Final Entry Unit 10

This has been a great journey and wish everyone the best of luck on all your future endeavors! This is the end of the road for me here at Kaplan and once my final grades post I will have earned my Bachelor's in Health Sciences!!

In Unit 3 I graded my psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being. My physical well-being was at a 6 out of 10. Now I would say that I am at a 7. I have been working so hard to lose weight and eat healthy and I have currently lost 20 pounds. I am starting to notice a difference physically and so are other people. It feels so good to have someone tell me I am looking skinny.  My psychological well-being I rated as a 10. I would say that now I would rate it a 8. Even though I am still free from mental illnesses and such I now realize my mental health is not as good as it can be.  I am having a much easier time meditating and clearing my mind so I would rate it at an 8.  My spiritual health I rated at a an 8 in unit three and I would say I am about the same. I still have some work to do in all aspects of my well-being, but I am making changes.

My physical well-being goals I am keeping up on and am making progress.  My spiritual well-being goal has not been met yet and that was to attend church at least once a month.  I am currently in the process of trying to find a church.  Finally, I had not set a phycological goal because I felt I needed no progress in that area. Now I would set the goal to meditate at least twice a week.

I feel that this course has helped me work toward my goal of integral health. It has help me clear my mind so much faster and more effectively. Learning how to properly clear my mind was very difficult and I do still struggle with it, just not as much. This class has taught me so very much and I am very thankful for what I have learned and am taking with me.

Personal Applications

I.                    Introduction

a.       Health and wellness professionals should develop on many levels of life.  Health and wellness professionals should develop in the following areas psychologically, spiritually, and physically.  If a professional is trying to treat a patient and is not developed psychologically how are they going to effectively treat that patient?  Their minds must be cleared and focused on the individual.  The health care professional cannot clearly focus on the patient if their mind is somewhere else.  Also, health care professionals should be well aware of their spirituality. The spirit should go hand in hand with the other two areas of development.  If a health care professional is not physically developed in the sense of not over weight it is hard for patients to trust what they say.  Health care professionals cannot preach about healthy lifestyles if they themselves are not living a completely healthy lifestyle.  It is important to be developed in all areas to be a truly healthy and happy person.

II.                 Assessment

a.       Scoring myself in the areas of psychological, spiritual, and physical health is not an easy chore.  For this I will use a scale of 1-10 with 1 being not very developed of “healthy” and 10 being the best developed and no room for progress.  Psychologically I would score myself at a 3.  I have been able to meditate and clear my mind on occasion; however this is still very difficult for me.  This area has a ways to go before I would consider it healthy.  Spiritually I would score myself at an 8.  I know my God and I pray to Him almost nightly.  I know where I belong in life and know that God has a plan for me and my family.  I do have some growing to do in this area as well though.  Physically I would score myself a 5. I have currently lost 20 pounds and am trying to lose the remaining 30 I have to lose.  I need to fit more workouts into my week, however.  Since exercise is known to reduce stress this can help me in more than one area of development.

III.               Goal Development

a.       Goals are so important to have, they help have a purpose.  One goal I have to better develop my physical well-being is to lose another 30 pounds. I am currently working on this goal; however am having a difficult time reaching it.  To better my spiritual well-being my goal is to attend our church a minimum of twice per month and to pray more often. Developing psychologically is a little more difficult for me. My goal in this area is practice the loving kindness exercise and meditate at least twice a week.  I have a hard time clearing my mind and letting go of my stressors which causes so many other issues.

IV.              Practices for personal health

a.       To foster better growth in the physical aspect of my health there are a few things that I can do.  Working out 5 days a week can help me lose the remainder of the weight that I need to lose and also help my cardiovascular functions.  Also, being more cautious about what foods and the amounts of foods I put into my body would help me to be healthier in the physical aspect of development. To help foster better spiritual health I can practice meditation more often.  Meditation can help open my heart and my mind spiritually.  Also, attending church can bring me closer to God and foster greater spirituality growth.  To foster greater psychological health I can practice visualization techniques.  This will help me clear my mind and focus on just the task at hand.  Also, practicing the loving kindness exercise can help develop my psychological health.  This will also help me clear my mind and focus solely on the task at hand.

V.                 Commitment

a.       Assessing the progress in the three areas of development is crucial.  It is so important because if no progress is being made in a certain area then changes can be to help foster greater growth in that specific area.  Over the next six months, once a month, I will assess my growth in each area; psychological, physical, and spiritual. Using the same 1-10 scale as before each area will be given a number and if no change in the number, new techniques will be put in place of the old ones, or the ones that are not working.  Meditation can help in all three aspects of development and I plan on continuing to implement it into my daily life.  Exercise can also help in two aspects of my development and even after my weight loss goals are met I will continue to exercise to help reduce stress, help psychological growth, and help my physical growth. 

