Creating Wellness-Final Project

               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?

It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop in overall health and wellness because in order to teach others how to live in optimal health, you must first accomplish this for yourself. I attempted to start a health and wellness company a few years ago as a way to motivate others with my health journey. Although I was able to get a few supporters, I feel like I did not get as many followers because, I too had not completed my journey or stay motivated enough to inspire others to do the same. I have since come a long way, but instead of pressuring others to change, I have focused the change within myself and share my journey with others for hope and inspiration.

The areas that I need to develop to achieve my goals would be to continue to work out at least three times a week to stay fit and active throughout my pregnancy. I also need to work on my spiritual well-being by focusing on what is important to me and how I can satisfy my spiritual appetite. By improving these areas of my life, my psychological well-being will follow suite.

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

My assessment in each domain has gone up slightly since the beginning of the course, I have made subtle changes here and there.

Psychologically-8, Major improvement since I am becoming more and more excited at the thought of becoming a mother.

Spiritually-6, Still working on this area, I have decided to take an hour of reflection time to figure out how to improve my spirituality. Meditation weekly will help with this area.

Physically-9, Big improvements in this area, I have begun incorporating at least three prenatal workouts per week ranging from 15-25 minutes per session.

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

Physical-I would like to take more walks around the park daily. It is a great way to experience nature and the environment, while giving me a great cardiovascular workout. It is too cold out right now, but once it warms up I plan to walk around the park at least two laps daily.

Psychological- One goal that I have for this area is to incorporate meditation, mental training such as guided imagery and visualization into my daily life. I also plan to use more positive affirmations to get me throughout the day.

Spiritual-My spiritual goal is to work on strengthening my faith and my beliefs and making a decision for which spiritual path that I would like to take.

            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-My two favorite physical exercises are prenatal Pilates and prenatal boot camp. I practice these exercises at least three times a week from 15-25 minutes.

Psychological-Two exercises that I can practice to improve my psychological well-being would be to meditate and use visualization. This will help me see a more positive aspect on life and improve my overall happiness.

Spiritual-I plan to incorporate praying and reflective thinking as two practices to improve my life in this area. I would like to pray more and take time to stop and think about the beauty of the world around me.

             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 plan to assess my progress by keeping a journal for my nutrition, physical fitness and spiritual well-being. I want to write my current state and grading in each category, write down ways to accomplish my goal and keep track of my progress or lack of progress. There are many apps to help keep track of progress, so far I have downloaded “MyFitnessPal” for exercise and nutrition, meditation tracker, for meditation timing and soft music along with a daily spiritual quotes that provided me positive quote to my cell phone throughout the day. The strategies that can assist me would be staying consistent with my goals and being honest with myself about whether or not the goals are out of my reach. I also plan to take pictures of my progress and use them as motivation and inspiration to help others. Helping others on their journey will keep me on the right path as well. 

Subtle Mind and Visualization

1. Review the exercises and practice sessions you have completed in this course. (Loving Kindness, Subtle mind, Visualization, meditation etc.) Choose two practices that you have determined to be most beneficial. How can you implement these practices in your personal life to foster “mental fitness”? Provide specific examples.

I really found the Subtle Mind practice and visualization to be the two most beneficial exercises during this course. The Subtle Mind exercise really created a calming peace within me and I was able to open my mind to more positive thoughts and let the stress just melt away. I still plan to practice the subtle mind at least once a week. 

Visualization is my all time favorite to help me go to sleep at night or wind down after a long day of work. I love listening to the guide's voice and having them "walk" my mind through a nice visualization that I can get lost in and drift of to sleep. I also practice visualization without a guide, I do this by daydreaming at work that I am really on a beach relaxing instead of answering phone calls. 

I plan to implement these practices into my personal life by using them to prevent and manage daily stress along with physical exercise. The subtle mind practice can be done at least twice a week, once at the beginning and once towards the end of the week. I can also practice visualization daily when I need to escape in my mind or I need help falling asleep. 

Loving Kindness & Integral Assessment Results

1. Practice the universal Loving Kindness (meditation) exercise on p. 93.
2. Complete the Integral Assessment discussed in chapter 11 (p.115).
3. Describe the exercise and assessment process. What did you discover about yourself? What area have you chosen to be a focus of growth and development? Why? What are some specific exercises or activities that you can implement to foster greater wellness in this area?

