Unit 10 Reflections-Professional Application of the Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

1.        Review your unit 3 personal assessment of your psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being. Reflect on these areas . How did you score yourself on a scale from 1 to 10 in unit 3? How do you score yourself now? Has the score changed? Why or why not?

2.        Review the goals and activities you set for yourself in each area. Have you made progress toward the goals? Explain.

3.        Have you implemented the activities you chose for your well-being in each of the three areas? Explain.

On a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being optimal well being), my ratings and explanations are listed below:

A-Physical well being: In my Unit 3 blog post, I rated myself at a 6 in this area and will keep that rating. As I stated, I am not where I used to be but I am better than I was a few years ago. I have cleaned up my diet considerably by eating only local and organic foods, no sodas, fast food or anything that I can't pronounce. My mother’s sudden death in 2011 due to heart attack and my father’s recent battle with stomach cancer has definitely been motivation to help me to continue with my improved eating habits. I believe this has attributed to my overall health considerably. I would like to work on toning my body and losing a few pounds since I am not as physically active as I was before my son was born 3 years ago. I would like to get a bike and ride with my son to work towards attaining this goal. Implementing yoga would also help with improving my physical, spiritual and psychological well being and help alleviate some the stress that I have been experiencing relating to searching for a less stressful job and dealing with my father’s illness.

B-Spiritual well-being: In Unit 3 I rated this as a 5. I would still rate it at a 5 or a 6. As I mentioned, I was raised in a Southern Baptist church and often felt it was very restrictive. As I have gotten older, I realize that you do not have to attend church every Sunday to have a relationship with God. I have also become more spiritual and less religious. I want to allow my son and any future child that I have to choose what religion, if any, they wish to practice. I do want to implement some form of meditation into my life to also help with my spiritual focus.

C-Psychological well-being: With everything that is still going on relating to my father's illness and my job uncertainty I would still rate this area a 5. Supportive family and friends have made these things easier to cope with, but I still feel down and stressed like nothing is going to change. My goal is to continue to utilize my family, friends and any other resources that I can to stay calm and sane during this stressful time. I also need to learn to take a little time out for myself. There are days like today where my 3 year old decided to take a nap mid day and I have had nearly 2 hours of peace and quiet! That is a mental vacation within itself and gives me to time to regroup my thoughts.

4.    Summarize your personal experience throughout this course. Have you developed improved well-being? What has been rewarding? What has been difficult? How will this experience improve your ability to assist others?

This course has challenged me at times. I am still going to seek spiritual, physical and mental development through meditation and other methods discussed in class, but it has been difficult to find the time and peace and quiet to do so. There are still some obstacles that I must overcome. One positive aspect was focusing on forgiveness and gratitude.  I am determined to stay on the path to integral healing.   I will feel fulfilled once I can share this joy, peace and calm with those around me.

I am enthusiastic about being able to use these practices on my future clients once I have strengthened the areas that I need improvement on so that I can be a great example to my clients as an alternative health and wellness coach. I have also been inspired to create my own personal blog at http://naturalmochamama.wordpress.com relating to alternative health and wellness topics. I am also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Naturalmochamama. Come visit me!

Best wishes to you all in your journey to integral health and your future endeavors!

Unit 9 Final Blog Project

HW 420 Unit 9: Personal Application of the Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing – Blog Project

 

                  I.     Introduction:
Why is it important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically? What areas do you need to develop to achieve the goals you have for yourself?

I believe it is very important for health and wellness professionals to incorporate integral health practices into their own lives before offering treatment to others. Having this experience helps health and wellness professions to offer more holistic care to their clients.

When health and wellness professionals implement integral health in to their own lives, they will come to know that the alleviation of suffering and the ascent to human flourishing are more than ideas. These professionals will then want to end needless suffering to the best of their ability and therefore, the soul of medicine returns (Dacher, 2006).

The two areas that I need to develop in order to achieve optimal psychological, spiritual and physical wellness are the implementation of regular exercise and daily meditation. I strongly believe that if I develop these two strategies then my overall psychological, spiritual and physical health will improve drastically because these three factors will become balanced.

