Unit 10

In the unit 3 assessment I would say that I was an 8 in physical health, a 7 in psychological health and 4 in spiritual health. I would score myself about the same right now. I have taken really no steps to change anything if I must be honest, and I also feel no desire to at this point. I have kept up with my exercise regime and food intake so that has not gotten any worse or better. As far as my spiritual health I have made no steps to further my spiritual health nor do I have the desire at this moment.

This course has been thought provoking to say the least. I really like how integral health encompasses holistic healing and prevention as part of its principles. This is something that Western medicine is lacking. It has given me some ideas for when I am ready to implement some of these ideas. However, I will say that integral health is not for everyone and one must want it to incorporate it. The only part I had problems with was up to unit 5. I think the unit 5 project put it all into perspective and cleared up any confusion that I had. I do not think I would be correct if I assisted others; remember you have to walk the walk to talk the talk and I know that I am not there. Good luck everyone!!

Unit 9 Project

Introduction

It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically in order help others to their full potential with confidence; in other words walk the walk, talk the talk. The professional who does not flourish in these aspects cannot tell others how to flourish nor can the individual take what the professional is saying seriously. In all honesty I have to develop all areas but I will say that my physical aspect is what is the most developed over the others. I still have to develop spiritually and psychologically.

Assessment

Using Dacher’s integral health assessment principles and lines of development I have assessed where I am in the three levels of health. I realized that I am lacking significantly in spiritual health however it does not cause me distress. The area that causes me the most distress is my psychological health. In this area I have the most potential for growth. In my assessment of spiritual health I assess low on all aspects of spiritual flourishing: conative, cognitive, and emotional. I rank especially low with cognitive level. I am definitely more reactive than I should I be but I am aware of this. My physical health assessment is significantly higher than my psychological health. I followed the three lines according to Dacher of fitness, nutrition, and self-regulation. The nutrition aspect is the highest ranking for me. I am a vegetarian who is very conscious of what I eat; however no one is perfect and there is always room for improvement. Self-regulation is something that I could develop further especially with my workout regimen.

Goal Development

A goal for physical development is to keep up with my exercise plan. I work out now but I often find myself creating lapses by making excuses like I am too tired or too busy and I often regret it after. Exercise actually helps with my goal of psychological development as well. I do not meditate and my mind is often racing with all the things I have to do. When I exercise, my mind is clear and calm; this is the time I can be clear and develop psychologically. My goal for psychological development is to relax my mind and find calm. Exercise for me is killing two birds with one stone. A goal that I have for my spiritual health is to connect with nature and understand that all the stress and the fast paced life are small compared to Mother Nature. Nature is what I feel the most spiritual connection with; I am not religious.

Practices for Personal Health

Practices that I can utilize to foster growth for my physical health is preventative measures and self-regulation. Prevention is important to ward of sickness. Prevention is something that Western medicine does not concentrate on; they treat after illness. Preventative measures will be eating well, exercising, and stress management. Self-regulation would be maintaining these preventative measures in order to be successful; self will and self control.

Practices that can be used to foster my spiritual growth are subtle mind practice and loving-kindness practice. Subtle mind practice I can do while exercising. All of these practices are going to be modified to fit my individual needs. I am not one that can sit for long periods or meditate. My mind is calm while I exercise and this is when I can utilize the subtle mind practice. I know this may seem counterintuitive but it works for me. A principal for integral health is person-centered in which this applies. Loving-kindness I will really have to work on. I already am open to new ideas, non-judgmental, and inclusive. I appreciate other cultures, beliefs, and attitudes though I may not agree. However, it will be my love for strangers and things I am not familiar with that I will have to practice. Connecting with nature will help me with the loving-kindness practice as well since we are just a small part of a large world it will help keep this in perspective.

Practices that can be used to grow my psychological growth are work as practice and animal bonding. Work as practice can have different forms for me. I am a hairdresser and my first and foremost reason for doing it is because I enjoy it. I enjoy making people beautiful and making them feel good. I keep the person in mind and individualize each and every style that I do. This not only makes them feel good but me as well. I also like helping people get healthy and giving them advice. Animal bonding is something that I utilize every day since I have two cats and two dogs; they keep me sane. They give unconditional love and this is easy for me to do. It also goes with the nature theme that works for me. It is just not just my pets that bring me joy; it is all animals (well except spiders, some wild rodents, and lizards).

Commitment

To assess my progress or lack thereof in the next six months I will use Dacher’s integral health assessment and lines of development just like I will do in the beginning. Just like a weight loss plan, you weight yourself in the beginning then in intervals to see your progress; the same is for integral health. I will be able to see where I have grown or what I need to work on further. There is no limit on integral health so growth will equal success. I think that taking these assessments will keep me motivated to maintain long-term practices for health and wellness. I do not like to fail. After I begin this program just feeling better (mind, body, and spirit) will motivate me to keep going as well.

