Here's to FINALS y'all!

Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing Final

            As a professional in the Health and Wellness field it is very important that each practitioner develop themselves psychologically, spiritually, and physically. Each of these areas is important to optimal and integral health. We as individuals cannot separate one aspect of health and fail to develop and work on the other areas. This would be like putting a band -aid on the split knuckle after punching a wall and saying, “There, you are all fixed up now!” As health and wellness professionals we recognize that not only does the physical need to be cared for but also the emotional and psychological needs to be addressed. This person I described needs to learn better coping skills, the ability to recognize the triggers for their anger, and respond to the anger in an appropriate way before they reach a boiling point. The spirit needs to be assessed giving this individual the ability to see they are broken and help them understand that healing is in fact possible!

            With that said, we as the Health and Wellness professional must care for ourselves in the same manner that we instill and prescribe to our clients and patients. We have the responsibility to uphold this within ourselves. As a Health and Wellness professional we uphold the vow to “enter a personal process of self-development, study, understand, and integrate an integral vision and its principles and practices into our personal and professional life, to hold a vision of health and healing whole final goal is health, happiness, and wholeness, uphold the ethical principles of a spiritual life, meet every individual as a unite sacred being, develop through personal contemplative practice a healing presence that is acknowledging, comforting, reassuring, safe, nonjudgmental, and infused with loving-kindness, acknowledge and support the innate healing capacities in each individual, hold all life as unique and precious, and serve” (Dacher, 2006, p. 172-173). This gives us credibility and authority to speak into the lives of those seeking out our expertise. The client that comes with the split knuckle can then glean from our own individual healing process. We have a greater opportunity to share from personal experience. This gives the client and patient hope knowing healing has come in our own individual life. For me personally I need to develop all three aspects, psychological, spiritual, and physical to reach my individual goals for integral health.

Assessment

            Integral assessment helps us to focus on ourselves as a whole. There are 6 Principles of Integral Assessment. They are as follows according to Dacher from Integral Health (2006): 1. The goal of integral health is to alleviate needless suffering and promote human flourishing.

2. Integral health recognizes the distinction between short-term relief of needless suffering and permanent relief. 3. Integral health recognizes the distinction between immediate pleasure and long-term flourishing. 4. Psychospiritual development is an essential component of integral health. 5. Integral assessment relies on deep listening and guidance. 6. Integral assessment addresses the aspects, levels, and lines of development that are relevant to our current circumstance (Dacher, 2006, p. 105-106).

            Having an open and honest evaluation of these aspects of our lives gives us the freedom to discover what we can work on, where we are growing, and set goals for change with the ultimate goal of reaching human flourishing. It is important within this process to reach the realization we cannot have it all together but making a start gets us one step closer to wholeness, health, and the life we hope to live. It is also important that we have an unbiased mentor or guide to walk us through this process and give their impression of our assessment as well. It is often those people we share our life with or allow into the deep places of our heart and mind that can see and point out aspects of our life that may be screaming for change.

            I am a very self-reflective person by nature. I was honestly a bit intimidated by the above list and assessment. Of course the overwhelming theme that comes to mind is working on my psychological and interpersonal areas of development. Since I am in the waiting process of a divorce I still have loads of pain and disappointment to work through. I am at a much better place with this than I was eight months ago but the effects of the depression and the hit to my confidence and ability to trust will not be restored in a short period of time.

Physical Assessment

            I would rate myself a five. I am fairly healthy or at least my latest blood work shows this. I try to eat right, take my vitamins, and get enough rest. But I do have ten pounds to lose and it’s been a process trying to take that off. I struggle with fatigue at times and I think that relates to my lack of consistent exercise.

Spiritual Assessment

            I would rate myself a seven. This aspect of wellness is very important to me. I try to spend time reading the Bible, worship Jesus through music, pray about issues on my heart, and have to attend Church each week. Church is my way to continue being feed through community worship, hearing the Word of God taught, and attending weekly Bible study. There is always ways to improve my intimacy with God and there will always be more to learn.

Psychological Assessment

            I would rate myself a six. I have been a journey of healing and discovery in a huge way this last year. With my husband choosing to initiate an extramarital affair and end our marriage I have had a lot to face in a short time. I have been diligent to go to counseling and get involved in a Divorce Care group at a local church. It has been a hard road but I have learned so much about myself through this terrible experience. I have learned I have a huge fear of confrontation, I am co-dependent; have a hard time setting healthy boundaries in my life, and struggle with effective forms of communication in a relationship. I have been determined to take care of myself, go through counseling, heal, and work on positive changes for myself. This has required loads of self-reflection and leaning on those close to me in my life for support.

