Unit 10

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?

In unit 3 my scores were physical 7, spiritual 9, and psychological 8 or 9.  These scores still remain the same.  I have not had any life changing epiphanies or major events happen that would change my outlook.  At this point specifically I’m rather done, ready for a break so I can let my brain relax and prepare for next term. 

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

My goals and activities are somewhat on hold right now because my life is so busy, I still continue to do yoga several times per week (and actually entered into a 60 day challenge at the studio that starts tomorrow), and meditate daily for at least a few minutes whenever I get the chance, and as always I make time for fun and laughter as often as possible every day.

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

As I stated above, I continue to do the things I always do, but the one thing I haven’t implemented full force is reading and studying things for pleasure, that is on hold until school is done in December.

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?

I can’t honestly say that this course has impacted my wellbeing at all at this point in my life.  As I have said, I do meditate, I do live a healthy lifestyle, eating healthy and exercising, but at this very moment my life is so hectic that it is everything I have to keep myself grounded.  As things settle back down I will have more time for myself.  The concepts and activities learned in this course will be helpful in my future helping others by teaching them to lead healthier lives and making better choices.

Unit 9

                  I.            Introduction:
It is very important for health and wellness professionals to have a good understanding and a regular practice to develop and maintain their psychological, spiritual, and physical wellness, because in order to teach someone, or lead someone down a path to integral health, the professional must have experienced these things themselves, understand the challenges and the benefits of the work invested.  They must be able to lead by example, without the personal experience, they will not be able to help their clients navigate through difficult times or understand what they are experiencing on their journey.  For myself, I believe that all these areas are a constant work in progress, it is not a task that has a completion point, we must always strive to continue developing these areas.  Most specifically however, my spirituality has fallen by the way side since I’ve been in school and I will have to focus a bit of extra energy in that direction when I am done with school.

                II.            Assessment:
My assessment of my health in these various areas can change slightly depending on the day, but for the most part, my scores are fairly good; my physical wellbeing is about a 7 on most days and this is directly related to specific physical challenges I have that limit what I am able to do which can be frustrating;  my psychological wellbeing is generally a 9 but on some days can drop to a 6 or 7, my psychological wellbeing is directly related to my physical wellbeing and changes depending on how I’m feeling physically, if I’m frustrated because I can’t do something I want to do, or because of my challenges I am feeling old and helpless.  Spiritually, I am definitely at a 9, I know how I feel and what I believe, I know who I am and where I am headed, however, lately I haven’t had a lot of time to invest in my spiritual wellbeing, this is something I will remedy when I am done with school.

               III.            Goal development:
I just set a goal for myself in the physical area, my yoga studio is having a 60 day “Summer Olympics” challenge, there are medals based on how many classes you do in those 60 days, and I am shooting for a silver medal which is over 30 classes in that time frame. As for Psychological goals, I intend to set additional time for meditation, currently I only stop to do this after or before driving to and from work, I intend to set aside 15-20 minutes each day before bed to clear my mind.  Spiritually, this one is difficult because this is something that I approach by reading, I have been taking time to read for pleasure each week, I intend to continue this, or at least try, to take 5-10 minutes each day to read at least a chapter from a book that is not required for school, once school is done, I can go back to reading every night before bed.

              IV.            Practices for personal health:
As I said above, I have joined a challenge at my yoga studio that will help me stay committed to my physical wellbeing.  I will also set aside time each day, or at the very least every other day to meditate and clear my mind to refresh me for the next day.  Yoga also offers me the time to clear my head, doing yoga several times per week will give me the opportunity to “kill two birds with one stone” and allow me meditation time during my physical wellness time.  For my spiritual wellbeing, I have started taking a bit of time every few days to read for pleasure, at the moment I am reading a memoir about a woman’s journey with Bikram yoga, this is also helping me get through some of the challenges with my own practice.

               V.            Commitment:
I have a calendar on my phone that syncs with my tablet, I use this calendar to track all of my activities, physical, social, work, etc, I also do some journaling on this calendar.  I log all of my activities here for a couple reasons, one because I like to be able to look back and recall what I have done, my life is so busy that I tend to run on auto-pilot and forget what I have done on a given day, keeping a calendar helps me to recall details. Second, it helps me to view a chart of my activities on each day, so I can look back and see exactly how many yoga classes I’ve done and how many times I stopped to read for pleasure, etc. To assess my progress, I will review this calendar each week and see what I have done and where I can make better use of my time.

Unit 8

This week has been so crazy, I had a 4 day weekend with dental work and company and I am off on my days.  I was thinking today was Tuesday so I apologize for the late post.

 

The Subtle mind and meditation work the best for me.  As I have stated in my previous blogs, I don’t do well with any kind of guided meditation or visualization practices.  I truly enjoy meditation when I can have a quiet moment, which is difficult in my house most days.  Often I’ll take 5 minutes to clear my head while I’m in my car, either before I leave home or when I get home, it’s not much but it does help me put things back into perspective.  I also clear my head during yoga, which I haven’t been able to do much lately because of my crazy schedule.  Hopefully this hectic time I seem to be in right now won’t last too long! 

Unit 7

Once again, a guided meditation that I just have so much trouble with!  I did last week’s exercise again, I like mantras, they make me feel good, having affirmations around my house works best for me.  Right now, written on my bathroom mirror in bright green paint is “I choose happy”, on my computer at work there is a sticker that says “Happyness is a choice” these statements always make me pause for a moment and let go of the angst that I may be holding from my commute to work, or a stressful day and that works best for me.

