I feel that my score has improved because I have better learned how to manage and improve my mind, body, spirit connection.  I have learned how important it is to maintain a balance of the three.  I don't feel I have reached the goals I have set for myself, however, I do feel that I am better equipped to sucessfully reach them now after taking this course.  I feel that by working on the various practices that we have learned it will open me up to a more balanced, healthy life.  In turn, I will better be equipped to guide others in their journey towards health and wellness.  I would like to reread the books from this class to catch anything that I might have missed.  I feel that it can only benefit me.  I will also be recommending the Dacher book to many people I know.  I will continue to work on the subtle mind, loving-kindness, and Meeting Asclepius.  These three practices I really enjoyed and connected with.  I will continue to work with guided meditation, as that was easier for me.  I feel that this class has definitely benefited me and will help me to be a better person overall.

Below you will find my unit 9 plan.  It has been a pleasure sharing this experience with all of you.  It has been a great, informative class.

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?

I feel that it is always important for a professional to believe in what they are trying to teach or promote to others.  By regularly practicing the exercises and living the integral vow, we can portray the full benefits that come with integral health which would encourage others to want to follow our teachings. 

There are a couple areas that I need to develop to achieve the goals I have for myself.   I would like to work towards achieving flourishing health for myself.  Currently I struggle with my physical health.  I have very severe out-of-control asthma which limits me when it comes to my physical activity.  I feel it is difficult to maintain an overall balance of your mind, body and spirit when part of the balance is weak.  This, I feel, is what I will have to work harder on to develop.  Calming my mind is another area I will need to continue to practice with.  However, this course has given me the tools I need to work towards that goal.   

Assessment:

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

            I have assessed my health in each domain by taking a step back and evaluating it.  Using the practices that we have learned throughout this course has helped show me what I am stronger with and where I struggle.  I feel that integral health is a work-in-progress.  It is something to strive for and it might take me some time.  However, using what we have learned has opened the door for me to achieve my goal

Spiritually, I am an active member of our church which I attend weekly.  I practice my faith on a daily basis and do try to portray myself as a spiritually secure person.  I am true and comfortable with my spirituality.  I feel that I am an 8 with my spirituality.    

            Physical health is probably the most difficult for me.  I struggle with my lungs and am constantly challenged with my breathing so my score for my physical health would not be very high, maybe a 5.  Because of my breathing I am very limited on my physical activity.  I probably do more than I should because I tend to push myself.  I was taking pulmonary therapy which allowed me to participate in supervised physical activity. 

            Psychological wellness is another thing I will need to work on.  This course has made me aware of the psychological “congestion” in my life.  I need to focus on what behaviors are detrimental to my psychological health and replace them with healthier behaviors.  I would score this maybe 6 or 7.

Goal development:

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

Physical

            The goal I have set for myself when it comes to my physical wellness is pretty basic.  I struggle with my lungs, as I have very severe, out-of-control asthma.  I have a lot of difficulty with my breathing and am on many various medications.  I get very frustrated because this prevents me from doing many things that I would like to do.  My goal is basically to continue to remain independent and active, to the best of my ability.  I would like to begin a program incorporating yoga and tai chi into my daily life.  Now this is taking into account that there are days that my breathing is bad and I am unable to do much.  I am hoping that the combination of the stretching and exercise from the two along with the breathing techniques that are learned to accompany them will prove to be beneficial for me.

Psychological

            My goal would be to continue to work at identifying destructive emotions and dysfunctional patterns in my behavior.  Dacher discusses this when he states, “Intention substitutes for unconscious reactivity (2006, p 61)”.  I would like to get to the point where I can intentionally make the conscious choice about my feelings and my emotions, along with reacting to situations more effectively.  I am working on eliminating feelings of anger, self-satisfying behaviors, fear, and self-doubt.

Spiritual

            I have found that the spiritual health that is discussed in this course seems to be very similar to the teachings from our religion.  Loving-kindness to others, whether it is for our loved ones, people we do not know, to even our enemies is a strong foundation of religion and spirituality in my view point.  My goal to improve my spirituality is to continue to practice the loving-kindness exercise and become more a more loving individual to all. 

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.

            By shifting my focus to my inner development as well as the outer aspects of my life I can achieve integral health.  My everyday life and the choices that I make will either support my quest towards my goal or impede it.  I would like to nurture behaviors that will foster integral health and abandon behaviors that cause barriers for me in reaching my overall goal of health, happiness, and wholeness. 

