In my unit three personal assessment I was asked to rate my psychological, spiritual, and physical well-being.  I rated my psychological well-being at a 9/10 and said that I was fairly sound, but unable to control my anger at times.  Now I am more self aware of my emotions and able to control them a lot easier by just taking time to understand what is angering me.  It is probably a 9.5/10 because I am still working on progression with this one.  Spiritual well-being was by far the lowest ranking area for me.  It was a 5/10 because I did not pray as much as I felt I needed to.  I had grown distant from a healthy spiritual level.  Now it is at least an 8/10 because I remind myself daily about praying and using prayer for stress reduction as well as a way to clear the mind.  Physically my well-being was a 8 or 9/10, but it is probably still the same.  Out of convenience, I haven't been eating as nutritionally sound as one should eat.  I choose options, that are not health, more often than I should.  I plan to get myself back on track by starting a grocery list to help me avoid unhealthy and convenience foods except for occasional.  I have quit buying soda and my kids have adapted very well to this change.  They drink lots of water and kool-aide on occasion as a treat.  I still let them drink soda when we eat out, which is not very often.

I have made progress in all of my goals except switching out healthy sweets for unhealthy ones.  I used to eat five small meals and have recently switched back to three meals a day with a few snacks.  Praying has become a daily regimen for me, reading my Bible has not become regular, but will definitely be easier when I don't have to read so many text books for school.  I barely have time to get those readings in before bed since I cannot stay up late and get up early.  My body requires at least eight hours of sleep each night for optimal performance.

I have implemented meditative practices into my life for improved well-being.  I have found that this works the best when I can lock myself in the bathroom.  My three children give me a reason to long for meditation.  This will only benefit them!

Before taking this course, I was unaware of the benefits of staying in control of our own mind and body.  I now understand that I can be more responsible for my health and control my physiological functions by using a mind-body approach.  When we have a clear head we can think better, become physically more productive, and spiritually in tune with the human experience.  The reward I have experienced is being able to relax.  The difficulty that I have experienced was trying to find peace and quiet in a house with three very active children.  This experience will help me to help others by teaching them practices I have learned to reduce my stress levels so that they too can self heal.

Tracy

Unit 9 Project on Psychological, Spiritual, and Physical Health

Integral Health Approach

Part I

It is important that health and wellness professionals understand the importance of integral health and healing to be able to teach others.  In order to teach others, a professional must have developed psychologically, spiritually, and physically.  Since one cannot see the spiritual and the psychological aspects of healing, there must be an understanding or a self-awareness of these areas.  The physical aspect can be seen by what someone looks like, but may have a different level of health inside, depending on how the person copes with stress, what the person eats, and whether or not they exercise.  In order to improve this author’s levels, psychologically, spiritually, and physically, a personal assessment must be done to evaluate areas that are deficient.  This author has a good physical state of health at the current moment, so there is a great need to modify and or improve her psychological and spiritual areas the most.

Part II

This author has rated her psychological development at a three star on a five star scale rating system.  She lacks self-control when angered at times and is unable to alter her mood at times when grumpy.  Stress is her enemy and she does not cope well with a lot of it.  This author rates her spiritual health at a four star on a five star rating system, because she has a sense of awareness that there is a higher being to go to with her problems, God.  This is a way to feel a sense of oneness with ourselves, through prayer and meditation.  This author doesn’t read scripture enough to broaden her knowledge base for spiritual growth and development.  This author believes everything happens for a reason, which helps to reduce her anxiety and fear accompanied with change or the unknown circumstances that face her.  Physically this author rates her physical level of health at a five star on a five star rating system, because she has made the necessary changes necessary to maintain a healthy weight and BMI.  Her vitals are all normal and she has had a stress test recently that demonstrates she has a healthy heart.  The only fault that this author has is her dietary habits.  She likes sweets a little too much. 

Part II

Psychologically- a goal for this author would be to think about the necessary worries and the worries that cannot be changed, before letting them get to her psychologically.  This will help her to cope with them on a more reasonable level with intention.  When we understand our feelings we tend to practice this much better. 

Spiritually- a goal for this author would be to read the Bible every morning at least ten minutes for six out of seven days each week to grow in knowledge and spirit. 

Physically- a goal for this author would be to challenge her daily dietary habits, by reducing the allowance of sweets to two days a week and replace the temptations on the other five days with a fruit or vegetable.