Goal Development

            My goal for my psychological development is gaining the ability to articulate and put into words all that I feel and hurt in regards to my recent divorce. I have been avoiding this and have wanted to journal my experiences and feelings but placing this down in print is hard for me. This forces me to see all that has happened and makes the events even more real to me. I realize that this would help me by getting out of my mind all the hurt, bitterness, anger, and sorrow. My goal is to start this process to help aid my healing process.

            My goal for myself physically involves implementing physical exercise into my weekly routine. My hope is this will facilitate extra energy for me and allow me an outlet for my stress. Plus with this goal I expect to shed excess pounds and reach my goal weight.

            My spiritual goals include developing a deeper personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As I continue to deepen this relationship it builds my faith and ability to look at life through eyes of hope, peace, perseverance, and love for others and myself.

Practices for personal health

            Having a goal is not enough when reaching integral health. There is the aspect of activity and follow through that help us attain these goals. As we assess and make these goals for ourselves we must brainstorm ideas of realistic activities and set a plan for action. For my psychological development I have chosen the strategy of starting a journal. I need this safe outlet to put my feelings and thoughts on paper. I want to set aside at least thirty minutes a day four times a week to write. I as well want ton continue practicing the meditation exercises we have learning in this course. I do not see myself doing this realistically on a daily basis. I would like to instead set aside time three times a week initially and work up to time daily. For my physical development I want to engage in consistent exercise at least three times a week whether this is yoga, walking, doing an exercise DVD at home, or jogging with a friend. I as well want to commit to limiting the amount of sweet food and dessert that I allow myself. I believe limiting myself to two of these a week is a good start. And for my spiritual development I plan to spend time daily reading the Bible and praying to give me strength for my day and increase my relationship with Jesus. Along with these two forms of spiritual growth I plan to bathe my spirit as well with uplifting music such as instrumental, classical, and gospel while I commute to work and when I have quiet periods on the office.

Commitment

            I’m very thankful this is a process. It’s up to me to cut myself some slack realizing this but to remain faithful to the task at hand by continuing working on myself in efforts to taking steps closer to reaching integral health. With this assessment, goal development, and setting strategies for success there must be a strong level of commitment. I think that this requires some accountability in our lives. Whether it is a trusted friend, a co-worker, a spouse, or a mentor someone needs to be aware of these goals and be allowed to stand in a place of accountability. Being open to this is not easy but with any challenge it is extremely beneficial to have someone there cheering you on or pointing you back on track when you slip up. Along with an accountability partner I believe using a planner would be a good strategy for success. Life is busy! For many people if it is not “penciled in” to their day, an event or task is not completed. Evaluating these goals and looking realistically at my day I can set aside a time slot and this will help me to complete and hold to the task. In six months time I would want to reevaluate myself to assess has there been positive change in my life. This can be done by stepping onto the scale, reading the journal I have started, seeking feedback from close friends or family in my life, and assessing my mental state and present stress levels.

Conclusion

            As we learned from Ken Wilber in the beginning of our time together this term, “integral medicine goes one step further: it treats the illness, the person, and the physician” (Schilitz, Amorok, & Micozzi, 2005). As we have started this journey towards integral health we are each a sojourner stepping out into an area that has not been well traveled. With the knowledge gained, our own individual assessment process in conjunction with applied steps we can see change. Each day is a new opportunity to travel further on this road. We each can continue applying these principles into our daily lives. As we move closer to integral health it will be apparent to those clients and patients that we care for, the loved ones we live with, and even our co-workers.

References:

Schlitz, M., Amorok, T., & Micozzi, M. (2005). Consciousness & Healing: Integral           Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine. St. Louis, MO: Churchill Livingstone

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral Health. The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publishing, Inc.

            

flying by.... YET again!

Unit 8 is upon us.... wow, the end really is in sight! That is AMAZING yet again how quickly these terms fly by. This week we are to choose two practices that we have determined to be most beneficial. How can we implement these practices in our personal lives to foster “mental fitness”? Provide specific examples.

