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.