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  Review your unit 3 personal assessment of your psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being. Reflect on these areas . How did you score yourself on a scale from 1 to 10 in unit 3? How do you score yourself now? Has the score changed? Why or why not?

For my physical well-being I scored my self at almost a 10. I work out five to six days a week, so I feel that I am in the best shape of my life. I do feel that there is always room for improvement, so that is why I did not give myself a 10. I gave myself a 5 for spiritual well-being. I feel that I need to spend more time reading my bible and spending more time in prayer. Right now I could say I have moved up to a 5.5 since this class I have spent more time reading the bible and more time praying. My psychological well-being was a 5 and right now I can say it is about a 6.

  Review the goals and activities you set for yourself in each area. Have you made progress toward the goals? Explain.

I do feel that I have made progress towards each of my goals that I set. I have started to implement the activities that I have chosen for each area and continue to set new goals as needed.

  Have you implemented the activities you chose for your well-being in each of the three areas? Explain.

I have implemented the activities that I chose for my well-being. My goal was to try hot yoga and I started taking a class about two weeks ago. I have gone three times and plan on going twice a week.

For my spirit well-being my goal was to spend more time reading the bible and spending time in prayer and I have done both. I have been reading proverbs each night in the bible before I look at facebook, play words with friends, or scroll through pinterest. I have also spent more time in prayer. I am making an effort to pray each morning, night, and through out the day.

My goal for my psychological well-being was to work on cutting out the busyness in our life. Well we are still busy, but we are more aware of what we choose to do or not do and when we have a free weekend we have been a little more mindful about feeling like we have to fill with something. I have come to a place where I do not feel like I have to rescue everyone in a bind or fill all my free time with having to be here or there.

  Summarize your personal experience throughout this course. Have you developed improved well-being? What has been rewarding? What has been difficult? How will this experience improve your ability to assist others

I would have to say that I have had some ups and downs throughout the course. It was hard to stay focused on some of the exercises or I felt a bit overwhelmed by them. I do feel that I have developed improved well-being. I feel that I have more confidence and I am now able to let go of some of the negative energy that I was holding onto. I feel that I will be able to help others with learning how to change negative thoughts to positive thoughts and how they can focus on their breathing anywhere, which may help them through stressful situations.

Final Week

1. Introduction:
   I believe that for my clients to achieve optimal health psychologically, spiritually, and physically I need to lead by example. I feel that when a client knows that their health care professional practices what they preach they can trust their provider and will want to listen and take their health care providers advice. As a health care provider if I practice and foster integral health on all three levels I am able to understand my clients needs better.

In order for me to foster integral growth I have to remove any unnecessary suffering in my life. I am a very stressful person and I find that once I hit my limit I turn into this totally different person and become grumpy and just not fun to be around. I tend to take on too many tasks at once, which leads to resentment, frustration, and I have no joy in helping others. I need to assess my needs, my schedule, and my stress level before I take on any new task or feel the need to say yes to everyone who needs my help. The next thing I need I need to do is to continue to replace my negative thoughts with positive thoughts. I tend to also let negative thoughts run my day, which is very harmful not only for me but for other people around me. Practicing meditation like the loving-kindness and the witnessing mind (Dacher, 2006) can be a huge benefit for mea and will help me change the negative thoughts or even eliminate them from even being in my mind.

2. Assessment:
   I exercise 5-6 days a week, so I feel my physical well-being is almost a ten but there is always room for improvement. I could change up my routine to try something new, try new healthy foods, and to make stretching just as important as exercise. A physical goal I have is to try to work in yoga into my routine. I have wanted to try hot yoga and there is a place that is right by my house.
   I gave my spiritual well being a five because I need to spend more time in prayer, reading my bible, and getting more involved in my church. My spiritual goal is to trade in reading Facebook and looking a Pinterest each night for reading my bible and prayer time. I have just signed up to start helping out in the nursery at and to be on the MOPS comity at my church, so that will help get me more involved in my church.
   I gave my psychological goal a five because I do feel stressed out a majority of the time. I also struggle with anxiety and being hard on myself. My number one goal is to work on cutting out some of the busyness in our life. The first thing I am doing is to not feel obligated to do something every weekend with my friends. I feel that if I can cut our some of the busyness in my life I will feel less stress, which will help with my anxiety and help with me being so hard on myself.
3. Goal development:
   My physical goal is to get rid of some chronic pain I having problems with. I have started massage therapy and also Hot Yoga. I have started to notice some relief in the short amount of time that I have been doing Hot Yoga and seeing the massage therapist.

