Unit 10 Blog assignment

I think that my numbers from unit 3 are the same as what they are now, however, I feel that I have the knowledge to be able to better myself with dedication and work. 

I made goals to meditate more often and to lose weight to have a better self concept.  I feel that I have begun my journey meeting these goals.  I have been good meditating a couple days per week and I have dropped three pounds. 

Implementing these goals has been hard to stick with.  The importance on mental health is insignificant in our culture and has not been in my life until now.  I have begun working with my children to have them sit through the meditations quietly.  It is very helpful at naptime. lol  

Overall, this class was pretty neat.  It was completely new concepts and challenged me to find a deeper meaningin myself. 

Unit 9 Final 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 because they are responsible for setting the example for others that wish to seek the same thing.  It is important for them to be role models for others by living what they teach.  Being able to experience this wellness for themselves will give them the experience needed to help others. 

            I need to develop in each of the three areas before being able to experience the wellness I wish to achieve.  Psychologically, I would like to work on my own personal mental health by seeking the services of a psychologist.  This will help me work out any internal issues I have experienced throughout my life and maybe put meaning behind some of the feelings I experience.  Spiritually, I could use a lot of growth there.  I need to start going back to church regularly and praying.  Prayer is similar to meditation and this may assist me in getting better with this as well.  Physically, I need to work on my weight management.  I have let myself go, so to speak, and will require a stricter diet and exercise regimen.

II.                Assessment:

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

            I have assessed myself in each domain since beginning this class and it has opened my eyes to the many changes I could make to make myself a better person. 

Spiritually I give myself a 7 since I do not attend church regularly.  Not being exposed to religion has made my lifestyle lax and I do not feel the deeper purpose I hear some people speak of. 

Physically I give myself a 7.  I scored myself this way since I have so much work to do to get back into shape.  Diet and exercise will help me attain my goals and raise my score.

Psychologically I give myself a 7 too.  I feel like I do not have the control of my mind I used to have and with the help of a psychologist I should be able to raise that score.

III.             Goal development:

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

            Physical – Lose any weight I have gained since high school by eating a healthy diet and exercising.

            Psychological – Begin attending sessions with a psychologist to clear my head and reduce the stress levels in my life.

            Spiritual – Begin attending church at least twice a month to expose myself to the positive aspects of organized religion.

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.

       Physical – To work towards my physical goals I have implemented a diet and exercise regimen that I have been using over this past week.  This reduces my caloric intake daily and demands that I work out at least 30 minutes 3 days per week minimum.  The other strategy I have chosen is a weight loss meditation that I found.  I listen to this meditation each evening before bed and it keeps me focused on concentrating on chewing slower with each bite and feeling fuller more quickly.

      Psychological - Attending sessions once a week with a psychologist is my first strategy to fostering growth psychologically.  I feel this will help me focus on the problems I have had in my past and help me to overcome any negative attributes it has caused in my daily life.  I will begin meditating to the Loving Kindness meditation from this class daily.  This will redirect my thinking from what can the world do for me to bringing what contributions I can make I can to the world

            Spiritual – Attending church twice a month minimally will ensure I get the exposure to the positive aspects of organized religion.  I used to be forced to go to church as a child and had rebelled against it as soon as I could, however there are things that I miss from that time period.  The happiness that flowed through the congregation, the teamwork, the support that everyone had for each other and the family like atmosphere all would contribute to a higher level of spiritual well-being.  Another exercise I intend on implementing in my life is to take time each day to reflect on my own personal beliefs.  This will promote a greater understanding of my beliefs within my life and help me to practice them.

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?

            Over the next six months I will track my progress on my daily calendar and mark the days I complete each item.  Each month I will add up how many successes and failures I have had.  I will plot these numbers on a graph to help me see a visual representation of how I am doing.  Being able to have the visual aid I will be able to more quickly see where I am lacking and where I am doing well.

Unit 8

Easily the visualization exercise that was in this weeks discussion boards is the most beneficial for me.  This is the first time I felt like I actually got it.  I actually cried when I realized what I have been missing.  This has not happened in any of the other exercises and it impressed met that I got that deep into the exercise.  This will be a life changing exercise for me.  As I said in the discussion board, I now know what I need to do to find the motivation to get off the couch and go jogging.  Just putting myself back into the body and states of mind I used to have during these special times in my life makes me want to try harder to achieve the serenity I felt during the merging of the three topics.  The other beneficial one was the loving kindness.  I think this made me open up my perspective on how I think of others.  I knew the importance of prayer but I never realized it made the difference that it does.  I think I could achieve mental fitness using these two methods because the first one was a huge eye opener to me on how I could change myself.  The loving kindess, used regulalry, would help me to become more sympathetic and empathetic towards others situations and I would end up making more differences in others lives. 

