The Wrap Up on Whole Health

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.
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?

The score changed slightly for the better from unit 3 until now. Spiritual health went from 6 to 7, and psychological went from 7 to 8 and physical stated the same at a 9. I am sure I will never give myself a 10 in any category as I think there is always room for improvement in any area of life. I was able to give myself a little better score because this class reminded me how much better I felt when I was practicing meditation with Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle, so I found my books and cds and am practicing again. I am feeling better already and am more relaxed and calmer.

I am making progress on my goals. I continue to do my physical workout and am looking into a church that a friend of mine goes to that I feel might coinside with my beliefs and plan attend soon. I have been doing some meditative practices regularly.

I believe this course has really helped me in some many ways. First, it reminded me to get back on track with my meditative practice and to learn and try more. Also, the professor and classmates in seminar were so knowledgeable and sharing in their beliefs and experiences that it really brought alot to the course. This class has been a wonderful experience and hope to continue to build on this knowledge. Some of the meditative practices were difficult in the beginning but improved with practice. I hope I have all of you in future classes. Good luck to all of you with your future plans. May all of you have success and health!

In Health

Michelle C.

Whole Health

With this post my blog has come full circle. This is my final project for my class project. It is about whole health and the three domains, physical, psychological, and spiritual. I hope it helps someone.

Unit 9 Project: Final Project

Michelle Coghill

Kaplan University

HW-420-01: Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

Cindy Fouhy

December 20, 2011

                                                                                                                                                                 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?

It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychological, spiritual, and physical areas of their life because as professionals they need to lead by example. As professionals we have a moral and ethical obligation as well as just a conscious obligation to help our clients in every way we can succeed in being healthy, informed, and proactive in their healthcare. If we do not continue to learn, practice, and actively lead the type of lifestyle we want to teach or clients, how do we expect them to listen and respect us as professionals? We have to live what we intend to teach and lead our clients to a true overall wellness.

My physical fitness is good, and continues to thrive. I lead a very good example for my clients in this way. My exercise routine and diet, which includes a good nutritional background has continued to improve and I am respected for my knowledge and commitment. This is the type of respect and knowledge that I want to earn for the other two areas as well. Mentally I am pretty strong as far as being able to make commitments and keep them, but until recently I had not been doing my meditation exercises. I had let them slip as my life got busy. I am working now to reincorporate them into my daily routine. My spiritual wellbeing needs improvement if I want to gain the respect, I pray everyday, believe in God, and try to treat people with respect and dignity. However, I need to give of myself more with volunteering and helping when and where I can more freely. I want to help with homeless shelters and feeding the homeless.

When we help others because we want to freely and without wanting anything in return is actually one of the best things you can do for yourself, mentally and spiritually. It makes you feel good, happy, and just plain wonderful. What better way to increase your mental and spiritual fitness. This time of year, the biggest holiday of the year, is one of the best opportunities to help, even though people do need help everyday of the year. Also, in our area, which is in southeast Iowa, it gets cold this time of year so it is even more important to help the homeless because of the drastic weather conditions we can have. Also, the economy in recent years has been worse so there is even more homelessness so the homeless shelters are overcrowded and cannot meet the needs of the increase. I can help! I want to help! This will help me.

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

My spiritual health is about a 7 on a scale of 1-10. After reading the texts for this class and reading other materials from the internet and books from such famous authors as Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle, I believe I have a true understanding of what whole health. Spiritual health is just one of the key areas that need be developed. Believing in God or a higher power is a start, praying daily, and growing that belief beyond oneself is the key to spiritual health. Growing the belief is where the volunteering, giving, and compassion for others thrives and you feel your spiritual wellness.

Physical health is my strongest area and I would rate that at a 9. I think there is always room for improvement. I do a cardio workout at least 6 days a week and strength training 3 days per week. I also walk my dogs on a regular basis and try to do other physical activities such as riding my bike when weather permits. I have annual exams for prevention and I take a few vitamin and mineral supplements daily. I eat mainly a plant based diet but I do not classify myself as a vegetarian. I do not eat red meat but do eat some chicken breasts, white fish, and turkey occasionally. I try to drink plenty of water, and do not drink soda or other sweetened beverages. I continue to learn more about nutrition and physical wellness and try to incorporate them into my lifestyle. I feel better after my workouts and I can feel my physical wellness.