The two practices that I found to be the most beneficial are meditation and the Subtle Mind. I have found that the guided meditation is so good for me. I desperately need someone to guide me and give me instruction during my meditation time. This helps me in my ability to focus and slow down. Meditation forces me to focus on one topic and use imagery and breathing techniques to bring about relaxation. I really appreciate both practices. The Subtle Mind is something that I am continuing to work on. The concept of bringing recognition to the distracting thoughts that filter through my mind during these exercises are challenging to acknowledge and let them fall away so I continue on with the exercise. I realize that this takes practice but giving acknowledgement to them seems like it throws me off even if it is for a short time before refocusing on my breathing as I listen to the ebb and flow of the tide in the background music.

I feel like through these experiences I have rediscovered a love for classical and instrumental music to bring about a calm and relaxing environment for me. I often love to have music playing while I am working, writing, or doing homework but I've been cruising through U-tube more lately in hopes of finding topical music like we have utilized during this course. 

Mental fitness is a journey I think. It's not something that will be achieved in a short amount of time. It's not a 5K but more like a long distance race. For me my legs and muscles are still pretty weak so this journey to "mental fitness" is coming along in starts and stops. For the duration I have to devote myself to training so I can make it the distance and actually experience all we are learning in pursuing our goal of integral health. 

Who's that ONE person you would like to be?

~Complete the Meeting Aesclepius mp3 (located in the Doc Sharing area). Describe your meditative practices for the week and discuss the experience. Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness. How can you continue to apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness?

Oh my goodness… today’s experience had many elements to it. First, it was actually comical that as I attempted to maintain focus and participate in the exercise my Husky decided it was time to play and start slinging her rope toy around on the hardwood floor. I couldn’t help but laugh. As I picked the person to meditate on I choose a wonderful woman and mentor I worked with for 6 years. She is such an example to me of wisdom, compassion, joy, patience, grace, strength, and has a Godly character. If I could be half the woman she is in my life I would be on the right track. J I chose to meditate and think about these characteristics as I was guided through the mediation praying and asking God to develop these in my own life. At the end I did not chose to participate as led by taking that person into myself because I believe that I as myself am uniquely created and chosen to be as I am by God. Why would I choose to take on another person into myself and in my place? Maybe I misunderstood the instructions but I did not agree with this due to my beliefs. As expressed above I instead continued to pray and ask God to transform my life and character to be like this mentor I shared my life and work with. I enjoyed this time! The music was so relaxing and I felt the meditation focusing on excellent character qualities made for some good prayer and stillness for my mind despite my distracting puppy desperately attempting to gain my attention.

I don’t really think that meditation has increased my mindfulness to spiritual wellness. I have practiced aspects of this in my life past, present, and expect to in the future. But I do feel like I have enjoyed gaining more knowledge and evidence of how it strengthens the physical. To continue applying this in my life is important to move toward optimal and integral health. I must take the time to be still, get quiet, meditate, and pray. Engaging in these activities need to be more than an assignment for a course but aspects of my daily life. Until I carve aside a time for it and make it a habit I will not feel the benefits and effects of it.

~Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" (p.477). How does this apply to the health and wellness professional? Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not? How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?

This saying is important for the life and practice of any practitioner or leader. We as health care professionals, leaders, parents, and partners alike must each be working towards mastery of what we teach. There must be an element of walking the talk in our own lives for their to be validity to what we prescribe, teach, model, and share with others. With out this, we are nothing but empty words and a fraud in some respects. It’s like the Respiratory Therapist that educates and gives care to the patient and then walks out the hospital room to go take a smoke break. Really!?! We do have a responsibility to our clients/patients to continue developing our psychological and spiritual growth. Without this what we provides is empty without meaning. We will not have the experience and personal testimony ourselves that is so quick to make or leave an impression upon others if we do not walk this out in our own day to day life. 

So, what do you think? Are you that person? Can you say you are living up to the standards that we are learning to lead our clients/patients in?

Taking a DEEPER look in

Integral Assessment~ Here's the objective of this week...

Complete the Integral Assessment discussed in chapter 11 (p.115). Describe the exercise and assessment process. What did you discover about yourself? What area have you chosen to be a focus of growth and development? Why? What are some specific exercises or activities that you can implement to foster greater wellness in this area?

Integral Assessment helps us to focus on ourselves as a whole. There are 6 Principles of Integral Assessment. They are as follows according to Dacher from Integral Health (2006):

1.              The goal of integral health is to alleviate needless suffering and promote human flourishing.

2.              Integral health recognizes the distinction between short-term relief of needless suffering and  permanent relief.

