Final Project

I.              Introduction:

One’s level of each aspect of human development: psychological, spiritual and physical, is dependent on the others to make a whole, well rounded person. Each area is important to total wellness because they are all part of each other. As Wilber wrote in Consciousness & Healing,

 “Body and mind and spirit are operating in self and culture and nature, and thus health and healing, sickness and wholeness are all bound up in a multidimensional tapestry that cannot be cut into without loss” (Schlitz p. xxxi). 

As a health and wellness professional it is important to develop these aspects of one’s self because teaching clients and patients about the benefits of integral health is easier and more realistic having experienced the results first hand. In my own journey as a health care professional I need to further develop my psychospiritual area; focusing on spiritual practices, mind training, and coping skills (Dacher, 2006).

II. & III. Assessment & Goal Development:

Six weeks ago I rated my physical wellbeing at 8. Currently I would keep the same rating because still I’m in good physical shape. For the first time I am putting a very demanding strain on my body: I’m pregnant. This adds challenges and new obstacles to being physically well but I feel I have a strong foundation in this area. I set a goal to run more, even when the weather isn’t nice but I haven’t been able to follow through on that goal. A goal I did achieve is to start yoga again. I am really enjoying the physical and mental benefits. The goal I am working toward now in my physical wellbeing is to have a healthy pregnancy. This includes my diet, exercising, the development of the baby, weight gain, and successful labor and delivery.

Six weeks ago I rated my spiritual wellbeing at 6. Day I rate this area at an 8. I don’t know if it’s this class, or bring pregnant, or the holidays; I’ve been able to find some peace that I’ve never quite had before. It’s a peace that I’ve felt moments of but I’ve never had a sustained feeling of calm in my soul like I do now. My goal in this area was to find peace; even if the peace is intermittent. I’ve achieved that goal. Mindfulness meditation has been very powerful. The goal I am working toward now in my spiritual wellbeing is to continue my meditation practices beyond this class and into the New Year.

Six weeks ago I rated my psychological wellbeing at 7; today I rate this area at 9. My goal in this area was to maintain my objectivity of my life and be kind to myself as I follow the journey of my life. I have been able to achieve that goal by journaling. It’s given me a better perspective and viewpoint to look at myself. The goal I am working toward now in my psychological wellbeing is both maintain my current level of health in this area as well as share and teach the success I’ve had with my loved ones.  

IV.          Practices for personal health:

For my physical wellbeing I plan to continue to do yoga as a weekly practice. I just started a new part time job at the hospital which is close enough to my house to walk which I do each time I work. Lastly, because I’m pregnant and concerned about my husband and I both maintaining a healthy weight we have made a commitment to exercise at our gym together at least twice a week.

For my psychological health I plan to implement a technology-free day once a week to relieve myself from feeling burdened by the need to always be online, checking texts or Facebook. The down time will give me time to relax and reflect on my immediate surrounding world. I have also added saying positive affirmations as part of my routine for psychological wellbeing. I’ve posted various positive messages around my house (on my bathroom mirror, on my bedside table) that remind me about a wonderful part of myself.

For my spiritual health I am attending church for the first time in my life. It is a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship which is open to all ways of thinking and believing. A lot of the discussion during each week’s gathering surrounds how our lives are impacting the world around us and what we are doing to make the world a better place. I feel more connected to myself and my fellow man than ever before. I will also continue my mindfulness meditation.

V.           Commitment:

Just as I revised the ratings of my physical, spiritual and psychological wellbeing today from six weeks ago, I will revisit and revise those ratings moving forward. As with an exercise regime goals must be set, reevaluated, reset and worked towards. With physical wellbeing the results are easier to see by stepping on a scale, running a mile or even looking in a mirror. Spiritual and psychological wellbeing requires a different kind of mirror. They both require looking inside to evaluate the progress. I will use this paper and other assignments to look back at how I was feeling at different points in time. I will continue to journal as another record of my feelings. Using these records I will be able to chart how my wellbeing in changing, improving or declining.

References

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

Schlitz, M. (2005). Consciousness & Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine. St. Louis: MS: Elsevier.

