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