1. Introduction
– Why is it important for health and wellness professionals to develop
psychologically, spiritually and physically?
What areas do you need to develop to achieve the goals you have set for
yourself?
It
is important for health and wellness professional to develop in their own lives
the high standards in which they want their patients to acquire. Mentally the professional wants to have a
clear mind, void of any type of illness; and to understand the connection
between the mind, body and spirit.
Spiritually connection whether it be to your God or to just a higher
power brings an amount of strength in all components. Our physical being needs to be strong and
well to put all of these concepts into play.
Because by only connecting all three the mind, body and spirit can we
truly reach optimal health. The bottom
point for why professionals in health and wellness to develop these steps are
basically how can the aspect their clients to achieve optimal health if they do
not live it their selves. As the old say
goes “practice what you preach”. There
are some areas I need to work on to develop my goals my mind needs some help; I
have been struggling with massive depression for a year or so. So trying to think positive thoughts and
remembering all that I have to live for has brought me along way, to get my
mind almost to a place that I can work with.
Sometimes when someone is truly depressed they seem to lose all hope
along with losing their “sense’ of self which is a scary place. I know I have come a long way from the state
I was a year and a half ago. But I have
learned so much in this class to help me reach my goal of happiness something I
thought I would never feel again. I do
believe mind over matter can work wonders.
Physically I am working on my overall health just in the short time of
this term I have lost 18 pounds, which makes me feel great only 32 more to go
and I will have lost 100 pounds in 16 months.
This surely brings one’s self-esteem level up
II. How have you assessed your health in each
domain? When we assess ourselves in
Mind, body
and spirit, we need to take a true look at ourselves and be honest, only
by doing
this can we truly know where we are in our lives; and what changes we
must do to
achieve happiness, wholeness and complete optimal heath. The path to
integral
health requires that we at least become aware of the sources of needless
suffering,
distress, and dissatisfaction and the possible source of future development
and
flourishing (Dacher 2006).
I choose to use a scale when assessing my
mind, body and spirit; with 1 – 10; with 1
being the lowest level of assessing and 10 being the highest.
In the area of Mind I would have to give
myself probably a six because I have
allowed the stress and negativity that fills
many of our minds rule over the true
happiness which we can achieve in our
lives. Deep sadness can have a true
affect
on our overall well being; and this is a
place where I found myself for over a year.
I truly wondered if I would ever find
happiness again and began to question when
and how long ago it was when I had
overwhelming calm peace and happiness in
my life.
In the last year and a half I have truly experience what one says when
“the heart has been truly broken” and means
it, because I had been there. If I had
done this assessment a year and a half ago or
as recently as six months ago my
would have most likely been a 0. But I have truly worked on digging myself out
of this dark place and I know “mind of
matter” can have some affect for one to
achieve a healthy mind set. I also believe through counseling and support
groups
and prayer one can eventually reach happiness
and optimal health.
As for how I would rate my body I would also
probably give it a six, because
once again a year and a half ago I was in
more pain that I had ever been in my
life or so I at least thought. A year or so later I finally realized how
much
connection there is between mind and body; and if you don’t have control
of one area it affects your entire being; simply speaking when one
are hurts all
areas suffer.
My overall physical self has improved in the last year in a half
for once again at that point I would have
scored extremely low. But now I am
eating better and more often and I am getting
out of bed more often than not so
I am at least getting some activity in my
life back. The over physical part part of my life does need to be
worked on to achieve optimal wellness but I believe that I
am on my way to obtaining this.
The next and last area of my life I will
assess which is the highest assessment I
will give is my spirituality, this level has
changed quote a few times over the last
few decades or so; but right now I would give
it a 9. Many times in outlives we
tend to forget the one that is in control of
our lives; and for me that is God. I
think many of us have such a busy life we
forget who to thank when all is going
well in our lives; and only call out to God
when we need something or want
something as simple as a raise or as
important as better health. Eventually,
we
fall into a deep state of despair,
hopelessness and helplessness; and at these
times in our lives we reach out to the one
that truly matters “Our God”. For
God has reached out to me in my deepest and
darkest moments of my life to
let me know that there is still hope that I
can achieve “happiness” again in my
life.
