regarding suffering. My suffering was not as serious as I made it out to be in my mind. In the beginning, it would come and go (short term relief), but once I developed a program it soon became long term relief. My parents have learned to deal with their illnesses stress free for years because they mental assessed the suffering through meditation, stress management classes, and CAM. They always keep the faith and share their mental breakthroughs with the whole family. I learned greater wellness from them; we even plan family therapeutic vacations at spa resorts.

Unit 3 Blog- My wellbeing as a whole and how I maintain it!

Based on your reflections, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being optimal wellbeing), where do you rate your A-physical wellbeing, B-spiritual well-being, C-psychological well-being? Why?Distractions and Self Evaluations are a hard topic for me because I am always distracted by my busy life by family hardships and work. I could truly use more spiritual enlightenment because my spirits have truly been low. I seem to always find time to workout and eat properly, but that's all! everything else is mentally forgotten. On  Physical wellbeing an A - My physical well-being is in “excellent ” status, due to the fact that I keep a healthy diet of organic fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and mostly Mediterranean diet. I also attend exercise classes 7 days a week. (scale TOTAL 10) Spiritual well-being a -C . My spiritual well-being is just okay, due to the fact that I must have more faith in my self and god. Incorporate about 1 hour throughout the week for prayer and meditation (a” one on one” talk with God and a meditational listening.)(scale TOTAL 6) Psychological - B- My psychological well-being, would be at the “good” stage, due to the fact that I try to take mental breaks throughout the day to help sort, relax, and inspire my mind.(scale TOTAL 9) My goal is to become 100% in all three areas by incorporating yoga, sitting meditation and communication. I must make time to attend church and read my bible also; this helps me keep the faith. Physical is at a level 10 because I make time in my life for exercise. I could improve my mental processes by loving, understand, and excepting peoples behaviors. It helps to find the good in everyone.

Unit 4 Blog-Loving Kindness and mental workouts work for me!

I found my experience with the Loving Kindness mp3 to be pleasant, minus the speaker noises, I always helps me relax and my day seem to go stress free. Meditation use to be the only way I could relax, but now yoga and listening tools also ease my mind. I also find it makes my body limp and life like, talk about mind and spirit as one! It was a little noisy because of the speaker base but that did not affect the outcome of my total peace because I strictly on love and kindness portion of the lesson. I was even nice to my boss the next day at work. The concept of a mental workout is the belief that one can evolve or enhance his or her psych spiritual life by simply practicing this type of exercise on a regular basis. According to (Elliot S. Dacher. 2006), even though “the apex of human flourishing may require an Olympian intensity of effort and practice, we can be well on the road to health, happiness, and wholeness with a far more moderate yet sustained effort.” (p. 64). Therefore, you should practice mental workouts on a daily basis then eventually we may get to experience what is known as human flourishing. Human flourishing occurs when one gets to finally live a life that is consumed with positive health, happiness and wholeness. Happiness can be achieved, it’s up to you to want it; I mean mentally and psychically. Dacher, E.S. (2006). Integral Health is the Path to Human Flourishing, Basic Health Publications.

Unit 5 blog compare and contrast unit 5 blog

1. Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc. 2. Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life. #1 exercise, we visualized a loved one who was suffering. We were asked to allow the “dark cloud of suffering to ride the in-breath into our body” and then allowing them to completely dissolve in our heart (Dacher, 2006). You just wanted us to understand loving-kindness and accept it into our hearts. This helps withdrawing our self-interest and being able to share loving-kindness with others as we exhale out wellbeing, love and happiness. This assignment eased my stress levels by eliminating the mental and physical stress in my busy life, meaning I entered pathway of integral health and human flourishing (Dacher, 2006). #2 exercise reflects on three levels of the psychospiritual flourishing, namely the witnessing mind, calm-abiding and unity consciousness (Dacher, 2006). The aim is to train the mind from the ceaseless mental activity of thoughts, feelings and images. In contrasting both exercises I found that the subtle mind was a little more challenging than loving-kindness because I had to train myself to stop all mental activity, which is crazy to me. I could not control my thoughts for 10 whole minutes before I got upset. That was a little stressful alone. Spiritual wellness embraces seeking significance and reason of life, following a rewarding life, and contributing to the spiritual health of others. The process of incorporating spiritual wellness into one’s life can differ from attending minster to committed meditation. You must begin by focusing on your inner self and become more in touch with the spiritual proportions of your living years. I think one should try relaxation techniques such as yoga and tai chi can help you achieve the relaxation response, a state of deep calmness that counteracts the negative effects of stress

Relaxation exercises rank high among the most effective
ways to relieve stress. You can place your arms straight out on either side, or just keep
them by your sides. Again, keep your breathing slow, or do some breathing
exercises. This position really gets your blood flowing and helps the body
release stress. I love meditation and yoga also because they connect the mind and body.