            I have been researching the benefits of yoga as well as tai chi.  Both of these can allow me to be more physically active along with work on my breathing technique.  The slow, graceful movements of tai chi along with the light physical exercise and stretching help to connect the mind, body, and spirit.  The various methods used will allow me to find a style that can benefit me without agitating my breathing.  By harmonizing my movements with my breathing I will be able to attain an inner calm.  This inner calm will help me with my physical, psychological, and spiritual health.

            For my psychological health and growth, I will continue to evaluate my life and eliminate unnecessary stressors which can cause obstacles in my effort in the development of inner peace and contentment.  This will help me to more effectively manage my stress better.   I will also continue to practice the visualization from our book Meeting Asclepius.  I found this very easy to follow and it was one of my most favorite exercises.  I felt that I benefited from this quickly and it helped me to achieve the frame of mind that I am striving for.

As for my spiritual growth, I am planning on continuing to practice the loving-kindness exercise.  I feel this will help me to develop my spiritual growth along with continuing to attend my church regularly.  I am working towards reading my bible more and learning more about my religion.  This will help me to achieve a more loving behavior I feel.  I need to continue to believe in something bigger than just myself.  Focus on the whole and not just my small circle of self and family.  By realizing the blessings that I have in my life instead of focusing on the negatives and what I do not have will help me to achieve a more positive outlook which invitingly has a positive effect on my overall health.

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?

The way I will assess my progress or lack of progress in the next six months is to keep a personal log or journal.  I will write in this each night on what I have done to reach my goal of integral health that day.  I will also log any difficulties that I am experiencing.  Likewise, I feel this will assist me to maintain my long-term practices for health and wellness.  By setting long-term and short-term goals and keeping the journal, this will help me to see how I am progressing or declining.

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

Trying to think of only two exercises or practices that I feel will be most beneficial in my personal life is difficult.  I guess I would have to say Loving-Kindness and  Meeting Aesclepius.  I feel that I connected best to those two.  Loving-Kindness is going to take some practicing, but I feel that I will benefit greatly from it.  As for Meeting Aesclepius, I feel I found the greatest peace and warmth from it.  It sets me on the right track the quickest I feel.  I used my grandmother whom I was very close.  I respected her greatly and would definitely like to mirror her.  How I feel I could use these for mental fitness, is both, I feel, helped to put me on the right track.  Practicing Loving-Kindness actually puts me in a good mental health because I feel like I am doing something good for others.  As for Meeting Aesclepius, it helps me to relieve my stress and puts me in a really good frame of mind.  It also seems to last the longest for me.  I feel I will continue to practice these two the most.

Unit 7 Meeting Aesclepius

I actually really liked this exercise.  I remember reading this before, but liked the mp3 version better.  It is so much easier to follow.  For this past week (actually the past month), I have been doing a lot of mindful practices.  I have had a lot going on and have been very stressed.  By practicing the mindfulness along with meditation, it has helped me to stay focused, remain calm, and deal with everything.  I am not saying it has been easy, but I have been doing alright.  It has helped me to not become too overwhelmed and work through things much easier.  The way I can continue to apply these practices in my life is to continue to practice these exercises, possibly re-read the books from this class and try and apply these to my everyday life.  I am going to try to continue working on meditation as much as possible.  Personally I like the guided meditation and imagery as it seems easier for me.  I feel that the more I practice these, the more natural they will become.

The saying "One cannot lead another where on has not gone himself," I completely agree with this.  How can someone tell someone that this is a good thing for them and is affective if they do not regularly practice and live by it themselves.  I do feel that we have the obligation to our clients to continually be developing our health psychologically, physically, and spiritually.  It is the same way I feel with my kids; how can I tell them they need to do something to remain healthy or become healthier physically, mentally, and spiritually if I don't do it myself.  That would be unreasonable and unrealistic to think they would actually do that.  However, if they, or anyone else for that matter, sees you living by what you say and the health and calmness you would portray to them would be an incentive to follow what you tell them.  And lastly, the way I feel I can implement psychological and spiritual growth in my personal life is to practice what we have learned until it becomes a natural part of my everyday life.

This week we had to practice this exercise that I really struggled with.  Trying to keep focus and relaxed while trying to remember the phrase just didnot work for me.  I don't know if it was just me or not, but it just didn't work for me.  I found my mind wondering more than usual.  I think I prefer the guided imagery better.  I had much better results from it.  Maybe I will need to practice more???  Anyone have the same problem?