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

There are several exercises and/or processes which will successfully assess an individual’s need for psychological, spiritual and physical improvement. According to (Elliot S. Dacher, 2006), a mini meditation exercise “can be quite powerful in expanding your mind and heart. It can serve as an antidote to anger and hatred. It can help to shift your focus from personal love to universal loving-kindness.” (Dacher, 2006) An assessment process can also be completed by asking a series of questions. Five questions which may focus on healing and promoting integral development are:

 1. “What aspect of my life-psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, or worldly- is the source of difficulty and suffering?” (Healing)

2. “What line of development is most essential for me at this time?” (Healing)

3. “What is my current level of development and what can I aim for?” (Healing)

4. “What area of my life is ready for growth and development?” (Promoting)

5. “What would the next level of development look like?” (Promoting)

Currently, my physical, spiritual and psychological well being is scored mid range. Although I am adamant about clean eating such as purchasing local and organic and avoiding fast foods, restaurant foods and sodas for example, I do not get enough physical exercise. My spirituality is currently being tested with having to deal with my father’s illness and job hunting for the past 2 months. I do experience moments of anxiety and depression so my psychological state is in turmoil at times.  

I would score my psychological and spiritual areas of wellness mid to low. I have a very restless mind and have a tendency to lose focus. My mind tends to race, especially at bedtime and I have difficulty clearing my thoughts. Growing up I was taught to be religious, but since growing up I have been becoming more spiritual. What I have learned from the class activities is that some form of daily meditation could be the key to achieving integral health.

               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 start going back to the gym and I would love to purchase a bicycle so that I can begin riding with my 3 ½ year old. I would like to lose a few pounds and tone up and I believe that this would be a fun way to do so. I also plan to stick with eating clean and avoiding processed foods as I have done for the past few years. My goal for psychological wellness is to start meditating every day, which will take a considerable amount of practice. As I have stated it is not easy to take time away for myself to meditate being with a pre-school aged boy all day! Lastly, my goal for my spiritual health is to begin some type of prayer regimen and start to get back into attending church services.

              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 – Exercise: I consider myself a relatively healthy person when it comes to diet, especially compared to those I know. As I mentioned, I avoid fast foods, sodas, artificial colors and additives by trying to eat local and organic. I have noticed that recent stress has caused me to gain weigh therefore I would like to get back into yoga and doing some sort of physical activity regularly.  Since I am not a fan of cooler weather and with fall and winter approaching, this is going to be challenging for me but I am going to look for a way to implement this so by spring I will be ready for swimsuit season and will feel better about myself.

Psychological – Subtle Mind and Transforming Work Exercises: As I mentioned, I tend to have an unfocused mind. By using the three steps of the Subtle Mind exercise, Witnessing Mind, Calm Abiding Mind, and Unity Consciousness, I can learn to not hold onto thoughts, especially negative ones, but let them pass. When I am able to successfully accomplish this at will, I can learn to replace reactivity with intention and gain enlightenment. As I have talked about in class before, one of the biggest stressors in my life is my current job. Although I am currently on leave, if I decide to return I should learn to own my job by transforming it into an act of service, artistry, and sacredness. “What was previously seen as imposed is now reshaped as chosen.” (Dacher, 2006). This will be very difficult, but I would hope it would come with patience and continued practice.

 Spiritual – Prayer and Volunteer Work: Recently, I haven’t been very religious after being raised attending a Southern Baptist church. I feel as though I would like to work on becoming more spiritual. I would like to cultivate some sort of connection with the universe. I would like to start by mediating for a few minutes a night before bed. I used to volunteer often when I didn’t have other obligations such as being a mother. I would also like to begin doing some volunteer work. I loved the feeling of knowing that I was contributing to the greater good.

               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?

Physically, I will assess my progress by monitoring my weight and how my clothing fits. I would also like to document my progress with pictures as motivation and incentive.

Psychologically, I will assess my progress by my ability to meditate, clear my thoughts, let thoughts pass without grasping, and maintaining a positive attitude when things are tough. I will maintain this long term by setting aside time everyday to practice these exercises.

Spiritually, I will assess my progress by my feeling of oneness with the universe and my ability to maintain loving-kindness towards all. I will also assess my progress by the amount of volunteer work and the service I can offer in six months. I can maintain these long term by joining a meditation group and by signing up for volunteer work. That way I am accountable to others and will feel less compelled to not participate.

Reference

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