Part IV

To be able to meet the psychological goal, this author will use relaxation techniques, such as, deep breathing, to calm down and become more reasonable when agitated.  Another way to become less agitated would be to learn to count to ten before responding to a frustrating situation.  To meet the spiritual goal set forth for this author, she can use guided visual imagery, to improve her self-awareness and emotions.  The second activity that will help this author meet her spiritual goal would be using the loving-kindness approach of visualizing a loved one that has been a wise person from her past and reminiscing on the loved one’s role to her to develop an increased sense of compassion and love towards others.  Physical activities that can be performed to help this author reach her healthier nutritional status are to choose healthy alternatives to sweets, such as, an apple or a pear, instead of cake or doughnuts.  Another thing that this author could do to improve her physical health through nutrition is to make a grocery list minimizing items that are unhealthy and packing meals ahead of time to limit desire to use vending machines or to reach for other unhealthy items out of convenience. 

Psychological activities, such as, deep breathing and counting can be done anywhere and anytime when this author becomes agitated to help in calming her emotional state.  This author plans to keep a note or reminder in view at work for quick reference to remember to perform these practices, until they become learned practices.

Spiritual activities including; guided visual imagery, and reminiscing of a wise loved one to become more compassionate and loving, can be practiced every morning or evening on a daily basis. 

Physically, the practices set forth for this author will have to be by means of planning ahead and through the use of self-discipline.  This author plans to reward herself for staying on track with the goals established regarding her dietary habits.  The reward will not be a food item, rather a piece of exercise equipment or clothing, to stay on track.

Part V

In order to assess this author’s progress she will keep a tracking sheet and a writing journal on her emotions for every day of the week.  The tracking form will list psychological, spiritual, and physical areas with the goals listed under each one of them with a tab for each day of the week to mark if she stayed on track or not.  The writing journal will be utilized to jot down emotions throughout the day to see what activities affected each area, psychological, spiritual, and physical, to alter lifestyle so that those activities can be reduced, avoided, or eliminated from her schedule and life.  This way both tools can be used to enhance psychological, spiritual, and physical health and wellness and allow her to continually evaluate and modify her goals as necessary to sustain optimal health and wellness as a health and wellness role model for her clients.

Tracy

In this course we have learned about various exercises which help to improve our mental fitness (Loving-kindness, subtle mind, visualization, and meditation).  Out of these the two that I have found most beneficial are the visualization and meditation.  I had trouble staying focused when it comes to the subtle mind and the loving-kindness exercises.  I try to use a form of meditation, known as prayer.  There for a while I was very dedicated to praying on a daily basis, and I seemed to have such a bright outlook even when stressful times occured.  Prayer is a great way to improve your spirituality and your mental health.  When we have a higher being to look to we maintain a sense of hope which keeps us from becoming sad and depressed.  I really enjoyed visualization when speaking of nature, because nature really relaxes me.  I love camping and hiking which help me to be able to visualize nature.  The peace and tranquility that nature gives you can help you to move from a depressive state to a more manic state very quickly.  I love to look at the clouds when laying on a blanket or think about the birds singing during a sunny spring day.  I also love to listen to the crickets around a pond on a warm summer evening.  These are sounds that can calm the most frustrated mind.

I find that it doesn't take but a few minutes to perform either of these forms of mindfulness.  Meditation and visualization work well in any environment, but is best practiced in a quiet and relaxed environment. 

I have used visualization and deep breathing to lower my blood pressure at the doctor's office, since I have white coat syndrome.  I always am asked if I have high blood pressure because I am borderline hypertensive when my doctor sees me.  I never have high blood pressure. 

Other ways you can meditate are to remove yourself from the noisy environment and just close your eyes and stop thinking completely.  This helps me when I become overwhelmed at work and only have a few minutes to take a break.

We have to understand simple ways to reduce our stress levels to be healthy is the world today due to its chaotic pace and techology.

Tracy

Again, I had difficulty becoming fully engaged in this exercise at first. My mind kept wandering back and forth with a few distractions in my house. I thought of my great-grandmother. She was always there for me as a child. She fed me cheese and crackers and let me stay up late watching the Oak Ridge Boys and Hee Haw. Those were the good ole days! this exercise made me remember many memories of her that I had suppressed. I had forgotten many of them from a conscous state.

Mindfulness and meditation are great ways to increase our self-awareness whether it be of our body or our mind. It helps to calm the senses and let us understand our areas of weakness. These exercises help us to connect mentally and physically with ourselves. In order to foster these practices in my life, I will continue to find ways to reflect on my total body, not just the physical state, but also the psychological and spiritual states. This helps us to live and function with intention.

