Final Review on Self Progress

Hello All

We have came to our final part of class and now we have to assess ourselves and the progress that we have made from the beginning of our units to now.  I am unsure if I have made any progress since Unit 3, with it being Unit 10 now-but I do know who I am, and that I am a working progress always.  Physically I would say I am back on board than I was 7 weeks ago, because I am getting closer to my race day, I have started my training-I would rate myself 9/10, I am never a perfect score.  Psychologically, I am still progressing into a peaceful mental state constantly; it is hard at times of the things that are around you that can affect your emotions though-otherwise, I would rate myself 6/10.  Spiritually, I know I am around a 8-9/10, I am not a perfect Christian, but I try to be as good as I can as a servant of Christ-I have my days as a human, as we all do. But, from within, I do know what I believe in and what I practice makes me feel wholesome, peaceful and at center.

The only activities I would have to say that I put forth as goals for my three aspects, would be to run more and do more physical activities, and to meditate more.  Since Unit 3, I have brought more physical activities into my day, such as running, walking and using a step monitor to evaluate at the end of each day that I made my goal to 1000 steps.  Also, with the meditating I am still working on giving 5-10 minutes out of my day just to focus on my breathing and clearing my mind. 

I have personally enjoyed the class as a whole, I have learned quite a bit about the mind and the spirit, and have become more observant of my mind.  I have put more thinking before acting out since starting this course, I feel this course has helped me to become a more centered peaceful person.  I thank you to all my classmates for helping me along the way of my journey, giving me great insight with examples and ideas.  Also, I thank my professor for giving me a path on my journey to integral health.

So long everyone and your own paths to integral health and your life as a wellness professional.  I hope everyone is successful in all that you do. 
Bless you,
Nicole

My Integral Health Plan

Hello Everyone!! So, I have taken the time to assess my own life and health and to make choices of improvement.  This is my plan!!

I.                    Introduction

To have Integral Health is to love and give attention to every aspect of your life, psychologically, spiritually and physically.  Having integrated health in all aspects of our human body gives us a sense of wholeness and pleasure.  With my notion, this is why I feel its particularly important for health and wellness professionals to use these practices, so they in turn can teach others how it is done.

Personally, I myself feel its important for my to render into all aspects of the human body focusing on each of them as a prized possession.  My physical, spiritual and psychological aspects are all prized possessions to me, they are mine, I can do whatever I please with these aspects; I choose to use the aspects that I own in creating wholeness and a healthy lifestyle.

II.                 Assessment

Looking at my own domain of how I have assessed each of my aspects has been overjoyed in some areas, while I feel it has been a bit unfair in other areas.  In wholeness, I am a very spiritual person connecting myself with the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus and I have a very close relationship and I take great pride in knowing Jesus everyday of my life-having this sense of spiritualism gives me my own calmness and peace.  Physically, I am beginning to work on this particular aspect more-I ran a ½ marathon last fall, in which I am registered for another one in May, I start training soon.  Otherwise my physical aspect has been ignored the last 2 months, only because the training I had to go through for my race in the fall was very intense, but nutritionally I do keep a good diet.  Mentally, or psychologically I do have a peaceful mind and a sense of calmness due to my spiritualism-at times of stress I do place myself in a quite setting and focus on my breathing, which I had borrowed from the subtle mind exercise of Elliott Dacher’s book.

III.               Goal Development

Goals I have planned for myself in each aspect of my life would have to be easily distributed and would have to be realistic.  Physically, instead of having to intense parts of the year where I am constantly running, and than putting off vigorous exercise for a while-I need to maintain vigorous and moderate exercise throughout the year.  Spiritually, I could start trying to love others more, showing love to them-such as strangers.  I have a problem that I am still working on and still praying for, which is my patience.  I am a nurse out in the health care field, at times I will have to make silly phone calls to insurance agents to approve a patients MRI or Cat Scan, which at times can be a headache.  I need to work on staying calm through these types of phone calls, and to not show impatience over the phone, instead to show love.  My goals realistically for psychological health would have to be more meditation time; I seriously would love to involve meditation into my life, sitting peacefully clearing my mind.  I have attempted this exercise a few times, and I cannot sit for more than 5 minutes, I need to learn that the stuff I have to do will get done, maybe just not right now.

