Reflections!!!

After reviewing my personal assessment, I am a little discouraged because my scores did not change. I am overall 7 to 8's in each area, with 8 being my better days of course. Once I got past my discouragement, I concentrated my efforts on the question why? I have a few answers ....first I think I am hard on myself. 2nd...I really want to take the time needed here to advance my score even 1 point. I am conscious of the reality it takes to improve in each of these areas, let alone just one. 3rd...I believe I rated myself on the long term scale. I want to get to levels 8, 9, & 10 but then I want to stay there! These are my long term goals and ones I feel I can attain! :)

I have set up goals in each aspect of my wellness, and I have made baby steps in each of them. My progress has to start in my mind first. I have to mentally strengthen my "plan" in my head so I can begin the process. I gave myself to the end of this course to start and not turn back. I am already plugged into a "2 a week" exercise routine, which will be to 3 by next week. I want to work up to at least 4 times a week with some exercise routine. My journals are helping me out to stay accountable. I like and need the accountability, even if it is just in the journal form. My spiritual arena has expanded. I am reading more, praying, more and meditating more. I am incorporating a lot of my mind and spirit exercises together. These 2 really work together for me. I found myself practicing the exercise of "quieting my chatter" to praying that God would quiet my chatter! He helps me so much....more than words can say!

Creating Wellness





Running Head: Creating Wellness

Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

Cindy Fouhy
Unit 9 Project
Kaplan University
Chrisanne Moran
September 1, 2010


I 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 for yourself?

It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically so that we may help others to flourish in their wellness, too. We cannot thoroughly assist others in their journey to integral health if we, ourselves, are not equipped in these aspects of our lives. It is important, as Elliott S. Dacher reminds us, we can train our minds “to develop a healthy inner life” and with this training, we can “enhance our level of emotional and physical well-being and our capacity for health” (Dacher, E.S. (2006) pg. 21). Every portion of our body, from head to toe, is interconnected, works together and can work against one another, thus it is vital to relate all areas of our being as one, and help them to function in a positive, healthy way.

I really need to develop each of these areas. Some days I am flourishing more in one aspect than in another, but overall, I need to work on all of them, together. This class has truly introduced me to the supreme design of the mind, body, & spirit connection. Therefore, I believe, I will benefit greatly by striving to develop these areas in one accord. I will concentrate my efforts individually, but at the same time, I will recognize the effect one has on the other.

II Assessment & III Goal Development

How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically? List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.

The way I have assessed my health in each domain is through Dacher’s “five guiding principles: holistic, evolutionary, intentional, person-centered, and dynamic” and also by his “six principles of integral assessment” (Dacher, E.S. (2006) pg. 35 & 105). Through each of these principles I have become more aware of how “well” I really am doing in each area. I have to first be completely honest with myself. I have realized that this journey to wholeness is strictly dependent on how truthful I am in regards to my spiritual, physical and psychological health.

My spiritual domain requires me to scrutinize my strengths and my weaknesses. I am confident that my strengths are definitely gifts to me from God. I also recognize that I have many weaknesses but because of my faith in a higher power, I am not alone, and I can achieve “all things through Christ who strengthens me” (NKJV Phil. 4:13). Am I completely there at a level 10? No, of course not. I would give myself a score of a 7 in my spiritual domain because I still have a lot of work to do. I want to incorporate my daily devotionals with God and my family on a consistent basis. My desire to set aside time within my busy life to honor God and sit in His presence daily is a yearning I hope to achieve. I hunger for ultimate contentment in my heart and soul. With the pure acknowledgement of these things I have said, I can work daily at my ultimate goal of being one with Christ. I have been given gifts that I can choose to use according to His will and with this choice; I will thrive and grow in my spirituality.


My physical domain is adequate. Again, I have a lot to do in this area as well. I would rate my physical domain as a 7. I make fairly healthy lifestyle choices in regards to my nutrition, exercise, and medical care. I have a profound family background in health and nutrition and try to apply my experience and knowledge to my daily life. The attention I dedicate to my medical care, illnesses, screenings, and overall health awareness is exceptional. Now, the part I procrastinate in is my exercise habits. I cannot seem to establish a solid, daily, routine of a continuous exercise regime. This is definitely part of my plan for my journey to whole wellness and I am actually eager to embark on this element of my life!