The phrase "one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" is a great way of summaraizing that we cannot help others if we don't set the example first. Others will be more apt to follow our ways if they see that we witness to them and that what we do affects how we function. If they see that by meditating we can escape illness and become happy, healthy individuals, they will be more likely to try them. We are here for others to help them make positive lifestyle changes so that they can escape disease and ill health.

I can implement spiritual growth in my life by just reading scripture more and understanding it so that I can live the life I strive for others to follow. Psychologically, I can grow by learning to only take on as much as I can handle and not more than I can handle. Keeping priorities and letting go of the small things that tend to stress us out but really don't matter.

Human Flourishing

In performing the Loving-kindness activity this week, I was able to realize that great joy can be felt in thinking of others and their needs, because I can offer so much for those who are dear in my heart.  When we are continually busy in our own schedules and activities, we tend to lose sight of others.  I was pleased to be able to think about those in other countries that are less fortunate than I am.  I remember this when I begin to feel down so that I can quit sulking in my misery and be reminded of how blessed I really am. 
I would recommend that others gain knowledge of loving-kindness so that they too can reach out for optimal human growth and development mentally and spiritually.

During the integral assessment of my life, I realized that I deeply miss being able to spend time with my three chidlren.  My job has taken too much time away from them.  This has been a struggle that I have been dealing with for a while now.  Since school has started that has also taken time away from them.  They are onlylittle once.  I need to find balance in my interpersonal and my psychospiritual dimensions of human flourishing.  In finding balance in these areas, I can strengthen my wellness as well as improve my overall happiness.  I can now recognize what area needs developed and need to establish goals to work toward this balance.  A personal goal for me would be to prioritize job duties so that they don't interfere with family time.  Schedule family outings and time after school to improve one on one time with each of my children at least two days a week.

This assessment will need to be redone every so often to address areas of weakness that need new goals to stay healthy in mind, body, and spirit.

Tracy

Hello everyone,
This week's exercise was to listen to a audio presentation on finding the subtle mind.  It asked us to find a focal point to direct our attention to and try to stay focused on it throughout the activity.  This exercise was to help us find our inner peace and calmness that allowed us to redirect any outside thoughts and feelings in a disciplined manner.

The loving-kindness activity last week asked us to rid our minds of negative thoughts and feelings to find a peace from within, while improving our physical health by reducing and ridding our minds of stress.
The subtle mind activity this week was to find a stillness within our bodies and our minds that relaxed us to focus on one thing which was our breath. 

I found it difficult to focus on one focal point, but when going back to my breath was able to redirect my mind.  It is difficult to keep our minds focused on one thing at a time, since it is so accustomed to changing lanes throughout our daily lives.  Many people multitask at work and home due to their busy schedules, as do I.  I was able to reach a sense of relaxation with both activities, which helped me to sleep better, and feel relaxed for a while after. 
The sublte mind activity would take the most practice, but each activity makes us become more aware of our spiritual and mental self.

The connection that our spiritual wellness has on our physical wellness is enormous.  By being able to relax our minds we are also able to relax our bodies, which brings an overwhelming sense of peace and calmness within our whole body.  We are able to focus better and find a way to neutralize our emotions.  This connection manifested in my life my teaching me to let go of stress and stressful emotions to improve my physical well being.  It made my muscles relax, and my blood pressure reduce.

This is a great way to reduce stress no matter what it is.

There is just something about this exercise that helped me to feel emptied of my stress this week.  I didn't feel as much frustration and think I had more patience after this exercise.  I enjoyed this exercise because it cleared my mind, heart, and shoulders of the many burdens or heavy load that I am carrying.  I get stressed out trying to juggle my life, but don't realize how much that affects my physical body.  This would be an exercise that I recommended to others because it helps to reduce negative emotions and helps you to try to empathize with others befoe reacting form your negative emotions and feelings.  This can make us much happier individuals.  I did find it difficult to stay attentive due to my environment and its distractions on several occasions, but was able to find a quiet place 50% of the time to fully gain the calmness that this activity aims at providing for you.


The concept of a "mental workout" is the same as any workout.  It takes time, motivation, and dedication to maintain it.  When we speak of a mental workout it pertains to our mind which is not usually thought of as something to work out.  Our minds are constantly turning with our busy lives and our lack of time for ourselves.  We need to gain this mental workout to realize we could have emotions in our minds and hearts that lead us to ill health.  If we can be motivated , dedicated, and find time to focus on our conscious thoughts, we can reverse the ill effects of the negative thoughts and alter them to a more positive outlook on our lives.