Final Post

After reviewing my previous analysis in unit 3 and considering my development in the last few weeks, I would say that my overall health and wellbeing has changed considerably. First, I had ranked my physical status at a 7, but now I would say a 9. I have taken great steps towards strengthening my physical health. I have begun taking two new weekly exercises classes, one being a form of yoga that can strengthen and enhance my physical status. I have also begun taking vitamins and supplements necessary to better my health. Next would be my spiritual health, which I previously ranked at a level of 6. I would now say this has progressed to a level 7. I have realized that there was a need for me to further develop this aspect, and I have begun searching out a new church that is closer to home so that I can strengthen my spiritual wellbeing. As for my psychological wellbeing, I had previously discussed that this fluctuated throughout the period of the week and was dependent on events and activities going on in my life. After this class, I can say that my psychological wellbeing is much more stable. I feel as if I have greater control over my thoughts and feelings as well as how I react to my surroundings.  I feel as if I still have a ways to go to accomplish my goals in each of these areas, but I am proud of my progress thus far. I have developed solid plans in each area to achieve my overall goals. First, is establishing a regular exercise plan and better nutrition so that my physical wellbeing can not only further grow, but also maintain at a high level. I have also established a goal of finding a church within a reasonable distance from my home so that I can attend at least twice a month. I have struggled finding a church, but have finally selected two that are reasonably close. I plan on attending both to decide which one I prefer. Finally, I have established goals for my psychological wellbeing. I have developed my own routine of meditation and relaxation exercises that help me release tension and negativity. By doing these exercises, I am able to control my stress level and increase the ability to feel love and understanding towards others around me. So far, I feel as if this class has really helped me understand the need for goals in my health and I feel very motivated to achieve Integral Health. I also think that by starting to work towards establishing a higher level of consciousness and wellbeing, it will promote those around me to develop as well. I have begun to speak about my lessons throughout this course to my friends and family and have applied several of the theories and concepts to their lives so that they too will begin to develop. I really appreciated all that I have learned from course and believe I can continue to apply these concepts throughout the duration of my life.

Final Project

            Developing your personal health and wellbeing is essential for the establishing the highest quality of life. It is increasingly important for professionals working within the health field to focus on developing their own health. I strongly believe that physicians need to practice what they preach. It’s important for them to be able to relate to their patients. I think physicians, therapists, and anyone in the health area need to focus on their own personal health in order to grow on a professional level. Again, physicians, therapists, and trainers who aren't practicing what they are lecturing about to patients won't be taken seriously and can lose their patients trust and respect. They also need to understand the value of what activities and health advice they are giving to their patients. The field of medicine and health can be a very stressful environment, so for a physician, it is very important to develop the highest level of consciousness, inner peace, and calm.  For myself, I need to focus on further developing psychologically. I often allow myself to be overwhelmed by stress and work and can let my mind be consumed with worry and frustration.

            Initially through this course we were asked to analyze and assess all aspects of our own personal health, from the physical, psychological, and spiritual areas. I decided to do another personal assessment of my overall health, and then compare them to my previously declared numbers. First, I would rank my current physical health at an 8, which I previously ranked at a 7. The reason I increased my physical wellbeing is that I have been working harder on incorporating exercise into my daily routine. I have always been an active person, but in recent months have been slacking on participating in rigorous activities. I recently began participating in an exercise program that meets twice a week. This program focuses on developing and strengthening the core muscles and burns over 1000 calories per class. I have already begun to see results. A goal I have set for myself is to maintain working out at this class at least once a week for the next year.

 The second area is my psychological wellbeing. I would rank myself currently at a 6. Previously I had ranked my overall wellbeing at an 8. The reason for my decline in my ranking is that I have been extremely stressed and feeling overwhelmed in the past few weeks. From working a full time job, a part time job, and the semester wrapping up, there seems to be an endless list of tasks that I need to accomplish every day.  A goal that I have set for myself is to being to eliminate the unnecessary clutter in my life and tasks that are not necessary. I want to tone down the level of chaos in my life and only focus on areas and activities that truly matter.

 The last area is my spiritual wellbeing. I would say that this has maintained at a six. I initially had set a goal for myself to find a church that is closer to my home and attend church twice a month. Although I have developed a process of increasing my spiritual wellbeing, I have yet to initialize this plan. I am hoping that once this semester is over, I will be able to put more focus on my spiritual goals.

