Week 10

Week 3 assessment: Physical wellbeing- 7 Spiritual- 5 Psychological-7 I rated myself at these because I feel that I am fairly healthy, I work out regularly and try to eat healthy but sometimes I do eat things that are unhealthy which also affects how I feel psychologically. I am not the most spiritual person and feel that this is a trait that I could work on and it would affect my psychological well-being for the greater good. I feel that my Spiritual well-being would be rated at a 6 now, which is a little higher. I think I still need to work on this but I have started to become better at meditation since this course started and would still like to work on this. I consider my “spiritual” well-being as being focused and at peace with live, I do not necessarily believe only in “God”, but I do believe in a higher power. I think that being the best person we can be and being at peace is how I can pursue my spiritual well-being. The other two I would consider to be the same because I am not perfect and they are always a work in progress. My physical well-being fluctuates on a day to day basis, some days I feel really good about my workouts and runs others I do not. I have not accomplished my goals I have set for myself. I do not meditate 10 min each day, only some days and I still eat things that I think I should not eat like desserts, but I have a new goal of just being happy with my choices and not so hard on myself about what I eat. I am fairly good about it and I just am going to remind myself that no one is perfect. I have not implemented yoga but I have joined a running group which I have found to be beneficial in meeting new people around the area that share a common interest and it helps me de-stress after the week is over so I think this is a step in the right directions psychologically.

I did not realize when I started this class what it would be about and how it would impact my life. It have had a positive impact because it has taught me useful life tools like using meditation and how stress impacts my body. Also, I think about illness in a more mind/body aspect instead of just body and that is the only thing needing healed. I now can see how our body and mind-everything in us is all connected some way. I think it has been rewarding because I can see when I am getting stressed, and when I need to evaluate my thoughts and feelings and what I need to do to change certain things in my life. I think that this class has gotten me on the path towards human flourishing and happiness in a way I could not have done on my own. I did not find this class difficult, only finding the time to get everything done in my busy life and taking time away from my family. I think this class will benefit my career because I can assist others in knowing how stress affects their body and what they can do to make them a more stress-free person.

Unit 9-Chelsey Leone

Personal Application of the Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

                The psychological and spiritual aspects of healing are important for health professionals to look at and conceptualize because in order to teach others then they need to look at their inner and outer lives and begin on the path towards human flourishing as well. Health professionals should have a goal to develop spiritually, physically, and psychologically in order to better their lives and contribute to the spiritual, physical, and psychological aspect of their clients lives as well. I feel that in order to achieve the goals that I have for myself in my personal life and career goals I need to work on managing stress in my life by using meditation like the subtle mind meditation that Dacher (2006) offers. I also want to expand my knowledge on traditional healing methods, medical science, and the human experience in order to help me on my path to human flourishing. I believe the more knowledge the better, especially when teaching others about health and wellness (Dacher, 2006). In general I feel that the better I learn to train my mind and manage my inner and outer life the better person I will become.