My psychological domain varies from time to time. I would say I am a 7 in this arena of my life due to the inconsistent swings. I live a very demanding and somewhat hectic life thanks to my wonderful and considerably large circle of family and friends. A life I would not trade or change for anything. Nevertheless, stress is a factor and one I need to deal with on a regular basis. I am the type of person that thrives on action filled days and countless excitement. I love to fall into bed at night, exhausted, but with a smile on my face because I feel like I made the most of my day, but, it has proven to take a toll on my psychological domain. I have noticed that I need to set aside quiet time and meditate on the positive elements of life and not just hurry around all day. I have already begun the process of daily breathing exercises, prayer time and meditation. I also have started to plan more things instead of being so spontaneous. I feel the planning process really helps me to breath deeper and relax. This class has sincerely encouraged me to strive for a healthier inner mind peace.



IV Practices for personal health:

What strategies can you implement to foster growth in each of the following domains; Physical, Psychological, and Spiritual. Provide at least two examples of exercises or practices in each domain. Explain how you will implement each example.

My intention of implementing an exercise routine will completely aid in fostering my growth in my physical domain. I am currently researching complete work out videos so that I can exercise in my home. This way I do not have to rely on a friend or the weather or even gas in my car, to complete my daily work out. I think this will be really instrumental in providing me with an easy and dependable exercise schedule. I am going to attempt to workout at least 30 minutes every weekday morning while my kids are at school.

Psychological growth will be cultivated by quiet times. I really believe my mind needs that special time to go unused for a portion of my day. I plan on taking at least 15 minutes to start with and find my quiet place and check-out for awhile. I plan on using the visualization exercise for sure. I absolutely identified with this technique and am able to connect quickly to a vision which has brought me happiness. I also want to meditate on smells that have jolted my mind and have brought me complete delight. All my kids are now in school and I should have no problem implementing this detail in my day. Through this course and books, I have learned how to breathe and meditate.

My spiritual realm is going to really work together with my psychological domain. I am going to incorporate my meditation time (which will aid in fostering my psychological space) with my prayer time. I love to spend time with God and read His word. I will be reading, praying, and meditating on God’s scriptures at the same time I will be deep breathing and relaxing! What better way to enhance my relationship with my heavenly Father!

V Commitment:

How will you assess your progress or lack of progress in the next six months? What strategies can you use to assist in maintaining your long-term practices for health and wellness?

I am going to obtain and then maintain a journal for each domain. I want to start off each journal with an account of how I feel now. I want to include my intentions and the reason for my intentions. I want to illuminate my excitement about my goals and the purpose for starting this new process in the first place. If I get discouraged, I can revert back to my journals and remind myself of the positive results that will follow. I am going to journal the date, time, and activity I participated in. I will be able to go back over my journals and see exactly how many days and for exactly how many hours a week I devoted to my life goals. This is really important to me now that I have really committed to taking this journey. I believe once I produce the quality habits I am aiming for, I will hopefully be able to attain the drive and ambition I have now and really bond with the supreme level of health, happiness, and wholeness.







References:
Dacher, E. S., (2006) Integral Health; the path to human flourishing. Basic Health Publications, Inc., Laguna Beach, Ca.

Google Images (2010) Retrieved on September 1, 2010 from http://www.google.com/search?q=google+images&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADBF_en

The Smell of a Newborn Baby!

This is easy for me.....my favorite exercise was the this last one we did....the visualization exercise found on p.145, 146 of Dacher's Integral Health Book. I found most of the exercises we tried, helpful, but this one penetrated my heart and soul. I visualized the birth of my babies. Each- one by one- and was able to restore the exact smells of my newborn babies and their overwhelming warmth. This exercise brought tears to my eyes and a breath of fresh air to my lungs. I have actually been visualizing these special times at least once daily and am given a new burst of energy each time. I have also visualized dream that I had years back about the arms of God hugging me and making me feel so safe in a very uncertain time in my life. I can still feel His majestic embrace when I close my eyes and meditate on that remarkable dream. So, whether it is a dream or real life, find something that reminds you of the most amazing feeling or smell that you can remember and meditate on it. You are guaranteed a peaceful smile upon your face and in your heart!!

I didn't meet Asciepius!

