Unit 9 - Final Project

            It is extremely important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically because it will not only help themselves, but also their patients. For health and wellness professionals, they work with various groups of individuals and to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically will definitely make a strong connection between the professional and the patient as well. To develop psychologically, the health and wellness professional should have social, emotional, intellectual, and cognitive skills. To develop physically, the health and wellness professional should be living a healthy lifestyle, who follows a nutritious diet and engages in physical activity. To develop spiritually, the health and wellness professional should be knowledgeable in the spiritual aspects of health. I believe the professional should be well experienced in every different health situation so they can fully understand what the patient is going through. The area I need to develop would be my spiritual aspect. Doing this would help me achieve my goal of having faith which will also help me succeed in different areas of my health.

            In each domain of spirituality, physically, and psychologically, I would say I improved in all three. On a scale of 1-10, I would rate my spirituality at a 7. I would definitely say that I am a religious person since I do pray, but still haven’t found the motivation to go to church on Sundays. Physically, I would rate myself at a 9. I am currently healthy and engage in physically activity on a daily basis. Psychologically, I would rate myself at a 9. My psychological well-being wasn’t always great, but it has definitely improved ever since I started doing yoga and being physically active a few years ago. There are still times when I have my “angry moments” and still get stressed, but it’s nothing compared to how I used to be in the previous years.

            My physical goals include continuing to exercise, do yoga, take daily walks, and add more healthy foods to my diet. My psychological goal would be to try to get the negativity out of my life and start living my life with a more positive aspect. My spiritual goal would be to go to church every Sunday so I can have a better connection with god.

            To foster growth physically, I would like to eventually take other classes at my gym besides yoga. I absolutely love doing yoga and would never give it up, but at my local gym, there are lots of different workout classes that I would like to try to make myself grow physically. I also want to add more healthy meals to my diet. I must admit, even though I am healthy, I still eat junk food and fast food at times. It would be best for me to completely eliminate those bad foods and substitute them with more healthy and nutritious foods. To foster growth psychologically, I should stay away from the negative people and things in my life and stay around the positive people and things instead. I can also add more meditation exercises in my daily routine since the benefits of the meditation exercises done in this class have helped me tremendously with my psychological well-being. To foster growth spiritually, I would have to get back into the habit of going to church every Sunday. To do this, I can make sure I don’t make any plans on Sunday mornings so it’ll be easier for me to go to church.

            I can assess my progress in the next 6 months by keeping a journal. In the journal, I will list all of my goals. I will also write in it each day explaining what I did, who I was with, what I ate/drank, what I was feeling, etc. I believe I will maintain and progress in my goals to achieve optimal health and wellness.

Unit 8

All the exercises I have completed in this course were beneficial in some way, even though I have found some to be too long or distracting. My top two favorites and the ones I have found to be most beneficial would have to be The Subtle Mind exercise and the Universal Loving Kindness meditation in Dacher (p. 93). The Subtle Mind exercise focused on my breath, which had a relaxing effect on my mind, along with the sound of ocean waves. The Universal Loving Kindness meditation was a great meditation exercise because it was much different than listening to the audio exercises. The Universal Loving Kindness exercise involved repeating the phrases which made me feel love for others close to me. I think these types of meditation exercises work best for me because I'm the one doing the talking which makes it easier to focus my attention.
I am definitely going to implement these practices in my personal life to foster mental fitness because of all the benefits it has on health. I'm going to begin by waking up an extra 10 minutes early each morning so I can do at least one meditative exercise before I begin my day.

Unit 7

I had a difficult time with this meditative practice. I was able to picture a wise man at first, but then at times he would disappear. This also made it difficult to imagine the white light. This exercise was quite long as well which made me get a little distracted towards the end.

I absolutely believe in the saying “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself”. If someone doesn't truly experience something, how can he or she teach it to someone else? As for health and wellness professionals, no matter how much education you have on a specific topic, I believe the only way you can understand what someone else is going through is to first go through it yourself. 

Unit 6

I enjoyed the Universal Loving-Kindness exercise. Repeating the phrases over and over again really helped my mind and body become relaxed. I was able to open my heart and express my loving feelings for others close to me. For some reason, these types of exercises which involve repeating phrases seem to work better for me, instead of the audio exercises.

After completing the integral assessment process, I realized the area I should focus more on is interpersonal flourishing. There are a few personal and family issues that I am currently dealing with right now. I believe this universal loving kindness exercise would be very helpful in developing greater wellness in this area that I am having some issues with. 

Unit 5 Post

I thought the Subtle Mind exercise was very relaxing. It was much more easier to follow than the Loving Kindness exercise. During the Loving Kindness exercise I lost focus and found it difficult to visualize and relax. I think the Subtle Mind was easy to follow because the exercise involved using your breath as a focal point which really made me stay focused and relaxed.

The connection of spiritual wellness is very significant when comparing it to mental and physical wellness. I believe you need to have spiritual wellness to achieve mental and physical wellness. I can incorporate this in my own personal life by practicing meditations more frequently throughout the day. It will definitely help me with my mental and physical wellness.

Unit 4 Loving Kindness

I feel that this particular audio exercise was beneficial in way that I felt relaxed. Comparing to the previous audio exercises we had to listen to, this one had more of a soothing voice which helped me relax better. The downside to this was that it was hard for me to stay focused. I was really focused in the beginning of the exercise up until the halfway point when I started to lose concentration. I’m not sure if it was because of the long length of the audio exercise or something else. I think this exercise would be beneficial for some, but not for all. I might have to try the exercise one more time to see if I would recommend it to others.

A mental workout means to train or exercise the mind. Exercising the mind can have great benefits in feeling less stressed and increasing positive thoughts and actions. To implement mental workouts in my daily life, I can practice meditation, read books, and do puzzles/games. 

Unit 3 Blog Post

I would rate my physical well-being at an 8. I’m at a normal weight for my age and height. I do exercise regularly and eat somewhat of a healthy diet, with lots of fruits and vegetables. I do tend to snack on sugary foods though, such as cookies and cake, and drink lots of soda. I have a very fast metabolism, so whatever I eat does not make me gain weight, even though I know it is still unhealthy for my body to be consuming all the extra sugar. My goal for my physical well-being would be to limit the amount of sugary foods and soda. For my spiritual well-being, I would rate it at a 6. I used to go to church every Sunday, but I haven’t gone in a few years. I still believe in God and pray daily. I hate to say it but honestly, the reason why I stopped going was because I have no time with working a full time job and all the school work. I have one more term left at Kaplan, so after I’m done with school, my goal would be to hopefully begin going to church again every Sunday. I would rate my psychological well-being at a 9. A few years back, I would have probably rated it at a 5 since I used to be so stressed out, but the thing that has helped me with my stress is exercise and yoga. My psychological well-being has improved dramatically with exercise and yoga. It has helped me reduce my stress levels, feel more relaxed, and just feel better about myself overall. An activity that I would really want to add to my daily routine is meditation in the morning right when I wake up. It is similar to yoga and I've been wanting to try this for a while since I heard it does wonders for your mind, heart, and body.

I enjoyed the relaxation exercise “The Crime of the Century”. I enjoyed it as much as first relaxation exercise in the previous unit. I thought this exercise was very beneficial. During the rainbow meditation, it was interesting to see how the use of imagination can help me stay calm and relaxed. Personally, these types of exercises are great to do right before I go to bed; they make me feel so relaxed and make me feel so sleepy!