Unit 6

The Loving kindness exercise didn’t do much for me except show me that my memory sucks.  I got frustrated that I had to keep reading the same 4 lines over and over since I could not remember them.  This became distracting and I felt it took away from the experience.  I think that if I could have remembered them it may have given me a different perspective.  I knew what I was reading but I just could not put it to memory.  It didn’t make me feel any different (minus the frustrated feeling). 

The Integral assessment was just an inventory of where we thought we needed extra work on ourselves.  I could not pinpoint just one area and ended up having problems that came up out of a couple areas that I would like to deal with.  I think the one I would most like to work on would be biological.  I do not wish to go into detail on the things I would like to work on there for my own privacy.  One way I could work on this is to physically workout.  This will make me healthier and give me a foundation to build off of.  Practicing meditation will also help me in the biological category.  This will help me to quiet my mind and learn to focus on one thing at a time instead of letting my mind do as it pleases. 

Power point for Unit 5

I am not sure how to put my power point on here.  I have not found anyone else that has theirs posted either.  If anyone knows how to do it I would appreciate any ideas. I really don't want to lose points for not posting it. 

Thank you  :)

Subtle Mind vs Loving Kindness

1.Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.

Things I like about the loving kindness practice were that you focus on your body and accepting whatever you are feeling.  I think it is important for us to know that negative feelings may not always be bad and we should embrace them and learn from them.  I also liked that it has you think of someone you care about and has you feel those feelings or them and then has you turn those feelings towards yourself.  This may be the first time I felt feelings for myself that I feel for others.  All too often I forget to give myself some credit and / or just take some time to see how good I am doing something.  It gave me a whole new feeling for myself. 

Things I like about the subtle mind practice is how the beginning reminds me of how I calm myself down when I feel like I am getting overwhelmed.  I focus on my breathing and step back, leave the room, or just block everyone else out, I count to 10 breathing deeply at each number.  This allows me to take my attention off of whatever the situation is and to regain my composure.  I count to 10 at least once but will continue the mantra until I am fully at ease again.  I thought it was neat that I already have had some practice with adjusting my breathing to calm my mind.  If counting to 10 does not work as well as planned I use a focus point, usually my wrist where I take my pulse radially.  This method usually works within a minute and I can slow my heart rate.  I use this technique often in the back of the ambulance on harder calls.  It makes a huge difference if you are worked up instead of calm and this was a trick one of my mentors had me try during a couple very rough calls.  I never thought I would make it through them but when I tried this it was like magic and I have used it ever since.  I never thought of it as meditation though. 

The differences are that loving kindness helps to get you to clear your mind and have it still while the subtle mind wants you to focus on these “mental movements” to see why they are occurring and trains you to discover these thoughts in depth.

2.Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.

So for me, I am not physically fit, therefore I will need to focus on getting my body fit before I will be able to obtain a high level of spiritual wellness.  I see this to being similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you have to succeed at the bottom and work yourself up.  The bottom, in this case, is the physical body.  If you do not take care of your body its needs are not being met, this will prevent you from establishing spiritual wellness because your body will still be trying to focus on getting its basic needs first.  Once the basic need (physical wellness) are met, the mind will start to crave the next step. 

Dacher, E. S. (2006). The subtle mind. In Integral health: The path to human flourishing. 1st ed.                   Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications.

Meditation this week.....

I liked this meditation.  For the past few weeks I have found the meditations have to much involved and do not allow me to have time to really "get into" the meditation.  I started listening to this disc when we first got the books just so i had more of an understanding of what kind of class this was going to be.  I have found that I have compared each meditation since then to this one since I have found that I really like this one. 

Initially I fell asleep each time I listened to it but I felt more refreshed than normal when I woke up the next morning.  I feel more at peace.  I now stay awake during it and find that I look forward to getting to that part of my evening when I get to put the kids to sleep and then have that time to myself.  Mental workout is achieved by practicing these exercises and it in turn makes your mind stronger and helps you to focus.