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.