Unit 9 - Final Blog

Introduction:

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?

Health and wellness professionals need to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically because they need to be able to have gone down the path of integral health in order to share their knowledge and experience with their clients.  In order for a health and wellness professional to be able to truly assist their patients they need to know what obstacles and challenges their clients will face and they need to work together to overcome these.  Credibility also pays an important factor when dealing with health and wellness professionals.  If the health and wellness professional has been able to develop themselves and has gained knowledge from their journey, their clients will trust them and follow their advice for their own well being journey. 

There are several areas that I need to develop in order to achieve my goals.  My greatest challenge is developing my spirituality.  This is an area that I have struggled with for many years. I am truly ‘lost’ in this area and not sure what direction I need to pursue in order to find my spiritual happiness. Since this has been a struggle for me, I have basically been avoiding making any type of steps that might lead me to some answers.  I keep receiving mailings from my local church and I am thinking about stopping by for one of the fellowship meetings.  My hopes are by attending one of these meetings that it might spark an interest in further developing the relationship with the church or possible lead me in a new direction that could provide the spirituality that I have longed for.

The second area that I need to develop would be working on my physical self.  I was taking care of myself about three months ago, but I have seemed to fall off the wagon.  I weigh myself every week and I am maintaining my weight but I need to be more conscious of the food choices that I am eating.  I also need to incorporate exercise back into my weekly routine.  I was doing well with the exercise in the beginning of the summer, but have lost my motivation and have stopped exercising all together.  In order for me to reach my goal of taking care of my physical self I will start to keep track of the foods I am eating on a daily basis.  This is a great tool to keep my on track on what food items I am consuming.  I will also sign up for a 5k race in my community in the early spring so I can work on training for this over the fall and the winter.  Once I commit to a 5k race, I will definitely run it.  This is also a great goal since I will be 40 years-old in the beginning of the year!

 Assessment:

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

Wellness spiritually – score 5

Physically – score 6

Psychologically – score 8

Wellness spiritually – This is an area where I need to focus more of my attention.  I started to focus on my spiritually several years ago before my daughter was born but shortly after she was born I stopped practicing.  I have not been able to commit to my wellness spiritually and have been struggling with myself because I am not focused in this area.  I have reached out to a volunteer group and I am hoping to start volunteering there soon. I am hoping that maybe this experience will help lead me to a path of spirituality.

Physically – This is an area that I could also focus on to improve my assessment score.  I need to dig deep within myself and commit to an exercise and eating routine that I could incorporate into my business lifestyle.  I also need to make a concerted effort to also focus on ‘mental’ exercises more often during my day to help me cope better with stress and help relax my mind. I think this domain I will be able to raise my assessment score to at least an 8 by the upcoming holidays.

Psychologically – This is an area where I feel comfortable with.  I believe that I am mentally strong.  This course has allowed me to be more aware of my mental state and I am conscious on how I react to situations.  I find that I am trying to be more patient and less stressed throughout my day.  I am keeping a positive mind frame and sharing my positive ‘voice’ with my friends and family.   

Goal development:

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

My physical goal is to make better food choices and to exercise a minimum of twice a week.

My psychological goal is to continue along my path of gaining integral health into my life as well as continue to grow my mental well-being.  I believe I am on a good journey already in this area.

My spiritual goal is to really do my due diligence and find a resource that can assist me with gaining a sense of spirituality in my life.  I will make an attempt to go to some of the fellowship meetings at my local church to see if I can find enlightenment there.

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.

The strategies that I plan to implement are as follows;

Physical – I will start to incorporate exercise into my weekly routine.  I plan on doing 30 minutes of cardio a week.  I am also looking into taking yoga classes.  I will plan to attend one in the next two weeks.  My diet also needs a change.  I will begin to incorporate daily juicing back into my daily diet.  I will begin juicing immediately.

Psychological - I am always looking to improve all aspects of my life and this would also include my psychological domain.  I would like to improve on my overall mental health.  My mind seems to always run on ‘overload’ and it is important for me to learn how to truly relax my mind.  My hopes are that a clearer mind will allow me to make the correct decisions and lead me down the correct path along my journey.  The exercises that will assist me in obtaining my goal of psychological wellness are meditation and positive thinking. I will immediately incorporate 10 minutes of daily meditation into my schedule.  This is a realistic goal for me because I have a difficult time settling my mind.  I will also make more of a concerted effort to bring positive thoughts into my life.  I will focus on the positive and the good and try and eliminate the negative thoughts. 

Spiritual - This domain is the area that needs the most improvement.  This will be a long journey but I am willing to take the necessary steps in order to achieve spirituality into my life.  I think this is sadly long overdue.  I have reached out to a non-profit group in my community; Feed the Children for volunteering options.  Unfortunately, our calendars have not been able to connect in order for me to volunteer.  I will reach out to the coordinator on Monday to ensure that I get a volunteer time slot on the calendar for the month of October.  I also plan on volunteering my time for this organization one time a month.  I will also try and achieve my goal of spirituality by responding to the RSVP invitation that I received from my church for attendance at the fellowship meetings.  I think that reconnecting with my church and being with a group of people with the same common interests will be a positive experience.  I hope that the fellowship meetings will lead me to continue my spirituality growth.

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?

In order to assess my progress I will keep a journal.  The journal will serve as an excellent resource for me in order to keep my thoughts and goals on track.  In the journal I will outline key target dates with my goals.  For example:  Lose two pounds by October 13.  Look at possible 5k races that I would be interested in running in by October 20.  Sign up for 5k race by November 15.  Realistic goals like this will allow me to stay focus and remain positive.  I will also log in my journal my thoughts for the day.  I would like to write about what items that worked for me in a particular day and what was some of my struggles and challenges. 

The strategy that I would like to incorporate in order to maintain lifelong practices in health and wellness are to get my husband to take this journey with me.  We have done this in the past and we were both successful. My husband has been mentioning for many months now that he wants to get back to the healthy lifestyle that we had several years ago.  We were both vegetarians and exercised faithfully.  I think that having the support of my husband will also be a huge benefit for me.  We will be able to assist each other and it makes the journey a little easier when we are both making the conscious steps together. 

In closing, I just want to thank the professor and my classmates for making this class very enjoyable.  I got off to a rocky start but I am very happy with my progress in this class both academically and physically.  This course was truly enlightening and I am thankful that my advisor recommended it to me.  I am going to be sharing my text book with my husband so he can also learn about the journey I made in the last nine weeks of this class.

Namaste