                The four domains: biological, psychospiritual, interpersonal, and worldly are the four aspects of the human experience. Each domain have lines of development in which are relevant to the health and healing. I would score myself by taking a look into each area of my life and see where I feel I am lacking. I feel that I am getting better and working on my biological area in the aspect of self-regulation. I would score my biological area a 7 because there is always room for improvement. Psychospiritual development I would rate a 6 because I would like to work on my spiritual development and do more activities like meditation to improve this as well. I want to feel more fulfilled and at peace with life in general, I feel that this is always going to be a work in progress with ups and downs. I feel my interpersonal area is good I have good relationships with my family and I am working on my community relationships with meeting new people and volunteering to serve and give back to the community. I would rate this area a 8. Worldly flourishing focuses on work, civic activism, and generativity. I feel that even though I am beginning to volunteer I am still looking for a job after moving to this area. I feel that I can also work on national issues more and know about what is going on around the world in general. I would say this is the area in my life that needs the most work and I would rate it at a 5. Setting a goal that I have for me in each area is a good way to strive towards bettering my path toward integral health. In the psychospiritual area I would like to meditate more and have a better spiritual connection. In the biological area I would like to practice better self-control with my eating habits. I am striving towards having a “clean” diet so this is one area I would like to work on, but no one is perfect. In the Worldly category I want to find my dream job and be happy with the job that I am at, this is an every changing goal of mine. As far as strategies go in each area to foster growth in each of these domains one would be to keep a daily journal of goals that I have for myself and what I did during the day to try and achieve these goals. An example would be that I used meditation and deep breathing to foster better psychospiritual health. Another example would be that I did community service and paid more attention to worldly activities that go on around the world to become more aware of others cultures. Also, a daily journal could be used to keep a food journal to help with some of the biological aspects that I had talked about. Reminding ourselves what we would like to get out of our journey on a daily basis and knowing what goals we set for ourselves is a great reminder to stay on track. I also think that reading to gain knowledge about health and wellness could be greatly used in all the domains in order to further our development towards integral health. Once on the right track and achieving our goals through practices such as journaling, meditation, gaining knowledge we can make new goals to set ourselves further into integral health. I believe a good way to assess if we have achieve our goals is to go back to the beginning and look at the goals we set for ourselves and see if we feel that we have achieved or done what we have said. Like I mentioned above journaling is a good way to track progress and go back and read to see if the goal had been achieved or progress on the goal is continuing. Long term practice requires commitment and motivation to stay on track. I think that writing our goals down and when we feel that we cannot do it any longer, go back and read what our goals are and why we wanted to achieve it in the first place. This can help increase motivation to stay on track long term. I also feel that once we start seeing results and change then happiness with come with that. Seeing progress always helps increase motivation to keep going as well. Everything in live is about personal choices and if we will be happy with the choice we have made. In order to make the choices we want we need motivation and will power. Ultimately making the right choices to take the path to human flourishing will achieve health, happiness, and wholeness.

Reference: Dacher, E.S. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing.  Laguna Beach, Ca: Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Optimal Well Being

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 believe that the two examples that I thought were most beneficial were the subtle mind and meditation in general are the best practices for me. I enjoyed the subtle mind practice because it allows us to bring focus to our breathing and focus on that. Focusing on my breathing allowed me to not drift away and my mind could focus more so than on the other exercises. I feel that in order to obtain “mental fitness” we need to be able to focus and train our minds to become tame and not get distracted as easily. I feel that the subtle mind and meditation allows me to do this more effectively than the others. I can implement these into my personal life by doing them on a daily basis. I think that meditation and focusing on my breathing will make my mind more calm and allow me to become a more patient loving person. In order to achieve mental fitness, it has to be worked on every day in order to achieve the results that lead to human flourishing.

Meeting Aesclepius

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?

I had a good relaxing meditation practice for this week’s exercise. I chose to think of my grandmother who I find to be a very loving, supportive, wise person whom I have a close relationship with. I found this to be relaxing and stress relieving. I had to keep bringing myself back to the exercise because I kept thinking of memories of my grandma because we had to focus on our “mentor.” I think that this exercise would be easier to focus on someone I don’t know but view as wise to keep my mind on track, but I did have happy feelings when thinking about my loved one. I think that mindfulness helps increase spiritual wellness because it allows us to focus on our body as a whole, mind, body, and spirit. When we can focus on our body as a whole we can reduce stress and stressors in our lives and really live life to the fullest. I know that when I take time out of my day to relax and let the stress of daily hassles and just life in general I feel refreshed and renewed. This helps me clear my mind and not let the noise in my head affect me psychologically or physiologically. I believe I will continue to use meditation and exercise as practices to achieve wellness throughout life.

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?

I think this saying is great and true in my perspective. I believe someone must truly know what another person is going through by going through it themselves. I think this applies to health and wellness professionals because in order to preach health and wellness we must truly practice it ourselves and understand the real impact it has on our mind, body, and soul. I think there is some sort of obligation, I am a nurse and I think it is crazy how many nurses preach to eat healthy and quit smoking to many patients but they themselves go out on their breaks to smoke and life an unhealthy lifestyle. I believe that because we chose this profession and gain knowledge to better ourselves and others we should be doing the same for ourselves. For me implementing spiritual and psychological growth is going to be a lifelong process, we are always changing and always growing in every area of our lives. I think that I will continue to work out (running is my hobby), trying to eat clean for the mind and body, and cleanse my mind with meditation and relaxation techniques. I really like deep breathing exercises myself.