There are many parts to the Loving Kindness exercise that I enjoyed and other parts that I struggles to remain focused on my breathing. There were a lot of different instructions and the most difficult part was breathing according to the guide's pace and learning to now allow the mind to wander off. I really did feel like it opened my heart to loving myself more and being a lot kinder to myself. Sometimes, I can tend to beat myself up if I don't feel like I did a good enough job at something. This exercise helped me to realize that we are not perfect, we are all human beings and mistakes happen. I did not find it difficult to send out love to my enemies because I never really felt good about having enemies or animosities built up inside of me over past issues or mistakes. I have chosen to forgive all of my enemies and release any hold that they have over my heart in mind. It is much easier to love someone then to hold a steady grudge for years to come. 

I really enjoyed completing the integral assessment because I felt that it helped me to recognize the area of "quadrants" in my life that I need improvement on. I am always a work in progress so any help that I can get towards these goals are always good for me to know and understand. I know that one of my areas is fitness. I have promised myself that I would workout at least 3x a week, but between working full time and school part time as well as keeping up with doctor appointments, household chores and balancing family time, I am exhausted by the end of the day. I plan to improve this area by getting my butt moving first thing in the morning, before I brush my teeth! I will try to do at least 15 minutes of exercise. The next works in progress would be my nutrition and family. I know what I eat is important because it not only affects one life, but two. I try to follow the myplate.gov instructions as closely as possible, but I do indulge in sweet treats and processed foods from time to time (more than I would like to admit). Balancing my family life with social, school and work is always a task, but I manage to have a date night with the hubby at least once a week and we might squeeze a movie in if we are lucky. I plan to get this aspect of my life more balanced once I am off work to take care of the little one. 

Subtle Mind Vs. Loving Kindness Exercise

1. Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.

               I really enjoyed both of these exercises. The Loving Kindness exercise helped me to achieve love for others and not be so vain and caught up in my own self-thoughts. The Subtle mind exercise helped me to understand that I can pull away from distracting thoughts. I liked the idea that the breathing was my anchor and each time I had a thought that was distracting, I was to go back to my anchor and focus on my breathing, that really helped. I was only frustrated with the ten breaths part, it seemed like the guide too forever to come back on! I am sure I took like 20 breaths in that time period of waiting, but when frustration arose, I just went back to focusing on my breathing like she told me, it was like playing ping-pong ball with my mind!

      2.       Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.

Spiritual wellness is very important because to me it helps stabilize your mental and physical wellness. I am still working on my spiritual path, but I am surrounded by a host of friends and family that always pray for each other in times of need and really believe that prayer works. So I feed off of their energy and focus on holistic healing for the mind and body. It is a personal journey that I love to share with others and I cannot wait to achieve my optimal level of well-being so I can share the same with others. 

Loving-Kindness

 

Describe your experience. Did you find it beneficial? Difficult? Why or why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or why not?

I really enjoyed the Loving-Kindness exercise and plan to do it every night. When I completed the exercise, I had my feet raised and my head back with my eyes closed and my hands laid across my tummy. As I listened to the exercise, I could begin to feel every quirk and movement inside of myself, including my little turnip-sized baby thumping about! I was so in awe, I told myself that if I ever wanted to check on my little one, I could just relax back and listen to some soft music and really become in-tuned with my body. I felt like I was in a trance as I was thinking of my loved one and letting all my random thoughts flutter away. 

I found the exercise to be very beneficial because it allowed me to take time out of my busy day to sit back and relax and for a second. I thought no way can this be apart of my college homework! Most universities puts you under more stress, not ease your stress! I would definitely recommend this exercise to others, if they are open-minded and are in need of some loving-kindness within themselves. Sometimes people who are hateful, mean or judgmental to others are just crying out for help, maybe all they need is a little TLC for themselves.  