This is not to say that there is not going to be rough patches which I
seem to
experience on a regular basis for me or my
family; but through my faith and
prayers
I can come to better understanding and a sense of peace in my life.
As I have assessed myself in these pages I
truly believe I was open and honest on
where I am at this point of my life and how
far I have come. I know that I can
continue my journey to wellness one step at a
time, even if it is just baby steps.
III
Goal Development - Throughout this term I have thought about different
areas of my life that need to be worked on. Psychologically I need to get my mind in a
better place releasing it of needless chatter, taking out
the stresses out of my mind that
results
in needless suffering in my life. Also I
need to find a sense of calm, a place I can
go to even if it is only in my mind to relax and get a better
perspective of my life; I think this can be obtained through a cardiac work out
or by journaling or both. In my body I need to work on eating healthier
and implementing exercise back into my life; in doing these things I can be on
my way to a happier and healthier me. Spiritually
speaking my goal is to continue with my Bible and implementing other spiritual
reading into my life. My ultimate goal
is to get back to going to church and have fellowship with other Christians. (This has been difficult because of my work
schedule and fatigue level). But if there is a will there is a way.
IV -
Practices for Personal Health - We need to implement changes in our lives to
achieve what we want to improve for our overall being in health and
wellness. As for psychologically speaking
for me if I would journal more often this could bring a better release of the
stresses in my life and get things out that I may not want to share with
others. I think physical exercise is
also great for the mind, it clears are minds of thoughts and gives us an
adrenal rush that gives us a sense of a “high”, and makes us feel that we can
accomplish anything we set our minds to.
Physically we can change our bodies through proper nutrition and
exercise. Spiritually we can bring
ourselves to optimal wellness through prayer, reading of the word and
fellowship along with meditation.
V – Commitment -
I think there is a couple of different ways for myself to evaluate my progress
or in my goals to optimal health in mind, body and spirit. The first for me would be to write by goals
down in a journal and also write down my monthly goals on a dry eraser board. As I achieve my goals on a daily basis I
would put a star or a smiley face on my dry eraser board along with a word of
encouragement of a job well done. After
a month has passed and I have stayed close to my goals I would treat myself to
something enjoyable such as a nice dinner out, a small purchase or a movie
night out. As the months go by I will continue to track
how well I am doing towards my goals to optimal health and wellness in my
journal. I do have to remember to remind
myself there will be days that won’t be as good as others and not to berate
myself which could lead to low self –esteem and falling off the wagon so to
speak. But just pick myself up by the
boot straps and begin again. There may
be many tries and failures in the process but by having a good mental state and
a sense of commitment you can continue on with good health in mind, body and
spirit. I think the strategies that will
best work for me will be trial by error; if one thing does not work try
something else; just remember what your ultimate goal is. Remember to have a positive state of mind and
be kind to yourself throughout your achievements as well as your failures. Once you have maintained your goals for
awhile eventually they will come as second nature to you.
Before
I get ready to close I would like to share a verse with everyone because it
sure hit home because of the context of this term. And what was interesting is that I ran across
it in the beginning of this class. Here
it is – And one member suffers all the members suffer with it, or when one
member is honored, all the others rejoice – First Corinthians 12:26 (The Bible
– King James Version).
In
conclusion I would like to say I have learned a lot throughout this term and I
will strive to regain my health back with realizing the connection between
mind, body and spirit and I will continue on with goals to reach ultimate
happiness, wholeness and optimal wellness that is available to me with time,
practice and patience. Mark thanks for
all the things that you made us aware of in this class and how we can obtain
our goals. You have made this journey
interesting and fascinating. I have
really enjoyed this class. May we run
across each other in another term while I am here at Kaplan!
References
Dacher, E. (2006). Integral Health (The Path to Human
Flourishing). Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.
