1. Review your unit 3 personal assessment of your psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being. Reflect on these areas. How did you score yourself on a scale from 1 to 10 in unit 3? How do you score yourself now? Has the score changed? Why or why not?
2. Review the goals and activities you set for yourself in each area. Have you made progress toward the goals? Explain.
In answering both questions in the following paragraph, I have compared and reflected on my spiritual and psychological well-being, and I have remained the same. I am rated an 8 in spiritual and a 7 in psychological well-being. I feel that I am on the higher end too as I write this post. I am surprised to see that I rated myself as a 4 in week three for physical well-being and have dropped to a 2 rating. Well, at least I am being honest with myself and know where I need extra work. I noticed I’ve been eating more junk food and getting less exercise over the past few weeks. I am an emotional eater and when I’m stressed, I eat the wrong foods yet find them so comforting. I plan to work on this weakness now that school is almost over.
3. Have you implemented the activities you chose for your well-being in each of the three areas? Explain.
Beginning Monday, I will be taking frequent walks and working out to an aerobic tape in the evening in my basement. Luckily, I have a finished basement. I do plan on eating healthier by chomping on more fruits and vegetables (including celery). I will drink more water too.
I will also find more time to meditate and begin to read the Bible. I always told myself one day I would read the Bible, but never have. Now is my time because I want to feel closer to God. I also want to go to Barnes and Nobles bookstore to see what meditation CDs they sell, if any. Otherwise, I should check Wal-Mart to see what meditation CDs they carry. I want to share the experience of meditation with my family even if I have to do this as a one-on-one separately, so they do not giggle when they are together. I know how the boys are when they are together and do not need to hear their comments. By sharing the meditation CD with each child individually, they will focus more and be more serious about the experience and the quality time with mommy. I will have my husband sit with me in the evenings to as I introduce him to meditation (Mommy and Daddy alone time!)
I am still practicing my meditation but there are some days where there is so much being thrown at me. I’ve also been ill for the past week-and-a-half with bronchitis, a sinus infection, ear infection, and strep throat all in one shot that I haven’t felt energized to do much of anything except make a pot of homemade soup. Now that my antibiotics are starting to kick in, I feel more energized, and ready to kick some butt!
4. Summarize your personal experience throughout this course. Have you developed improved well-being? What has been rewarding? What has been difficult? How will this experience improve your ability to assist others?
My personal experience has been an eye-opener, especially with learning how to meditate and appreciate the knowledge I have learned from the textbooks, CD, and my classmates. Everyone has provided such encouragement, inspiration, and support along the way. What a fantastic group of students and an honor to have had the opportunity of sharing this class with you. The students have been my rewards with their motivational words of support. I can’t thank each of you enough for taking me to a whole new level of happiness and wholeness. Thank you so much! Your motivation inspires me to want to be the best, happiest, and healthiest person I can be and to share my stories of success as I embark on my new journey with others. The only challenge I had was finding the time needed for myself. Going forward, I will now have the extra time to experience human flourishing and integral health. God Bless you all!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Unit 9 - Creating a Plan to Foster Growth and Health
I. Introduction:
It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically because they need to believe, understand, and feel good about themselves first in order to teach and hare this knowledge with others. For example, if a health and wellness professional is overweight and eating junk food in front of you with a negative attitude as he or she preaches about exercising and nutrition is important to your health and mind leading you to a sexier new you, will you believe this person? Of course you won’t! You will believe a physically fit aerobic instructor eating an apple and preaching to you. The results and evidence we are faced with is the person we will believe, especially when there is a high-energy level and positive attitude to go along with is person who is trying to convince us. I need work in all three areas to achieve the goals I have for myself and can do this by practicing and motivating myself, but mostly on the physical level.