What is the concept of "mental workout"? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a mental workout? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

The concept of "mental workout" is that we need to exercise our minds, just as we need to exercise our bodies to experience optimal health. Our brain is a muscle and can grow like any other muscles in our body. Studies show, working out our minds by playing "brain games" like luminosity for example can increase our intelligence, vocabulary and expand our knowledge on a variety of topics. The neurons in our mind are chargeable and need to be active and alert so that our minds stays sharp, focused and we can increase our memory as well to achieve new heights.  I have always wanted to better understand math and science and learn a new language, but ask me have I set aside time to practice daily for at least 30 minutes in those subject areas? NO! I haven't, the only way to learn new topics is to study and implement them into our daily lives, so the next time I fail a quiz on a foreign language, math or science I have no one to blame but myself. You can implement mental workouts such as downloading free brain game apps or puzzles onto your device and practice them daily. You can also meditate or listen to exercises like "loving-kindness" to foster love and well-being into your heart and your mind.

Reflections & Goals on Optimal Health Achievement

Based on your reflections, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being optimal wellbeing), where do you rate your A-physical wellbeing, B-spiritual well-being, C-psychological well-being? Why?

• Physical well-being-10, I current have no health problems or medical conditions an the tiny life growing inside if me has a strong heartbeat and is growing bigger everyday.
• Spiritual well-being- 8, I still have some work to do in this area, overall I have satisfied my spirituality in way that make the most sense to me and I am finally at peace with my beliefs.
• Psychological well-being-8, these pregnancy hormones are kicking my butt psychologically and I know the mood strings are driving my husband nuts! I have just gain control over some of the temper tantrums that I throw, but I am still talking before I think through my thoughts thoroughly enough and after self-analysis, I realize the thoughts made no sense in the first place. Oh well! I am still blaming it on pregnancy hormones, hehe. 

Develop a goal for yourself in each area (physical, spiritual, psychological). 

• Physical-I need to get physically fit once the baby is born. I am currently exercising, but it is more for health and joint reasons and not to lose weight. Well, I plan to lose 40 pounds once the baby is born and to gain my six-pack back. I plan to work out, breastfeed and go on daily walks around the park with the baby in stroller for a nice breath or fresh air and good cardio!
• Spiritual-I am trying to discover which path of spirituality I would like to commit to while living on this earth. So far, I have been content with studying Buddhism and meditating occasionally at night. My goal is to find a path and stick to it once I feel that the path is right for me. 
• Psychological- My goal is to get to a place in my mind where I am content with my life in it's entirety and stay there. I tend to worry too much and nit-pick over the small stuff and I want to stop that. I always remain and optimist and look at the glass half-full, but I can always improve, I am not perfect and I have to realize everyone makes mistakes. 

What activities or exercise can you implement in your life to assist in moving toward each goal?

• Physical-I plan to workout to home training videos such as Shaun T's T25, yoga, pilates, belly dancing and ballet. I also plan on doing a lot of walking/jogging for cardio. I also plan to have yearly exams and physicals to make sure everything is in tip top order!
• Spiritual-If I continue my meditation practing and commit to a few sessions per week, I can see myself mastering the art in the near future. I also want to study my spirituality more and find out what will allow me to be closer to spiritual awakening. 
• Psychological-I need to take a chill pill as my mom would say! Counting to ten is a great way to calm down before saying something upsetting. I just need to control my thoughts and not allow my thoughts to control my actions and then I will be on the right path. 

1. Complete the relaxation exercise The Crime of the Century. To hear this exercise, click here. Describe your experience. (What it beneficial? Frustrating? etc.)

My experience with this relaxation exercise was somewhat beneficial. I liked the concept of the different color lights shooting out of the various part of my body, but I found it tedious and much rather just focus on those different parts and say the suggested phrase. I was still able to relax from the exercise and was able to focus on each relaxation phrase. 

Reflective Statement on Relaxation Exercise

http://www.kushs.net/kaplan/HW420/JourneyOn.mp3

Wow! this relaxation exercise worked so well that I actually feel sleep. I am very prone to hypnosis and one of the main reasons why I am having such a difficult time mastering meditation is because I fall sleep during my session. The guide's voice was so soothing and relaxing, as he was telling me to relax each part of my body and get into a comfortable postion, my eyes just became so heavy and just closed on their own! I don't even remember how long I was out for, but when I came too, the track had stopped playing. I think I feel asslep ten minutes into the session. I do not know if this is a good or bad outcome, but I do know that I love to sleep and anything that can knock me out like a light is fine in my book! I even fall asleep to meditation music since I know that I am prone to falling sleep during my sessions, I just make it apart of my sleep habits and dream that I am meditating in my sleep. However, it does create some bizarre dreams since my mind is so "open"  I limit this music to only a few days out of the week.