            An exercise that I believe will foster the growth of my psychological, spiritual, and physical wellbeing is by practicing meditation. I have begun reading a book discussing the practices and beliefs of the Dalai Lama. Through his teachings, there are multiple suggestions on how to perform proper meditation throughout the day. There are several different levels of meditation that it offers, from highly developed practices to simple suggestive ways of thinking. I have begun practicing an exercise that is similar to the lovingkindness activity. It attempts to eliminate negative energy within the body and mind, and replace those feelings with love, acceptance, and openness.  Another activity that would provide benefits for all three areas would be participating in yoga. After beginning my rigorous exercise activity, I have decided to venture outward to other more calm activities, one being hot yoga. Hot yoga implements meaningful movements that tone and strengthen the body, and also deep breathing that relaxes and focuses the mind. The room temperature is also increased so that toxins are eliminated through the process of sweat. I have only participated in one class, but have found that I feel very peaceful and rejuvenated by the end of the program. Although tired, I feel that all negativity and toxins have been eliminated from my body and soul as well as my mind.

            In the next six months I will perform another self-assessment of my overall health and wellbeing. My six month goal at the time of this assessment is to increase my psychological wellbeing by at least a ranking of an 8 or 9, as well as have established a routine at building my spiritual wellbeing. By this point I aim to have found a church closer to home and be maintaining regular attendance. Even if I am only able to attend church once a month, I will view this as progress. As for my physical wellbeing, I hope to maintain the ranking that I have established now. I don’t believe that achieving a ranking of 10 is possible, because there are always going to be areas for improvement. So being able to maintain the way I physically feel now, I will be very satisfied and proud of my overall progress.

Beneficial Exercises

Over the last few weeks of the course, we have been asked to practice several different exercises that can help aid in developing and growing our minds. For me, the most beneficial exercises were "The Subtle Mind" and the "Meditation" practices. First, the subtle mind focused on breathing and relaxation. This exercise demonstrated that peaceful breathing techniques would lead to a more serene and peaceful mind. Through this exercise I was able to relax just by taking deep breaths. I found it to be very calming. I actually used this exercise prior to going to bed for the night, and found that I slept better and more soundly than usual. I found the same to be true after I completed the meditation exercise. Through this exercise, I was able to clear my mind of negativity and focus on positive thoughts and ideas. I rid myself of all the noise and chaos of the day and calmed my mind through suggested thoughts as well as focused breathing. Although I haven't revisited either one of these exercises by listening to the audio, I have integrated concepts from each one of these exercises into my daily life. I focus on my breathing whenever I begin to feel stressed or overwhelmed. While taking deep breaths, I try to focus on positive or happy thought that eliminate the negative. It has really helped my mental and emotional wellbeing, and provided me with a much different outlook on a daily basis.

Meditation Practice

 
 I found this weeks exercise to be very interesting. From the beginning I appreciated the analogy of  the mind growing from a waterfall all the way to becoming similar to the river. It helped me understand the growing process of ignoring the daily "noise" that comes into our lives and being able to focus on calm, still, and deep thoughts. In this exercise, the person I visualized is my mother. To me, she is one of the smartest people I know, and I always ask for her advice and for answers whenever a problem arises. She's a very calm, logical, and rational person and always thinks about her actions beforehand, instead of just reacting. What I found difficult with this exercise is once again the long pauses in between the suggested imagery practices. I found myself drifting off and not really able to keep focused. Despite the difficulties, I was able to relax and think of how I would like to be more like my mother, and the steps I will need to take in order to make that happen. This class has really helped foster my spiritual and psychological growth and development. Before this class, I had not included my mind with my overall "health", and often neglected to focus on building my mind. I think the mind plays a huge role on our physical health, but also our happiness and wholeness. In order for me to be happy, I have to train my mind to think positively, be more open, feel loving and kindness towards others around me, and to rid myself of unnecessary burdens and stress.

The saying "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" is quite a perplexing statement to me. On one hand I do agree, that for some aspects, a person has to follow, or practice what they preach. A physician cannot be lecturing a patient about the dangers of smoking and urging someone to quit when they themselves are smoking. It would damage their credibility, and make the doctor less trustworthy and make the patients less likely to take their advice seriously. On the other side of this, there are a lot of instances that not everyone can experience the same events, diseases, or health problems, and just because a physician cannot experience the same events, doesn't mean that they can't educate and care for patients. A personal trainer working with morbidly obese patients does not need to have experienced being obese in their life for them to be an amazing mentor. I think physicians, therapists, and anyone in the health area need to focus on their own personal health in order to grow on a professional level. Again, physicians, therapists, and trainers who aren't practicing what they are lecturing about to patients won't be taken seriously and can lose their patients trust and respect.