Effective Practices

The most effective part of practice that I’ve implemented into my life comes from my preparations for the actual exercises. Having faith in the “unique and precious opportunity of human life” has been a very profound and motivating concept in my life over the past few weeks (Dacher p. 50). When I’m struggling in my day to day tasks or even struggling in my loving-kindness or meditation I can find peace quickly in the reminder that my mere existence is incredible. With that foundation I have experienced benefits from both the loving-kindness practice and in meditation.

With the loving-kindness exercise I have been able to open my heart to people I don’t know in a genuine, loving way. I recently started a job at the hospital in my city. Being able to take care of patients and their loved ones requires an open heart. The aspiration of this practice is “to assist others in alleviated needless suffering and gaining happiness” (Dacher p. 51). With this practice I will continue to work toward that goal.

Meditation has been extremely helpful for me to reduce my stress level. I have two jobs, I’m in school full time, I run our household, I own and operate a small business, and I’m pregnant! There are times when my stress level is out of control. Taking 15 or even five minutes each day to sit in a comfortable chair, close my eyes and focus only on my breathing has been absolutely wonderful. During my meditation I can let go of all the thoughts, to-do lists, and deadlines that are crashing around in my head. After the mediation I give myself time to re-organize my lists; I let go of the tasks that aren’t priorities and focus on what I really need to get done.

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

Meeting Asciepius

This week I’ve been doing a lot of mental imagery to try to bring about a change to a physical situation I’m going through. Using some of the techniques we practiced with the first two tracks of Dacher’s CD, I’ve been redirecting my blood flow to my problem area as well as finding the life and light emitting from that area. I’ve been trying to “invite” my body to be well again though my mind’s power of suggestion. At times when I am meditating or using the practices we’ve learned in class, I still have to remind myself that there is a great amount of research that shows how the mind can affect the body. When I’m discouraged or don’t see or feel results I have to remember that this kind of practice takes time to develop into habit and lifestyle changes. To my delight, this weekend I had a break through experience with my physical problem. The images I was focusing on and meditating about came to life! That is all the proof I need! I will continue to use loving-kindness meditation and mindful meditation to improve my wellness.

The phrase "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” (Schlitz p. 447) exemplifies the importance of the leader. As I listened and participated in track four of Dacher’s CD I realized how important the person I was picturing (a friend named Fred) has been and is to my journey. His voice is routinely the voice in my mind while I’m meditating. He is exposed me to new ideas about the mind-body connection. And he has listened as I’ve discovered new levels of my own consciousness with an encouraging smile. Without having experienced the journey for himself he could not be my guide. The trust I put in him comes from knowing that he has been down this road before me and that he knows the way. As a health care provider I feel that I can best serve my patients by being qualified to be their guide down a road I’ve been before.

Schlitz, M. (2005). Consciousness & Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine. St. Louis, MS: Elsevier.

Universal Loving-Kindess

Wow! What a powerful exercise. For 10 minutes I read aloud the following:
May all individuals gain freedom from suffering.
May all individuals find sustained gain freedom from suffering.
May I assist all individuals gaining freedom from suffering.
May I assist all individuals in finding gain freedom from suffering. 

After completing the exercise I feel connected to the world! I feel like my love is out in the universe giving people strength and positive energy for their hardest conflicts. I feel like my love can impact the world! This was an amazingly powerful exercise.

Reading the phrases out loud made my intentions more real than if I’d read them silently to myself. As I grew comfortable with the words I actually stood up, raised my voice and declared the words with conviction and real intention!! Wonderful!

Random Thoughts Exercise

I am completing this assignment on the last day of the school week. I’m barely fitting it in between work, my husband, preparing for Thanksgiving, and shoveling snow. As I sat down to listen to the subtle mind exercise my mind everywhere. I could call this exercise the random thoughts exercise. I couldn’t keep my focus on my breath and I could barely stand to spend 20 minutes sitting still. I wish the circumstances of my day didn’t have such an effect on my ability to grow from this exercise, but it did. There were, gratefully, a few moments of true introspection in which I was able to witness my thoughts and let them drift away as I focused on my breath.

The loving kindness exercise from last week focused outside my body; I was focusing on loved ones and even strangers. This subtle mind exercise focused internally. I had an easier time last week when the exercise gave me a person, a loved one to direct my thoughts to.

