The End of an on Going Journey

Hello everyone, I can't believe how fast this term went, I feel like I say this every term lol. It's hard to believe I've been with Kaplan for two years already. This class is on the top of my favorites list. It has taught me so much about wellness and about myself personally. It has been a rough 10 weeks and alot of big changes have been made in my life in these 10 weeks and thanks to this class I've dealt with them much better than I would have before. In my previous reflection I rated my physical health a 7, now I would rate it a 8.5 or a 9. I am eating better and exercise regularly which is amazing, I haven't felt this good in long time. My body is at a place that I am content with. My mental health I rated previously a 4 or 5 I would now rate it a 6. Not a huge change but it is a step in the right direction, it is something I work on everyday and is a process, things don't change overnight. Same with my spiritual health, I unfortunately pay the least attention to that aspect of my health, but thanks to this class I've learned it is just as important as all of the others and have actually been getting better at it. I rated myself a 3 previously and I would say it is a 4 now. This whole class has been really rewarding, the most difficult part was the meditation exercises and dealing with the emotional parts of it but it was definitely healing. I am thankful for everything I've learned and cannot wait to share it with as many people as I can so they can feel the same happiness as I do from it. I wish everyone the best of luck in all of their future endeavors!
-Felicia

Self Assessment Final Project

   To me it is very important as a health and wellness professional to be fully developed psychologically, spiritually, and physically because in order to achieve optimum wellness you have to be well in all of these aspects. As a health and wellness professional it is our job to train people in how to reach this optimum health, and without firsthand experience how can you teach someone else about it. You have to practice what you preach. In order for people to take you seriously they have to see that what you’re telling them to do actually works. The areas I need to develop more are my spiritual and psychological health. Both of these are difficult for me because I cannot physically see the changes, and I find it hard to make time to reflect. These are both important when trying to reach optimum health.

      As to assessing my health physically I think I do quite well. I’m very active, and conscious of what I eat. I take pride in caring for my outer appearance very well. But as I mentioned above I lack in my spiritual and psychological wellness. This has a lot to do with how I handle stress and emotions in my life, I don’t. I push it way in the back of my mind and don’t think about it, but as I’ve recently learned while taking this class that is not a healthy way to deal with things. As Dacher says; all four aspects of life are interconnected. They are always impacting one another. An undeveloped psychospiritual life results in both a disturbed physiology and unfulfilled relationships. Disturbed relationships lead to a disturbed mental life and a disturbed physiology, and so on (Dacher, 2006). In order to attain radiant health and life we must be developed in all these areas of ourselves.

       It is important to set personal goals of development in each aspect of our health. It helps us grow and continue to better ourselves on our path to flourishment. As for my psychological health my goal is to continue practicing the exercises learned in this class. The loving-kindness; to help me rid of bitterness and anger I have in my heart, and to open up and show love to others. Skillful-action; to help me bring out the positive and rid of all the negative in my life. Silence and Stillness to help me train my mind to be calm and allow myself to examine things each day to identify what is necessary and what just causes stress in my life. And last but not least the Visualization exercises; to allow my mind and train it to focus on certain images and experience the necessary feelings with each image. I think by continuing these exercises I will be able to be psychologically well. As for my physical health my goal is to maintain my body where it is at now. Keep up with the exercising on a regular base and stay motivated, and also be cautious of what I eat. For my spiritual health my goal is to practice meditation. I think in doing this it will allow me to be in touch with my inner self and by doing this I will find peace.

       Some exercises you could do to implement spiritual health are prayer, meditation, or even spending time in nature and enjoying the beauty that it holds. All of these things can help heal us spiritually, and give us a feeling of calmness. For physical health some exercises you could implement could be make sure your active at least four days out of the week, wither it be walking, running, bicycling, swimming, or dancing, whatever it takes to keep you moving. Also make a nutrition goal for yourself like not to eat over 2,000 calories a day and drink the recommended 8 glasses of water a day. All of these things will help your physical being. And as for your psychological health exercises such as yoga, tai chi, or something even as simple as listening to the sounds of nature are all mindful exercises that will allow you mental peace and harmony.

       As to assess my progress or lack of progress in the next six months I will keep a daily diary or journal. I think this is a great way to track how I am developing and can be used to maintain my long-term practice for health and wellness by giving me something to reflect on to see how much I have grown in all aspects on my journey to human flourishing.