Well....this was not my favorite exercise. First of all, I was in a bad mood when I started the meditation due to the fact that I spent an hour and a half on my discussion board post only to lose all my work when I tried to post it. The session timed out on me and I forgot to copy my post!! I was very bummed...to say the least. So instead of trying to re-do my post, I decided to try the meditation exercise and see if I could get in a better mind set. I started out ok...not great... then it got better when the person I picked to visualize was Jesus. Jesus was human and did walk this earth and He is by far the wisest man I will ever know. Well, everything was going well until the lady told me to become the person I was visualizing. I couldn't make that happen and I never will be able to make that happen. I didn't do exactly what the lady told me to do, instead I surrendered to Jesus and gave Him my burdens. When we surrender, our paths can only lead to a happy heart.

The second part of the blogging requirement wants me to reflect on developing my health psychologically, physically, and spiritually so that I can help others. I do believe in order to help others in these areas I should be equally if not more advanced than others but for now I will concentrate on developing these aspects of my life for me and what works for me. The meditation exercise did not help me meet "Asciepius" but did help me to connect even deeper with my spiritual side and that was well worth it! Follow the paths that lead you to your happy healthy heart!

Freedom from Suffering

I found this exercise on Universal Loving-Kindness inspiring, to say the least. When I first began, I was just repeating something I was reading and was not putting too much thought into it. But then I decided to repeat this phrase as a prayer. I started with "Lord, may all individuals gain freedom from suffering, etc." As I kept repeating this prayer for 10 minutes, the words came rushing to my mind and heart "may I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering." I have a friend who within the last week lost her 23 year old son to an unexplained seizure. I attended the funeral yesterday and I have been so down for this beautiful family. Through this meditation today and I was reminded how this family will need so much support in the coming days, months, and years, and I would like to help "assist them in gaining freedom from their suffering" by being there for them, praying for them daily, and supporting when I can. This picture of the butterfly being released by hands in bondage is important to me because we can either choose to remain a caterpillar or flourish into a beautiful butterfly!

Comparing the Loving-Kindness to the Subtle Mind

As I compare the Loving Kindness exercise to the Subtle Mind exercise, I see similarities and differences. I liked visualizing someone I love that is genuine and pleasant but I did not like thinking or focusing on the unpleasant or disturbing people or things in my life. I think because I am trying so hard to replace negative thoughts with positive ones, so this exercise contradicted my pattern of thinking. I liked the subtle mind or witnessing exercise because it was more simple. I am going to practice this one again and again. I like the idea of keeping a journal of my thoughts after every exercise. I am going to really try to incorporate this into my daily life :)

The Subtle Mind......hmmmm........

As I participated in the "Subtle Mind" exercise, I immediately fight the breathing technique, but this time was different. After reading page 75 of Dacher's book, I found that I can focus on the rising and falling of my chest instead of the actual in and out breaths. I found this to be a better approach for me. I started with my hands on my chest so I could actually feel the rising and falling, and slowly my hands got very heavy and I needed to put them at my side. I felt this to be a really calm feeling and a peaceful place. As the exercise went on and on and on I began to loose interest for some reason. Maybe it was too long a period for me to maintain a peaceful state! haha. Either way, I did benefit from the "subtle mind" exercise. I like the reassurance that we may not get to that quiet place every time we practice but it is attainable. Life is that way too. When we strive for a goal in mind and we don't quite make it, it is never to late to try again! Keep pushing forward ..... our goals are all attainable!

Experiencing Loving-Kindness

Experiencing loving-kindness means a few different things to me. For some reason, being loving & kind to myself is the hardest. Love is not suppose to be for yourself, it is suppose to be for others and with no expectations in return. So how do I learn to love myself and be kind to myself. For me it is "loving others!" It is what makes me happy and laugh and feel accepted. But on the flip-side if I do not strive for loving-kindness for myself, then I cannot give it back to others. The exercise about meditating on someone kind and breathing in thoughts of that person were energizing and soothing. I did not so much like thinking of an unpleasant thought. For some reason that was harder to take in and get rid of. I need to work on this because it is important for a healthy mind to get rid of the unpleasant thoughts that can consume ones mind. Overall, I think this exercise, will be helpful, because I can practice it anywhere or anytime! Right now, I am sitting on my lanai in Hawaii and breathing in all the subtle trade winds and warmth of the island sun! Life is good! Aloha!

