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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Jill, great post! I did not even think of placing short term goals in front of the long term goals. I think this would work out and be more successful. Thanks for the advice! I hope you do not mind. But please, Do not be so harsh on yourself about the physical aspect. I am right there with you on this aspect. I just keep thinking to myself, the first step is realizing I have a problem, then the next step is setting up a plan, and finally, sticking to this plan. One step at a time. Great Post!
ReplyDeleteJill,
ReplyDeleteYou can do it! We should make a pact to support eachother in this endevor. I hope to reassess myself in six months as well. Hopefully I will have lost some wieght, quit smoking and have forgiven members of my past. We will see! Thanks for showing me this course on the elective list, I have leared so much and have improved my integral health and wellbeing as a result. I have also been given successful tools to reduce and eliminate stress! So I am forever in your debt for find my peace in total chaos!
Thanks Jill,
Andrea
Jill,
ReplyDeleteI am so impressed. Congratulations!!! Graduation, will be a great day for you. This is my second degree but I did the first one when I was 20 without a family. This was much more difficult so I know I will breathe a big exhale when I am done.
I feel your pain with the weight, mine has gotten so out of control. I think I have found the tools to make the changes, I am looking forward to the running program that I am starting. Wish me luck!
Best of luck to you!
Ginger
Dear Jill,
ReplyDeleteHey there! I just wanted to say that you did a fantastic job answering all of the questions for our final project in a proper manner! Also, thank you for commenting on my project and picture!
You seem to have your goals straight, and I wish you the best of luck in acheiving these goals as you reach closer and closer to integral health.
It has been a pleasure being your classmate, and I hope you finsih the class off well =)
Hey Jill you have such a beautiful disposition about yourself. I am a personal trainer and I have some tips that might help you to where you want to be, we need you in this world to motivate us to carry own in hard times! Your health is very important to us! There are lots of ways to lose weight. But if you plan to lose more than 15 to 20 pounds, or if you take medication regularly, you should be evaluated by your doctor before beginning your plan. Your doctor or registered dietitian can help you arrive at a sensible weight loss goal. You may not need to lose as much weight for your health as you think. Sometimes the desire to lose requires a great deal more loss than what is needed to lower your health risk.
ReplyDeleteAny weight management program you consider should probably reduce your daily calorie intake anywhere from 500 to 1000 calories a day, depending on how many calories you are currently eating. Total fat should be 30 percent or less of your total calories. Reducing saturated fat is important especially if your cholesterol is high. However, eating less fat alone won̢۪t give you the results you want unless your total calories are reduced, too. If cakes and cookies or breads and pastas are your favorites, you may need to reduce carbohydrates as well. You may want to seek the help of a registered dietitian to help you with dietary therapy or seek out a weight management program. A meal planning tool such as Nutrition Diary can also help monitor your daily calorie and nutrition intake.
Increasing your physical activity is an important part of losing weight. Moreover, it will be a lot harder to maintain your weight loss without increasing your exercise. By exercising, you can lower your risk for high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes beyond that produced by weight loss alone. If you are at risk for heart disease, have a chronic illness such as high blood pressure, diabetes or you are obese, you should check with your doctor before adopting an exercise plan.
Behavior therapy is a sort of a fancy way to talk about basic learning principles that can help you overcome barriers to changing your eating and exercise habits. For example it will be natural for you to set weight loss goals. But you need to look at your behavior when you set them:
-Are your goals specific?
-Are your goals attainable?
-Are your goals forgiving?
A combined strategy of behavior therapy, more exercise and healthy eating geared to shaving extra calories away is actually the most successful therapy for weight loss and weight maintenance. Don't forget to add God to the mix and you got the formula for you to live Forever. I love you Jill as God does, stay beautiful and thanks for making the world a better place!
Hey Everyone,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for all the great advice, tips, suggestions, motivation, and inspiration to help me lose weight. I wish I could have your motivation from week to week as a reminder. See, my physical aspect is low and I need all the motivation I can get. I love hearing from all of you each week and will miss our chats. I know I can do this and I now will have the time to get my life back on track after next week because I will be finishing up my degree program and receiving my Bachelor's. I'm so excited!! Thanks again to all of you and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors and with your integral health. I know if you keep practicing the exercises, you will reach human flourishing and integral health as you experience the love from within and heal from within first. Make sure you always pray and meditate. I know you all will be healthy and happy in so many ways. God Bless each and everyone of you!
Jill