After looking at my earlier assessment scores, I would have to say that my scores are unchanged. I’m I have not made any significant progress over the last few weeks. I think I tried to do too much at once, which almost always causes me to stall. After finishing the work for unit 9, I decided to take my own advice—just focus on one thing. So I’m focusing on my physical development and it’s starting to work. I got 7 ½ hrs of sleep last night! Whoo-hoo!! That trick of getting out of bed when I wake up (even if it’s before the alarm goes off) is working. I could barely keep my eyes open last night and I ended up going to bed at 9:30 pm; that’s SUPER early for me. Once going to bed and getting a good night’s sleep has been accomplished and a part of my routine, I’ll move to psychological health.
Overall, I enjoyed this course. I love the concept of integral health and human flourishing. I’m hoping that I can successfully incorporate everything I’ve learned into a successful stress management program.
Good luck to you all in your future courses and your careers!
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Integral Assessment & Plan
Introduction
Health and wellness professionals need to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically (mind, spirit, and body) for various reasons. Pursuing integral health will increase our effectiveness with clients. Psychological and spiritual health helps us to remain open, objective, caring, and patient with clients. Our physical health keeps us alert and energized. Perfection might not be achieved but we need to constantly journey towards integral health. In doing so, we grow closer to flourishing and we inspire our clients to the same end.
I need to develop myself in all three areas of health in order to achieve my personal and professional goals. For example, one of my goals is to work as a group fitness instructor (and I am very close to achieving that goal). In order to be an effective instructor, I need to continue to increase my level of fitness (physical); remove mental obstacles that might prevent me from receiving constructive feedback (psychological); and get more connected spiritually so that I can connect with class participants in a loving manner (spiritual).
Assessment
After assessing my health in each domain, on a scale of one to ten, I give my spiritual, physical, and psychological wellness a score of six. If I were to take a test, I think I might score a little higher but I’d rather need too much development than too little. I do not have any major issues in any areas; my biggest problem is consistently practicing good habits.
Goal development:
Physical: Get 7-8 hrs of sleep a day. As an adult, I have always struggled with getting enough sleep; I stay up late even when I have to rise early in the morning. It keeps me sluggish mentally, physically and spiritually.
Psychological: Daily contemplative practice. The calm abiding and subtle mind exercises quiet my mind, reduce my stress, and help me to think objectively. My goal is to make them a part of my daily routine. Right no, I’ve been sporadic in my practice.
Spiritual: Attend church regularly (every Sunday). I used to go to church every Sunday and sometimes even attend two services (we had three at the time). Our pastor at that time took a position at another church (in a different part of the country) and since then, my attendance has been spotty. I do go once a month and to some special events, but that is because I sing in a choir.
Practices for Personal Health
Physical:
Establish a daily workout routine. Morning workouts are my favorite; I feel energized for the day. Meeting my goal of obtaining 7-8 hrs of sleep a day will help me to meet this goal. At the beginning of each week, I will set a schedule. I like variety so the schedule will not just include a time-frame but also the workout that I will do that day.
Get out of bed when I wake up; I typically wake up naturally every morning between 5:00 am and 6:00 am but just I go back to sleep. However, the earlier in the morning I wake up, the earlier in the evening I become sleepy and hopefully this will force me to go to bed early enough to reach my goal of 7-8 hrs of sleep a night.
Psychological:
Loving-kindness exercise. Preferably, in the morning before my workout.
Calm abiding exercise. I will do this exercise in the morning, after the loving-kindness exercise.
Spiritual:
Daily bible reading. I’ve tried this so many times before but I always fall off. I will select a bible reading program (i.e. read the bible in a year) and commit to following through.
Daily prayer. Praying directly after the contemplative exercises is amazing (I did that once during this session). It’s something I want to make a habit of doing.
Commitment:
I was recently hired as a group fitness instructor at the local YMCA. Two of the classes I teach will be in the morning from 6:00 am to 7:00am. In order to meet that schedule successfully, I will need to achieve my goal of getting 7-8 hrs of sleep a day. On the days I don’t have class, my plan is to do my personal workout. If I don’t have time to do my contemplative practice, bible reading and prayer before my workouts, I will definitely have time afterwards (my work day starts at 9:00 am). So I think this new job will help me to be successful in reaching all of the goals I have set for myself. I will do another integral assessment in six month to gauge the progress of my development.
Health and wellness professionals need to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically (mind, spirit, and body) for various reasons. Pursuing integral health will increase our effectiveness with clients. Psychological and spiritual health helps us to remain open, objective, caring, and patient with clients. Our physical health keeps us alert and energized. Perfection might not be achieved but we need to constantly journey towards integral health. In doing so, we grow closer to flourishing and we inspire our clients to the same end.
I need to develop myself in all three areas of health in order to achieve my personal and professional goals. For example, one of my goals is to work as a group fitness instructor (and I am very close to achieving that goal). In order to be an effective instructor, I need to continue to increase my level of fitness (physical); remove mental obstacles that might prevent me from receiving constructive feedback (psychological); and get more connected spiritually so that I can connect with class participants in a loving manner (spiritual).
