Unit 10

I found it quite interesting that after reviewing what I rated myself in Unit 3 and then again what I rated myself in Unit 9 that my rating had actually went down over the course of the class.  I think the reason for this is that I have become a lot more aware of what it really means to be at a level 10 in these areas.  Although I have made progress, I still have a long way to go, and that is why I feel I rated myself lower this time around.  In Unit 3 I rated my physical, psychological, and spiritual health 5, 7, and 4 respectively, but in Unit 9 I rated them 5, 5, and 3.  I am making progress towards my goals in all areas by making a schedule and allowing time for myself to focus on all areas of my life.  I have definitely passed the first phase of realizing that changes have to be made, and attempting to do what I need to to make sure that happens, but I have not been doing very at actually performing the exercises needed to increase my psychological well-being.  I have continued to stay active, and feel my physical well-being is improving every day.  I can now think before I act, which is something that has never been easy for me, but I still need to work at controlling my emotions.  I am a very emotional person, and I sometimes let that get the best of me.  My self-esteem has improved drastically in the last few months and I credit that to losing 20 pounds, and gaining a truly amazing friend that has taught me there is more to life.  The area that I chose to focus on in spiritual health was improving the relationship with the people that mean the most to me, my children.  I am not a religious person, and it took me a while to realize that spiritual health isn't focused on prayer, but what is important to each of us.  There is nothing more important to me than my children, and I want to have relationships with them that they will cherish for their whole life.  I have truly enjoyed this class.  I do not think it will be a huge benefit for me in my final career path, but it has made a tremendous difference in my personal life, and I absolutely believe that it probably saved my marriage.  I am grateful to Professor Nysewander for all of her advice and recommendations, and to all of you for sharing your thoughts with me this term.  Thank you for "reading my mind".

Dawn

Unit 9 Final Project

Integral Health Plan

I.                    Introduction:

In order to reach complete integral health, an individual needs to focus on their physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being.  Because I have lately become more aware of the ways that my life can be benefited by having a strong well-being in all areas, I have decided that I would like to someday reach complete integral health, but in order for that to happen I have plenty of room for improvement in all areas.  In the following sections, I will detail the areas of focus, and the ways that improvements can be made.   When pursuing a career as a health and wellness professional it is important to be personally active in integral health practices in order to be the best demonstrator that you can to your clients.  Reaching integral health will give more of an awareness of the benefits it has on an individual’s life than simply studying it in a textbook.  In my opinion, it is very important to practice what you preach. 

II.                  Assessment:

Although I feel that I have made great improvements in all areas of integral health in the last few months, I still have a long ways to go to achieve integral health.  If I were asked at this time last year what I would rate my levels of integral health, I probably would have not been able to give myself more than a two in any area, but thanks to everything that I have learned through this class, my fitness class, and my stress management class I have made great improvements.  I have taken a step backwards in the advancement in my physical well-being from a couple of months ago, but I am still slowly improving, and I’m hoping to get back on track.  I feel that my psychological well-being has benefited since I learned that we are not all the same and we can not expect everyone to think or act the way we do.  I have become more vocal on letting my feelings be known, and not just expecting others to know what I am feeling.  I can see improvements in the way I am handling situations because of this knowledge.  Instead of just getting upset and starting to yell, I try to explain why I feel the way I do.  My husband is of course more receptive to this technique, but who wouldn’t be.  For example, before I was even out of bed this morning, he had swept and mopped the floors.  When I got up, he said that he would like to go help a friend if I did not have any plans for the day.  In the past, I would have gotten up to a messy house, and he would have just told me he was leaving, and would be stuck at home alone to take care of the house.  I would feel like he didn’t care about spending time with me, and like I was just the maid, and then I would have gotten upset and started yelling.  It has since become clear to me that he didn’t do that because he didn’t care, he just didn’t see a problem with it, and couldn’t understand why I was upset because I didn’t share my feelings.  Spiritual well-being is probably the area that I still need the most improvement on because it is the last area I choose to focus on.  Maybe that is because I have the least amount of knowledge in this area, and although I know that it does not have to be about religion, that is what comes to my mind when I think of spiritual well-being.  All of this being said, I am re-evaluating how I would rate my levels of well-being from what I rated them earlier in this class, by giving myself a five in physical well-being, three in spiritual well-being, and five in psychological well-being.  I don’t think at the point of the class when we originally evaluated ourselves I was aware of how far we could actually go to achieve integral health.  It can be a difficult process that takes a lot of commitment, and although I now have the tools to reach integral health, I have not put them into practice enough to rate myself as high as I did.