II. Assessment:
I have assessed my health in each domain by knowing how I feel and look each day as well as how I deal with my stress and negativity. I know I am out-of-shape and have a hard time controlling my cravings for sugar and junk food. I am overweight by 60-pounds for a 4-foot, 11-inch female. I have shortness of breath at times and my knees tend to ache at times too, probably due to carrying around the extra weight. I am not very good at eating enough fruits and vegetables each day and should work on increasing them. I rate myself a two for physical wellbeing since I have been in school. I plan to work on this in another week because I will be finished with school and will receive my Bachelor’s degree. Hooray!
I would rate myself as an eight in spiritual wellbeing because I believe in God and Jesus. I attend church regularly with my family and feel so good about myself when I leave church each week. I pray every day and believe that my deceased family members are in heaven watching over me. I know when something is bothering me, I pray hard for an answer and it always seems as if an answer is provided within the next couple of days to a week. I have no problem believing in my faith and in my family. Quality time and love has always been a blessing to me as well as my family’s health. For this, I am thankful.
Psychologically I rate myself a seven because I some times let people get to me and I need to work on this. I have to release my stress through meditation and the loving-kindness exercises to remind myself I love myself wholeheartedly and need to re-direct this love outward toward others to erase the negative thoughts from my mind. I will need to keep practicing the meditation exercises such as loving-kindness, the subtle-mind, and visualization.
III. Goal Development:
One goal I have for physical wellbeing is to begin losing weight by walking, working out to aerobic tapes five nights a week, and getting away from my desk more at work to take a walk around the building. I would also like to start eating healthier. I will set up some time on my schedule at work to meet with the fitness instructor in my building to go over a healthy eating chart with me and show me how to measure out servings and still feel full after eating a meal. I plan to cut back on my junk food too.
A psychological goal I have for myself is to continue practicing the meditation exercises by using the CDs such as loving-kindness and the subtle-mind. Visualization I already do enough of each day and have in the past, so that is not a problem. I should try yoga too to clear my mind.
The spiritual wellbeing goal is to continue going to church and praying to God. I should try reading the Bible some time now that I will have more free time on my hands.
IV. Practices for Personal Health:
The strategies I can implement to foster growth in the physical domain is to have everything all set up at home for the following night to follow-through on my exercise plan. For example, to keep me focused and while on a time schedule when I get home from work, I will have the DVD I want to work out to on top of the DVD player, work out clothes pulled out and on my bed so I can change right into them, sneakers by the foot of my bed to quickly throw on my feet, and grab a water bottle out of the refrigerator to take downstairs into the basement with me, so when I get thirsty, I do not have to pause the DVD to go retrieve a drink. Having a sweat towel pulled out with my change of clothes is one less step I have to take in grabbing one later in the middle of my workout.
The psychological strategies I should use is getting into a routine of listening to the CD morning and night as I practice the loving-kindness in the morning and subtle-mind exercise in the evening. I can even alternate them to see what exercise works best for me depending on the time of day. Purchasing other relaxation CDs such as falling rain, a thunderstorm, or listening to the sounds of the ocean will help relax me when I have trouble sleeping or I am stressed out over a hectic day where everything seems to have gone wrong. I know we all experience days like these, so I want to try and find a way to heal myself emotionally by relaxing.
The spiritual strategies I should use is continue going to church, read the Bible, and practice Asclepius healing exercises by meditating and praying (Dacher, 2006).
V. Commitment:
I will assess my progress or lack of progress in the next six months by setting short-term goals for myself for all three areas. I will set time aside for each development area everyday and do my best to stay motivated by keeping my long-term goals in mind such as happiness, wholeness, calmness, and an appreciation toward life. I can measure each of these developments by how I feel after each exercise I incorporate into my day and know by my awareness and integral health that I have truly mastered human flourishing. May God bless each and every one of us! I count my blessings every day for the simple things I have in life.
Reference:
Dacher, E.S. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, C.A.: Basic Health Publications, Inc.