Life Evaluation......hmmmm.......

Hmmm......on a scale of 1-10 rate my physical well-being.....I would say I am at a healthy 7. I have no aches or pains but I would like to lose 15 lbs overnight! I do not exercise as regularly as I should or even want. I am so active with my family and friends that I feel like I am always moving just not in an "aerobic way" which is healthier for my heart. My spiritual well-being (and to me the most important of all) is good....I would give myself an 8+ only because there is always room for improvement. I am very confident with my spiritual relationship with my Lord Jesus Christ. I have had numerous "life-altering" experiences that beyond any doubt is affirmation that HE is real and all I need. It's a good place to be :) Now as for my psychological well-being......well that is debatable by all who know me! haha! I think again....maybe a 7. I like to think, think, & over think life and decisions. I do tend to worry ....so a motto that has helped me through this is......if I'm gonna worry, don't pray, but if I'm gonna pray.....then DON'T WORRY!! I like that :) I think overall I need to improve in all these areas. For me, the key is time! If I make these areas of my life a "real priority" than my overall well-being can only hit the highs and leave the lows behind!

To touch briefly on the "Crime of the Century" exercise....it was good. I actually felt myself breathing more comfortably. I have a keen sense and awareness of my heart beats....when I attempt these breathing exercises I can hear and feel each beat and it makes me nervous sometimes, but today was different. I was more at peace and calm. I was able to sit through the entire exercise and actually feel the positive results. Yay!

Continuing to learn....
Chrisanne

Finding New Ways to Relax!!

I have been struggling this past week with trying to find ways to relax.....ways that work for me. I have been taking time to find a place to sit in a quiet, comfortable place, with a refreshing beverage, so I can finish all my required readings for this class. As I begin reading, I feel my eyes getting heavier and heavier until I finally put the book down and fall fast asleep! I am not sure if this is the "relaxing" technique I need because at this rate I will not get my homework done! Here's to finding the relaxation you need :)

The Journey

I found the "Journey On" relaxation technique different. I have a very difficult time making myself relax. I usually relax because I am so drop dead tired. So, if I try to relax, I will usually fall asleep. I participated in the relaxation exercise and actually did feel my hands getting heavy but I was able to move them above my head with no problem. One thing I was surprised about, was I actually do feel rejuvenated. It is 10:30pm and I was tired when I sat down to do this exercise, but now I may get a lot more work done tonight thanks to this assignment!

Yet Another Fresh New Start!!

Here it is......yet another fresh new start! I thought I was done with this "blogging" but not so fast.....yet another requirement for yet another class! I love "Fresh New Starts!" They give you a chance to start anew...even better than before...and experience more there is to offer! Here's to Fresh New Starts!

My Final Blog?

Well, here it is ......my final blog requirement for this class! Whew!! I remember being instructed to set up my blog and start blogging! I wanted nothing really to do with that request. I have to say I am happy that this was a required assignment because I have actually enjoyed this experience! Blogging makes me feel like someone out there cares even if they don't! It's interesting because the whole reason I did not want to start this process was due to connecting with people. I have a large family, lots of friends and the last thing I really needed was more! Wow....what a thought! I should be so lucky to have more friends like the ones I have met here in this class! So, thank you, to each of you, for bringing new beginnings into my life! Have a really incredible time in 2010! It is what life is all about!

Coming down to the finish line!

I can not believe I am in the 9th week of my 4th term here at Kaplan! Unbelievable! I remember making that first call and researching different options for my education! So intimidating! I never thought I would be looking back at almost a full year of school, happy with my grades and overall achievments (so far)! This has been the best decision (crazy at times) but well worth it! I hope you all feel the same! Finish strong and be happy!

A New Year!

Wow.......here we go again! A new year......new ideas......new resolutions.....new commitments....new chances....new choices....new challenges......new expectations & new disappointments! With the start of every new year, I like to think of ways to make this year better than the last year. I like to think of new traditions to bring our family closer. I like to concentrate on encouraging and loving each other more and complaining less. I always feel great on New Years Day! Then the minute things don't go just the way I planned, I think I have already failed, so what's the use of trying for the next 363 days! But that is not true......in reality, every morning is a new start, a new beginning, and a new chance at striving for the harmony, balance, and peace you desire for your life! Here's to "New Mornings" in 2010!!