Unit 9

It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically because of the need to have a balanced life in those three areas of their lives. The need to have a balanced flourishing healthy life to model and help other people along their road in life to find the same flourishing path is important. Practitioners need to be able to show others the way in the journey, guiding and showing them how we did it. One need is to display wisdom and knowledge. Professional practitioners need to acknowledge that a balanced life is a successful life, and it can work and is working for us very well with our health, emotions, and mental attitudes about life in balance, peace and harmony.

I wish to develop the psychological area in my life in more depth as my brain has a hard time getting rid of mental chatter. I will aspire to exercise my brain with mental training: Biofeedback, humor, brain books, music, creative visualizations, relaxation techniques, writing poetry, games e.g. chess, learning how to calm and still the mind, observe its activities, quiet them, focus on a focus point, and concentrate at will.

I hope to increase the physical area of my life by expanding to new areas of physical exploration for exercise, strength, flexibility, and an array and variety of recreational pursuits, since currently I only bike ride.

In the spiritual area of my life I yearn to use prayer as a medicine, as I have not been doing enough evidenced by lack of internal peace and contentment. Prayer can bring improved health as a spiritual practice, reducing personal stress and increase my coping abilities. I will use prayer to meditate and contemplate on my relationship with the Divine Healer. I will offer gratitude for life and wellbeing and enhance informal conversation with God about dad-to-day matters, seeking guidance and counsel. I will increase my Bible reading to gain wisdom and direction as well.

II Assessment:

I personally need to increase my development in all three areas: psychological, spiritual, and physical as I am lacking and deficient in each area.

My personal self-assessment scoring will be from numbers one through five. The values/meaning of the scores will be as follows:

1. A score of one is: as close to humanly ‘perfect’/complete/ultimate success as much as humanly possible. Potential is reasonably high, vibrant and working well. Inner peace and balance is working with flourishing integral health present.

2. A score of two means: moving closer to goal of ’perfect’ strong, healthy, full of energy, forceful, working earnestly, vigorously, toward the ultimate goal of reaching a score of one of success, inner peace, and balance.

3. A score of three indicates mediocre progress of ordinary, moderate quality. The working/moving towards the goal, somewhat struggling with best way of making a faster headway, organizing, but head way/action is still happening, slowly progressing, and not stagnant.

4. A score of four means, motivation is barely there and almost gone, low twenty five percent of potential. Attitude not as positive as it needs to be, behavior is in need of improvement, not given up, but potential to give up looming. I am still slowing grasping and trying to move forward but it is hard.

5. A score of five is: motivation is almost not there, maybe one percent left, no flow of activity, give-up mode has set in with a defeated attitude, unsuccessful actions, in a rut of negative behavior, needing help/counseling/ intervention from a friend needed to come along to help and encourage me to come out of the rut in the area, and in need of overhaul and much improvement. Potential success seems out of reach. You have a total negative attitude present in this area of your life. Since I need more in the psychological/mental/emotional state of my life I give myself a score of three in this area.

My assessed score for my physical domain is two. A score for the spiritual area of my life is three.

III. Goal development:

It is my goal and hope to daily and progressively, strive to improve my self-development. In the psychological area, my goals are to become familiar with many different meditation practices, make a list of them, review them, and make some new ones (not based on the religion of Buddha) but, based on Christianity and my core beliefs. Another psychological goal would be to investigate and visit a biofeedback clinic and see the machine first-hand with a demonstration.

An additional goal in this area is to daily change negative emotions to positive emotions with prayer being the main medicine to accomplish this goal. The goal of keeping a positive attitude and mental outlook in the replacement of a negative one as a new life practice forever.

I will use music as a mind and emotion practice to calm my spirit. Singing, playing my piano and writing new original music as poetry to vent my feelings and calm my mind will be used.

Developing a Humor Journal, tracking my favorite jokes and short funny stories to lift my spirits and share with others will help in this area as well.

