My Integral Health Plan

Introduction 

            It is incredibly important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically because it takes them to the next level of healing.  Being developed in all three aspects keeps health and wellness professionals from being limited in their field of expertise.  Being well rounded in mind, body and spirit means that they have achieved integral health and this is a mixture between Eastern and Western medicine.  Far too often as Westerners we are only focused on the biological aspect of our health and never go into the spiritual and psychological level of healing.  Health and wellness professionals need to be aware of every aspect in order to properly counsel clientele.  Properly counseling clientele means that they can not only offer information on how to achieve physical wellness, but also counsel them on the evolutionary process of getting there mentally.  This is offering a wealth of knowledge in whatever their spiritual practice is, but also offering them information on holistic approaches like meditational practices and physical aspects that intertwine both like yoga and tai-chi.  I myself have always been involved in the physical fitness aspect of healing.  Having been a physical fitness instructor for five years I found myself only focused on healing clientele by means of achieving a goal of weight loss and physical training.  I never realized that there were two other very important aspects of healing for clientele.  I have since learned that one cannot truly achieve physical fitness for life without being properly educated on the psychological and spiritual aspects of health healing.  I am lacking and have been lacking in both of these aspects, because I was never aware that I needed to focus on them to achieve true healing. 

Assessment

             I have assessed my health in each domain and have found each area to be lacking on my part for several different reasons.  I’ll start with my scores for each area and then elaborate on the reasons for each.  My scores are as follows:  psychologically I scored myself at a six, spiritually I scored myself at a seven and physically I would score myself at a six also.  The reason for the six physically is because I am currently pregnant and expecting my third child.  Prior to conception I was very physically active and exercising on a regular basis, because I had gone to the doctor six months earlier and found out that I had modest hypoglycemia and high blood pressure.  I changed my eating habits and incorporated physical fitness into my routine at least 4 days out of the week.  I ended up losing 40 pounds and feeling better than I have in a few years.  I had not quite hit the level of fitness I would like to have been at so the score is a six because of those things.  As for my spiritual health, my score was a seven because I have always been in tune with myself spiritually, but not regularly practicing.  It seems that daily activities, family and school got in the way or was the excuse for not doing what I should be spiritually.  The psychological score was a six, because after taking this course I realized that I have a lot of room for improvement.  A lot of room and I have learned so much about where I should be.  Honestly speaking, the improvement will happen over the next year, but nothing happens overnight therefore I left room for improvement with the six. 

Goal development

             I have one goal that is important to me in each area of healing.  Physically, I hope to continue on my track to lower my blood pressure and manage my weight gain, physical activity level and nutrition throughout my pregnancy.  Psychologically, I would like to learn to manage my stress better.  Unfortunately, I am aware that my stress management goes hand in hand with my blood pressure because it is stress induced.  Prior to taking this course I was not aware that there were other ways to manage stress and struggled with it on a daily basis.  I have since learned that there are other outs to manage this issue and it is a definite goal of mine for the future.  As for my spiritual health I would like to learn to really and truly incorporate meditation into my life on a daily basis.  I feel that even though this is a spiritual goal, it goes right along with my physical and psychological goal to manage my health and stress.  I have learned that meditation is not only important for me to achieve my goals, but also important for me to learn in order to truly teach as a health and wellness professional.

Practices for your personal health

            Obviously, with each goal comes, strategies for implementing them in order to succeed.  My first strategy for achieving my physical goals during and after my pregnancy are to continue to power walk at least twice weekly and implement an additional thirty minutes of activity one other day during the week.  My second strategy for achieving my physical goal is to continue to monitor my nutrition, which is easier said than done when expecting.  Cravings can be overwhelming, but I know controlling them will allow me to succeed (especially with my blood pressure) in the long run.  The two strategies I am going to implement for success in my psychological goals are attending stress management courses and focusing on my Loving Kindness portion of meditation on particularly stressful days.  The classes will allow me to learn new ways to manage my stress and the Loving Kindness practices have been very beneficial for me throughout this course.  Loving Kindness forces me to focus on others and not to be selfish in my thinking.  Spiritually I plan on implementing other forms of meditation into my weekly practices to be well rounded and to start attending church regularly in the New Year.  The second strategy is especially challenging for me because of transportation issues and time availability on the weekends.

Commitment

             Assessing my progress or lack of progress in the next six months will be done in several different ways to ensure success.  I am committing myself to journaling, which has helped me in the past with weight loss.  Journaling on this occasion will include my progress on my goals not only with nutrition, but also with my meditation practices and number of times I am able to make it to church.  I am also committing myself to recruiting one close friend and one close family member that I share my goals with in order to be accountable (in the beginning) to someone other than myself.  Lastly, continuing to utilize my blog that I have created during this course to chart my progress will help me to be accountable also.  These are all very useful tools that I feel will help me succeed in the long run.  If I fail or fall behind I am accountable to my journal, friend, family member and blog for an explanation and for how I will get back on track.  The point in setting goals is not to be perfect, but to have intentions.  Good intentions can only help one succeed at their goals.

Meeting Asciepius

This week, I listened to the "Meeting Asciepius" meditation practice. I found it was something I could really get into. I recently lost my grandmother, and I took a lot of advice from her as a child. It was easy to view her as my "wise man". She served as a very familiar and efficient guide. I've always practiced some form of meditation, but when I began to listen to the daily meditation cd's, I found it very useful in relaxing throughout the day. I feel more balanced spiritually when I complete a meditation.