3.              Integral health recognizes the distinction between immediate pleasure and long-term flourishing.

4.              Psychospiritual development is an essential component of integral health.

5.              Integral assessment relies on deep listening and guidance.

6.              Integral assessment addresses the aspects, levels, and lines of development that are relevant to our current circumstance.

This exercise allows us to evaluate and assess ourselves on each level. Having an open and honest evaluation of these aspects of our lives gives us the freedom to discover what we can work on, where we are growing, and set goals for change with the ultimate goal of reaching human flourishing. The main take away I grabbed from Dacher is in regards to the importance of this process and the realization we can’t have it all together but making a start gets us one step closer to wholeness, health, and the life we hope to live. Dacher also shares the importance of an unbiased mentor or guide to walk us through this process and give their impression of our assessment as well. It is often those people we share our life with or allow into the deep places of our heart and mind that can see and point out aspects of our life that may be screaming for change.

I am a very self-reflective person by nature. But this list and text from Dacher was so broad and covered a lot. I was honestly a bit intimidated by the list and assessment. Of course the overwhelming theme that comes to mind is working on my Psychospiritual and Interpersonal areas of development. Since I am in the waiting process of my divorce I still have loads of pain and disappointment to work through. I am at a much better place with this than I was 6 months ago but the effects of the depression and hit to my confidence and ability to trust will not go away in a short period of time. For me activities to work on this include journaling, continuing therapy with my counselor, keeping a consistent prayer time sharing my heart and hurts with Jesus, and keeping myself surrounded by truthful and encouraging support systems in my life. Interpersonally I have the need to work on my communication skills and fear of conflict. This is as well a source of work with my counselor and by applying the witnessing mind I am able to recognize patterns and times I react instead of waiting and responding well when my feelings are not hurt and clouding my judgment.

I’m very thankful this is a process. It’s up to me to cut myself some slack realizing this but to remain faithful to the task at hand by continuing working on myself in efforts to being one step closer to Integral Health.

The Subtle Mind!

The Subtle Mind... learning how to be still and silence this girl's really FULL mind

This weeks MP3 exercise was much easier for me to participate and remain engaged in. I continued to have various times of necessary redirection with my thoughts but it really helped me to have the image of one thing to focus on while I concentrated on my breathing. I felt my muscles begin to relax. Probably the hardest thing for me was slowing down the mental TO DO list I have this evening regarding schoolwork running through my mind. With that said, I probably did not choose the best time to do this exercise and complete my blog. Next time... right?!?!

I felt I could complete this exercise with more enthusiasm compared to the Loving Kindness exercise. I appreciated the first exercise having the time to focus on others and extend prayers of hope and healing for them but this exercise centering my mind was great. I see the benefits of both but I feel like it is important to be at a place of peace and rest like The Subtle Mind exercise hopes to accomplish and then we are able to intercede and extend loving kindness in a more effective way. 

This is going to take dedication on my part. I need to put action to my words and actually implement this into my week, whether it is twice a week and then three times a week. My level of stress lately has been pretty high. I find myself tense 90% of the time. Accountability folks... I need it! :)

My spiritual wellness is probably more important to me than my physical and mental wellness. I know the importance of each and I'm sure this sounds strange to most. I see the value in taking care of each aspect of our life: physical, mental, and spiritual. I guess I just feel like if my spirit is off then my thoughts and mental process will be in a much more unhealthy state. When my mental health is off then this will then begin to have an effect on my physical wellness causing fatigue, muscle tension/pain, headaches, and depression, ect. 

Does this mean I keep my spiritual wellness in check always? No way! Do I watch my diet each day and exercise on a consistent basis? Nope. Do I respond rather than react to issues of my day that provoke anger, frustration, or emotional upset... unfortunately not always. But it is a process. Improvement is a step at a time and I can see myself taking these small steps in hopes of being healthier in each aspect I've shared about. 

exercising LOVING-KINDNESS (mp3-style)

Blog Unit 4

1. Describe your experience. Did you find it beneficial? Difficult? Why or why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or why not?

2. What is the concept of "mental workout"? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a mental workout? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

I’m still having a hard time focusing. The mental image that came to mind at the beginning of the MP3 exercise was the peace overwhelming the stress in my mind. It was like a jar full of red bouncing balls being the stress and the peace were blue balls. The blue balls overwhelm and take up all the space the red balls held in the jar and continue to bounce. If only this were true of my day and the stressors and peace that I have! :0) Obviously I still have a ways to go to implement this practice in my life. But I really liked the mental image since I am someone that if extremely visual.