Unit 8 blog

I feel that the two practices that will be the most beneficial for me is the subtle mind and visualization. However, these two practices will be modified to be more practical for me. For example, the subtle mind practice will be done while exercising for me. Exercising is when my mind is the clearest and calmest. If I take this opportunity to practice calming my mind more it will benefit me the most. Modifying visualization for example, I would bring myself to a place where I am most calm. Maybe I can visualization my next vacation which isn’t til JULY!!! Lol I believe that all these practices can be applied for each individual; they just have to be modified in a way that it is beneficial for you.

Unit 7 Blog

I completed the Meeting Aesclepius mp3. This one was the most difficult out of all the exercises we have done. First off, the time lapses in between description were way too long for me and I lost focus rather quickly. Second, I really do not know of anyone besides people whom I never met to look upon for wisdom and kindness. It is hard for me to picture myself speaking to Deepak Chopra for example when I know very little about him. I understand what all these exercises are trying to accomplish however I believe that one must find what works for them and none of these are it for me. I am calmest when I exercise, am watching TV (at night with everyone sleeping), or listening to music with other sounds drowned out. This is when I can think about respecting everyone and everything (loving-kindness in my own way). I do not think I will be doing any of these exercises in the future.

Now on to the question……what does “one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself (or herself)”? To me it means walk the walk. It is important. I can tell you from a past experience at my doctor’s office. The nurse who took my blood pressure and medical/behavioral history was morbidly obese. I did not take anything that she said seriously and wondered the whole time how the doctor’s office even hired such a poor example of health. Now I know that obesity is not always caused from behavioral issues, it could be medication related or genetic however I could not get over it. It is like this in any profession. Take mine for example, I am a hairdresser. Would you want me to do your hair if it was a frizzy, knotty mess? I think not people! I believe that it is very important to walk the walk in any profession even integral health.

Unit 6

The loving kindness exercise helps you to recognize the feeling of loving-kindness and try to emit that on the world; friends, family, loved ones, strangers, and even enemies. It begins with thinking about a loved one and recognizing that feeling and eventually moves to expressing that love for strangers and the world in general. The most important aspect is to be able to recognize the feeling and be able to share it while taking in others suffering. This exercise is very hard to do; I’m more concerned with my family than strangers or the world if I am being honest. This will take some time. However, I do have respect for everything and everyone and very open-minded.

 The integral assessment in short, is an inventory list of sorts to see where you fall in all categories of integral health. I discovered that I am lacking in spiritual development the most. My most developed area is biological. I am by no means religious, so this aspect is out. My respect for nature is somewhat spiritual, to me. This is where I think I could develop this further. I can see how nature fits into my life and how it affects me and my family. I am not one to meditate or be too peaceful however I am most calm when I exercise. This is the time when I can work on this.

Subtle-Mind Exercise (Unit 5)

The loving kindness exercise focused on our love for others as well as ourselves. We focused on the feeling of love, learning how the feeling “feels”, and try to extend this feeling to others and everything. In the subtle mind exercise we are focusing more on our thoughts and mind, relaxing, and trying to focus. The benefit of this exercise (subtle mind) is that we learn how to calm the mind by focusing on our breath; this in turn slows down all the random thoughts going on. This worked for me for a little while after breathing and listening to the calming ocean affects. However as time went by I started to think about all the things that I have to do and the stress and random thoughts came flooding back. I know these exercises take a lot of practice so I was not expecting for me to grasp it right away. It is very hard for me to calm my mind with the amount of things that I have to accomplish in one day.

The connection between spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness can be many things however in my opinion it all comes down to stress. Stress can affect the body in many ways including physical and mental illnesses. Spiritual wellness decreases negative thoughts, calms the mind, and allows us to focus and think clearly; all of which decrease stress. In my personal life I have yet to master or even begin to become spiritually well. I live a very fast paced, high stress life which I deal with pretty well due to my okay time management skills. It can get overwhelming sometimes but I manage to do it. I would like to work on calming my mind a bit and if I practice the subtle mind exercise it may just help (if I can find time! J)

Loving-Kindness exercise

My experience was kind of challenging. Most of all because it takes a long time for me to become relaxed and focused. I have too many things going on at one time and I am particularly stressed as of late. I tried to complete the exercise as focused as I could but concentrating on loving feelings wasn’t really happening. Visualizing bad feelings out with breath and good in with breath is not going to help me be more loving or kind. I think that loving kindness should represent everyone at ALL times. I would not recommend this exercise to anyone who is sarcastic and stressed (like me)lol. Instead I would recommend that everyone lets go feelings of resentment, judgment, prejudices, and stereotypes. All of these will allow feelings of loving-kindness to others come through. I believe this is a problem that many of us have.