The phrase "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself", applies to the health and wellness field, because you can not advise a client to try something, if you yourself have not attempted it and/or truly flourished at it. You have an obligation to your clients to develop your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually, because you can not expect someone to listen to advise you don't heed yourself.

My Psychospiritual Development

This week I practiced the Universal Loving Kindness exercise. I enjoyed my practices this week because they were more focused on others and a constant reminder during meditation of not being selfish, but thinking of our society and it's issues as a whole. The areas that I have chosen to be a focus for development this week is my psychospirtitual and biological development. I was not able to just choose one to focus on, which made meditation a little more difficult for me.  I opted to focus on one area per session.  I am severely weak in this area, because I do have some personal hang-ups with meditation as a whole.  Making my mind quiet so that I can totally focus on my spirtitual health has been a challenge for me every week.  I have also found that through my reading and research in this course that meditation can be a healing process for some medical issues that I suffer with.  I have some cardiac issues, coupled with high blood pressure and some cholesterol issues.  I also have modest hypoglycemia.  I am learning that mediation and yoga are actually natural healers for these issues.  I am hoping that even when this course is over that I will have learned enough to continue my practices, but also monitor how it has been beneficial to my health in the long run. Specific exercises that I can do to foster greater wellness in this area are to continue my meditation practices as stated earlier, but to also incorporate more mind body exercises like yoga and to incorporate a little tai chi since I am very interested in it.  This course is opening many new doors for me and each weekly practice is bringing me that much closer to my own personal goals for health and wellness.

The Subtle Mind vs. Loving Kindness

The Subtle Mind practice was way more difficult for me than the Loving Kindness practice.  I found myself having difficulty focusing during the initial 3 minutes of each practice.  I was able to fit in 3 of the Subtle Mind practices, because I was still focusing on the Loving Kindness at the same time.  Once I focused on my breathing I was able to not let my mind drift too much.  5 minutes into each session became very therapeutic for me.  The nice thing about the Subtle Mind practice was that there were constant reminders to bring your focus back on your breathing.  I still enjoyed the Loving Kindness sessions more, but that is also because I don't have as much practice with Subtle Mind practice.  The exciting thing about the Subtle Mind sessions is that I saw so much room for improvement with myself.  I know that if I continue to practice I can look forward to getting better at it and therefore evolve in my future practices. 

The connection of spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness is that all three are intertwined.  I did not know how closely in previous week's activities, but all three go together.  I cannot have TRUE physical wellness without TRUE mental wellness and my mental wellness therefore leads to TRUE spiritual wellness.  I didn't realize how much breathing and the BREATH have such a profound effect on one's mind, body and soul.  The breath is important not only during physical activity, but also in day to day thought processes and even during meditation.  The BREATH has the power to heal high blood pressure, cardiac issues, gastrointestinal issues and even psychological issues.  These were all profound things that I learned this week while reading on the Subtle Mind practice and other areas of the prescribed reading.

Mind-Body Awarenss This Week

This week I read Chapter 6 in Integral Health and began practice on the Dacher CD, Loving Kindness.  After reading the chapter I realized that there may be some challenges involved in clearing my mind and truly getting the benefit of the practice.  I practiced for the recommended amount of time and to my amazement I walked away from the session very mentally aware of myself and my surrounding.  It was a beautiful experience for me, to totally focus on not MYSELF, but the ones I love and strangers around me.  Focusing on positive energy rather than negative was a very beneficial tool for me.  I left my session excited and self-aware.  I would suggest this practice to others, but worry that they would not know how to get past the initial mental barriers that would truly help them focus and receive the benefit of it.  I can't wait to practice before bed tonight and again tomorrow morning.  I am now on a dedicated schedule, because it was good for me. 
The concept of "Mental Workout" is the practice of Loving-kindness and The Subtle Mind.  Both working together allow one to get a mental workout, but it takes practice and I am looking forward to my "Mental Workout" practice and plan to treat it just as I do my weekly physical workout sessions for my body.  I have learned through this session of study that both work together for the maximum benefit.

Personal Wellbeing

Based on my reflection, I believe that my physical well-being is a seven, because I have high blood pressure, modest hypoglycemia and I am eight week pregnant. My Spiritual well being is an eight because I am very in tune with myself spiritually. I consider all religions and faiths, and judge no one. My psychological well being is a nine because I have removed any negative impacts on my psychological well being. I believe that your psychological well being has a lot to do with the people who you surround yourself with, and I only surround myself with positive people nowadays. That didn't always used to be the case.
My physical goal is to get through my pregnancy with a healthy baby. I can walk more often. Right now I only walk on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and it appears as if I need to add an extra day. This will assist my spiritual well being as well. My spiritual goal is to go to church more often. My psychological goal is to really work on my tempermeant. I think I need to meditate more often.

My Journey On experience

Welcome to my blog. I'm very excited at this chance to share my thoughts and experiences with my class.
My experience with the Journey On sound was very interesting. I did feel very relaxed and calm, but I did not experience the profound heaviness or warmth they spoke about. I enjoyed the music, but that's about it.