My psychological health will improve the more I train my mind. I have noticed that when I put into practice what I have learned I feel a sense of relief and peace right away. The biggest thing that holds me back are the negative thoughts and the sense of feeling overwhelmed, but when I have that under control I fee so much happier. I just need to continue to put that into practice.

Spiritually for me means that I need to spend more time reading the bible and spending time in prayer. When I trust in the Lord and spend time with him things seem to fall into place and I have less fears flowing in my mind. There are so many scriptures to help me with any struggles that I am having in life and I need to focus on those scriptures to bring me peace.

4. Practices for personal health:
   Physically it will be easy for me to continue to grow in this area because I enjoy exercising and enjoy trying new things to continue to grow physically. I am always up for a challenge, so I love training for events like a half marathon or a sprint triathlon.

One exercise that I really enjoyed was the Subtle Mind exercise and The Taste of Human Flourishing (Dacher, 2006). I felt that I was able to connect with these two exercises and I was able to freely let my mind go in order to feel calm, relaxed, and peaceful. This class has helped me realize how important it is to practice meditation. My goal is to incorporate mediation into my daily routine even if it is for ten minutes and I would love to teach my kid how to do it. They are always on the go and surrounded by peer pressure, and I feel meditation would benefit them.

For me to foster my growth spiritually I need to spend more time reading the bible. By doing this I can grow closer to him, trust in him more, and can memorize scriptures that can help me cope with stressful situations.

5. Commitment:
   The one and only was to continue to grow is to hold myself accountable. A few ways to do that is to have a journal or to share with others what you are trying to do. Physically, spiritually, and psychologically it is important to surround yourself with other people who have the same goal are you do, which will help you stay on track and even help them stay on track. This class has been a huge is benefit for me and has opened my eyes to help me reach my full potential physically, spiritually, and psychologically.

References:

Dacher, Elliott. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Basic Health Publications Inc. Print

Unit 8 My favorite exercises

I really enjoyed the subtle mind and meeting aesclepius exercise. In the subtle mind exercise it had the sound of the ocean and had you focus on your breathing. I really enjoy listening to soothing sounds and feel that it is easy to implement this into my personal life. You can download so many different types of soothing sounds that you can sit and meditate while focusing on your breath. When you are able to focus on your breath you are able to let go of any stress and helps you feel refreshed.

The meeting aesclepius was my favorite exercise because it helped me realize the importance of prayer and trying to live more like Jesus. This is a great exercise for anyone who has someone they look up to.  Thinking about someone who you look up to can help you to feel motivated and to want to do better and be better in life. I can implement this exercise by just taking time out to read my bible and pray. For me this helps me to have loving words, loving thoughts, and a loving heart.

I would suggest these two exercises to anyone because I feel they are easy to do and are easy to get into. I feel that these two exercises are easy to connect to and to relate to, so this makes people want to continue to practice meditation.

Loving Unit 7 Meditation

  Complete the Meeting Aesclepius mp3 (located in the Doc Sharing area). Describe your meditative practices for the week and discuss the experience. Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness. How can you continue to apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness?

            I really enjoyed doing this exercise this week. I was really able to relax and connection with what they were asking me to do. For me when I think of a wise one to become more like I think of Jesus, so this was an easy exercise because I feel I have a relationship with him and by thinking of his mind, speech, and heart it was so nice to take that on to be more like him. When you think like that it really takes the focus off of you and almost takes the pressure off to be a certain way. When you try to focus on loving words, a loving heart, and loving thoughts you just feel calmer and happy. I have found that I am very mindful with negative thoughts that come into my mind and when they do pop up I am finding myself changing them to positive thoughts and feelings. This is something you can do anywhere and it really changes your attitude. I feel this is something that I will continue to do daily for the rest of my life. It is so easy for negative thoughts to come to your mind, but can be just as easy to replace them with positive thoughts.

  Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" (p.477). How does this apply to the health and wellness professional? Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not? How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?