These exercises are all part of the integral health process which aims to increase one’s overall health. The spiritual, mental, and physical parts are all connected and therefore if one is not healthy, all are not healthy. On the flip side improvements made in one area positively affect the others. I experience this most noticeably when I am not exercising regularly. If I feel dragged down and out of shape physically my mental fitness and spiritual wellbeing are also unfit.

Loving Kindness Meditation

Listening to the first two tracks of the Integral Health's accompanying CD I tried to experience and pass along loving kindness. Dacher describes loving kindness as “embracing others” (p 51), “a heart to heart connection” (p 51) and “a practice to open our hearts to other and gradually diminish self-centeredness” (p 65). I started the CD and focused my thoughts first on my husband. I felt a warm surge come from deep in my abdomen and a much focused energy on the love I have for him. After only a few minutes of sending that feeling to him my phone rang. It was my husband calling to check in. We tend to “check in” with each other once or twice a day, just to see how the other person is doing. I immediately asked why he’d called at the moment?? What he feeling something particularly loving?? Laughed and asked why…and that yes, he’d felt a quick surge of warm feelings and called. I was amazing as was he when I told him what I’d been doing. I’m still very excited about that experience, and excited to put this meditation to practice.

The concept of a mental workout is similar to a physical work out. In order to move beyond rest and relaxation and into a “progressive development of an expanded consciousness and its healing capacities” the practices must be part of one’s everyday life. Research has shown that by doing contemplative practices one can change their brain’s neural pathways which can have a positive impact on attention, memory, perception and imagery (Dacher, 2006).

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

Today!

I took my own advice and went to a yoga class today!!! It was amazing and I feel GREAT!

Rainbow Relaxation

The Crime of the Century (Rainbow) relaxation technique did not work for me. Imagining the colors was very distracting for me. I got stuck on imagining fruit; apple for red, oranges for orange, bananas…etc. I tried very hard to get pass that distraction but the harder I tried the more I was stuck. I enjoyed the phrases to repeat; I am grounded, I am centered, etc. I find that positive inner talk is very powerful. "My life has a meaningful purpose, my life has a meaningful purpose" Just saying it can be so uplifting.

I rate my physical wellbeing at 8. I’m in good physical shape because I have been active my whole life and have never have any extremely demanding or harmful physical experiences such as a car accident or being pregnant. Over the years I’ve become a fair-weather runner meaning that if the sun is shining I’m out there running. A goal I have for myself is to run even in cloudy, cold weather. Ultimately I’d like to be running four times a week. Another goal is to take another yoga class. I’ve done yoga in the past and enjoyed it very much.

I rate my spiritual wellbeing at 6. The lower rating here is because I’m often restless in my soul. I struggle with questions of what, how, and where am I going in my life? Am I making the right choices? Is time just slipping by? I have a wonderful husband, a great job, an amazing family and good friends; and still I’m uneasy at times. My goal in this area is to find peace; even if the peace is intermittent. The activity I feel would help the most with is mindful meditation. I’ve been reading more and more about meditation partly through school and partly on my own. Whenever I actually make the effort to meditate I enjoy great success in the quieting of my restless soul. I need to do it more.

I rate my psychological wellbeing at 7. I feel that I have almost complete self-acceptance of all the good and bad inside myself. There are always parts to work on but I have very relaxed with myself. It’s like I can step back and look at my spiritual uneasiness, acknowledge it and be okay with its presences. My goal in this area is to maintain my objectivity of my life and be kind to myself as I follow the journey of my life. An activity that would help improve my psychological wellbeing is journaling. Have perspective is so powerful when it comes to judging one’s self. Journaling could give me that viewpoint.

Journey On Relaxation

I just completed a guided relaxation exercise. I was amazing!! The teacher started the typically way...close your eyes, get comfortable...then he said to imagine the blood of my body which was mostly resting in my abdomen. He asked me to think about moving that blood to my arms and hands. As to followed his instruction the feeling of warmth and heaviness moved into my shoulders and down my arms. It was really crazy! My shoulders became warm...actually, almost hot during the exercise!
After the teacher finished the exercise I felt very peaceful. And very excited to have harnessed some power over my body!

Welcome

Hi Everyone,
This blog is an assignement for a class I'm taking online through Kaplan University called Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing. I'm looking forward to posting my thoughts on this blog as well as connecting with my classmates and followers.
Be well,
Catherine