Meditation/Integral Assessment

The Universal Loving Kindness exercise was a good exercise, but I believe it will be easier to do over time. I had a hard time memorizing the sentences on the first try so I had to keep glancing down which kept disturbing my thought process. I think over time once the phrases are memorized I will be able to keep better concentration and put more meaning behind what I am saying. I think that this is a good exercise because we all need to open our hearts to others and be more compassionate towards people. In today’s society we are not as social and friendly as we once were. Back in the day everyone socialized with their neighbors and they could count on one another. In today’s society we hardly ever meet or speak to our neighbors. I think that this exercise would be good for everyone to do and to remember that we are all the same, even with differences we should still respect on another.

After closing my eyes and really focusing on what areas of my integral assessment could  improve it surprised me to realize that I have things in almost every quadrant of my life that could use improvement in my eyes. I feel that I have internal struggle to always want to eat “right” and by saying this I love desserts but yet I feel that I should limit my intake for my body’s sake. It’s an internal struggle because I want it, so I eat it, then I feel guilt, I put nutrition in Biological category. It’s an ongoing cycle, which leads me to the psychospiritual aspect. I feel that I have certain emotions when it comes to my nutrition, I am an avid health eater (minus desserts), and I always want to strive for the “perfect” eating habits. When I steer down the wrong path I feel guilty emotions which is part of the psychospiritual aspect of my life. I feel that my interpersonal relationships are good, but there is always improvement somewhere, like calling my mom more to talk to her etc. As far as the worldly category I am struggling with the work aspect of that. I just moved to California and am having a hard time finding a job, which I am taking personally and I probably shouldn’t. After doing this assessment I realize that they are all connected so I feel when one thing is out of balance in our lives; it leads to another imbalance in another column of our life. In order to overcome this and keep moving toward human flourishing I must come up with a plan on how to change my life and implement. I think this is easier said than done, but important to do. One area to focus on is my work, I am starting to volunteer at a hospital which will help me with my worldly column and it could help other areas of my life for the better. I am excited to see what comes out of it! I feel that exercise and meditation will also help me keep a positive clear mind in life.

Subtle Mind

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

The loving kindness exercise wants us to expand our love and has us focus our conscious on someone we love to bring good feelings like care, tenderness, love etc. The exercise also wants us to focus on taking in the hardships of someone we love as well. The subtle mind exercise allows us to bring our focus to our breathing because our breathing is directly connected to our minds. This exercise was very relaxing to me with the waves in the background and I like focusing on my breathing I find it to be the most relaxing way to meditate and clear my mind. I did not have any frustrations during the exercise. I think I benefited from it because it allowed me to clear my mind and focus on breathing and calm my mind. I would like to do this exercise a few times a week.

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

The connection between spiritual, mental, and physical wellness are all interconnected. We normally focus on our physical wellness because symptoms are usually what we recognize when we are ill. By focusing on our inner being like using meditation we can take steps to tap into our spiritual side in order to become physically well. We need to use stress relieving measures in order to be physically, mentally, and spiritually well. I think that I focus on my mental wellness a lot more than I ever used to, I like to use meditation to relax and calm my mind which I feel better physically by doing.

"Mental Workouts" & Relaxation

Describe your experience. Did you find it beneficial? Difficult? Why or why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or why not?

I would describe this experience to be peaceful and calming, although I meditated before I did this exercise so I think that helped. I liked the sound of the ocean in the background which was a peaceful sound to me. I think that this exercise was no more beneficial than meditating and focusing on my body relaxing. This exercise was geared more towards “inner love” and feelings that are associated with love and those feelings that are associated with discomfort. I don’t know if I would recommend this exercise over some of the others that we have done. I like the relaxation techniques that are more focused on breathing rather than thought. I find this to be more peaceful to my mind.

What is the concept of "mental workout"? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a mental workout? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

The concept of “mental work” is that we focus time out of every day to evolve our minds towards human flourishing. This means that we take time to meditate and focus on our mind, body, and spirit and open our minds to loving kindness and the subtle mind. We can focus our thoughts to help tame our minds to allow us to cultivate wisdom and inner peace. We also need to feel love towards ourselves in order to fully love others which is a part of mental workout and attaining a goal of loving kindness. Our minds can be trained just like our bodies, in the era we are more focused on training our bodies for the physical appearance and forget to train our minds as well. Dacher talks about how mental workouts should not just be for relaxation but to expand our consciousness and become more in tune with our minds healing capacities. A way that we can implement mental workouts to contribute to our health would be to not only focus on our relaxation and breathing but to focus on certain parts of our bodies that may need help. An example would be if someone had high blood pressure. Focus on breathing techniques and mental workouts to try and calm the mind and body.