Lastly, my psychological wellness is probably in the middle of spiritual and physical wellness at about an 8. I think my mental fitness is better than my spiritual wellness but not as good as my physical wellness. However, as I know all three of these aspects are immensely important, if someone asked me which one I thought was the absolute most important I think I would have to say psychological wellness. The reason I believe that is because I believe our minds are more powerful than our bodies and I also believe the mind controls our bodies and has some control over our spirit. However, I also believe that our spirit has some mind of its own. I hope that makes sense to you. I had done meditation on a regular basis a couple of years ago and really saw a lot of benefits from it as far as calmer, happier, and able to deal with stress better. However, I let life get in the way and lost my routine.  About a year ago or so when I started taking classes at Kaplan I started working those bad into my schedule. Since this class I have been trying harder and again am seeing the benefits. After I have done a meditation exercise I can feel my psychological wellness and almost touch it. With the stress in our daily lives from our workplace, children, spouses, and other responsibilities I believe everyone could benefit from some type of meditative exercise even if it is just as simple as finding a quiet, relaxing spot and closing your eyes for 5 minutes. According to our text simple meditation or breathing exercises can help lower blood sugar, blood pressure, and improve mood (Dacher, 2006).

                                                                                                                                                  III.                      Goal development:
           List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical,      Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.

The goal that I have in each of these areas is to continually improve how I feel about myself in each area. This is how I believe a person can truly tell how they are growing in each area. A person knows his/her body the best, and by body I mean their whole being. My goal for my physical wellbeing is to continue my workouts as I have for the past 10 years, along with my annual exams and tests. I believe I continue to improve my physical health, as well as maintain and prevent many illnesses because of my physical routine and nutritional lifestyle.

The other two areas are a bit more challenging. The reason I say they will be a bit more challenging is because I have not kept them in my daily routine as I have the physical workouts. I know I can make the commitment and do it, so here is my plan for psychological and spiritual goals.

My goal for psychological fitness is to utilize my loving-kindness and subtle mind exercises alternately 4 days per week so Monday, and Wednesday I will do loving-kindness and Tuesday, Thursday I will do subtle mind exercise. Then on one other day that I am not doing those exercises I will do just a deep breathing exercise that concentrates on my breath and relax. I have been trying to incorporate some breathing exercises into my physical workout and it just has not worked well for me. After, a month of doing this regularly I hope to be feeling better about my psychological wellness and my assessment of self. If I do not then I will change the exercises I am doing to see if that helps.

Spiritual wellness is even a bigger challenge for me I think. The reason I say that is not because I do not believe in God or a higher power because I definitely do. I grew up going to Sunday school and bible school and I went to church pretty regularly. Then as most young adults, I drifted away awhile and then started back very regularly and ended up joining a church that I loved. Unfortunately, that church ended up dismantling a few years later and then I moved and did not find a church when I moved out of state. I pray everyday and truly believe in God and prayer and spiritual guidance. So the goal for myself in the next few months is to look into and attend a few churches that I think maybe a good fit for me. I hope to find a church home again that I love.

My other goal for what I feel is both psychological and spiritual is to begin volunteering and helping at a homeless shelter in my area. Anytime in the past when I have volunteered to help others I always felt overwhelmed with joy and happiness. I believe this helps me both mentally and spiritually. I believe homelessness is one of the worst possible things that can happen to a person and I can only imagine what it must be like to not have a place to call your home, a place to sleep, and stay warm. I hope that I can make a difference in someone’s life by helping in any way I can. We have several shelters in my area so I am calling to see what type of help they need and when so I can work this volunteer work into my schedule. I want to do this on a regular basis not just on occasion so I want to do my best to get a regular schedule set up with them.

4. 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.

I really discussed this a little premature when I spoke about the goals I had in each area. So I will not say too much here except that I want and know that I can improve in all three categories and intend to do just that. I believe that my goals that I have set along with the plan to implement them will help me succeed in my improvement. I intend to continue my education in the nutrition and health field, one day becoming a licensed dietitian. So, with that being said, it is very important for me to continue to foster as much growth as I can in developing my health in all the areas so that I can gain the respect of future clients and peers.

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?