References:

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Unit 8 Blog

The two exercises that benefited me the most are the Loving-Kindness and meditation. The meditation exercises were the most difficult but I believe made the most impact. I have a hard time concentrating but once I actually did I was alot more calm and collected after it was really nice. And the Loving-Kindness exercises were great because it has helped me be more sympathetic and empathetic towards others. I try to practice this everyday, I keep in mind how I would want someone to treat me. The hardest part was letting go of anger, but slowly but surly I am becoming less bitter. Great example actually happened this month, it has been really rough. I'm going through a rough break of after 5 years and had to move me and my daughter back to my mothers for the mean time and any other time I would be very angry right now but surprisingly I have remained calm. I know this is because this class has taught me how to positively handle stress.

Unit 7 Aesclepius

This week has been exceptionally hectic, I will say a little less than last week but I am still an emotional roller coaster, I moved me and my daughter back to my mothers for awhile until I can get back on my feet. We are starting a new chapter in our life and it has been rough but I know it is for the best. This weeks practice was relaxing but I kept finding myself drifting in and out and not being able to focus to well. I probably replayed it at least three times just to make sure I heard everything and to attempt to focus. Focusing is not easy as of the moment, my mind is going and going trying to make sure I'm doing everything I need to. Ways I can practice to do better is take time out to meditate everyday and also practice lovind kindness toward everyione.

I honestly say practice what you preach! I don't think you can tell someone how to do something unless you've experienced it yourself first. As a wellness professional you should practice mind/body/spirit wellness so you can explain to your patients what they are going to feel and know what they are going through.

Unit 6 loving kindness assessment

This week focused on being loving and kind to others, and showing others compassion and love. Also how to free our mind of all negative feelings such as hatred and bitterness. The exercise was to meditate and repeat phrases that were to help us help others and wish them well. I have had a very rough week, I'm currently going through a break up of 3 years and having to move with me and my daughter and all I could think of was how angry and bitter I was, but this class and more specifically this exercise is helping me keep an open heart and not be so angry. I think it is so important not to let anger consume you, I know from experience, it just hurts you in the long run, so the sooner you can free yourself from the negative feelings the better off you will be.

Some specific exercises you could do would be most definitely meditate or pray, also just find somewhere to go that you can sit and think in pure serenity, for me that would be the beach! The feeling of something being that much larger than you just makes you think that theres something out there and to me that is hope!

Loving Kindness/ Subtle Mind

The difference between these two exercises are the loving kindness one focuses on your feelings towards your loved ones and implementing loving kindness to them and back to yourself. The Subtle Mind exercise focuses on your breathing and clearing the mind. I have difficulty with both of these. The loving kindness exercise makes me really emotional. I am going through a rough week and am an emotional roller coaster as it is plus dealing with supressed emotions that the exercise makes me think of makes me a train wreck. I have to literally stop the exercise and regain my composure and restart it. The subtle mind exercise is just difficult because I have sooo much mental chatter going on that I can never clear my head! it is going to take me quite awhile to get to that point I feel. I have so many supressed emotions from even my childhood that it'll take awhile to get through everything. But I am positive that if I keep doing these exercises that I will eventually find a peace of mind! They are helpful and they do work which is amazing.

The connection of spiritual, physical, and mental wellness is they all work together. You cannot have one without the other!

Loving Kindness

I think this exercise was really emotional, well for me it was. The part where it asks you to think of images the good and the bad and just observe was really hard for me. I push things so far back into my mind to try to erase them that I think I have alot of unresolved feelings. And crying is just something I don't like to do, I feel weak. This is something I will have to work on. I feel like I am a natural nurturer, I love other people and will do anything for them if I can, but when it comes to myself I don't do the same. I just thought it came with the territory of being a mother, you always put everyone else's needs before your own. Like I'll go weeks being sick before I go to the doctor because I tell myself you don't have time to be sick, so i get up go to work, clean house, make dinner, do homework, until I drop. Which I know is unhealthy, but I still do it. I think this class is going to help me alot, I need alot of phychological healing, I need to learn new ways of dealing with emotion and handling them in a more healthy way. I don't think suppressing things is healthy at all I just have never learned how to deal with things in any other way. I think even after this class I will continue to do these exercises and see if it makes a big difference, I believe it will.

Mental workouts are things that you do to stimulate your mind. Anything can be a mental workout, like reading, coloring, crossword puzzles, word search puzzles, learning a new language, studying something you've never studied before. All of these things stimulate your mind and give it a challenge. If you don't use your brain you lose it, if you just sat and watched television everyday all day your brain would turn to mush, you wouldn't know much of anything. Mental exercise is just as important as physical exercise when it comes to having optimal health.