This week there were two separate exercises that we were asked to participate in. The first was the Universal Loving-Kindness. I actually really enjoyed this practice. I took the 10 minutes and really cleared my mind of any other thoughts and focused on the instructions. I was skeptical of the phrases at first, but afterwards I did feel very open, much more understanding and more caring. For quite awhile after the exercise, I approached each task I needed to accomplish and person that I talked to with a open mind and open heart. I felt more at ease and almost serene.

The second exercise we were asked to participate in was the Integral Assessment. This exercise forced me to really consider my overall wellbeing and assess areas of my life that need to be further developed. The area that I think I need to focus on would be the psychospiritual. Between school, my full time job and part time job, there is often not enough time in the day to get everything accomplished. I often feel overwhelmed and extreme tension and stress. I do a lot of deep breathing exercises to calm myself, but a lot of times my mind is still focused on what else I need to get done. I have a hard time winding down at the end of the day, and when I am attempting to sleep at night I'm usually wide awake thinking of what all needs to be done tomorrow. I think my first step is to rid myself of unnecessary projects and activities that are only causing more stress and not serving a beneficial purpose in my life anymore. Once I release a few more responsibilities, I would like to sign up for a yoga class that will help teach me to focus my mind and provide me with the skills to calm myself and clear my head of stress.

The Subtle Mind

This week's exercise, "The Subtle Mind" was a very interesting experience. I struggled to form a solid connection to last week's "Loving-Kindness" exercise, so I was a little apprehensive starting this one. I think one of the biggest differences from last week's exercise for me was my ability to focus this week and rid myself of distractions. I was able to find a quiet place and focus, unlike last week where there was too much noise and things going on around me for me to really concentrate.

Anytime I feel overwhelmed or stressed, I walk away and take deep breaths. I focus on my breathing and it instantly calms me. I think my prior use of breathing techniques really helped me form a connection to "The Subtle Mind" and benefit from it. I felt very relaxed during this exercise and after. My mind felt clear, fresh, and calm.

I think there is a big connection between some one's mental, spiritual, and physical wellbeing. Depending on some one's religious or spiritual backgrounds, prayer and spiritual traditions can be very powerful and helpful for healing. For those who believe in a higher power, prayer can be a very calming and an emotional experience. It can provide people with hope, faith, and belief, especially when things are looking grim. I also believe that having a positive attitude and outlook on healing keeps a person mentally healthy as well as providing physical benefits. Positivity can reduce stress, and the less stress, the better for your physical health. In my personal life, I use prayer whenever I need a little "pick me up" or feeling low. It really helps keep me calm and rational, which influences my mental wellbeing. The less stressed I feel, the better I feel physically.

Loving-Kindness

This exercise was a difficult one for me. I listened to the audio version of the first practice of love-kindness about four times. Unfortunately, the audio was not effective for me. Each time it went to a long audio pause, my mind would wander and drift off to tasks that I need to accomplish, work I needed to do, etc. Despite the struggle with the audio exercise, I was able to complete the exercise through the reading. Being able to read at my own pace, and complete the steps was helpful. It made me calm, and relaxed, but I did struggle with the visualization and instructions. I found it difficult to connect to the mental suggestions. Despite my struggles with this activity, I would recommend it for other people. I think I wasn't in the proper state of mind that is needed for the activity to be successful and was not able to give it my full focus and attention. If someone is able to rid themselves of all distractions, I could see this being a very beneficial exercise to building your psychological health.

 

The concept of a mental workout is the same as a physical workout. In order for someone to build muscles and strength, they would need to go to the gym, lift weights, and train their body and muscles. The same goes for our psychological wellbeing. In order for us to obtain the highest level of psychospiritual flourishing, we need to mentally workout and practice mental exercises that build on our capabilities. Dedicating 15-20 minutes a day to practicing specific exercises can be very beneficial. It not only helps calm the mind and relax the body, but it can help expand your way of thinking, progress you to higher mental development, and open your mind to new ways of healing. There are several ways that I can incorporate these techniques into my daily routine to help build my psychological health.  Each night I already take 10 to 15 minutes before I go to bed to mentally relax. To do this I get comfortable, do deep breathing exercises, clear my head, and rid myself of all the day stresses. What I can start doing during these moments is attempting the suggested exercises.

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. (pp. 59-69). Laguna Beach: Basic Health Publications Inc.