The Final Post

I.                  Introduction

a.     In order for wellness professionals to help those searching for improved psychological, spiritual, and physical development, the professional themselves should be experienced in those areas in order to help the client grow.  One cannot help those in need if they themselves don’t follow that path or believe it to be true.  You should always practice what you preach and a client will be able to see if you actually do.  Most individuals would not return to a professional if they felt like they weren’t following their own practices as they may think it would not benefit them.     

b.    Currently I feel like I can improve in all areas of my life and I think anyone should always want to learn and improve on things.  It is hard to determine which aspect I need to give more attention to as I feel they are all equally important and play off each other so they all should be improved. 

II.               Assessment

a.     My personal assessment of all three areas I think are lower than what I would like.  I need work in all areas of my life and unfortunately when I stress about something it tends to affect all aspects of my life until that problem has passed. 

III.           Goal Development

a.     Spiritually I would like to attend church more frequently and be more involved.  I grew up in a Christian school and I would like my two young children to know the same in order to make their own decisions. 

b.    Physically I would like to exercise on a better routine.  I tend to get away from my normal routine when my life gets extra busy or stressful.  I would like to increase the intensity that I exercise and possibly become a better runner. 

c.      Psychologically I would like to practice more on my meditation and make it a daily routine in order to help relieve my stress and frustrations that can come too easily to me.

IV.           Practices for Personal Health

a.     Physical

                                                             i.      I would like to incorporate more cardio, preferably running, into my exercise routine and also practice yoga on a more normal basis which I absolutely love.  I think that both exercises would be beneficial to ease stress and help with relaxation.  I would like to begin with attempting to run at least 20 min. three times a week and would like to practice yoga also about three times a week and get my husband to participate in order to also create a bonding experience between us. 

b.    Spiritual

                                                             i.      I would love to read more scripture at night before going to bed and reflect on my day.  I also think that meditation and practicing the loving-kindness exercise can help to make me more aware of my negative thoughts and feelings and to push them away.  Improving this aspect should bring me spiritual health.    

c.      Psychological

                                                             i.      My two favorite exercises with meditation are the subtle-mind and meeting Aesclepius.  These exercises were easier for me to perform and sit through as I am just learning these techniques.  I would like to set a specific time each day that I practice these exercise, preferably in the evening.  I think sitting quietly at the end of the day to unwind and clear your mind would be beneficial.  Also, keeping to a schedule will help get me in a routine of doing this daily but also forcing myself to make time for me.       

V.               Commitment

a.     I have used a journal in the past to keep track of my progress and I think this would again be a great way to track my exercises, to make sure I am keeping up with them, and see if I am making improvements.  A journal would also help to keep track of your daily feelings and which exercises seemed to work the best.   I think a good way to gauge your progress is to rate each area of your life for example eating habits, sleep, and exercise, stress levels, and maybe the number of times you have been sick.  Then six months later rate each area and see if there is improvement or not.  I would really love for my husband to participate in these exercises with me.  Having a partner in exercise, yoga, or meditation would be beneficial in that you can motivate each other and encourage each other.  Plus having something that enjoys the same things as you helps you to continue practicing them. 

         

Looking Back

The exercise Meeting Aesclepius and the Subtle Mind exercise were my two favorite this course and proved to be beneficial to me.  Of the practices these were the two that I either made it through the whole exercise or at least was able to pay attention to my thoughts and work on controlling them better.  I would like to work on adding meditation into my weekly regimen in order to train my mind.  The practice Meeting Aesclepius I think would be good for this just because this exercise worked the best for me and I was able to actually visualize a person, though I didn't see a face, I could still sense a strong presence.  The Subtle Mind practice I sometime use daily even not during an actual meditation practice.  When negative thoughts and feelings flood in, I concentrate on my breathing and sometimes just repeat the word "breath" and they slowly dissipate and I become more aware of the fact that I am in control and I can improve my out of control mind.

Meeting Aesclepius

I am finding that performing these practices are slightly easier, but my mind still wanders frequently though I am better at bringing my attention back to my exercise.  I did have a difficult time creating an image of a person and their image changed a few times during the practice.  I did make it through this practice the whole way even though it is still hard to keep my thoughts focused.  These exercises are currently just making me aware of what aspect of my psychological and spiritual wellness that I am needing to work on and how I am able to achieve these improvements.  I plan to continue practicing these exercises at least once or twice a week until I can get into a specific routine and can improve controlling my thoughts at which point I will increase the amount of times I practice.