The statement “one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” means that you cannot lead except by example, otherwise it’s false.  If you have not attempted something how can you properly encourage someone else to try?  A health and wellness professional can’t possibly encourage someone to make positive changes in their lives if they are sitting at home, eating McDonalds, and doing nothing more than watching TV and living a dysfunctional life.  They need to practice what they preach.  Do I think they need to be successful? Not necessarily, but they at least need to be making the effort to improve their life.  I recall once that some friends of mine wanted me to join their church, so I figured I’d give it a go, and after some time, I felt a bit off being there, something about the pastor made me uneasy.  One day I ran into him with another woman (not his wife) and I knew immediately that this was not a church that I could be a part of, and when I discussed it with my friends, they couldn’t understand, they didn’t see what the pastor having an affair had to do with me attending the church, and I explained that although the pastor was human just like us, he should be holding himself to a higher standard, and how could he possibly, in good conscience, lead a congregation when he is committing adultery?  Swearing, drinking, being a typical guy?  Ok, I get it, people are people…but adultery? No.  They still didn’t understand, but needless to say, I don’t attend that church.  I think it’s extremely important for a person in a leadership role to lead by example, period.

Unit 6

The loving kindness meditation was simple, just a few phrases repeated over and over for 10 minutes.  The only thing difficult about it was the choice of words, they don’t flow off the tongue and I stumbled over them, so I changed it up a little bit and used words that fit together better. I don’t think it would have a great impact on the outcome.  I used to do something similar to this every morning when I woke up, but then life took over and I became so busy and distracted with everything that I have to accomplish in a day that I just stopped taking those few minutes every morning to send love out into the world.  I miss doing that.  I used to do a thankful meditation as well.  I miss doing that too.  This type of exercise is more my speed than a guided meditation.

At this point in my life, I would honestly have to say that I am in need of interpersonal work, I did some soul searching over the past few days and when I look at my close relationships, they are all dysfunctional.  Over the years, I have given up myself to cater to others, my kids, my husband, my friends, whom ever put demands on me; and now I don’t know who I am.  When I find something I enjoy, no one else wants to participate with me to spend time with me, but yet I am expected to do things with others, things they enjoy, so that I can spend time with them.  I’m not sure if that makes sense, let me see if I can put it more simply, if I want to spend time with my kids I have to do what they want to do, what they find enjoyable because they don’t want to do what I enjoy, and if I say I don’t really want to do “that” then it is taken to mean that I don’t want to spend time with them, or if I say “I have yoga class” it is taken as yoga is more important to me than they are….and hurt feelings follow (and this is not just my imagination, last summer I did 9 weeks of Les Mills Combat every night and my kids confided in me a few months later that they felt that I didn't want to have anything to do with them and didn't want them around...keep in mind that doing a session of combat is only 30-45 minutes out of a whole evening).  With my boyfriend, if I don’t want to do what he wants to do, that’s ok, I just don’t get time with him, and likewise, he has no problem with me doing my own thing, which is good, but then weeks go by and we spend little to no time together and we start drifting apart because he won’t join me to spend time with me, and I just want a little bit of time to do something I enjoy. 

Then the resentment sets in, I find myself feeling bitter because I have to be the one, in all my relationships that must compromise, give up doing what I enjoy just so I can spend time with the people I love, because there’s not enough time in my day to do what I want to do, and what everyone else wants to do, and my homework, and my housework; there just isn’t time, so I am the one who makes the sacrifice (can you hear the bitterness).  I didn’t even know those feelings were there, or rather, refused to acknowledge them, they flare up every so often but I stuff them back down, I just wanted everyone around me to be happy, and in my mind, that is what a mom does, gives up who she is to take care of those she loves. 

I don’t know how to start fixing this.

Unit 5

Again, my frustrations are the same - I have a very difficult time listening to a guided meditation practice.  I would much rather get the instructions and put them into practice on my own terms.   Although I have to say the recording wasn’t as annoying this time.  I do try to find moments of peace throughout my day, even if it’s a few minutes in my car after work before I hit the road, I do know that this is important for my mental/emotional/spiritual health. 

Although these programs are good, I don’t think that it is a “one size fits all” program; every person is different and needs different things to help them calm their mind and find peace in a hectic world.  My connection is yoga, although I do try to find a bit of time each day, I’m not always successful, but when I go to yoga class, I am guaranteed 90 minutes of no chatter in my head and that time is priceless.  Since I started my yoga practice, I have definitely noticed a difference in how I process the stressful things that happed throughout my day, my outlook is much more positive, and when it does sink, it doesn’t stay down for long.

Thanks for reading :-)

Unit 4

As with guided imagery, I have a difficult time staying focused while listening to guided meditation.  I can relax much better when I am simply listening to nature sounds such as ocean waves, a thunderstorm, a stream, birds, etc. I do this at night sometimes when I can’t seem to relax; but when a person’s voice is placed over these sounds, it blows my concentration and focus.  This process works for some people, so I can’t say I would or wouldn’t recommend it to others, I just know that it doesn’t work for me.  I do know that exercising the mind, practicing kindness and compassion can change the thought process and change our attitudes. These types of changes require practice because sadly, for most of us, it isn’t a natural mindset.  We have been raised to be negative, judgmental, and perhaps even cynical.  I have several things I do to foster my psychological health, I have affirmations posted around my living space to remind me to make healthy choices, I try to keep a journal, (but this is usually only when I am in a negative frame of mind, it is sort of a purge, once I get the thoughts out on “paper” they tend to dissipate), and I continually remind myself to be thankful for all the blessings in my life.  One thing that helps me to become centered and find peace is practicing yoga, it requires so much focus, so much concentration on what I am doing at that moment, I am forced to give up the thoughts that crowd my head during the day, for others it may be running, or working out in other ways, but physical exercise (or even physical work) that require focus and determination helps still the mind for many people.

My life and my psychological health are a work in progress, which I believe is true for everyone, we don’t reach a point where we can stop practicing, because there are always things in life working against our peacefulness.