Holistic and Integral Health

       I.                        I.            Why is it important for health and well ness 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 psychologically, spiritually, and physically because according to Dacher “to become an agent of a more expansive health, we must begin with our own health”, (2006).  By doing so we must not only educate ourselves but also have hands on training which can be accomplished by “preparations and practice”, (Dacher, 2006).  According to Dacher the goals and responsibilities of a health and wellness professional, “is to help others and to create a better world ending human suffering”, (2006).  The areas I need to develop to achieve my goals are psychological and spirituality.  I can do this by avoiding thing or people that may cause stress in my life (psychological); and as for spirituality I can start attending church or try praying to God more often. 
    II.                   How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?
      I have assed my health in each domain by following the six principles of integral health. According to Dacher these guidelines are used to help guide us (2006), and it starts by focusing on the things I need to fix in my life. These principles according to Dacher, “alleviate needless suffering and promotes human flourishing; recognizes the distinction between short-term relief of needless suffering and permanent relief; recognizes the distinction between immediate pleasure and long-term flourishing; the development of the psycho-spiritual; relies on deep listening and guidance; and addresses the aspects, levels, and line of development that are relevant to our current circumstance”, (2006). 
When scoring my physical wellness I would give myself a strong score (7) because I do go to the gym and eat as healthy as I can every day.  I could improve by being more consistent with my cardio and keep up with my healthy eating habits I do tend to slack off from time to time.  I would score my psychological and spiritual wellness rather low (3).  I say this because at times I still get upset over little things and I find myself having trouble focusing when I am in a mad state of mind which causes me a lot of stress; and I find myself never praying or attending church, I do believe there is a God however, I’ve never really given myself a chance to get to know God on any kind of level.
 III.                  List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area; psychological, physical, and spiritual.
      My goal for spiritual wellness begins I believe at home through prayer and then move on to attending church and then going on a regular basis.  My goal for psychological wellness is to try meditating more often to help relax the mind; I have entertained the thought about trying yoga, tai chi, or qui gong on a weekly basis.  As for my physical wellness goal I am trying to push myself to remain the same weight and lift heavier weights, as well as train for a 10k (6.2 miles) being that I accomplished my first 3k not too long ago. 
 IV.                   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.
      To foster growth in my physical domain I plan on increasing my resistance and cardio training.  I would like to increase the weight I am lifting to gain more muscle and increase my cardio for stamina I will do this by following a more strict regimen.  To foster psychological growth my plan is to meditate every day and to attend a qi gong class once a week.  By doing this it will improve my stress level and help me become more at peace with myself.  Lastly, to foster spiritual growth my plan is to pray at least one a day and to attend church once a week and also by volunteering my time.  By praying and going to church I become one not only with myself but with a higher power; and by volunteering I am becoming involved with my community and giving back anyway I can. 
    V.                  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?
            For the next six months I can assess my progress by keeping a journal.  In this journal I could keep track of my gains at the gym or my weight loss on the scale, or it will show me where I need improvement on.  As for my psychological and spiritual growth I can keep track of how long I’ve meditated, how many times a day I meditated and how I felt after each experience (did it change my attitude); and the same with praying, here I could also keep track of the time I felt like God spoke to me.  After a few months of monitoring I should be able to see where I need improvement in order to keep balance between my psychological, spiritual and physical health.

References

Dacher, E. Integral Health. The Path to Human Flourishing. (2006). Basic Health Publications, Inc.

