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