Enjoyed this class !!!!

1.      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?

After practicing for a while, I guess I improved my skills. I would scale myself 9 for being physical well being because I do physical activities five days a week and I don’t have any physical problems like neck pain, back pain or sleeping problems. I love exercise and I am perfectly healthy right now. I would give 9 for spiritual well being because I don’t take stress unless I am very overwhelmed. I do yoga everyday for 15 to 20 minutes to balance my life. I would give 8 for psychological well being and I still need to feel good about myself.

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

Answer: I never had any goal to myself of physical and spiritual well being since I was very satisfied but for psychological, I made progress for sure. I started thinking positive about myself and loving myself more than before.

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

 For psychological well being, I started doing loving kindness exercise and it helped me a lot to focus in my career and personal life.

4.      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 just loved this course. I learned a lot about new meditation and physical exercise. I definitely improved well being. It was not difficult doing physical and spiritual exercise but it was difficult to do psychological exercise. I started doing loving kindness and it was hard in the beginning to focus but it became better. Yes I will advice my family and friends to do this exercise and hope it will help them to improve in their personal life.

WOWWWW WE DID IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Introduction:

Ø  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 because it helps keep them in top nature. Our bodies, organs and systems are totally separate from our thoughts, emotions, energy field and our spiritual selves. Professionals need to look at how our thoughts can affect our behavior and ultimately our health. They need to understand how our emotions work and how our values and beliefs can directly affect our everyday health. Our body, emotion, mind, energy body and soul together form the whole person.  It is only by dealing with each part of the whole within the whole, that we can have vital and energetic health. Therefore what we feel, what we think, what we eat and drink, even what we day dream about, has a direct effect on our health.

I don’t have any goal to myself of physically well being because I am very satisfied about my health. I do physical activity 5 or 6 days a week. I love doing exercise. It makes me happier and more relaxed. I also feel better about myself when I do exercise regularly; it gives me confidence and improves myself-esteem. Physical activity can help prevent or manage a wide range of health problems and concerns, including stroke, metabolic syndrome, type-2 diabetes, depression, and certain types of cancer, arthritis and falls. I do Yoga every day for 20 minutes early in the morning because it helps me to improve flexibility, more strength, better concentration on a daily life and healthier breathing. I do Vigorous Intensity Aerobic at least two days a week, Moderate Intensity Aerobic three days a week and Muscle Strengthening two days a week. Fitness should be a part of every person's daily and weekly routine. Fitness goals are important for everyone because it helps maintain a healthy heart and circulatory system. It gives more energy during the day and makes asleep better at night. It also keeps metabolism active and help to maintain bone strength. I am very busy in my life with full time work and full time school but I always make a time to do physical exercise. I wake up 4:30 am in the morning and start my day with exercise. When I am not in mood to do physical exercise or lazy to get up, I usually go for walk at the Lake so it helps me to change my mood and maintain my physical activities. I am also satisfied about my spiritually well being. Spirituality is the practice of love based attitudes which are integrated into an individual’s everyday life. I pray to my “God” every morning before I go to work. I pray for few minutes and it makes me feel so relaxed and energetic. I believe in God and I feel like God is everywhere, in all people, in works at art, in melodious music and in sacred writings.  Those without spiritual lives or fragmented spiritual lives tend to be more fearful, anxious, angry and depressed.  The lack of a spiritual life can lead to illness and disease. I am very healthy and believing God it could be one of reasons. I definitely need to work on my psychologically well being. I am very emotional person. I take everything serious in my life which is good but it’s bad sometimes. I always care about what people think about me and their opinions. I need to love myself more and not to feel down so that’s way I won’t get upset. My goal is to love myself more and think positive. I will also try not to compare myself to others so that's way I won't think negative.

Assessment:

Ø  How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?

  I feel like I am really good in each domain. I would scale myself 9 for being physical well being because I do physical activities five days a week and I don’t have any physical problems like neck pain, back pain or sleeping problems. I love exercise and I am perfectly healthy right now. I would give 8 for spiritual well being because I don’t take stress unless I am very overwhelmed. I do yoga everyday for 15 to 20 minutes to balance my life. I would give 7 for psychological well being because sometimes I get upset with my life and feel so down. I guess because I always try hard so much to achieve everything at the same time which is not good. So I need to be happy more and think positive that everything will be done when comes to right time.

                                                Goal Development

Ø  List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.