I made a commitment to myself over a decade ago to live a healthier lifestyle and to learn as much as I could to help myself and others. I quit smoking, changed my diet, began a exercise program, became a certified personal trainer, started taking college classes, and began instructing classes part-time in a gym a few years ago. I am respected for my knowledge and commitment to my exercise routine and striving to help my clients lead healthier lifestyles. I want to take this further now with involving my clients in psychological and spiritual wellness so I have to make a commitment to myself and keep it to further improve my own psychological and spiritual wellness so I can help them.

I have specific goals in each category so I will know if I am keeping them or not. So I will have no problem assessing my success or failure of my goals.

My strategy is simple. Just like my exercise routine, it is not a matter of am I going to do it today. It is when am I going to do it today? That is how the other two practices will be put into the schedule. It is just like any other priority that has to be done. It must be put on the schedule for the day and get it done. This is how important things get done. It takes commitment, time management, and above all motivation and ultimately habit. Motivation gets you going, and habit keeps you going. You can have good habits and bad habits. I keep trying to eliminate my bad habits and fill them with good, in this way I do not waste my time on things that are not worth it. If we stop and think about everything we do in a day, many times we will find things that we can eliminate that will help us find the time we need for the things that matter such as time with family, our health, and me time. If there is one thing that will help our physical, mental, and spiritual health, I think that would be me time. Everyone needs time, to breathe, relax, calm down, unwind, and just breathe. This will help our whole wellbeing.

References

Dacher, Elliott, S. Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing, (2006) Basic Health Publications: Laguna Beach, CA

Schlitz & Amorok, Consciousness & Healing, (2005), Elsevier Publications: St. Louis,

            MO.

Mental Fitness-The Best Exercises

We have definitely determined that mental fitness is just as important as physical fitness. We have discussed and practiced a number of different exercises to enhance our mental fitness. I think for me the loving-kindness is a good one. I have problems moving passed my close relatives and friends sometimes when I do the exercise however, after doing it a few times it is becoming more powerful for others as well. I am able to feel it more and more.

Deep breathing meditation really helps me as I concentrate on my breath. I concentrate on watching my breath as I breath in and out. It really relaxes, calms, and makes me feel just overall better. I can get pretty hyped up during the day at work, and at other times and this is something that I can do almost anywhere and it makes me feel better quickly.

I believe both of these exercises are beneficial to everyone and am starting to talk to my clients at the gym about these because many of them have stressful jobs as well and can use some quick calming and relaxation ideas. I also believe that many times this is why it is hard for people to lose weight because there body is stressed and pent up. There metabolism does not work well so if they learn to how to relax and calm the body they will naturally have an easier time losing weight.

In Health

Michelle C.

Meeting Asciepius

This was a very powerful meditative practice for me. It was probably the one that I felt really "into" if you will. I could visualize my grandfather who died two years ago this month just after Christmas. I loved him with all my heart and soul. To me, he was wise, loving, and kind. I can easily visualize him as my wise man as I do my meditative practice. A few years ago I did meditative practice utizlizing Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle cd's and books. I did these daily for a couple of years. It definitely helped me in my life with stress, health, and just my well-being. Unfortunately, I ended up abandoning my routine as my schedule got busier.

Now, with this class, it has reminded me of how much better I felt and why. I will definitely continue with the meditative practices even when this class has ended. I have got my books and cds back out and will be utilizing them again as well.

Could we imagine trying to tell someone about an experience that we had not actually had. So for instance, we try to tell someone how much fun we had at an amusement park but we had never really been there. Could we really tell them about it when we had never been there? How could we? It is the same with meditation and meditative practices. If we have never done them how do we tell our clients about the experience? We cannot possibly tell anyone what it is really like unless we have been there and done that.

As a health care professional, I think we do have some responsibility to our clients to try an experience and experiment with a variety of possibilites that we could share with them. Obviously, everyone is different and will respond differently to certain practices. We could not possibly try all the alternative ideas and options there are out there, but we can try some that interest us and we can compare notes and experiences with our fellow health professionals. In this way we can share more ideas, options, and alternatives with our clients. Then, they can choose what they would like to try that may be able to help them in their health and wellness goals.