III.                Goal Development:

I know that there a lot of areas that I need to improve on to achieve integral health, but in order to achieve them I am going to start focusing on a few select areas first.  I would like to work on each simultaneously so I make some improvements in all areas.  As far as my physical well-being I am going to attempt to participate in 30 minutes of rigorous physical activity three days per week, and strength training exercises two days per week.  For my psychological well-being my first area of focus is to learn to think before acting.  I have a bad habit of flying off the handle before I process what the affects of that rant may be.   I am also going to concentrate on other people’s wants.  For instance, when my husband wants to go somewhere that I am not going to be, I am going to focus on not letting that play on my insecurities.  My spiritual well-being is probably the area that needs the most attention.  While I have made improvements in the other areas of my life, this is one that has received little attention.  To me, my spiritual well-being can grow by focusing on things that are important to me.  An area that I am going to concentrate more on is allowing more time to interact with my children.  With life being so chaotic, I realize that the words, “I don’t have time right now” seem to come out of my mouth too often.  They are only going to be children for a short time, and I have to get all of the time with them that I can right now.  I can already see them gaining their independence, and before I know it they won’t be interested in hanging out with their mom.  While it is important to me to get great grades, put in a day at work, and have a clean house, nothing is more important to me than my children, and it is time that I start showing it. 

IV.                Practices for personal health:

The number one thing that I can think of to reach my goals is to set up a schedule.  If I have things down in writing I can see that there is a way for everything to get accomplished, and I feel less stressed about fitting everything in.  In order to make sure I follow my assessment for my physical goals, I am going to wake up 30 minutes earlier each weekday and alternate a cardio workout with a strength training workout.  This way it will be completed first thing in the morning, and I won’t have to worry about something coming up so that I can’t fit it in.  Increasing my physical well-being can only increase my psychological well-being by boosting my self-esteem.  I have noticed in the past that after I have left the gym, or got home from going for a walk I felt much better about myself.   I think by boosting my self-esteem I will eliminate some of my insecurities that affect my psychological well-being.  To greater increase my psychological well-being I am going to alternate between listening to the subtle mind practice exercise and the loving kindness exercise in the car on my way to work.  To me this seems like the perfect time because it is quite, and I won’t have to worry about outside distractions.  It will also give me the opportunity to relax and reduce stress on my way to work.  Wow, look at that.  That’s two out of three areas covered before nine o’clock in the morning.  I think that I would also like to try to listen to some guided meditation exercises on my way home from work so that I can be as stress free as possible when I get home to my family.  In order to spend more time with my children I think setting up a family game night weekly and special one on one time with each of my children one day each month would be a great start to increasing our bonding.  This could be quite a chore right now as we have baseball games four nights a week with dance class in the middle, but if we set up a schedule I’m sure we can make it work.  Working towards integral health can only be beneficial for me, and I am eager to see if I can achieve my goals.   

V.                  Commitment:

Assessing progress can be a great way to ensure that the path to integral health is progressing and not standing still, or worse, going backwards.  I think that I will have a special day during the week where I sit down, and make up a schedule based on what we have going on during the week to make sure that time is still allowed for all of the integral health practices.   I also think making a calendar and marking off when each task has been completed is a great way to stay on track.  If you get to the end of the month and only half of the tasks have been completed, then it is probably time to reassess the plan, and make changes to the areas where things don’t seem to be working out.  I also think finding a support group can be very beneficial for staying on track.  We just completed a biggest loser competition at work, and knowing that I had to post my weight where everyone could see my progress helped to keep me on tract.   When working towards achieving integral health it is important to remember how beneficial it will be towards living a full life.  I’m confident that if I can remember how enjoyable my life can be once integral health is achieved, that I will be to achieve it, and I hope when I reassess where I stand in six months that my numbers will be significantly higher than I rate myself today. 

References

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

Schlitz, M., Amorok, T., Micozzi, M. (2005). Consciousness & Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind-Boy Medicine. St. Louis, MO. Churchill Livingstone.

Unit 8 The Most Beneficial Practices for Me!

I'm kind of having a rough day so I would like to say take these practices and shove them, BUT I know that is not what is best for my integral health.  I'm having a hard time wondering why I care about changing when others in my life don't seem to be making an effort for me.  Why is it that I should change to be more like them, while they just sit there and wait for that to happen?  I am not them, and regardless of how I try to fake it, I'm never going to be.  Shouldn't there be compromises made by both parties?  I know in my head the reason I expect this to happen is because I have been studying mental behavior changes for months, and they have know idea what it is.  I guess it's not fair for me to be upset when I myself didn't think there was a way to change until recently, but my heart just doesn't seem to understand. 