The Subtle Mind and Meditation

Hello All,

The two practice exercises that I thought were most beneficial were the subtle mind and meditation.  What I enjoyed about the subtle mind practice was that it allows us to bring focus to our breathing. Focusing on my breathing allowed me to not drift away and my mind could focus more. I feel that in order to obtain “mental fitness” we must be able to focus and train our minds to become calm and relaxed and not getting easily distracted; I feel that the subtle mind and meditation practices allows me to do this more effectively compared to the others. I can implement these into my personal life by doing them on a daily basis and doing them a little longer instead of 15 minutes try doing 30 minutes. I think that meditation and focusing on my breathing will make my mind more calm and allow me to become a more patient loving person by not becoming so mad or upset, and taking a step back before reacting to others. I believe that in order to achieve mental fitness, we have to work on it every day in order to achieve the results that lead to human flourishing.  I can implement these practices in my personal life to foster mental fitness by joining a yoga class and doing some yoga after work, or I could close myself off to the rest of the world and sit in a quiet room listen to the subtle mind exercise before engaging in other activities around the house.  Doing these practices after work I believe would help me avoid stressful situations that can arise at home and I would be able to better connect with my family members.

The Inner Healer

The final practice meeting Aesclepius uses visualization to help access our inner healer that is found at the source of our bean.  That wise healer that resides within each of us will help guide us through the integral process, the ancient Greeks called this inner healer Aesclepius, though to us it’s called our subtle mind.  This week’s assignment asked us to sit in a quiet relaxed room with our eyes closed and to visualize the image of a very wise loving man or woman; when choosing an individual they can be alive or passed away, but they must be a person whom you respect, honor, and whom you feel a special sense of connection with; with our eyes closed we observe this individual while listening to the ocean waves in the background.  I chose to visualize my father whom taught me most of everything about life; this practice was very calming and peaceful with the sound of the water and having my eyes closed.  Meditation has given me a calming sense and I have found myself trying to control my breathing when I get upset and letting the issue go; I also can practice these methods on a more regular basis in order to foster greater health and wellness in my life. 

            To me the phrase “one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” means, we cannot teach or give advice on things we know nothing about or have ever experienced ourselves.  It’s like a smoker telling another smoker to stop smoking because the benefits are great, how would they know if they never stopped smoking.  This phrase can be applied to the health and wellness professional by for example, if a nutritionist/personal trainer wanted you to eat right and exercise then they should also follow this lifestyle they want others to follow.  I know if I seen a personal trainer/nutritionist smoking and drinking all day every day all information given by that individual would go in one ear and out the other.  Yes, I do have an obligation to my clients to be developing my health psychologically, physically, and spiritually because like the phrase says “one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself”.  I can implement psychological and spiritual growth in my personal life by turning negative situations into a positive.

Discovering Ourselves

Hello,

            This week’s exercise asked us to close our eyes so that we could come to a natural ease of our mind and had to repeat the following phrase: “May all individuals gain freedom from suffering; May all individuals find sustained health, happiness, and wholeness; May I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering; May I assist all individuals in finding health, happiness, and wholeness”, (Dacher, 2006).  The assessement for this week asked us to close our eyes and to release all mental activity; once this was done we had to ask ourselves two questions “What aspect of my life (psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, or worldly) is the source of difficulty and suffering; and the next was, What area of my life is ready for growth and development?  I found the exercise for this week to be very, very, boring and with that from what I discovered about myself is that I really don’t like reading things over and over for ten minutes straight that was not for me, it gave me a headache and I found myself becoming very impatient.  The area I have chosen to be a focus of growth and development is my interpersonal development; the changing/shifting of I to you which is considered the major growth for this development (Dacher, 2006).  According to Dacher, “with each step up the developmental ladder, our sense of isolation and separateness diminishes, and we gain a growing capacity for intimacy and connection; in addition, there is longer a distinction between what we want for others and what we want for ourselves”, (2006).  At the moment I am caught up in what others want and what I want for myself and it is really bugging me and stressing me out, therefore, that is why I chose to focus on growth and development in this area.  I believe the specific exercises or activities that I could do to foster greater wellness in this area is take up a team sport because this could build leadership and communication skills (Bazilli, 2014).

References

Bazilli, M. (2014). Group 22: Life Skills. Retrieved on April 3, 2014 from https://www.changemakers.com/project/pekn-wiki-group-22-life-skills.

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Basic Health Publication, Inc. Laguna Beach, CA.