In Health & Wellness

Michelle C

Lovin-Kindness and Integral Assessment

I thought the loving-kindness exercise was easier for me to focus than the one that I tried on the cd. It was short and easy to repeat. It was also hard for other thoughts to come to mind when I was concentrating on the lines I was repeating, therefore harder for my mind to wander. I still find it harder to really feel genuine when I speak about all individuals in the world. It is so much easier to feel the genuine feelings and emotions when you are speaking of family and close friends. However, I am sure it comes with continual practice and mental exercise.

The integral assessment is an interesting and intriguing idea. It is something that I have been trying to do for the last few years and I do not think I realized it nor knew exactly how to go about it. However, a few years ago I became ill and I still really do not know what it was. However, I lost about 20 pounds in a month, because I could not eat. I was nervous, anxious, fatigued, it was crazy. I could not sleep at night, I slept sitting up on the couch in small dozes. I went to the doctor several times. They did tests and could really not find anything wrong. I was really stressed at the time over our business that we owned. I really believe that it was stress related. Anyway, I began to try self-help and alternative ideas to try and get better. So, I bought some Deepak Chopra books and cds, along with, Andrew Weil, and Eckhart Tolle. I started reading and listening to meditation exercises and reading about better diet and nutrition. I actually had started a physical workout routine a couple years before this. After a few weeks things started getting better. I was less anxious, and nervous and was able to eat alittle better. I slowly began gaining some weight back and overall as time went on I really did feel better than I had before all this happened.

I am glad that this class has helped remind me of the benefits that I gained from that experience so I will get back into a regular routine again of mental exercise and meditation. This time I feel that my physical workout, my nutrition, and work relations are good. However, I need help and improvement in some family relationships. Because of our family business some relationships have been strained and really need improvement so that is what I want to concentrate and improve on.

I think the loving-kindness exercise is one of the best ones to help improve this relationship as well as all relationships in the world. If we all practiced loving-kindness there would be no wars or need for armies. We discover that we get love by giving love and that love is abundant rather than scarce. We flourish in our relationships (Dacher, 2006).

In Whole Health

Michelle C.

Subtle Mind Exercise

So I just completed listening to the subtle mind exercise by Dacher. I feel like I responded to this one alittle bit better the first time than I did the loving-kindness exercise. I liked how the speaker asked questions or commented during the exercise so you could work on visualizing what you were working on. She talked but yet gave you plenty of silent time to practice what she had talked about. It was hard for my mind to stay focused on my breath especially in the beginning and at the end. I was anxious in the beginning and at the end I lost focus but in the middle I did very well with it. The loving kindness exercise was harder to visualize and feel when she was talking about other people but when she talked about family members the feelings of love would return. The subtle mind exercise was all about breathing and not so much about emotion.

She did comment on the fact that in the beginning of mental exercises it is typical to literally have to force yourself to stay focused but just as with anything else, practice makes it easier. I certainly can see where mental fitness and mental awareness can and will help you in your life in every aspect. Overall, to make a simple statement I think mental fitness makes you healthier because your mind is healthy and happy and the mind controls the body...simple. right? Of course, its not as simple as it sounds. It takes a regular committment to becoming mentally fit just as it does to becoming physically fit. I would like to make these exercises a daily routine for myself. I feel that this will help me and also I can pass the experience to my clients and hope that it can help them as well. I have a physical workout routine that I do daily and have for many years, so I know I can make the committment to do the workouts, I just have to get it started.

In Mental Health

Michelle

Psychospiritual Flourishing

Wow! This class that I am taking has become to be an exciting, interesting, and truly amazing experience. During this unit we are beginning to practice mental exercises. I listened to an audio cd by Elliott Dacher with the loving-kindness practice mental exercise.
I did not find it as beneficial as some of the short meditation mental exercises we have done in our seminars. This however, was longer and I had a harder time staying focused. Part of my problem seemed to be the voices. My mind and body did not seem to respond as willingly and easily to their voices. I did like part of the exercise where you thought about someone you loved very much and thought about that love and tried to pour that love into yourself and others. It did make you think about the love that you had for that person and how you felt about them and try to spread that love to other people and yourself, and tried to make you feel that same feeling come over you like it would with that person you loved so much. It is hard to describe this exercise and the feelings that you have when you are doing the exercise but it is an experience.
 The breathing exercise at the end and trying to take away the suffering from someone you know who is ill
and breathing health and wellbeing into them was a great feeling. I actually felt as I inhaled I was taking their illness away and I was breathing life into her while I was exhaling.
Overall, I liked the exercise and the experience. I will do it a few more times and see how the experience unfolds. It could be a beginning to a good mental workout. A good mental workout has been proven to
unfold a sharper, clearer mind yet calmer and relaxed. In order to develop our mind and our mental fitness we must practice just as we do for many other things in life like our physical workouts, or our music lessons, anything that we want to develop and get better at. Mental workouts which bring about loving-kindness and wisdom which are the essential elements that heal at the source and drive human flourishing (Dacher, 2006).

