unit 9 final project

I.                    Introduction

It is extremely important for health and wellness practitioners to develop

themselves in every aspect including: physically, psychologically and spiritually.

Those who commit themselves to serve others by teaching and promoting

health and wellness practices owe it to their students to develop their own lives

so that they can effectively lead others. I believe that within myself, there is

room for improvement in each of those aspects. Of those three aspects, the

spiritual aspect is what I feel needs to be developed the most.

II.                 Assessment

Using aspects of the integral assessment helped me to assess the aspects of my

life. Physically, I am more developed than the other areas. I have dedicated time

in my life for fitness and have become more in tune with the foods that are

better for my body and have eliminated those that are not. The psychological and

spiritual aspects need more work in my case. It has not been until taking this

course that I have realized my lack of true consciousness or awareness and the

lack of connection between my body and my mind and spirit. I would say that if

I were to score each aspect on a scale of 0-10, 10 being the best, I would say that

my physical aspect is at a 5 or 6 and both psychological and spiritual are at 2.

Holding onto anger especially when someone has done wrong by me is something

that holds back my spiritual wellness. Practicing the loving-kindness practice has

helped me in this aspect but I know that I need continued work.

III.               Goal Development

Physical aspect: my goal is to incorporate more mind/body activities like yoga

and tai chi into my life to promote the mind/body connection.

Psychological aspect: my goal is to explore new meditation practices and possibly

a retreat, and that more time in my daily life will be dedicated to the practice.

Spiritual aspect: my goal is to incorporate my spiritual aspect into my everyday

life and continue the loving-kindness practice. Another goal is to live by the

words of the great Ghandi, “Become the change you want to see happen in the

world.”

IV.              Practices for personal health:

It is important to make sure that you are truly dedicated to achieving integral

health and committed to the practices in order to really achieve those goals.

Physical aspect: continue to assess my diet and become more aware of how

certain foods affect my body, incorporate more mind/body activities like yoga

instead of activities focus only on the physical aspect.

Psychological aspect: continue the loving-kindness activity and live daily with

the intention to spread loving-kindness to everyone I interact with.

Spiritual aspect:  my goal (which may be the hardest) is to give forgiveness where

it is due. It does more damage to me not forgiving those people who have hurt me.

Another practice is to show those who do hurt me in the future loving-kindness

and be more readily to forgive.

V.                 Commitment

I think that the ability to assess myself will be quite easy because the results will

be noticeable in my life. I know that I will feel better overall in each of those

aspects. Physically, not only will I have visible results but notice a difference in

the decrease of my anxiety symptoms including GI symptoms. Psychologically

and spiritually, I believe that I will be more at peace and that things that would

normally bother me will not. I will also have a more loving outlook and share

that outlook with people by giving them loving-kindness as well.

References:

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach,

            CA: Basic Health Publications

Schlitz, M., et al. (2005). Consciousness and healing: integral approaches to

mind-body medicine. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Churchill Livingstone

Unit 8 Post

Of all the practices we have learned, the Loving Kindness and Subtle Mind have been the most beneficial to me. Of those two the Loving Kindness mostly. I believe that committing myself to doing these practices daily will help me to achieve "mental fitness". For me, the best time of day to perform the Loving Kindness activity is in the morning before I begin my day. I feel that it really helps me to start the day on a good note. It helps me to take on things or deal with tough situations better because I have my "loving glasses" on. What I mean by my "loving glasses" is that I am seeing the world as a loving place and loving people. I am really beginning to see a change in myself from completing these practices. For example, one situation that tends to stress me is driving in traffic. I have found that I stay relaxed more and don't get angry as easy. Overall, I have seen nothing but benefits in my life and myself since beginning these practices.

Week 7!!!

Hi everyone!

Practicing meditation has actually had its benefits. I find that when I practice it in the mornings before I go to work, I am more calm and find myself getting through the day easier. I start with the loving kindness practice then sort of meditate in the silence that my mind is able to reach after I am into it for a while. It leaves me feeling really positive and even energizes me for the day to come.

I believe that the quote, "One cannot lead another where one has not gone before" is something that everyone who is teaching or specializing in something should read. Especially with a health and wellness practitioner, if you have not achieved the level of human flourishing, how can you teach someone else to? These practitioners have a tremendous obligation to the clients to be developing themselves so that they can effectively mentor them. This is such a new field (to us) that there is still a lot of skepticism, and bad teachers and mentors would make it worse. If someone has not achieved the levels of integral health and expansion of consciousness that they are teaching others to do, then they are most likely teaching their clients ineffective practices and leading them down the wrong path. It is important for those who teach health and wellness to achieve human flourishing and continue to stay active in it.

Integral Assessment

Hi Everyone!

Doing the loving kindness always makes me feel so much better, especially when I do it at the end of a long day at work. In using the integral assessment, I realize that the interpersonal area of my life needs some help. I go on throughout my day worrying about many things and not taking any time for myself or others. I feel that I take on too much of the worldly aspect and leave out the interpersonal one. I believe that taking time to enjoy myself and developing new friendships will help me to develop the interpersonal aspect of my life. I also believe that, if I complete the loving kindness practice more, that it will also help me to grow. At this point, I am not completing it daily because I find that other 'worldly' things take my time. Here's to a new interpersonal me!

Reference:

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.

The Subtle Mind Practice

Hi everyone! This practice I really found beneficial but harder to perform than the loving kindness practice. Both have a focus on breathing technique but the subtle mind practice, I feel, emphasizes it a little more. I found it easier to focus on loving thought rather than focusing just on breathing. I could feel at times that my mind wanted to wander (a sign I guess that this mind needs a lot of training, lol) and that I needed it to be completely silent to complete this exercise.

Spiritual wellness is connected to mental and physical wellness because it is just one component of our whole being. Like we read in our books, we cannot address just one area without the others being affected. I know that within myself, if I am feeling sad (mental) my body and spirits are going to feel low too. Same with anxiety, when I become anxious my body and emotions tell me the first. I begin to feel uneasy and my emotions sort of on edge. I can truly see by what I have learned in this course so far that each of these areas
are connected and to move forward you need to take each into consideration.

Loving Kindness and Mental Workout

Participating in this exercise was definitely interesting. I found that it really relaxed me and helped my mood to change in positive way..not to say that I'm moody or anything:-) I could see this as a stress relieving practice along with enhancing loving kindness. It helped me to feel a little less stressed and gave me a "loving" outlook on the world. I would recommend this to others because, let's face it, this world could use more loving kindness and exercises such as this one can promote that.

The concept of mental workout is exercising our mental abilities to achieve "an expanded consciousness and its healing capacities" (Dacher, p. 65, 2006). Just like physical training, we need to work at it often (recommended at least one hour daily) to achieve the optimal results. It is also important to go into the practicing fully understanding what you are getting into. Like, Dacher stated in his book, it is easy to perform the training not really understanding everything. That may get you a little further along but not to the results that you are aiming for. Implementing these practices in our lives requires dedication, effort and understanding. 

References:

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc. 

Hi everyone! Never though I would have a blog. Guess its kinda cool! Look forward to moving along this class with you all!!!