   Physically, I have a goal is to work out six days a week like jogging, running or walking and work on weight lifting at least three days a week. I am also not good with my eating habits so I need to start eating proper food like three meals a day on proper timing. I know food can change our mood so I am going to work on it.  I will start taking breakfast between 7 am to 9 am – boiled eggs, oatmeal and juice. Take lunch between 12 pm-2 pm – salad and soup. Take dinner between 6 pm-8 pm- veggie sandwich or wheat pasta with boiled vegetables. Spiritually, I need to start believe in others and look for their positive qualities. Psychologically, I need to start loving myself and take less stress with school, work and personal life.

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. Two ways that I can improve my physical wellnesses is by doing regular exercise and eat healthy foods. I am going to consume 1500 to 2000 calories a day. I am also going to do Physical exercise for an hour or two for five days a week to maintain healthy body. Exercises like moderate-intensity aerobic like jogging and running, muscle strengthening like push-ups and weight lifting since I don’t have any health problems. Two ways that I can foster my psychologically health are by practicing loving kindness meditations and yoga exercises. Loving kindness exercises can help you to control your mind. Few months ago, I tried first time and it was very hard for me to focus because I hat lot of thoughts in my mind. My goal is to do loving kindness exercise every day before I start my day.  For me, Practicing loving kindness does not mean feeling love at the exclusion of any other emotions. Rather, it means calling upon loving kindness to enrobe all or the emotions inhabiting us in the present moment. Our emotions are shaped by our thoughts. If we retrain ourselves to substitute lovingly kind thoughts for our usual messages of self-hatred, over time, it is to be expected that our overall well-being will increase. Yoga helps a lot to relief your stress and improves your flexibility. I do all different kinds of yoga like hath yoga, intermediate yoga, and beach yoga. I never tried Bikram yoga so my goal is start doing Bikram yoga. My goal is do yoga every day for thirty minutes. Two ways that I can foster my spiritually are by believing in others for their good qualities and in me for being a beautiful human being.

Commitment:

Ø  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?

 If we want to feel truly alive and open to life’s opportunities we need to look carefully at our physical, psychological and spiritual health.  We need to identify our shortcomings and make those changes we need so that we are truly vibrating at the highest level and enjoying life to the fullest. After a few months of practicing all these levels of progress, I am very confident that I will be able to experience a balance between my mind, body and spirit. Once I am succeeding, I will make sure that I do regular exercise like running, meditation, yoga and stay healthy.  

References:

Ø  Dacher, E. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Basic Health Publications Laguna Beach, CA

Ø  Schlitz, M.(2005): Consciousness & Healing: Integral approaches to Mind-Body Medicine. St.Louis, Mo.: Elsevier Inc.
    

Loving Kindness and Meditation

After reviewing all these exercises, loving kindness and meditation exercises are most beneficial for me. Personally, I enjoyed doing both exercises. It makes me feel so relax and tension free. Meditation has both physical and spiritual benefits. Physically, it can help to reduce blood pressure, relaxes tense muscles, and enables better sleep. Spiritually, it can reduce stress, enables us to think more clearly, and substantially increases productivity. Best thing about these exercise is does not require lot of time. You can just do it for 10 minutes before bedtime will do wonders for a night’s sleep. If you do ten minutes in the morning will help you have a much better day. So either morning or night, it can help you to feel relax and peace. The practice of loving kindness is an excellent tool for breaking down barriers as well as restoring humanity and kindness when your mind feels like a battlefield. The benefits are also that you re-train your mind to let go of stress far more easily when the mind is more calm and happy and come up with mutually beneficial solutions to challenges you may be facing.

Asclepius practice

 

1.                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?

It is the wise healer who resides within each of us who will help guide us through the preparations and the integral process itself. That wise one the ancient Greeks called Asclepius. I tried this exercise to the first time and did not succeed. I got hard time to sit in communicate with this wise person and feel his/her presence. After 24 hrs, I tried again this exercise and realized concentration is very important do this practice. I always wanted to become a top dancing start so I imaged that person and enjoyed every second of loving healer in body, mind and speech. I enjoyed doing this exercise and I would definitely recommend to my friends if they feel down about their life. It helps a lot to achieve our goal.

2.                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?

One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself. I totally agree to this sentence because if you never had an experience, then you don’t have rights to advice anybody. For example, if somebody is going trough divorce, nobody will understand that pain unless personally you have gone through that pain. That person is already feeling sad so physically we should be helping them like tell them to divert their minds to some activities. Spiritually we can advice them to do some yoga class or massage to help them relieve pain and clear their mind. Psychologically we can share their feelings and make them feel good. 