I think the saying "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself", simply means that we cannot help those in need if we ourselves have not experienced it, but also we will not help them if we haven’t learned the techniques that are beneficial to improving our health and wellness.  I think being able to teach and help others is more efficient when the teacher has experienced what they are preaching and can have some real life experiences.  As a health and wellness professional we should be confident that the steps we are encouraging to take and the practices will actually be helpful to the individual.  I do think that a wellness professional should always be working on improving their health psychologically, physically and spiritually as personal experience can sometimes hit home better instead of reading something from a book or a pamphlet.  I think that we should also be practicing what we preach otherwise others may not be inclined to follow in our footsteps.  We can have growth in our life by continuing practicing meditation, calming the mind, and learning loving-kindness.  Simply following these exercises in a normal routine can help you grow in learning to remove negative thoughts and feelings and improve from the inside out.  

Integral Assessment

The Universal Loving Kindness practice took me a second to remember the phrases, but once I did I felt a sort of calming effect when I was thinking about sending these feelings out in the world.  Any anger or anxiety sort of diminished because I was trying to have improved thoughts and feelings.  With the Integral Assessment I was slightly upset, though shouldn’t be surprised, that I probably need to work on all areas as they need some growth and improvement.  The area that I would like to work on the most would be my psychospiritual and Interpersonal areas.  I think that if I can grow in my psychospiritual health it will spill over to other parts of my life and improve other areas.  Though all areas are important, for me this is the root of my problems and struggles.  I need to work on more meditation and yoga practices to help ease my thoughts, emotions and feelings in order to relieve the stress I have.          

The Subtle Mind

Again this was another exercise that was just a bit too long for me.  The Loving Kindness exercise had you thinking of individuals and specific things.  I did enjoy this exercise in that you weren't specifically thinking of something, but allowing your thoughts to somewhat flow and making sure you were concentrating on one main thought or feeling.  I did catch myself sort of repeating “breathe” in my head in order to make sure I wasn't catching on to a thought and that I was paying attention to my breath instead. I would think this can be of benefit to me but I would shorten the exercise some.  I am slightly frustrated in that I feel as though my mind never shuts down and I am sure others feel the same.  But I am anxious to see if these exercises can work for me as I would love to not feel like my mind is constantly racing.   I think that if one is able to achieve spiritual wellness in runs over to all aspects of their life including their mental health and their physical health.  It’s sort of the same when one begins to exercise on a regular basis, their eating habits usually soon follow as you are wanting to improve all areas of your life.  The connection of my spiritual, mental and physical wellness is probably slightly off balance and needs some adjusting which shows itself in how I stress and get anxious and angry sometimes quickly.  Though I am somewhat physical and stay active at home and for work, my spiritual and mental wellness falls by the wayside I think because of the fact I have such an active mind that is hard to shut down at times.     

Loving-Kindness Exercise

At the beginning of the exercise I felt relaxed and was able to focus my mind on what the narrator was saying and the sounds of the ocean, which were very peaceful and relaxing.    About half way through though it became difficult as there were long pauses and my mind would begin to wander and then I had a hard time getting them back to what I was suppose to be doing.  I would recommend this to others as I think that these techniques can be beneficial once you get used to doing them on a regular basis and can control your wandering thoughts.

The concept of mental workout is basically the same as exercise.  The more you participate in these techniques regularly your mind begins to become accustomed to the relaxing affects and it can become easier and something you want to do daily and need to do.  The benefits of working your mind on a daily basis helps to improve our psychospiritual life and access all its possibilities.  Daily "workouts" help to get your body in a routine of these techniques and helps to improve your integral health.  These mental workouts can be done when and wherever is comfortable for the individual.  It is best to decide on your own when you want to practice your exercises because you know yourself best.  A quite, comfortable place is usually a good place to start until eventually you might be able to practice them anywhere.    

  

Relaxation Exercise

These relaxing techniques have been very beneficial to me.  The music, background sounds, and the narrators voice is calming and soothing and helps to relax you even more.  They sometimes make me slightly tired which I am not sure that is the goal of these exercises, but I am normally doing them at the end of my day as it's the easiest time.  After a long day of work and coming home to my boys, these are nice to sit back, relax and listen to.