In whole health
Michelle

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

My Goals and My Health

Some interesting questions to reflect on this week and try to answer. I think that my physical wellbeing is at an 8. I exercise daily with at least 45 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity and do strength training at least 2 and sometimes 3 days per week. I have been doing this for over 10 years. I also watch my diet, and do not eat red meat at all, no pork, and only chicken breasts, fish, and nothing fried. My diet is high in fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains. However, I am still having issues with hormones. I am going to be 49 very very soon and I have tried many alternative and natural remedies for sweats, hot flashes, and just overall irritability and they have not helped. I am going to see my doctor next week to see what he recommends. I have a great doctor. Which by the way, I think is important to overall health, is that you have a great doctor that you feel comfortable talking about your health concerns.

My spiritual life is less adequate at this time I think. I would say I am at about a 6 or 7. I believe in god and have attended a few different churches in my life. A couple that I attended for many years and enjoyed. However, at this time I pray daily but do not attend a church and being around people with similar beliefs is important support. I have friends and family but do not have a spiritual group that I belong to right now.

Psychological wellness is think is about the same as my physical wellness probably about an 8. Overall, I feel centered, balanced, and grounded. I am overall happy with my life and the way things are going. Of course, there are things I do not like but just have to deal with them. I do try and do a yoga class or breathing exercise at least a couple of days a week to help with calming and relaxation. I do need stress relief now and again.

My goals for myself in the three categories that I talked about above would be to contine my daily exercise regimen and to see my doctor to help alleviate my menopause symptoms. Of course incorporate his suggestions into my life to help these symptoms. For the spiritual goal, I have been thinking and looking into a church that I would like to begin attending. I would like to find a church home again like I have had in the past. Ultimately, my mental goal is to take time daily to a relaxation or breathing exercise to help keep my wellbeing calm, peaceful, and less stressed.

I think by continuing my daily exercise routine, adding a regular church attendance, and doing my relaxation and breathing exercise daily I will begin to get all three of these important qualities in my life closer to the 10.

After listening and trying the relaxation exercise for unit 3 I did not like it as well as I thought I would. I think the color thing did not do well for me. The mans voice was rather irritating to me as well. I guess some times some voices are more soothing and calming than others. I did not find his to be either for me. Also, normally when I concentrate on my breath it relaxes me and I feel like my body is relaxing and following along smoothly and easily to the commands without me even trying. However, this time I tried to image the colors along with the origin of these colors like at the base of the spine and just below the belly button. When I tried to concentrate on the colors I could not relax and my visualization was not working. I think part of it was I was trying to do it in the middle of the day when maybe I felt I should be doing other things. I will try it again one evening when I am more ready.

In Health

Michelle

Relaxation

After yesterday, which was Friday and should of been relaxing but was not. Then we get into Saturday and it started better but did not end better, I decided I needed the relaxation exercise. I decided I would do the exercise laying down and hope I fell asleep because I needed it. I did not sleep very well last night.

The exercise was very relaxing, I did not fall asleep but I definitely felt more relaxed and less stressed when I was done. It was pretty short but still good. I really need to make these exercises a daily practice. My life right now is pretty stressful and I know they would help me deal with things better.

Peace and calmness to all

Michelle C

My beginning

Ok, so I think I have this blog set up or at least I got this far. When I get back to where I belong and see if I can actually get back to this will be the true test. I was not at all thrilled with this assignment but I guess it pushes me to get involved and do things that I have not done. Kaplan has sure made me do that in alot of my classes and I appreciate them for that.

This class definitely pushes a person beyond normal thinking and doing which can be very interesting,
exciting, but yet makes me alittle nervous. I am just worried I will not do something right. Maybe the feelings of uncertainty will be eased once I get this blogging down alittle better.