Blog 6 ...Universal loving kindness

I just loved this exercise. The development of universal loving kindness is the final leap in our interpersonal development. Integral health requires that we begin to extend these capacities beyond our close group of loved ones to all of humankind. I tried this exercise for the first time, I actually felt really good about myself. I closed my eyes for a minute and repeated those phrases 10 times. My favorite phrase is “may all individuals gain freedom from suffering”. This slogan is just touched my heart.

                        Integral health helps into the ease and stillness of our mind and body, releasing all mental activity. Integral health involves a new way of thinking about oneself. It's not just another self-help remedy, therapy, or technique. It's taking responsibility for one's health and life in a completely new, holistic way. It requires a dynamic, intentional transformation of mind and heart that leads to a profound shift in health and healing. Integral health is the next evolutionary step in human development.

I always wanted to focus on my mind, because I change my thoughts every second and its horrible. I wanted to learn how to believe in my decisions and follow it without changing in every second. That’s one the reason I started doing yoga. It was so hard for me to do yoga in the beginning because I couldn’t control my mind. But after few months, I started concentrate more and stop changing my thoughts. I love doing it now and it is helping to focus in my career.

Loving kindness Vs Subtle mind

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

Answer: Loving kindness exercise resting comfortably in your natural state of peace and ease, bring to mind an individual, someone close to you, who you hold with great love and tenderness. Loving kindness exercise does not mean feeling love at the exclusion of any other emotions. Rather, it means calling upon loving kindness to enrobe all or the emotions inhabiting us in the present moment. Our emotions are shaped by our thoughts. The subtle mind exercise explains we use the breath for two reasons. First, there is direct relationship between the breath and mind. Peaceful breathing pattern leads to a peaceful mind. Second, the breath is always with us so we can work with it even in the midst of a meeting, using the breath, we will learn how to tame and stabilize the mind by developing a witnessing consciousness. I tried both exercise and it is beneficial for our health. I tried both exercise for 10 to 15 minutes and it was hard doing it first time. Loving kindness and subtle mind exercise both helps to relief stress and clear our mind and thoughts with peace and ease.

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

Spiritual wellness is a personal matter involving values and beliefs that provide a purpose in our lives. While different individuals may have different views of what spiritualism is, it is generally considered to be the search for meaning and purpose in human existence, leading one to strive for a state of harmony with oneself and others while working to balance inner needs with the rest of the world. It is connection between mental and physical wellness. Mental wellness is depending on us how we live our life. I always try to think positive when I am stressed out with work and school so it won’t cause me any health problem. I have seen people that when they get stressed out, they start drinking alcohol and ruining their life. I really don’t want to part of that life. I should be thankful to god that gives me beautiful with wonderful friends and family. Physical wellness is the ability to maintain a healthy quality of life that allows us to get through our daily activities without physical stress. I do physical activities five days a week and help me to relief stress and maintain my weight.

Well being (unit 3 blog)

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?

Answer: I would scale myself 9 for being physical well being because I do physical activities five days a week and I don’t have any physical problems like neck pain, back pain or sleeping problems. I love exercise and I am perfectly healthy right now. I would give 8 for spiritual well being because I don’t take stress unless I am very overwhelmed. I do yoga everyday for 15 to 20 minutes to balance my life. I would give 7 for psychological well being because sometimes I get upset with my life and feel so down. I guess because I always try hard so much to achieve everything at the same time which is not good. So I need to be happy more and think positive that everything will be done when comes to right time.

2.           Develop a goal for yourself in each area (physical, spiritual, psychological).

Answer: I don’t have any goal to myself of physical and spiritual well being since I am very satisfied right now but for psychological I need to make a goal.

3.           What activities or exercise can you implement in your life to assist in moving toward each goal?

answer: For psychological well being, I need to love myself more and not to feel down so I try to love myself more and think positive. I will also try not to compare myself to others so that's way I won't think negative.

4.           Complete the relaxation exercise The Crime of the Century. To hear this exercise, click here. Describe your experience. (What it beneficial? Frustrating? etc.)

Answer: I actually listened to this video in my last class. Its actually helped a lot. I love doing this Rainbow relaxation exercise. It is really beneficial for mind and body. It helps a lot to relief stress. 

Stuti