IV.              Practices for personal health

Practicing my personal health as of now spiritually is easy for me, because I have found time in my day where I can have my one on one with Christ and not have to be bothered.  During my spiritual exercises, if that’s what you want to call them, I take the time in doing them in my car while I am driving.  I also take time in practicing my spiritualism when I lay down in bed at night before I go to sleep.  Taking time out of my day to render the physical aspect of my body would probably, realistically, getting up in the wee hours of the morning to go out for a jog.  Also while I am at work, which is mostly all the time, I can take steps to get my heart rate going like taking 2 minutes to run up and down the stairs.  Last, to find time in practicing on my mental health, that I perhaps need to focus on the most, would be during my work day hours, I can find a quite place such as one of the exam rooms in our clinic and clear my mind.  Also when I get home from work is when I am the most relieved of my day, and when I feel the most sense of calmness-this would be a good time to sit, close my eyes and focus on one thing that was good during my day; this would make me feel like I have completed my main goal, which is to show love.

V.                 Commitment

Well I have already started accessing my physical aspect, by running 4 times a week for at least 20-30 minutes at a time. I am healthy physically, I eat the right foods, I monitor my portions and maintain my moderation with food intake.  After the month of May, I will no longer have to train for a running race, so I will try to access my exercise more efficiently by taking 30 minutes a day to at least walk or go to a fitness class.  I have already accessed my spiritualism, as I already have a great relationship with Jesus Christ, but to have a more abundant understanding of what my spiritualism is all about, I need to take time in showing others what Jesus’ love is all about and showing His immense gift of love-in which I will work on getting better at this everyday.  Mentally, I see my psychological aspect in the next 6 months as perhaps honestly staying the same as it is now.  I tell myself I want to improve with this aspect by taking time twice a day just to meditate for 5 minutes, but I do not know for sure if this will happen.  I need to take it each and everyday, day by day, to remind myself to do the meditation exercise, but I couldn’t tell you 6 months from now if I will have the same kind of stamina. 

Hope my ideas have given you great ideas-but its so important to focus on every aspect of you life to maintain health and wholeness. Yeah, you might eat right and work out all the time to stay healthy, but you could be a stress bomb waiting to explode-and your insides are just pleading for you to be calm, so they don't explode too.  It happens....everyday-cancers, diseases, illnesses.  Take care, and enjoy the health that you have by maintaining it, or preventing other 'stuff' from happening.  Enjoy you wonderful day! Good luck to all!

Week 8: Mental Exercises

Wow, I cannot believe we have just only 2 weeks left of this course! This term has really flew by, probably because I've really enjoyed it and its interesting!  Usually when things aren't interesting for me and I think a class is pretty boring, the term seems to never end...it defiantly drags.  I have loved every piece of information this Health and Wellness Class had to offer thus far, I've appreciated all the new knowledge I have gained to help others in the Wellness field as a professional.  I have kept an open mind through all of this, as I have my own beliefs of what calms me as everyone else does, it was nice to hear of new approaches.

The mental calm exercises we have went over in discussions, blogs and personally have been visualization, loving-kindness, subtle mind and meditation.  Through meditation focusing on someone who you love and admire focusing on your love for them is the loving-kindness exercise, the love you feel is suppose to make you feel calm and at peace. Through meditation the subtle mind is to relax your mind from all mental chatter and activity by focusing on one specific thing, such as your breathing-eventually your mind goes completely blank and you mere into a deep calmness.  Last through meditation visualization is the concluding mental practice of visualizing a place, person or thing that makes you feel calm by just focusing on that one thing.  Personally, my favorite that I have practiced is the subtle mind exercise, out of all the exercises, I felt the most relaxed from just focusing on only my breathing.  I feel that this specific technique will defiantly be an exercise that I will address to my clients for relaxation, as anyone would try it. 

Hope all who again decide to read my blog this week, have a wonderful day/week-hope its a calm peaceful week for you all~