Assessment
After assessing my health in each domain, on a scale of one to ten, I give my spiritual, physical, and psychological wellness a score of six. If I were to take a test, I think I might score a little higher but I’d rather need too much development than too little. I do not have any major issues in any areas; my biggest problem is consistently practicing good habits.
Goal development:
Physical: Get 7-8 hrs of sleep a day. As an adult, I have always struggled with getting enough sleep; I stay up late even when I have to rise early in the morning. It keeps me sluggish mentally, physically and spiritually.
Psychological: Daily contemplative practice. The calm abiding and subtle mind exercises quiet my mind, reduce my stress, and help me to think objectively. My goal is to make them a part of my daily routine. Right no, I’ve been sporadic in my practice.
Spiritual: Attend church regularly (every Sunday). I used to go to church every Sunday and sometimes even attend two services (we had three at the time). Our pastor at that time took a position at another church (in a different part of the country) and since then, my attendance has been spotty. I do go once a month and to some special events, but that is because I sing in a choir.
Practices for Personal Health
Physical:
Establish a daily workout routine. Morning workouts are my favorite; I feel energized for the day. Meeting my goal of obtaining 7-8 hrs of sleep a day will help me to meet this goal. At the beginning of each week, I will set a schedule. I like variety so the schedule will not just include a time-frame but also the workout that I will do that day.
Get out of bed when I wake up; I typically wake up naturally every morning between 5:00 am and 6:00 am but just I go back to sleep. However, the earlier in the morning I wake up, the earlier in the evening I become sleepy and hopefully this will force me to go to bed early enough to reach my goal of 7-8 hrs of sleep a night.
Psychological:
Loving-kindness exercise. Preferably, in the morning before my workout.
Calm abiding exercise. I will do this exercise in the morning, after the loving-kindness exercise.
Spiritual:
Daily bible reading. I’ve tried this so many times before but I always fall off. I will select a bible reading program (i.e. read the bible in a year) and commit to following through.
Daily prayer. Praying directly after the contemplative exercises is amazing (I did that once during this session). It’s something I want to make a habit of doing.
Commitment:
I was recently hired as a group fitness instructor at the local YMCA. Two of the classes I teach will be in the morning from 6:00 am to 7:00am. In order to meet that schedule successfully, I will need to achieve my goal of getting 7-8 hrs of sleep a day. On the days I don’t have class, my plan is to do my personal workout. If I don’t have time to do my contemplative practice, bible reading and prayer before my workouts, I will definitely have time afterwards (my work day starts at 9:00 am). So I think this new job will help me to be successful in reaching all of the goals I have set for myself. I will do another integral assessment in six month to gauge the progress of my development.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
My Favorite Contemplative Exercises
The two practices that I find the most beneficial are the calm-abiding and meeting Asclepius exercises. The meeting Asclepius exercise I do in the morning; it sets the tone for the rest of my day. I feel at peace, wise, loved and loving. The calm-abiding exercise I do whenever my thoughts become hectic or when I have an unpleasant interaction with someone or I get angry, or I feel overwhelmed (just to name a few examples). It clears my mind; I can think objectively and make unbiased, unemotional decisions. The calm-abiding exercise also helps me to let go of disturbing thoughts and feelings.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Meeting Asclepius
I did the Meeting Asclepius exercise this morning and it was powerful! As I imagined the beam of light entering my head and moving throughout my being, I felt energized in a way that kind of blew me away. I think I need to start everyday this way. I was totally unaffected by things that normally annoy me at work. I hope this exercise worked as well for everyone else.
My thought on the saying "one cannot lead another where one has not gone him or herself" is this.....we might not make it there ourselves, but that doesn't mean we can't show people the way.
My thought on the saying "one cannot lead another where one has not gone him or herself" is this.....we might not make it there ourselves, but that doesn't mean we can't show people the way.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Integral Assessment
As always, the loving-kindness exercise left me feeling happy, hopeful, and peaceful. It was easier to do the assessment because I wasn't so hard on myself; I could see myself objectively. the area I've decided to work on in self-regulation. While it is part of the biological aspect of my life, I can see how self-regulation, or my lack of self-regulation, is affecting the other aspects. For instance, I don't get enough sleep. I just can't seem to get to bed early enough to get a good night's sleep. I prefer to work out in the morning, and I have the time but because I don't go to bed early enough, I always oversleep. Because I'm tired, I have trouble staying mentally focused and things that ordinarily wouldn't bother me, affect me greatly. Because I'm tired, I'm not as productive at work and my relationships suffer because I'm down and withdrawn instead of my usual upbeat self. Wow, all of this because I haven't trained myself to go to bed when I'm tired. I haven't thought of any exercises yet to help me outside of contemplative practice, but I think that's a good start.
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