Reflection

1. Review your unit 3 personal assessment of your psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being. Reflect on these areas . How did you score yourself on a scale from 1 to 10 in unit 3? How do you score yourself now? Has the score changed? Why or why not?

The rating I gave myself when I first graded my spiritual, physical and psychological health is still the same today. I graded myself an 8 physically, a 5 psychologically and a 7 spiritually. I rated each category the same because I have not done much more to increase each rating yet. Spiritually I read my bible and pray more but I still am struggling with some things that are keeping me from flourishing fully. I still spend the same amount of time working out and trying to eat right. Psychologically I still need some more help in controlling my anger, so until I make the time to fix these areas my ratings will be the same.
2. Review the goals and activities you set for yourself in each area. Have you made progress toward the goals? Explain.

I have made little progress towards my goals. The only area I have added to is my spiritual. As I stated earlier I read my bible and pray a lot more. I spend quiet time meditating even if it is only for a few minutes. I feel more complete spiritually but I don’t feel as if I am where I need to be. The goals I set for the other categories just need the time and effort put into them both.

3. Have you implemented the activities you chose for your well-being in each of the three areas? Explain.

I have not implemented none of the activities towards my wellbeing except prayer meditation. I feel if I get my family more involved in changing eating habits and working out my motivation will stay high and I will achieve my physical goals, and as for psychological well being I can continue to pray and meditate and simply make toe time to talk to someone about the issues that make me so upset.

4. Summarize your personal experience throughout this course. Have you developed improved well-being? What has been rewarding? What has been difficult? How will this experience improve your ability to assist others?

This course was a self awareness course for me. It enlightened me to alternate methods of dealing with stress besides the conventional methods that are usually harmful and pointless. Now that I have these tools I can be in control my stress instead of my stress being in control of me. The knowledge alone was rewarding for me because I never really considered meditation or addressing all three aspects of human life to prosper. The most difficult thing about the methods that where taught was making the time to practice. I believe that my example of what I do to relax can help influence family and friends to search for alternate methods of stress release as well. Together we can help each other in this ever lasting battle.

Unit 9 project

Why is it important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically? What areas do you need to develop to achieve the goals you have for yourself?

It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop their whole being because as a professional it is difficult to instruct someone else on relaxation when everything about you says you need to relax. In other words, the professional needs to live the example in order to fully understand and share what it is to be completely whole. It is just like a personal trainer. I am not going to listen to a personal trainer who has a bigger stomach than I do because he is obviously not doing what he is telling me to do. My goals include continuously strengthening my spiritual man because I believe the physical and the mental will follow. As a Christian from church and the truth in the bible gives you everything you need in dealing with life and how to live. The only other thing is to eat right and exercise. I would like to practice more meditative practices. Tai Chi, yoga anything I can do in my spare time to relax me on the inside and out.

II Assessment:

How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?

I would rate myself pretty high in each domain at this point in my life. As I am getting older I’m realizing a lot of things and eliminating the extras of life that help complicate and dominate the things that are really important. Spiritually I would rate myself a 7. I believe you can always grow spiritually but at this point I would say a seven because I still have some things to overcome. After a consistent year or so of growing and learning I can see myself being a 10. Physically I rate myself a 9. I have a regular workout schedule and eat healthy home cooked meals. Psychologically I would rate myself a 5. I rated myself a 5 because sometimes I feel depressed, lose my temper quickly, and really hate being around a lot of people. Some of these issues I want to relate to being in combat, but till I get help this is where I rate myself.

III Goal development:

List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.

My goal for my spiritual being is to continue to grow. I want to continue to grow to where reading of the word and praying become a regular practice in my home and on my job. I want to continue to grow to where I can be an example for others through my spiritual wellness. Psychologically my goal will be to make the necessary time to get the help that I need to deal with anger and sadness. Not to get on any more medications but to deal with these issues head on and keep them at bay. Physically my goal is to gain a little more muscle and tone up a bit more. Besides those two factors I will keep doing what I’m doing as far as working out 3 to 4 times a week , eating right, and staying active.

IV Practices for personal health:

What strategies can you implement to foster growth in each of the following domains; Physical, Psychological, and Spiritual. Provide at least two examples of exercises or practices in each domain. Explain how you will implement each example.

Strategies I can use to grow physically would be to use a support system. At times I lose my motivation to work out and cheat my workouts but if I had someone to go to the gym with me and push me just as I push them I think my motivation will stay up and I will not lack in my workouts. Another strategy for physical health would be to mix up my workouts more. I usually do the same exercises so mixing my exercises and routine up more would help keep the motivation and allow me to reach my goals. Spiritually the strategy I would use to grow is practicing more prayer mediation. I believe prayer mediation will give me more time to focus on what I am praying about and allow me to feel God on a different level. I can also implement a social support for my spiritual being as well. Many people do not socialize with others who believe outside of church. Finding more friends and people to share and fellowship with outside of church will increase you faith and spirit. Psychologically I can start to take up Tai Chi again. I started taking tai chi and noticed I had a little more patience and peace about everything around me. I can also do quick meditative exercises like the subtle mind exercise at work and when I come home so that I am less irritated from the day.