            The first thing I thought of is you cannot teach someone about mediation if you have not practice it yourself, really that goes with anything. I feel you do have an obligation to your clients to develop your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually. I feel that if you do your client will have more trust in you, will want to continue to follow your advice, and will be motivated to try because they will see that it has worked for you. For me to implement psychological growth in my life I really need to focus on not letting the negative thoughts and feelings that come to me have a control on my life and attitude. When the thoughts come to me I need to change them with positive ones. Spiritually I can grow my attending church, reading my bible, and spending time in prayer.

Mind-Body-Spirit Wellness

Describe the exercise and assessment process. What did you discover about yourself? What area have you chosen to be a focus of growth and development? Why? What are some specific exercises or activities that you can implement to foster greater wellness in this area?

The Loving Kindness exercise reminds me of praying. While doing this exercise I found myself more in prayer than repeating the phrases. When I can give any worries or stress to God I feel a sense of peace and comfort in it and that I will be guided to helping others and myself.

I do not feel that I really learned anything new about myself and found this activity easy. The area I have chosen is Interpersonal because I feel that my family life really needs more focus. I feel that our life is so busy with work, homework, housework, and activities I feel that we are creating a distance between all of us. I do feel that my reducing some of my stress through meditation I can focus better on our needs at home and find ways to reduce our busy life. What has happened to us is we have gotten so caught up on outside activities we have not taken the time to do things that will make us grow as a family. One thing I would like to start doing is to have family time before the kids go to bed where we can read a little bit of the bible and pray together as a family. My husband and me also need to plan date nights and a time during the day where we can sit down and reconnect and discuss what is going on in our lives.

Subtle Mind

Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.

            I liked the Loving Kindness exercise, but it was a bit overwhelming and was hard to take on others pain or worry. It was also hard to understand fully how that would help others, but I can see how I could dissolve my pain or worry in my heart. I feel for me praying for others works the best for me instead of trying to take on their discomfort. I like the Subtle mind exercise because it reminds me of when I gave birth to my kids. I was taught how to focus on my breathing to help relieve some of the pain and discomfort of labor pains. It helped me so much and I would highly recommend it to others. I was able to learn how to stay focus on my breath. I do not do it as often in my daily life, but there are times I do feel like I need a “time out” so I feel that breathing really helps me to refocus and calm down. I also enjoyed that there was less talking in this exercise. I have a hard time when there are a lot of instructions because I feel that I have a hard time turning off my mind and it is hard to focus on the exercise.

Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.

            I feel that spiritual wellness is very important in order to experience the full benefits of the mental and physical wellness. I work our a lot, so I feel that my physical wellness is strong, but I feel week in the mental and spiritual area. I have a relationship with God and even though not everyone relates his or her spiritual wellness through a relationship with God that is how I see my spiritual wellness. When I feel weak in this area I have a hard feeling strong mentally and even physically. When I am praying, trusting God, and letting go of things to him I feel weak, anxious, depressed, and even mad sometimes. When I am really focused on my spiritual wellness I feel strong, happy, and peaceful.

The Mind-Body-Spirit Paradigm

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The Mind-Body-Spirit Paradigm

What is the concept of "mental workout"? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a mental workout? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

Mental training can reduce emotions that cause anger, hatred, fear, worry, confusion, and doubt. Mental training can produce positive emotions like patience, loving-kindness, openness, acceptance, and happiness. This transformation through the mind and body connection can promote well-being, limit mental distress and physical disease, and expands our healing capacities (Dacher, 2006). 

By developing a compassionate mental state I fell I would be able to live each day with very little to no stress. If I do experience any stress I feel that if my mind is trained properly I could handle stress better. I also feel tis would help with my anxiety. I would know how to turn my anxious feelings into more positive feelings.

Describe your experience. Did you find it beneficial? Difficult? Why or why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or why not?

This exercise was a little difficult because it seemed to be overwhelming at times. I also feel that it would need to be done several times to get the benefits out of it. I really liked the idea of thinking about the negative and releasing your grip on it. I feel by doing this you are set free of the negatives things that are holding you back. I liked the idea of breathing in the suffering of a loved one, but as I did it I felt a bit overwhelmed too. I was breathing in the anxiety, stress, and depression my mom is going through and I felt overwhelmed by it because I did not want to end up taking it on too, but when she said it would dissolved in my heart it gave me a sense of comfort. I think it is important to focus on loving-kindness towards others, and us so I would recommend this to others, but would stress that it would be important to do often. I think one of the hardest things is the think of strangers and to take on their suffering.