In the physical area, the first goal is to start doing the new CD program I just received in the mail a few days ago. Getting started is the hardest thing and it is a goal to start within the next week.

A second goal in the physical realm would be to start doing arm curls with my dumbbells, and light squats with my empty bar. To start out slow and work up to higher weights is part of the longer-range goal.

Thirdly, in the physical area, I would like to add simple stretching exercises from my exercise book, and enlist my husband to do them with me as well.

In the Spiritual area, my first goal is to begin to pray more consistently and regularly with my husband at breakfast, then, after my husband leaves for work, read the Bible for fifteen minutes before I begin my school studies.

I would add to that, after the reading, I will add meditating on what I read, and on the goodness of God, his attributes, His compassion and loving-kindness to all mankind and me.

I will then choose to pray for at least one suffering individual that comes to my mind in the morning and throughout the day.

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.

In the Spiritual area, one strategy I will increase my mental focus on the spiritual foundations I believe, increase prayer and reflection time in the same way.

I will use positive and creative visualization to focus, breathing to relax, and my own compassion and loving-kindness meditations to go inward for health and healing. I will make up my own meditations to parallel my Christian beliefs. I will sing spiritual hymns in worship and meditation, and play the same songs on the piano as I reflect, meditate and visualize compassion and goodness. I will use this time to set my mind in a mode of deep compassion and a giving attitude.

In the physical arena, I need to focus on variety; stretching, arm strength, and abs strength training will be the new focus. I will begin to do Beach body’s CD workouts called: Hip-Hop ABS, Fat Burning Cardio, AB Sculpt, Total Body Burn, Secrets to Blat ABS, Last Minute ABS, and Hips, Buns, and Thighs and journal my activity, diet and routine times.

In the Psychological area, some examples I will investigate, tweak, and integrate are: Silence and Stillness, Skillful Action, Loving-Kindness, Renunciation, ‘Meeting Ascelpius’, Witnessing Consciousness, and Calm Abiding. I will look into and research and incorporate brain mental training methods and information form psycho numerology into my mental and emotional psychological learning and strategies.

Further, in the psychological area, I will purchase and read the book called the Power of Prayer, to investigate the healing power it can give.

I will investigate pets/animals in their use to psychological development as well.

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 will access my progress or lack of progress in the next six months by measuring the stress levels in my new job (or lack of a job). I will look at the date on the calendar marked “Life self-check” and access my progress then, ask my husband what his rating would be from one to five since we got married a year ago, (one being no stress and 5 being totally stressed).

I will use these strategies of leading my family and friends in spiritual meditations I have come up with and see if it helps them in handling relationships within their life stressors. I will determine if my family and I have moved closer to a loving, serving, calm, healing attitude in daily life more than we were six months previous. I will note if our family has come to love unconditionally, and openly in the last 6 months giving consistent hugs and saying, “I love You” before departing each other. I will ask my husband to access on a scale of one to five if these noted areas are closer to one or five. My husband and I will rate our family on attitudes and behaviors that promote peace, health, happiness and wholeness to/for others and us.

My husband and I will rate our family in a listening scale from one to five for a deep unconditional way to each other. We will access how close from one to five scales if compassion and charity are the gold thread running thru the middle of our family.

The strategies I plan to use in maintaining my long-term practices for health and wellness are: develop a daily routine in the morning to build a foundation and keep building on it. I will strengthen the inner mind. I will stimulate brain functioning, exercise, prayer, Biofeedback, humor, brain books, music, creative visualizations, relaxation techniques, writing poetry, games, Sudoku, cross-word puzzles, witnessing mind, chess, learning how to do calm abiding, and still the mind, observe its activities, quiet them, focus on a focus point, and learn to concentrate in my inner mind at will, and use

Christian-centered and (not Buddha-centered) meditation practices. I will daily do something to train my brain. Not only will I daily work our muscles, I will work out my brain muscle as well, reading, writing, and contemplating.

Reference:

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