It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically because they need to believe, understand, and feel good about themselves first in order to teach and hare this knowledge with others. For example, if a health and wellness professional is overweight and eating junk food in front of you with a negative attitude as he or she preaches about exercising and nutrition is important to your health and mind leading you to a sexier new you, will you believe this person? Of course you won’t! You will believe a physically fit aerobic instructor eating an apple and preaching to you. The results and evidence we are faced with is the person we will believe, especially when there is a high-energy level and positive attitude to go along with is person who is trying to convince us. I need work in all three areas to achieve the goals I have for myself and can do this by practicing and motivating myself, but mostly on the physical level.
II. Assessment:
I have assessed my health in each domain by knowing how I feel and look each day as well as how I deal with my stress and negativity. I know I am out-of-shape and have a hard time controlling my cravings for sugar and junk food. I am overweight by 60-pounds for a 4-foot, 11-inch female. I have shortness of breath at times and my knees tend to ache at times too, probably due to carrying around the extra weight. I am not very good at eating enough fruits and vegetables each day and should work on increasing them. I rate myself a two for physical wellbeing since I have been in school. I plan to work on this in another week because I will be finished with school and will receive my Bachelor’s degree. Hooray!
I would rate myself as an eight in spiritual wellbeing because I believe in God and Jesus. I attend church regularly with my family and feel so good about myself when I leave church each week. I pray every day and believe that my deceased family members are in heaven watching over me. I know when something is bothering me, I pray hard for an answer and it always seems as if an answer is provided within the next couple of days to a week. I have no problem believing in my faith and in my family. Quality time and love has always been a blessing to me as well as my family’s health. For this, I am thankful.
Psychologically I rate myself a seven because I some times let people get to me and I need to work on this. I have to release my stress through meditation and the loving-kindness exercises to remind myself I love myself wholeheartedly and need to re-direct this love outward toward others to erase the negative thoughts from my mind. I will need to keep practicing the meditation exercises such as loving-kindness, the subtle-mind, and visualization.
III. Goal Development:
One goal I have for physical wellbeing is to begin losing weight by walking, working out to aerobic tapes five nights a week, and getting away from my desk more at work to take a walk around the building. I would also like to start eating healthier. I will set up some time on my schedule at work to meet with the fitness instructor in my building to go over a healthy eating chart with me and show me how to measure out servings and still feel full after eating a meal. I plan to cut back on my junk food too.
A psychological goal I have for myself is to continue practicing the meditation exercises by using the CDs such as loving-kindness and the subtle-mind. Visualization I already do enough of each day and have in the past, so that is not a problem. I should try yoga too to clear my mind.
The spiritual wellbeing goal is to continue going to church and praying to God. I should try reading the Bible some time now that I will have more free time on my hands.
IV. Practices for Personal Health:
The strategies I can implement to foster growth in the physical domain is to have everything all set up at home for the following night to follow-through on my exercise plan. For example, to keep me focused and while on a time schedule when I get home from work, I will have the DVD I want to work out to on top of the DVD player, work out clothes pulled out and on my bed so I can change right into them, sneakers by the foot of my bed to quickly throw on my feet, and grab a water bottle out of the refrigerator to take downstairs into the basement with me, so when I get thirsty, I do not have to pause the DVD to go retrieve a drink. Having a sweat towel pulled out with my change of clothes is one less step I have to take in grabbing one later in the middle of my workout.
The psychological strategies I should use is getting into a routine of listening to the CD morning and night as I practice the loving-kindness in the morning and subtle-mind exercise in the evening. I can even alternate them to see what exercise works best for me depending on the time of day. Purchasing other relaxation CDs such as falling rain, a thunderstorm, or listening to the sounds of the ocean will help relax me when I have trouble sleeping or I am stressed out over a hectic day where everything seems to have gone wrong. I know we all experience days like these, so I want to try and find a way to heal myself emotionally by relaxing.
The spiritual strategies I should use is continue going to church, read the Bible, and practice Asclepius healing exercises by meditating and praying (Dacher, 2006).