Unit 8

So close to the end and for me graduating with my Bachelor's Degree in Health Sciences. Finally, the end is in sight and I can take a breather and help take care of my mother who was just diagnosed with breast cancer.

This course has offered so many different techniques to better our mental health and well-being. The two that have worked the best for me was the loving kindness and the one this week in the text by Dacher which used visualization.  Normally I struggle with visualization, but this week Dacher made it possible. I laid down and had my husband read it out loud to me, after I read it to myself.  This seemed to really work and I think it will be so helpful to use in my daily life (minus my husband reading it).  This exercise really helped relax me and minimize my stress. The loving kindness exercise made me really focus on someone else and their pain. After doing this exercise again it meant so much more to me. I was visualizing my mom the second time I did this exercise and it really opened my eyes. I think this exercise is amazing and works so good!

At the beginning of this course I had a really hard time with any type of meditation or relaxing technique, now I think they are awesome and will use them at least a couple of times a week. I think that everyone can benefit from any of the techniques we used in this class.

Meeting Aesclepius

This weeks meditation exercise was a good one to be able to visualize someone you really look up to and admire.  This part of the exercise was pretty simple to me.  I did have a hard time picturing a white light coming from different parts of her body and then into mine.  I am not sure why I struggle with type of thing, but I do. It is, however, getting easier for me to shut my mind off and clear it, which I am so thankful for. Each week I am noticing it is much easier to turn off my mind and really listen to exercises and being able to relax during them. 

It is so important to meditate to help reduce stress and to better your health overall. I plan on putting on soft music and laying comfortably and letting my mind be completely clear for at least 20 minutes a day.  I have noticed I feel better all around since I started this class, but not where I want to be. 

"One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself"  This is such a simple quote and one that is so easy to understand.  If you are not living the life you are trying to sell then it will be impossible to sell it. I would not take weight loss advice from an over weight doctor, would you? This also goes along with "practice what you preach."  

You cannot lead a person into an integral lifestyle if you yourself have not been leading one yourself. 

Loving-kindness exercise

So I sit with my eyes closed and repeat in my head:

May all individuals gain freedom from suffering.

May all individuals find sustained health, happiness, and wholeness.

May I assist all individuals in gaining freedom from suffering. 

May I assist all individuals in finding health , happiness, and wholeness. 

I got through the first five minutes of this exercise before my mind wandered onto other things. However, the first five minutes was awesome. This made me feel so good. If I could really take away everyones suffering that would make me very happy. I am a person who loves to help others and that is why I am going to into nursing. This exercise is an awesome exercise an I will incorporate it into my every day. 

As for the integral assessment the area I need to work on the most is biological flourishing. The areas of biological flourishing are fitness, nutrition, and self-regulation. I really need work on the fitness and nutrition. I am trying to do this as we speak and hope to have it mastered soon :)  I am still 30 or so pounds over weight and we eat out way too much. Once I can get those under control I think the area of biological flourishing will be great. Then I can move on to the next area of the assessment to work on. I think each area needs some improvements and this class is helping me make those improvements. 

Subtle Mind

Hello everyone! Sorry for the late post this week, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer on Friday and so I have been with her and my family.

This practice was a little different than the last one. With this exercise they ask you to pick a focal point and if you go away from your focal point to acknowledge what distracts you, but slowly go back to the focal point. I love the waves crashing in the background! It was very hard for me to picture my mind with an anchor because my mind ALWAYS travels away and it seems no matter what I do it over powers me and thinks about what ever it wants. This would be a great thing for me to practice over and over again to try and keep my mind for wandering off. The loving-kindness exercise has you focus on someone else and their pain, this one focuses on keeping your mind clear and free.

Prayer is such a powerful thing and right now we are doing a lot of that! I think that if you have a good relationship with God, or whoever you pray to, is a powerful one! Spirituality is very important to healing and feeling healthier all around. Praying and being able to release everything to God can help the worrying mind be at ease and keep clear.

Loving Kindness

I LOVED this exercise this week. I really enjoyed listening to it and it actually helped me relax and think about things. The beach makes me relax and I used to love to listen to CD's with beach sounds so hearing the waves crashing in the back ground was awesome. This exercise really makes you think about what loving kindness really is and how to accomplish this. I would recommend this exercise to anyone and everyone. I think it could help a lot of people realize exactly what loving kindness is and how it should be carried out. I am so glad that I finally found a type of exercise that actually helps me relax and keeps from laughing.

 A "mental workout" is training your mind and expanding it. It is training to mind to accept stillness and quietness, this does take practice. Being able to train the mind can open up different levels of wisdom, compassion, peace, wholeness, and happiness. Mental workouts are so important and can really help a person in their lives.

It is actually funny because this class is going along with both of my other classes. We are learning the same types of things, yet different things and each thing I am learning is helping me in each of my classes not just one.