Unit 9 Project

I Introduction:

It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically so that they can be trusted by their patients. They need to be holistically well in order to have respect from their patients, as well. Practicing what they preach is very important to a lot of people. It would be hard for me to trust someone who told me to do something when they themselves did not life such a way. In my own life there are many areas that need to be developed before I would feel comfortable giving advice in the health and wellness area. I think that psychologically I am well. It’s the physical and the spiritual areas that I need the most work in.

II Assessment:

When I assess myself in these areas I try to be as critical as possible. I give myself an 8.5 psychologically. I set a goal to keep a journal every night before bed; however, I did not end up doing that. Instead, before bed I meditate, visualize, and do some deep breathing exercises & some reflection exercises. I know that mentally I have a clearer outlook on things than I did at the beginning of this class. I understand things better, I look at things from different sides, and I am less quick to judge people. I feel so much more confident and my self-esteem has increased tremendously as well. I feel like I am living my life more now rather than just existing in my life.

Spiritually I would say I am about a 6. Better than I was at the beginning of the class but I still have a ways to go. I am not doing a daily devotional, reading my bible like I had set my original goal to do, however, I pray daily. I meditate which also helps with my psychological improvement as well. I have been going to church more though not weekly as I would like. I do feel more of a spiritual connection and more of a deeper understanding of life, which I can not really explain where it came from, but let me just say, that I love meditation.

Physically, now this is an area that is not my friend. At the beginning of this class when we assessed ourselves I gave myself a 5 and climbing. Well many miles and many injuries later I would say that I am back to a 5. I do think that for a while I moved to about a 6 but I haven’t really lost any weight. I have had three hip injuries (all at the same time!) and I just found out that I have an auto immune disease. So until I need to start taking medication that I will require for the rest of my life and once that is regulated my new life partner will be under control. My hip has been healing for about 8 weeks with very little progress. If in six more weeks it is still not better I will have to have surgery to correct it. So I have simply digressed. I do feel better about my physical fitness, but I am simply falling apart.

III Goal development:

My goal for my physical wellness is still to be in a size 10 before August. My spiritual goal is to attend church more regularly. My goal for my mental wellness is to continue my reflection in the evenings and meditation as well. I could go on and on about all the things I want to improve on in these areas, however, you asked for one so I gave you one. There is always room for improvement and as I start trying to achieve these goals I may learn that these goals are not realistic for me and I may need to adjust them to fit into my lifestyle. I now know that trial and error is a good thing and that learning to fail is a great thing to learn.

IV Practices for personal health:

There is a new yoga studio that is opening this week by my house. Yoga is such a wonderful thing to help improve all three areas of self. This yoga studio offers a class that fits perfectly into my work and my new exercise schedules. I have also spoken with a cousin of mine who is a certified personal trainer and a certified yoga instructor to help me develop a new weight loss plan, something that I can do everyday Monday thru Friday and have my weekends to do what I want. Everyday after work or before work whichever works best for me I will do some form of exercise. Walk my dogs, go for a bike ride, do an exercise video, take a yoga class etc. I have a whole list of 20 to 30 minute activities that I can pick from to do everyday. She also has a blog that I read daily where she gives helpful tips on eating right and healthy, yummy, snacks and recipes. I have started to make out my menu for the week on Saturdays and do my shopping from the list of the things I need for my menu, which also saves me time and money. Sundays are spiritual days. Church in the mornings and something nature-ish in the afternoons (weather permitting of course). I will continue to do my daily meditations and learn new meditations for my spiritual and psychological growth. Also, for my psychological growth one thing that I have found helpful is to take some time out for myself. At least once a week I will pick a day or half a day to do something that I want to do. I am also going to start reading a book a month. A book that is not a school book, something that is from my ever-growing-never-slowing list of books I want to read in my life.

V Commitment:

In the next six months I will re-evaluate myself by trying to gauge what and where I am now with where I am then. I am planning to keep up with my blog and using that as my form of journaling. I will post helpful tips and tricks that I learn along the way. I will use this blog to help my in the next six months to re-evaluate and set new goals. I think that I will always have meditation in my life from now on. I will always have yoga and possibly even Tai’Chi if I can ever get that figured out! I will do all of the meditation exercises that I learned in this class and I hope to be able to pass them on and teach them to others one day. I have learned so much from this class about myself and about others. I have learned about what works for me and what does not. See you in Blog land.