V. Commitment:
I will assess my progress or lack of progress in the next six months by setting short-term goals for myself for all three areas. I will set time aside for each development area everyday and do my best to stay motivated by keeping my long-term goals in mind such as happiness, wholeness, calmness, and an appreciation toward life. I can measure each of these developments by how I feel after each exercise I incorporate into my day and know by my awareness and integral health that I have truly mastered human flourishing. May God bless each and every one of us! I count my blessings every day for the simple things I have in life.
Reference:
Dacher, E.S. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, C.A.: Basic Health Publications, Inc.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Unit 8 - Beneficial Exercises that Foster Mental Fitness
Unit 8 – Blog
My two most beneficial practice exercises are loving-kindness and the subtle mind. I have been practicing each of them twice a day (morning and night) and I am getting better at clearing my mind for them. I still have to use the CDs though to coach me through. I feel so relaxed and renewed once I have completed my exercises. I have calmness about me and I can deal with all the chaos around me much better than before. I still have to try yoga, which is another goal to accomplish after I finish school, which is only in a couple of more weeks. I am so excited!
I can implement both the loving-kindness and subtle mind exercises into my personal life to foster mental fitness by continuing to practice inner love and turning my love outward towards strangers and people all around me through picturing them in my mind first. Inner healing, peace, love, happiness, and wholeness are experienced as I learn to develop myself in order to reach human flourishing and integral health. The more I practice, the healthier and happier I become. I can share my knowledge with others including my husband and children. By my family practicing these exercises together, we can handle situations better and do more together as we connect spiritually. Church is a wonderful experience and feeling as we all spend quality time with one another and sing hymns that enlighten our hearts and moods. Music is a great way to heal the inner self and feel good about life. We erase negative thoughts from our minds and replace with positive ones, so we develop an appreciation for life. We can share this knowledge with others through awareness and decrease illnesses. Integral health and human flourishing can be reached with patience, an open-mind, time, and practice. We have to be willing to experience each step in the healing process along the way.
My two most beneficial practice exercises are loving-kindness and the subtle mind. I have been practicing each of them twice a day (morning and night) and I am getting better at clearing my mind for them. I still have to use the CDs though to coach me through. I feel so relaxed and renewed once I have completed my exercises. I have calmness about me and I can deal with all the chaos around me much better than before. I still have to try yoga, which is another goal to accomplish after I finish school, which is only in a couple of more weeks. I am so excited!
I can implement both the loving-kindness and subtle mind exercises into my personal life to foster mental fitness by continuing to practice inner love and turning my love outward towards strangers and people all around me through picturing them in my mind first. Inner healing, peace, love, happiness, and wholeness are experienced as I learn to develop myself in order to reach human flourishing and integral health. The more I practice, the healthier and happier I become. I can share my knowledge with others including my husband and children. By my family practicing these exercises together, we can handle situations better and do more together as we connect spiritually. Church is a wonderful experience and feeling as we all spend quality time with one another and sing hymns that enlighten our hearts and moods. Music is a great way to heal the inner self and feel good about life. We erase negative thoughts from our minds and replace with positive ones, so we develop an appreciation for life. We can share this knowledge with others through awareness and decrease illnesses. Integral health and human flourishing can be reached with patience, an open-mind, time, and practice. We have to be willing to experience each step in the healing process along the way.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Unit 7 - Meeting Asciepius
My meditative practice this week was uplifting and calm as I closed my eyes to picture my loving grandmother who has been gone for 17 years, which I find hard to believe. I loved her with all my heart and soul because she was always there for me as a little girl and she was someone I could confide in. She always knew how to love me in all she did for me. I could visualize her and feel her right there with me. I brought her love into my heart and mind and could see different colors coming out of her and entering into me, which created such warmth, love, and compassion. I immediately experienced an inner healer through her love and the colors that flowed throughout my body. I was happy and calm. This is known as meeting Asciepius (Dacher, 2006).
