Unit 9: Personal Application of the Aspects of Healing

I 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?

Reflecting on the saying, "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” (Schlitz, Amorok, & Micozzi, 2005, p 477), I believe a true teacher has gone through them self what they are teaching. It’s easy to tell someone you are sorry for what they are going through, but when you have actually been to that level yourself, compassion and love come into play. I feel this does apply to the health and wellness profession. By practicing the mindfulness and meditation exercises learned from this class, I can actually help people know what to expect and feel because I have practiced them myself. I will be able to recognize better what they are feeling and help them know what step to take next. An example of me teaching what I have done myself and believe in is through the products I take from Herbalife. I had to learn about the products before I could help others know what they need. Also by taking the products myself I have developed a testimony of their healing attributes. Because of this testimony, passion is developed and others will be drawn to what I know and have and want to know and have what I have. By developing my physical, psychological, and spiritual growth in my personal life I will be a better health and wellness coach. Life is developed in a circle; we are constantly bettering ourselves in every way. We never reach perfection because we are always learning and growing. Life circumstances change us as well, so we have to change our outlook and practices to fit our needs. When we are developing ourselves personally, we are then able to reach out to others and help them fit their treatments with their current life circumstances.

I have a goal to be in true connection in mind, body, and spirit. After we have accomplished the ability to know how our bodies physically work, and what works for our body, we then can move onto the development of the mind. Mental wellness focuses on is being able to have a still, calm-abiding consciousness and a unity of consciousness. When the unity of consciousness taps into the higher consciousness, deeper realms of our biological and mental abilities are then connected to the spiritual capacity. “An ease and lightness enter our life and cleanse our mind and body. In this manner, biological development progressively extends our ability to prevent mental distress and physical illness, enhances recovery from disease, and promotes integral health, happiness, and wholeness” (Dacher, 2006, p 86).

Once I am able to connect mind/body practices to achieve a higher consciousness, I will be able to cleanse all negativity and self-centeredness from myself. Once I allow myself to be approachable by the light of spirituality, my higher consciousness will help me feel connected to God and all that He has created. I know that I have felt the feelings described by Dacher, “weightlessness, the ability to be in more than one location at the same time, extrasensory capacities, luminous bodies, super –vitality and movement, intuitive experience, transcendence, transformation, resurrection, and mystical ecstasy” (2006, pp 85-86). These experiences were felt when I was in deep meditation, prayer, or listening to others describe testimonies of spiritual experiences. These are feelings that are desired and needed often. When we can feel these often, we then can have the connectedness to our Creator.

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

PHYSICAL WELL-BEING
I rate my physical well-being at 7 out of 10 right now. I exercise 5 days a week, and am in better shape than I have been in a long time, but I haven’t quite mastered the mental aspect of it. I still lose motivation in exercising, and allow other things to interfere. I feel that I lose a few points because I don’t have control over my eating habits yet. I haven’t found what direction of food is right for me yet. I know how I feel after eating some foods, but I don’t get rid of those that make me feel ill. I have tried many things like the Eat Right for Your Type, omitting sugar and even omitting dairy.

SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING
I rate my spiritual well-being at a 6. I have neglected my spirituality greatly. I have been focusing more on my physical and psychological more, and I have felt the great imbalance in my life. I know that when I start to put my spiritual well-being first, my family life, school life, and worldly relationships will be more balanced.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING
I rate my psychological well-being at a 6 also. I allow negative thoughts and feelings interfere with my life, which in turn, creates a negative person in me. I let past emotions and experiences still affect my life now. Letting go and moving on should help me foster positive feelings and begin to heal.

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

PHYSICAL
My physical goals are to improve my stamina, strength, flexibility, and balance, and improve my diet.

SPIRITUAL
For my spiritual well-being, I will increase my faith and meekness.

PSYCHOLOGICAL
My psychological goal is to reduce my stress.

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.

PHYSICAL
To improve my stamina, I will run 2 miles every day. To increase my strength and balance, I will exercise to my Insanity DVD Monday through Saturday. To increase my flexibility, I will stretch for ten minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night. To help me with my diet, I will use my account at MyPyramid.gov to help with tracking the balance of my meals. This will insure that get all that I need nutritionally.

SPIRITUAL
To reach my spiritual goal of increasing my faith, I will pray more diligent and more frequently. I will include a family prayer where I can help my children feel safer and increase their faith as well. I will also feast more in the Lord’s scriptures and listen or read other uplifting music, talks, books, and magazines. To help me become meeker, I will use a calmer voice to talk to my kids when I get frustrated with them. I will use the practices I learned from my Parenting with Love and Logic class.

PSYCHOLOGICAL
For reducing my stress, I will prioritize my activities and get rid of those that are unnecessary and waste my time. I will use time management to get my school work done early in the day so I can give my husband and children my undivided attention in the evenings. Also by using the deep breathing technique, I will learn to breathe through my frustrations and take the time to really assess my thoughts and actions.

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?

When we take our goals through the complete Integral Assessment, we learn to prioritize and organize our goals. When we take the goal through with the assessment, we learn to follow through and see it to the end. When we do this, we will feel an accomplishment and satisfaction. The assessment steps are;
• Begin with a still and silent mind
• Focus on the four quadrants
• Take inventory of the four aspects and choose which needs attention
• Identify specific lines of development that need the work
• Set a plan in motion to help balance the problem
• Live the plan and development
Also living up to your goal will help you continue to change your life and maintain the new lifestyle change. I’ve learned that by giving excuses, there will be no healing. Without this personal healing, there will not be a unity in mind, body, and spirit.

To help me maintain my long-term practices for health and wellness I have chosen to take the four aspects and divide them up in each month. Each week I will focus on a different aspect and help my life become balanced. I think by focusing on each aspect will help me assess my weakest areas and discover my strongest. For example, week one could be to strengthen my Psychospiritual aspect in particularly my emotional line of development. With my daily added stressors of being a wife, mother, and student, keeping my house tip top shape to show at any given moment so that it will sell, and packing to move 1700 miles and across 3. I have felt that my “uncontrolled desires, anger, fear, and other reactive emotions” have taken over (Dacher, 2006, p 108). I have become too emotional and am too quick to react. This has caused me great sorrow and pain for myself and for my family. Assessing myself after practicing the Loving Kindness exercise has made me realize that love is more powerful than any other emotion. With loving-kindness, all negativity will disappear.

Loving-kindness is the exercise that I will implement to help with this assessment. I feel that if I always remember to use kind, gentle, loving words and actions, I will become more calm and meek. I took a great 6-week class a year ago called Parenting with Love and Logic. It was hard work, but I felt that my kids and I were connecting more often, and I was yelling less often. I will again start implementing the exercises that I learned from that class.


Reference

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

Schlitz, M., Amorok, T., and Micozzi, M. (2005). Consciousness & Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Churchill Livingston Publications.