Health and Wellness

It is so important for health professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically. They cannot teach what they do not know. Without the personal experience they could not go beyond their training. It is a hands on learning that only an individual can experience for themselves. The inner aspects of healing are the most undeveloped. Practice and preparation is needed to understand the holistic healing process. When we incorporate integral healing into our own lives we can discover profound possibilities. We begin to alleviate human suffering and gain human flourishing. (Dacher, 2006) For myself I need to practice and make it a daily progression. I feel like the more you practice the better and easier it gets and the better the healing results.

    There are six principals of an integral assessment; you can use this to see where you are and what you can do better. “The first goal is to get rid of needless suffering and promote human flourishing” (Dacher, 2006), this means that you need to find the areas of your life that are the most distressful and what areas do we have the best possibilities for growth. The second principal is recognizing the difference between short term and permanent relief from suffering. We need to have short term relief at times and other times it will require a long term program. The third principal is learning the difference between long term flourishing and short term pleasure. “This means enjoying worldly pleasures without suffering attachment” (Dacher, 2006). The fourth principal is developing psychospiritualy. We need to open our hearts and bring wisdom and human flourishing in. Principal number five is deep listening and guidance. Having a state of mind that is open, clear and unbiased is necessary in order to enter into a calm aiding state. Last is our personal assessment that needs to be done every once in a while to accommodate change in our life. (Dacher, 2006) Spiritually I would rate myself a 10 on a scale of 1-10, I am very spiritually happy and healthy. Physically I would rate myself a 6, I am not at the weight I want to be and once I graduate and have the time I need I will be able to exercise like I used to. Psychologically I have endured many things that could have sent me over the edge; I have a strong mind and have taken steps to deal with issues that many people stuff, which only makes them worse as it festers. I have gone the extra mile to deal face to face with these issues. I have family support and God in my life. I feel like I am doing very well.

My personal goals are to physically exercise on a regular basis. I want to lose 40 pounds and I intend on starting April first 2013 I have a friend who wants to work out with me, I have a lot of exercise equipment in my basement so we have decided to met here at 6pm and get started. My goals psychologically are honestly to take a break after I graduate in June before I start my Masters degree in October. I feel like I am psychologically exercised with my school work. I am a good student and have good grades and it makes me feel really good. I love to learn. Spiritually I want to draw closer to God. I intend on reading these three books this summer and meditating on God. I love to pray and just be in his holy presence. I want to go to church every week and just bask in his glory. My mom and sister and I all have very good bible studies together.

I touched a little on my goal for physical health, I explained what and how I plan to accomplish this goal. I will put a time on when it will happen and I will exercise with a friend for encouragement. Psychologically I will use the subtle mind exercise. This one was really beneficial to me because what I need most is to relax, breath, focus on my muscles relaxing and just letting my body come to a complete rest. I tense up throughout the day and find myself with headaches if I do not do this exercise. Another one is loving kindness, even though this was not really helpful to me to relax it lifted up my mood and I felt more positive and happy. It trained my mind to think of people and happy and things. As far as spiritually, I will focus on getting in a relaxed state and pray more often and then just listen. I will read inspirational spiritual books and spend time with my Christian friends and family to build each other up spiritually. I will use the integral assessment to find out my growth in the next six months. It is important to do this assessment periodically because as life changes and so do your needs. I hope to grow more in each area and increase my holistic health and wellness. I am very excited to learn that some of the things I have been wondering and studying are really proven to be healthy. I always felt like true health and wellness involves the mind, body and spirit, this class has showed me in many ways how it is true.

Reference

Dacher, (2006). Integral Health. The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA; Basic Health Publications

Hello, I liked the Subtle Mind and practice the best. It was refreshing and relaxing. Some of the others involved too much thinking and I do that too much already!! I just want to be able to relax, each and every muscle, breath and feel rejuvenated when I am done. I find that I tense up a lot and do not breath right all the time when I am tense. Like when you are scared and you tense up and hold your breath. I am not scared I just have so much to do that I am always worried I will forget something. I love the way my mind can focus on relaxing, even if only for a few minutes to regain my composure and continue on, only with a renewed mind and a gentle spirit. I will do this more often and I also find that I am able to enjoy life more when I am not "stressing out" all the time. I have learned so much in this class and even my misconceptions of meditation.

I honestly was reluctant to do this exercise. I though that meeting Aesclepius was like praying to a God that did not exist. I found that it is what you make of it. I love only one God and everything I do is to glorify his name only. So I did the exercise with an open heart and found that it is about what you believe and the one I chose that I really respected was God and my father. I was able to relax and feel a good, happy feeling that was like when your father would hold you as a child. It felt good and warm and safe.
The saying one can not lead another where one has not gone himself is really true as far as I think. If you do not know how can you teach someone else? I never act like I know an answer to someones questions if I really do not. I am honest and will try to find the answer but do not claim to know or have experienced everything. I feel like I have an obligation to the residents that I care for to be anything they need at that moment. I am funny, I am spiritual, I am truthful, I am kind and I can cry with you if that is what is needed. I try to be true to them and true to myself.

Unit 6

Today I am reading and trying to find out what is the exercise supposed to do for me. I am not finding the repetitiveness of it relaxing. I feel like I am trying to convince myself of loving others, which I do naturally anyway. I am a genuine caring and concerned person even for people I do not know. I often wonder what kind of lives strangers live. I like to meditate in my quiet place about my Bible verse of the day and pray. I do not find that I am often angry or in need of calming down. So my relaxation exercises are for pure pleasure and relaxation. I do not let life get me down and I keep on going no matter who in my path is miserable. I found that I need to spend more time on myself that I do not have the time or energy to right now. I am looking forward to graduating and having 4 months off. I will have so much time to really relax and exercise.

Unit 5

Hello. This week was a success! I enjoyed the relaxation from this exercise. I was able to get into this one much easier than the one last week. I like the fact that it kept going back to the breathing, it was so much more relaxing. I find that I often tune things out in order to do my school work. This is something I have learned to do because I was getting so frustrated with all of the noise. I like to do this kind of exercise when I am praying. When I am physically well I feel spiritual well. I have been able to put my mind, body and spirituality to the test and it is amazing to learn more and how to apply it to your life.