Mediation has fostered an increase in my psychological and spiritual wellness by making all my troubles disappear as I begin to feel happiness and wholeness. I have such clarity and peace as I experience inner healing. This is a feeling of human flourishing and feeling closer to God. I now have an open heart and a clear understanding, which makes me feel dynamic.
The saying “one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” (p. 477), means that you cannot teach or show some one how to experience human flourishing or the fruits of human flourishing if you have not experienced it for yourself. It is hard to explain the steps to achieve such a fulfilling life without practicing loving-kindness and the subtle mind exercises on a daily basis. The health and wellness professional would need to know and have experienced human flourishing for him or herself in order to teach this wonderful wholeness to life’s secret.
I would have an obligation to my clients to develop my health psychologically, physically, and spiritually because I have to believe in these exercises myself in order to share my knowledge and happiness with others. If I began to talk and share these wonderful steps to human flourishing with my clients then I need to believe in these powers or I will fail them. I could not begin talking about them and then talking negatively about people or myself, otherwise I would look like a quack. People would no longer seek my services and I would lose clients this way.
I could implement psychological and spiritual growth in my personal life by practicing the loving-kindness and subtle-mind exercises, keeping an open mind, and experiencing peace, harmony, love, and my inner happiness which will flourish outward toward others. My health will improve too when I do meet Asciepius because I have experienced inner healing and love.
Jill Jernee
Reference:
Dacher, E.S. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, C.A.: Basic Health Publications, Inc.
Mediation has fostered an increase in my psychological and spiritual wellness by making all my troubles disappear as I begin to feel happiness and wholeness. I have such clarity and peace as I experience inner healing. This is a feeling of human flourishing and feeling closer to God. I now have an open heart and a clear understanding, which makes me feel dynamic.
The saying “one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” (p. 477), means that you cannot teach or show some one how to experience human flourishing or the fruits of human flourishing if you have not experienced it for yourself. It is hard to explain the steps to achieve such a fulfilling life without practicing loving-kindness and the subtle mind exercises on a daily basis. The health and wellness professional would need to know and have experienced human flourishing for him or herself in order to teach this wonderful wholeness to life’s secret.
I would have an obligation to my clients to develop my health psychologically, physically, and spiritually because I have to believe in these exercises myself in order to share my knowledge and happiness with others. If I began to talk and share these wonderful steps to human flourishing with my clients then I need to believe in these powers or I will fail them. I could not begin talking about them and then talking negatively about people or myself, otherwise I would look like a quack. People would no longer seek my services and I would lose clients this way.
I could implement psychological and spiritual growth in my personal life by practicing the loving-kindness and subtle-mind exercises, keeping an open mind, and experiencing peace, harmony, love, and my inner happiness which will flourish outward toward others. My health will improve too when I do meet Asciepius because I have experienced inner healing and love.
Jill Jernee
Reference:
Dacher, E.S. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, C.A.: Basic Health Publications, Inc.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Unit 6 - Loving-Kindness and Integral Assessment
Wow! What a relaxing exercise this one was for me after I was able to get into it. At first, I had trouble trying to memorize each of the four lines, so I did the best I could with the words and made the key words stand out as I closed my eyes and repeated the phrases for the 10-minutes the exercise called for. I felt so in touch with my inner self or should I say my mind and body. I experienced a love for all things and calmness, known as universal love (Dacher, 2006).