I think the statement about being able to love ourselves before we can love others is crucial. If we hate or dislike ourselves then how can we extend love to others or even have open eyes or an open heart to the good in others. I feel like this basic to have genuine health and wellness.

Image from: seongyosa.wordpress.com

I participated with the MP3 until the portion of taking on the pain and suffering of others. I do not believe in this practice. I don’t think it’s healthy for our heart and spirit due to my spiritual beliefs and faith. I feel very strongly about empathizing with their suffering and offering yourself as a friend, listener, care giver, or intercessory prayer warrior on their behalf but NOT actually taking in or taking on their suffering. I believe as a follower of Jesus that this is to be given to Him. He is the only one that can carry that burden and take the sickness. We are not required to do that. It’s not healthy for our hearts, minds, body, or spirit.

I chose to skip that portion of the exercise and went on to additional parts of the music with the waves crashing. The music was WONDERFUL! I could listen to that for a long time. 

For me with this exercise I would be open to modifying it. I would be willing to take subjects of loved ones, my enemies, or myself and meditate on prayers, hopes, and asking for God’s peace for all 3 subjects. It may not be the exact exercise but due to my personal faith and beliefs I’m unable to complete exactly as directed.

Mental workouts are very beneficial to your mind, spirit, and body. Stats have proven this, which we have seen in both our texts for this Health and Wellness course. The mind-body connection is like an uncharted territory for us over in the West but I’m excited to see how improving our own mental capabilities and response to stress will improve our daily lives. I do see first hand with my students in the middle school changes in heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation levels when they calm down, use deep breathing exercises, and take a “time out” to rest and let a stressful event die down before returning to class. 

Personally I would love to track my cortisol levels through out the day and correlate that to my present health state. I’m so curious!! :0)

abc's and rainbow colors

This week my blog is focused on grading myself on my physical, spiritual, and psychological well being. 10 is optimal well being and 0 is just that, 0!

Here goes nothing....

Physical: (5) I am fairly healthy (or at least my latest blood work shows this) and try to eat right, take my vitamins, and get enough rest. But I do have 10 pounds to loose and it’s been a process trying to take that off. I struggle with fatigue at times and I think that relates to my lack of consistent exercise.

Goal: Lose those 10 pounds!

Exercise/Activity: Walk/run 3-4 times a week

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Spiritual: (7) This aspect of wellness it very important to me. I try to spend time reading the Bible, worship Jesus through music, pray about issues on my heart, and have to attend Church each week. Church is my way to continue being feed through community worship, hearing the Word of God taught, and attending weekly Bible study. There is always ways to improve my intimacy with God and there will always be more to learn.

Goal: Daily time reading the Bible to give me strength for my day and closeness with Jesus.

Activity: Set aside designated time in the evening to read. I am not a morning person and don’t see that changing. :)

Psychological: (6) I have been a journey of healing and discovery in a huge way this last year. With my husband choosing to initiate an extramarital affair and end our marriage I’ve had a lot to face in a short time. I’ve been diligent to go to counseling and get involved in a Divorce Care group at a local church. It’s been a hard road but I have learned so much about myself through this terrible experience. I’ve learned I have a huge fear of confrontation, I am co-dependent; have a hard time setting healthy boundaries in my life, and struggle with effective forms of communication in a relationship. I’ve been determined to take care of myself, go through counseling, heal, and work on positive changes for myself. This has required loads of self-reflection and leaning on those close to me in my life for support.

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Goal: Start a journal. I’ve been avoiding putting down all my negative experiences and feelings on paper. Need an outlet to get it out.

Activity: Confide in a friend to hold me accountable to journaling as a positive way to express my hurt, disappointment, and to see the good changes I’m trying to implement in my life.

Relaxation Exercise:

http://www.kushs.net/kaplan/HW420/TheCrimeOfTheCentury.mp3

I made it much further with this exercise in comparison with the first one. It was hard to concentrate but I did really well until we got to the portion about love. The statement “I choose to love” triggered thoughts of rejection from love that has been thrown back into my face. This distraction made it hard to re-center my thoughts and continue focusing on the man’s voice and commands. I definitely do not have this concept of guided imagery and relaxation down. It takes much more effort than I originally thought. But I do feel that practicing with these exercises is good for me since it helps me continue to learn how to relax. In the long run I think I will be very thankful for this portion of our class. I like that it is “hands on” learning and gives us tools to actively learn while completing our unit objectives each week.