My Assessment

My assessment has not changed much from unit 3. I still rate myself a five physically, I am making great strides to improve myself physically, progress is slow due to medical issues,but I am working on them.
Spiritually, I still rate myself an eight. I am holding on strong and it is a continual development, I am grateful that I am ever evolving.
Psychologically I moved up one number from a seven to and eight. I believe the more I participate in the exercises and practices the strong I get mentally and the less I allow my emotions and feelings to lead me.

I believe that I am slowly but consistently making headway in my goals, I am participating more in the practices and I am learning to structure my time. I have just made a move so of course I am distracted right now with the move and going back and forth to the doctor trying to rectify a health issue.

This course has been a eyeopening, amazing experience. I have share with so many people what I have learned and what I am trying to do in my life.  I believe that this practice of integral health is the way of life for me.  I realize all will not believe or participate but I will do my level best to continue to help make others aware of great opportunities to improve health on all levels and the least expensive. The only challenging thing about this course for me is mastering the subtle mind. I truly believe when I can do that consistently I will see a huge change in my life.

My Plan

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 essential to health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically not only for their on health to flourish but to walk other through the transitions.  Patients and clients alike look to the health professional to lead the way, to direct them through knowledge and experience. They want to see there results and having results will give them the confidence needed to help others on the path to human flourishing.

I believe that I am developing quite well spiritually and psychologically, but physically is my least favorable area. I will continue to develop my physical person. Through exercise and nutrition, I should be able to reach my goal. It will take consistency, doing it every day to bring balance to my mind, body and spirit. I believe that mind and spirit will help me achieve my physical goals.

II.                Assessment

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

I have made great strides in each category. One a scale of 1 to 10, I give myself and 8. I have been developing my spiritual self for years. It is a part of everything I do, I am well aware of my spiritual person, I have learned to practice selflessness, loving kindness,  I am very concerned about human kind. I have a relationship with GOD, and I am in constantly walking out my journey.

Psychologically, I give myself an 8. I believe that I am balance in this aspect of my self as I am spiritually, I continue to develop on this level and I am consciousnessly and consistently being more and more aware of where I am.

Physically, I give myself a 5, I choose the lower number because I am not where I need to be but I am consciously aware of where I should be. I have spent the last seven years devoted to becoming physically healthy. I have come a very long way in my journey but I have not gotten to the place I would like to be. I have given myself a new plan to reach my goals; after several assessment for deficiencies and needs, I believe now I am equipped to add to my diet the nutrition that will bring results as well as an exercise program tailored to meet my needs.  I believe that my goals are attainable.

III.             Goal development

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

                  Physical Goal: Lose the last 150lbs of excess weight.

                  Psychological Goal:  To truly develop the level of consciousness that Dacher describes as a 

                  witnessing consciousness.

                  Spiritual Goal: To develop that Consciousness that Dacher also describes as calm abiding.

                                        

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—Beside having a better nutrition plan and a physical fitness program, I

                   believe it is essential to reduce stress and avoid negativity and pessimism. I will

                  Incorporate daily meditation practices, visualization, and weekly acupuncture. The

                  Meditation and visualization exercise seem to reduce stress and it also relaxes my

                   Mind and body, reduces pain. The acupuncture helps reduce pain and seems to bring

                   my body back into balance, restores the Chi or energy to the body and just keeps me

                   grounded  and calm.

                 Psychological – I will continue to educate myself, keep up my mental fitness through,

                 Puzzles and minds games. I will continue to develop using the The Subtle Mind

                 Practices,to develop the witnessing mind and visualization.  My goal is to reach a

                 higher consciousness.  

                 Spiritual – I will continue my praying for and serving others. I will continue the

                Loving kindness and Subtle mind practices, I am very interesting in developing the

                Calm abiding mind. I believe this will help me get to a level of consciousness that I am

                not currently experiencing.

I am currently using all the exercises and practices but my goal is to get them into a routine time for the day. To be consistent with each exercise and practice until they become a part of my day like brushing my teeth or combing my hair.

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?

                 To track my progress I will continue to blog about my journey, I will keep a daily

                diary and will continue my custom of accountability to my best and dear friend.

                 I believe that keeping a spread sheet will help me see my progress, for me seeing

                 Things written helps me know how I am doing.  Charting my progress, whether it is

                 losing pounds or inches, whether it is notices my attitude is more positive or negative,

                 charting how I feel physically, mentally, or spiritually will give me an idea of how

                much I am learning, changing, growing. My goal is to take what I learn and make it

                become a permanent part of my life.

Choices, Choices, Choices

Oh my so many choices, so much to choose from.  Ahhh, when I go back over the exercise from our class, I can say I have no problem implementing all of the practices, each of them can be helpful to me on any given time.  I must say that I have 3 for certain that I am implementing.  Meditation is a given for me.  I is one of the easiest, quickest ways for me to unload some of the chaos from the day.  It is easy to do, I can do it almost anywhere. It does not require a lot from me...I have many tapes or cd's that can offer me a few moments to get my spirit quiet.  I can also do it without a prompt, it is a matter of closing off the world and breathing until I find a place.  Now visualization is also a great one for me as well...What it does for me is pull me out of a place where my mind is running all over the place and allows me to focus on a particular moment, a particular thing and that things seems to open up so much for me and sometimes provides a conduit of physical healing.  I actually have experienced feeling physically better after visualization exercises.   Thirdly and most important to me is the subtle mind exercise. This one is my challenge...the calm abiding mind is my goal...I am so not there yet.  This one is hard for me. I am still dealing with the chatter in my mind.  I have a hard time staying focused and allowing myself to look at my thoughts and not be overtaken by them.  It is the one practice that I so look forward to incorporating and developing.  I believe this one is the one that will open the door for me to integral health.  I don't look at these practices as just opportunities to escape my routine. I look at these practices as ways to gain maximum health, to be balanced mentally, physically and spiritually.  I know that incorporating them into my daily practice has helped because I can already see the changes from the beginning of this term.  I have experienced a sense of calmness and clarity during very troubling moments.  I have seen a heighten sense of awareness in so many areas. I believe that these practices are essential to my mental fitness.   I have managed to see how they can help control pain, alleviate a cough, calm down the mind to the point that I could gain clarity and peace about some things going on in my life.  Through these practices, I was able to remove some of the chaos that would have kept me from making wise decisions.  I was able to critically think my way through some difficult dilemmas and therefore with a full understanding make a successful decision that brought peace to me.  Sometimes we can be so caught up in life, so stressed physically and mentally that our state of mind will make us vunerable to bad choices and terrible decisions.  I must say that I have had some difficult moments in the past few weeks but because of the exercises and the state of mind that was created I made very good sound decisions and I am very happy about that.