As far as the integral assessment, I discovered I need to focus more on my weight and nutrition in order to experience happiness and a healthier me. I find my weight gets me down a lot and makes me feel self-conscious too as I go through the same old clothes trying to find clothes that hide my stomach. This is not always an easy task. I purposely did not plan a vacation to the beach this year because I do not want to deal with putting on a bathing suit and feeling how fat I am in one. I really have to work on my weight and plan to do so in another few weeks, as soon as school ends. I have already started walking at lunch time these past couple of weeks, but I go back to eating sweets and junk food, which is not a healthy choice but sugar seems to be an addiction with me. These are the areas I need to focus on for growth and development. I would like to lose at least 20-25 pounds by the end of this year and make this my goal to experience human flourishing and integral health. I know I can do this but need to put my mind to this in order to accomplish my goal. I want to be in better shape for me and my family. I want to be able to fit back into one of my old pair of jeans that I haven’t worn in over 15-years and feel great. I will make time to put one hour in each day in the evenings for a cardiovascular workout to an aerobic tape at least five days a week. I will continue walking for 30-minutes each day too during lunch and on days that it is raining, I will be sure to take a walk on the treadmill in the fitness gym at work just to be sure I stay on top of my routine and do not slack. I will increase my water drinking to be sure I have my eight glasses of water per day. Maybe this will take away some of my cravings for chocolate or anything with sugar. I just have to start with working out because everything will begin to fall into place once I start feeling better. I have noticed in the past that once I begin working out, then I begin to eat healthier. I will have to continue to be aware of what I put into my mouth by keeping a journal and documenting the foods that I eat each day and asking myself “Do I really need this?” before putting it into my mouth. Once I am able to retrain my way of thinking, my goal should be accomplished. I would like to continue the same goals for next year as far as my weight loss. If I could lose another 20-pounds by the end of next year, then I will have lost 40 pounds and will be in better shape than what I am now. Imagine how I will feel after losing that much weight? The wonders this will do to my self-esteem, self-conscious, health, and happiness will lead me to psychological flourishing and integral health. Wish me luck!
Jill Jernee
Reference:
Dacher, E.S. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, C.A.: Basic Health Publications, Inc.
As far as the integral assessment, I discovered I need to focus more on my weight and nutrition in order to experience happiness and a healthier me. I find my weight gets me down a lot and makes me feel self-conscious too as I go through the same old clothes trying to find clothes that hide my stomach. This is not always an easy task. I purposely did not plan a vacation to the beach this year because I do not want to deal with putting on a bathing suit and feeling how fat I am in one. I really have to work on my weight and plan to do so in another few weeks, as soon as school ends. I have already started walking at lunch time these past couple of weeks, but I go back to eating sweets and junk food, which is not a healthy choice but sugar seems to be an addiction with me. These are the areas I need to focus on for growth and development. I would like to lose at least 20-25 pounds by the end of this year and make this my goal to experience human flourishing and integral health. I know I can do this but need to put my mind to this in order to accomplish my goal. I want to be in better shape for me and my family. I want to be able to fit back into one of my old pair of jeans that I haven’t worn in over 15-years and feel great. I will make time to put one hour in each day in the evenings for a cardiovascular workout to an aerobic tape at least five days a week. I will continue walking for 30-minutes each day too during lunch and on days that it is raining, I will be sure to take a walk on the treadmill in the fitness gym at work just to be sure I stay on top of my routine and do not slack. I will increase my water drinking to be sure I have my eight glasses of water per day. Maybe this will take away some of my cravings for chocolate or anything with sugar. I just have to start with working out because everything will begin to fall into place once I start feeling better. I have noticed in the past that once I begin working out, then I begin to eat healthier. I will have to continue to be aware of what I put into my mouth by keeping a journal and documenting the foods that I eat each day and asking myself “Do I really need this?” before putting it into my mouth. Once I am able to retrain my way of thinking, my goal should be accomplished. I would like to continue the same goals for next year as far as my weight loss. If I could lose another 20-pounds by the end of next year, then I will have lost 40 pounds and will be in better shape than what I am now. Imagine how I will feel after losing that much weight? The wonders this will do to my self-esteem, self-conscious, health, and happiness will lead me to psychological flourishing and integral health. Wish me luck!
Jill Jernee
Reference:
Dacher, E.S. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, C.A.: Basic Health Publications, Inc.
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