V Commitment:

How will you assess your progress or lack of progress in the next six months? What strategies can you use to assist in maintaining your long-term practices for health and wellness?

I can defiantly see myself progressing in the next six months in all of the three categories. One of the ways I can asses my progress is through my wife, family and people I come in contact with everyday. I say this because If you have spiritual balance, physical balance and psychological balance you whole being in harmony. So if my whole being is in harmony I will be less quick to get angry, I will be more consistent in my spiritual task, and I will be in great shape. No one can tell me that I have changed more than my wife and the people I am around the most. There are not a whole lot of strategies for me when it comes to achieving my long term goal except practice, practice, practice and consistency. Many people never even get there goals off of a piece of paper and if they do as soon as they get distracted they never return to them. For me Practice and consistency will be the best strategies for achieving maximum health and wellness

Exercise Recap

1. Review the exercises and practice sessions you have completed in this course. (Loving Kindness, Subtle mind, Visualization, meditation etc.) Choose two practices that you have determined to be most beneficial. How can you implement these practices in your personal life to foster �mental fitness�? Provide specific examples.

It is my opinion that all of the exercises where helpful and very relaxing. The ones I found most beneficial for me where the visualization and loving kindness exercise. I am a very visual person, and I learn a lot by seeing. For me visualizing relaxing images and positive things helped the effects of the exercise. The loving kindness exercise was great for me because it helps you to appreciate the ones you love even if you have had issues with them in the past. In my personal life it is already difficult to find time to meditate and do the exercises however. in between school work, my breaks at work and the time I have alone when I come home I can make time to practice and relax. I could also practice these exercises when I notice myself becoming overwhelmed by my daily schedule.

The saying

" One can not lead another where one has not gone himself"

To me this means I can not pass knowledge to you on something that I never had experience with. In health and wellness how can we share with other people or influence other peole to pursue human flourishing if we are not flourishing or at least taking the steps to get there. In my career choice as a PT it will be all too important for me to have a balance of spiritual, mental and physical health because physical therapy takes patients and I will be introduced to many different people with many different problems. The more together i am the better I can help my patients.

week seven

This exercise reminded me a lot of the loving kindness exercise. The way it started off with picturing someone you admire or care a lot for. It was easy for me to do I put my mom on my mind. My mom is a very special wise women who has been through a lot and seen a lot. She has helped me in many different situations and been with me through a lot. The meditation practices and mindful exercises have helped me tremendously. I feel like I can more easily control my thoughts and relax more easily by just breathing. I think if I involved my family it would help me stay motivated and committed to doing the exercises more often. At that point my whole house should be filled with nothing but peace.

more exercises

The Integral Assessment is personal program that we develop to assess where our strengths and weaknesses are and will give a better picture where we would like to make improvements to promote human flourishing. This is done using the Lines of Development using the four aspects of human experience; Psychospiritual, Biological, Interpersonal, and Worldly Flourishing.

The loving kindness exercise was of course relaxing and mind soothing. I enjoyed taking the time to sit and think about my loved ones and the people who make me happy. It even made me think of loved ones that I have had animosity with. For me the loving kindness exercise gives you a chance not to reflect on the bad but the good you have in life and with the people you care about most. It is times such as this that will help you appreciate life and family more.
The integral Assessment exercise was good. It is always positive to asses where you are strong and weak in your life especially if you are trying to become a fully complete person. Throughout this exercise I realized that I need to make more time for my spiritual being. I started out good with meditation,prayer, and scripture but as time goes on I find myself getting more and more away from it and I can feel the difference. My problem also is that I always feel as though I have to fix everything. If I cant take care of the situation it disturbs me terribly. So now my psychological branch is off because I start stressing over things instead of thinking them through. This is why I think these meditation exercises are so important because they teach you to learn how to relax and think things through. The only way I see to get back to where I need to spiritually is by just doing it. Make the time to pray more, read more, just like I make time for everything else.

Subtle mind exercise

Hi everyone, another day after work tired and ready to take a nap. But anyways I did not see to much of a difference from the subtle mind exercise and the loving kindness exercise except the concept. The loving kindness exercise involved you thinking more about your life. The subtle mind exercise involved more of you controlling your thoughts and keeping your mind from wondering off. Besides those two differences it still was very relaxing, and calming. If you didn't have someone coaching you on what to do it would have been the same as the loving kindness exercise.

For me the connection between spiritual wellness, mental wellness, and physical wellness is they all work together in finding inner peace or human flourishment. The fact that I have a spiritual life, I have the tools used from church, the Bible and life, that will help me control my mental thoughts keeping me from being stressed, depressed and anxious, thus keeping my physical being intact. In my opinion your spiritual and mental wellness are the most important elements of human flourishing because everything else will follow.