Unit 9 Project

Hello all!  Here is my unit 9 project.

It is important for health professionals to develop an all-around since of integral health.  It is important because “integral health can only be known achieved through the development of our inner life and our inner healing capacities” (Dacher, 2006).  When health professionals seriously develop their spiritual psychological and physical aspects of life it helps with our healing process and aiding those in need.  “The moment we start to seriously invest in growing our inner life and acquiring its natural healing resources, we simultaneously step out of our ordinary ideas about health and begin the climb toward the treasures at the summit of extraordinary health” (Dacher, 2006).  In a nut shell, that quote exemplifies the importance of having focus in all three aspects and all aspects of integral health for health professionals.  Personally I need to develop more so in mental health, it is an aspect that is under developed in my life.  Through the duration of this course I feel I have learned new methods and will continue on with these practices.  The goals I have are to be more relaxed and not allow small things to irritate me as often, through meditation and relaxation methods I believe I can achieve this.

I score my overall health in each domain as very good.  Although psychologically I’m not as sure about the very good standpoint because I don’t really talk out my feelings or emotions often to anyone.  I need to be more expressive with people and tell them how things are really going rather than bottle up and hold inside.  My spiritual health has actually grown into what I consider very-good through prayer, and through relationships through co-workers.  Physically I feel that I am in very-good shape and would rate myself that.  It’s been quite a while I have been exercising to achieve the results that I would like and it is finally starting to pay off.

Goals that I have for myself are, physically to maintain and continue to eat healthier and to lose some extra weight that is hanging around.  I can complete this by watching what or how often I am eating.  Since I have been, wanting this goal I have really taken a look at portion sizes and have incorporated that in my daily eating habits, which helps result into this goal.  Psychologically I would have to say my goal would be to talk out my feelings rather than hold them in.  Often times it’s easier to not say anything and just get madder and walk away from a situation than speaking out and resolving at a lower level.  So having a calmer and more talkative approach is my goal for psychological health.  Lastly for my spiritual goal I would like to continue my spiritual growth through new founding relationships, such as friends, coworkers and even church members.  I would like to accomplish inner peace within myself, for instance know my being and wake up every day with purpose.

To accomplish goals in each domain there are various exercises that I can participate in to get closer to my aspirations.  For physical I feel that if I participate in activities that work both body and mind I will benefit the most.  Perfect examples of these sorts of exercises are yoga and Pilates.  And within this exercise routine in particular one exercise seems to soothe my mind and put my body in a great position to get more physically flexible, this pose is the Child’s pose.  Also in Pilates I have practiced doing an exercise called ‘the hundred’ which is a position while lying on your back on the ground and heels are about 6-12 inches above the ground and the hands are reaching toward your toes this is also lifting your back slightly.  I enjoy this exercise because it is rather difficult to hold for a while and it allows me to work through the mental pressure and exceed my expected results.

Exercises for psychological health are a bit simpler sounding but the actual exercise is more difficult than physical for me.  The exercises I will do to keep thriving for the best mental health I can have are, assisted meditation sessions and my own mediation.  Assisted meditation sessions can be done with CD’s or recordings and simply let the mind let go of everything and follow the prompts throughout the recording.  And with my own meditation I enjoy exploring new areas walking or jogging this is physical yes, but I feel the mental pressures breakdown and I feel relieved afterwards.  Therefore I feel this is more psychological for me and will be a good practice to continue for my psychological health.

Lastly for spiritual health the two exercises I can do to further my spiritual health are, prayer and developing stronger relationships with friends/coworkers.  Through prayer it is not necessary to accomplish spiritual health but I feel that having a since of being and purpose gives me the drive to be more positive days on out.  While I pray I feel more connected and uplifted.  Also spiritually developing relationships with my peers coworkers and friends it can also be uplifting for myself feeling that there are people out there looking out for me and wanting the best for me.  This can be a huge boost to my spiritual health and I can only gain from it.

I will assess my progress throughout 6 months much like we have done in this course and how I have in prior courses.  Do some written exercises/journals where maybe once a week I can really track what’s going on such as diet, tiredness, depressed, etc.   I believe doing this will help me in 6 months and will also help me over long time in assisting my long term goals and as a health professional.  Alongside this I can write (record) which methods of integral health I am finding most beneficial and what may help others out the most.  Through all of these exercises and goals that I am going to implement I truly believe I will live happier and healthier.

References

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications.

Unit 8 blog

Hello everyone!