The two practices that I have most enjoyed, and found beneficial are the subtle mind practice and meditation.  I like the subtle mind exercise because it gives you a focal point to concentrate on, such as breathing to help reduce distractions.  It also tells you to acknowledge the distractions and then let them go.  One thing that I find funny about my mind is that if I am ready a really good book or watching a great movie I think a bomb could go off next to me and I would realize, but when I am trying to do homework or truly focus on something every little noise draws my attention.  I also like guided meditation.  I don't do very well with visualization, but when it comes to focusing on someone that is important to me, I have no problems.  I think these are my favorites because they have a lot to do with personal wellness.  My main point of concentration right now is thinking more of myself.  After I have mastered myself, I will practice the loving kindness exercises, and worry about helping others, and how I feel towards them.  The areas that I am going to use for growth are stopping to think before acting.  I think a great way to do this is to count to ten to allow the mind time to process what is going on.  If we snap before we think, we are no where near unity consciousness.  I am also going to practice deep breathing and meditation exercises in the car on my way to and from work.  I think this will allow me to prepare for my day, and unwind on the way home. 

Unit 7 Meeting Asciepius

I really enjoyed this weeks exercise.  The meeting asciepius practice allows for us to visualize an individual that plays an important role in our lives, and use them as our inner healer.  I think this is a great way to gain inner peace because there are obviously reasons that we chose these individuals as our role models.  They probably possess the characteristics that would make us better individuals.  By visualizing the individual and allowing their heart and soul to radiate into us we may be able to improve on some of the characteristics that make them so special.  I think I can continue to make these improvements by visualizing the individual whenever I feel that I need help, and I will be reminded of the person I would like to become. 

As far as the statement, "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” (P.477).  I think this means that if you have not experienced a situation or achieved human flourishing then you cannot expect to be able to direct others in how to achieve their goals.  In the health and wellness profession, I believe in order to be taken seriously you need to practice health and wellness yourself.  If I walked into a personal trainers office and they were overweight and snacking on a candy bar I would probably not be likely to heed their advice.  In order for me to benefit from someones advice I need to see how much it has benefited them. I do believe that as health and wellness professionals it is important to show clients we have achieved physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being.  Someone that has been through a situation has more insight into the "bumps in the road" that a person may cross when trying to reach whole body well-being.  For me to continue to improve in these areas I think it is important to continue the exercises that we have been working on, and remembering that there is more to life than ourselves. 

Unit 6 Integral Assessment

Well, I must admit I let the weather get the best of me this weekend.  It was our first beautiful weekend of the Spring, and I kind of let my responsibilities slide to enjoy it.  Hoping this is not a sign of what I am going to have to compete with all summer.  I'm pretty excited because I only have to work four more hours on a Friday this entire year.  Bring on April 15th, I'm ready for my life to become less busy! 

Okay, on to the task at hand, Universal Loving Kindness and the Integral  Assessment.  I was pretty skeptical with the Universal Loving Kindness exercise.  I thought I would have a hard time getting my mind to focus on others, which I know is terrible.  I'm not saying that I don't care what happens to others, but I put a lot of my energy into doing what is best for my family and friends, and I had a hard time imagining helping others achieve health, happiness, and wholeness without ever having any interaction with them.  Then I performed the exercise, and realized that there isn't a person out there that I wouldn't help if they needed it.  I have never met a single one of you, but if there was a way that I could help you achieve wholeness in your life, I would do it in a heartbeat.  I think this practice helps us to see the kind of person that we really are.  We all live hectic lives, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't help someone in need.  Performing this exercise regularly would be a great reminder for me of the person that I really am.  Sometimes we get so caught up in life that we forget what is really important to us, and this exercise helps to brings that out.

The Integral Assessment helps for us to take a look at our lives, and determine the areas that we need to improve.  Let's face it, there is always some area we can improve on.  This assessment focuses on psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, and worldly aspects of our lives.  When assessing my life I realized my first area for improvement would be the psychospiritual aspect.  My main area of concern is emotional development.  I think the first area that should be focused on is ourselves.  We have learned if you don't truly love yourself, you can't love others.  I feel this is the reason for a lot of my insecurities, and poor judgement.  I haven't felt worthy of the love and attention that I receive, and therefore don't accept compliments or help very well.  I am really making improvements in this area, and after becoming more physically active, eating more nutritious foods, and focusing on improving my mental well-being I am feeling much less self conscious.  Keeping my emotions in check is a huge downfall for me.  I am going to focus on the subtle mind exercise and getting my mind to the unity consciousness state.  Once I can learn to process what is going on around me, and not act before thinking, I will be a much happier, healthier individual, mentally anyways.  I cannot tell you how much my life has changed just since beginning this area of study less than a year ago.  I truly believe I was pushed in this direction by a higher power so that I could see the problem areas in my life, and correct them before it was too late.  Regardless of whether or not I find the career I have been dreaming of with this degree, I believe that it has been worth it because of all of the positive lifestyle choices I have made.  I am a worthy of all of the great things I have in my life, and I have to remember that. 