This weeks assignment I found very enjoyable and relaxing.  Focusing on my breathing and the air flowing into and out of my lungs helped me to concentrate enough to keep most of my other thoughts out.  The few that crept in I was able to just let them pass without too much effort.  Personally, I see how this exercise can be quite benefical for me with my breathing.  At one point this week my chest was tight and I was having some trouble with my breathing.  I began this exercise and was able to visualize the air coming into my lungs and my lungs relaxing enough to benefit from it.  I was actually able to calm my breathing down enough that I didn't need my medicine.  I am not saying that this would work all of the time, but for this situation, it did.  I had rushed too much and was very tight and out of breath.  This helped me relax, slow down my breathing and get control of the situation.  I am planning on practicing this exercise more.

Unit 3 learning activity,

Well, here we are 2012, boy that came fast.  Week 3 we are asked to reflect on our wellbeing.  To take a look at our physical, spiritual, and psychological wellbeing and rate it.  I feel that both of my spiritual and psychological wellbeing are good.  Spiritually, I feel that I am probably an eight.  I am very strong and secure in my beliefs.  I am involved in my church, as is my family, we attend church every Sunday morning.  I am a Eucharistic minister in our church and my daughter is an altar server.  Our family is actively involved with mission trips within the U.S. and I am very thankful for everything that we have.  I am confident that I will see my family again someday and look forward to our meeting (that is after I finish what I must here in this life first).  I feel that my strong belief gives me a peace of mind and security knowing that I am being looked after and that this life is not the end for me, my family, friends, and/or anyone else who chooses.  My goal would be to continue to learn and grow spiritually and try and be the best person I can be (wife, mother, friend, coworker, christian, person).

Psychological wellbeing would be probably an eight as well.  I try and be a positive person for the most part.  I admit, sometimes I do get down about things a bit, and I feel that's okay.  But after a little I snap myself out of it and move on.  Life is filled with challenges, and how we handle them defines our character.  I am a strong believer of if you don't like something that is happening or a situation, then do something about it.  If you are not willing to change your situation, then you really do not have the right to complain.  We all have bad things that we have to deal with, somethings you just have to suck it up and move on.  Don't let it bring you down.  My goal would be to focus on the positives in my life and not let the negatives get me down.  To try and make some time for myself for me time, meditation, self-reflection.  Working two jobs, school, and four kids, it gets tough to find time sometimes.  I guess also to enjoy the process, or should I say each day.  Dacher mentioned about a saying said in the East that I really like and have to remember, ""A bucket is not filled with water by the first or last drop.  It is filled by the collection of a very large number of drops (2006, p58)."  I really like that and have to remember that.

Now we move on to our physical wellbeing.  For me, this isn't a good one.  I am 45 years old and have very severe out-of-control asthma.  My general practitioner tells me she feels that I have COPD.  This gets very frustrating as I have never smoked.  I take a lot of different medications for this and they haven't gotten it under control.  I was on high doses of prednisone for many years (which isn't good for you), but my doctor said it is better than not being able to breath.  I would have to agree with him on that point.  However, we changed my treatment and I discontinued taking it daily and now go for lung treatments every other week up at the hospital.  I get two injections every time I go and only take the prednisone when I get sick and/or start having increased problems with my breathing.  In addition, because of taking prednisone for so long, I have problems with my bones now breaking easily so I have to watch.  My one ankle has broken three times now and will need surgery if I break it again.  Because of this I wear a brace to support it.  There are other problems I need to watch for now, but I have gotten use to them now.  I attended pulmonary therapy for a couple years but have started a second job so have had to drop my therapy due to time restraints.  I do have to admit, it gets frustrating at times because I am restricted on some things and need to make adjustments to others.  However, I am very fortunate to have a wonderful husband.  He and my four children are my support system and they me get through the rough times.  Again, I am very fortunate to have them and I am thankful for them.  I feel that things could always be worse, so I try not to complain.  My goal for this would be to do the best I can and not to ever let it get me down.  To never dwell on what I cannot do and remember what I can.

Activities and/or exercises I can implement in my life to assist me in moving toward each goal...
Spiritually would be to continue to pray, read the bible and learn.  Continue to believe and to be there for others who need.  As for psychologically and physically, I am thinking about starting tai chi and either yoga and/or meditation.  I feel that will help me both psychologically and physically.  It will help me manage my stress, work on my breathing, my flexibility and balance, strength, relaxation, etc. 

When I completed the relaxation exercise for this week I found it interesting.  It wasn't as relaxing as the past ones I have done, but I did enjoy it.  I do feel that repeating some of those encouraging things to ourselves is beneficial.  Sometimes we need to say things like that to ourselves to help us belief them, I feel.  So I guess I would say it could be beneficial in that way, but I wasn't relaxed by it.