The exercises that I have found most profound and useful in my life are, visualization and meditation because they sort of go hand and hand which are easy for me to incorporate into my life.  For instance not long ago I was testing for a promotion at my job and the night before I used the visualization skill imaging the test and how I will do.  I believe that this is helpful and can really help with something such as a test but better yet an individual's health.  

Meditation has really helped with my own mental health because it can give me a moment to reflect back and focus on what really matters not all of the busy thoughts that I have going on in my mind.  Overall throughout this course I have found that these two exercises have benefitted me the most.

- David

Unit 7 blog

Hello everyone!

After completing the meeting aesclepius exercise I feel that the meditation was beneficial and I can see myself doing something similar to this in the future.  As weird as it sounds I can relate this to when getting a massage, with the tones and beach waves, ultimately I suppose it put me a relaxed stage of mind.  Although the timing was a bit long for me to think about the topics, it was still a good practice and I enjoyed doing this.  I can continue this in my life by finding similar meditation practices and I also have an app where I can play beach waves/other soothing music and I can focus on myself do more of a self ran meditation.

"One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself"

I find this quote to resemble itself greatly in health and wellness and what comes to mind is a trainer, if you haven't completed an exercise routine or diet program then how can you suggest it to somebody else? I feel that we all do have an obligation to our clients for developing physically and spiritually by this it can be done by normal physical exercise of course and by doing exercises such as yoga to accomplish both.  The reason why I feel obligated is because we want our clients to have optimal health right?  And to achieve that all aspects of health need to be tended to.  I can put this in my personal life by doing more meditation and exercises with peers to develop more relationships and long lasting impressions on those around me with nothing but positive feedback.

- David

Unit 6 blog

Hello,

After doing the universal loving kindness exercise it helped after a stressful day at work and irritating coworkers.  It made me reflect and feel more uplifted to the people I'm around on daily basis rather than hold anger.  I believe that if I can do this more often I will be able to see more positive outlooks and helpfulness to others more commonly.  I like how this exercise is quick and is simple compared to other exercises we have done in this course.

The integral exercise was unique in the fact that it made me realize that I need to be aware of all aspects of integral health but not necessarily be sufficient in each one but at least be aware of them all.

I liked the universal loving kindness exercise best because it's simplicity and is relatively short, I can focus on this more and apply more to my life because I believe the integral exercise is in the background and is cognitive in my life so therefore it's not as useful to me.  I can implement the universal kindness exercise more often and apart of my life to further my health wellness in stress and forgiving others.

- David

Loving Kindess

Hello all!

The loving kindness exercise was helpful for me and controlling breathing is very beneficial for me in the aspect that it helps calm me and relax my entire body.  Doing deep breathing exercises is a great way for me to really put myself in a relaxed stage of mind.

The physical and mental wellness is connected because if your mind isn't right or your thoughts are negative it is likely to affect the physical health.  This has been in my personal life before by thinking in the winter I will get sick, so my mind was telling my body that a sickness was coming and before I knew it I had a cold.  It's kinda weird how it works but is how it has affected me in my personal life.

- David

Mental workout (Unit 4)

Hello all!

I found this experience very difficult because it was so monotone and dry.  I feel as if this would just irritate me more than make me more relaxed or sleepy.  I wouldn't recommend this to others because of the dry content and boring level of this.
The concept of a mental workout is to get your mind thinking and relaxed completely to really work out the ordeals going on in your mind.  Research shows that by doing this that it is beneficial to the individuals and is good for overall health.  Although I wouldn't use this particular mp3 to share with others.

- David

My Own Health Assessment

1. Based on your reflections, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being optimal wellbeing), where do you rate your A-physical wellbeing, B-spiritual well-being, C-psychological well-being? Why?
1. I rate my well being over all a solid 8/9  I feel that my physical fitness is at one of my better times right now and I have been doing the right things with eating and exercising.
2. Develop a goal for yourself in each area (physical, spiritual, psychological).
1. I am going to set a goal for myself to have more psychological awareness and self meditating.  It's hard for me to sit down and really think about my own self or how I am feeling.  It's not something I'm used to so my goal is to try to do this more.
3. What activities or exercise can you implement in your life to assist in moving toward each goal?
1. The exercises I can do to accomplish these goals are a type of yoga and meditation.  A type of meditation exercise I can do to is either sit down and write my feelings or what's on my mind that is bugging me or breathing methods to calm myself to an ultimate relaxed stage and then try to let go.

Lastly after completing the exercise I feel more relaxed and my mind doesn't feel as stressed.  I enjoyed doing an exercise like this and will have to try more of these!

- David