Unit 5

I had to go about this weeks preparations a little differently because after I got about 4 minutes into the exercise my CD was just a bunch of static.  Luckily the book also walks you through the exercise so I think I got the just of the exercise, but probably not as well as if I would have just by being able to listen along.  To me it seems like the subtle mind exercise should be mastered before moving on to the loving kindness exercise.  While the loving kindness exercise incorporates a lot of techniques with other people, the subtle mind exercise focuses more about training our minds and focusing on ourselves.  The main part of this exercise is focusing on our breathing and trying to not let outside activity distract from concentration.  It suggests acknowledging the outside activity and then letting it go.  I found this exercise equally as difficult as the loving kindness exercise because I could not let go of the outside distractions.  I found myself getting annoyed that the kids would not be quiet or wondering what my dogs were doing outdoors.  I attempted to regain focus on my breathing, but it seemed every time a different thought would pop into my head.  When the practice started, and Dacher mentioned how this exercise would teach us to react less to situations and have greater patience I was very excited.  I am still very excited about achieving these outcomes so I will continue to practice this exercise.  Hopefully figuring out what is wrong with my CD in the mean time so that I can focus more of my attention towards breathing then reading.  When choosing whether to focus on this exercise or the loving kindness exercise I believe this will be my top priority for now.  Once I can learn to be a more patient individual, I should be able to grasp the idea of breathing in others pain and suffering. 

Developing a strong inner health can become our greatest healer (Dacher, 2006).  Sound spiritual health allows us to dismiss aspects of our life that may cause problems with both our mental and physical well being.  Because the thoughts that we process in our mind are distributed throughout our body, having positive thoughts, and patience will spread throughout the rest of our lives.  We can remedy physical symptoms with a sound spiritual health and have better relationships with the people around us.  If we allow negative thoughts to take over, we will be causing harm to our bodies and social life.  I personally believe that my social relationships would be much better off if I could learn to incorporate the loving kindness and subtle mind exercises into my daily life.  I am in great need of having less of a reaction to situations.  My husband would be delighted if I stuck with these exercises and made these changes in my life.

Unit 4 Mental Workout

Well, what did I think of Dacher's Loving Kindness exercise?  I think it was a difficult task.  I found it hard to concentrate, and even harder to imagine soaking up someone that I dislikes suffering.  This is a task that will definitely require practice.  If I could actually learn to understand the technique and not simply consider it as a relaxation exercise, I do believe it would be extremely beneficial.  I'm sure we are all aware after Wednesday's seminar that I have work to be done in the spiritual wellness department.  I do realize that I have "issues", but getting them corrected is another story.  I am attempting to make the changes in my emotional behavior it is just a task that is going to require a lot of persistence on my part.  Tonight I am having my first test on how far I have come in the process.  My husband and boys are attending a WWE performance, and my daughter is spending the night with her grandma so mom is left home alone.  I do not like being alone.  It makes me feel left out, and not needed.  I had my first setback less than two hours after my boys left.  My son text me to tell me they were eating at my favorite restaurant.  I proceeded to get angry, and text my husband to let him know it.  I quickly recognized the problem and let it go.  This is a GREAT improvement for me.  I know this is going to be a slow process, but I really hope that I can continue to use Dacher's advice, and regularly perform the loving-kindness exercise to help make myself a better person. Learning that we must love ourselves before we can love others has really opened my eyes.  I do not love myself, and if I want to give the best of me to my family, which I do, I need to learn that I am absolutely wonderful just the way I am.  I don't need others to make me feel complete.  I need to get there on my own.  Wish me luck!!  Until I have had time to properly experience the process, I do not feel that I can determine whether or not I would recommend this exercise.  I think I will need to determine that when I am more adjusted to the process.

A mental workout is exercise for your mind to achieve health, happiness, and wholeness kind of like running is for your body.  I must say that I am a little overwhelmed at the thought of spending an hour a day on a mental workout.  I have a hard enough time fitting in work, school, family, and physical activity.  I guess the best thing to do is to start slow and add a little bit here and there throughout the day.  I have taken on this same approach with physical activity.  It's probably kind of strange, but since I am having such a hard time finding the time to go to the gym, I have started doing 10 squats every time I use the restroom.  It's part of my routine now, like washing my hands.  I also throw in a few desk push-ups throughout the day.  By now I'm sure you all think I'm crazy.  Allowing this time each day to focus on our mental well-being has been proven to increase an individuals psychospiritual life.  It expands our consciousness, and opens our heart allowing us to focus on what is important to us, and not petty things that can bring us down. 

Here's to hoping I can make the necessary changes to my life to become the best wife and mother that I can be.  Out of everything there is in life, that is absolutely the most important thing to me.  For ten years my family has put up with the not so "together" Dawn, it's time to give them what the deserve.