unit 9 Final project

Kaplan University
Cynthia Kendall
Assignment 9
Section: HW420

Course Title: Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing


December20, 2011
















Introduction: 1. Why is it important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically? It is very important for health and wellness professionals to build and develop a happy productive life through psychologically, physically and spiritually domains, so they can assist individuals with healthy choices about their diet and fitness, they can also help people overcome the effects of illness, disease, disability and injury.

What areas do you need to develop to achieve the goals you have for yourself? I have found that losing the weight has helped me to feel better about myself emotionally and physically, however I need to lose more weight and sometimes I feel like I’m at a standstill, I then get discourage. After talking with my physician about this matter, he suggested that I would make a healthy lifestyle change my goal, not weight loss. This way I would be more likely to succeed in both improving my health and attaining permanent weight loss.
2. Assessment: How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically? I ‘am a strong believer in healing by Prayer which can change lives and circumstances. Assessing my health in the domain of spiritually, on a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate myself at a 6. Through spiritual reflections, prayer, faith, hope and joy, I'm able to deepen my understanding and connection with God. Assessing my health in the domain of physically and psychologically; Growing up and being overweight have been a challenge for me throughout many years. I have always been an outgoing person, different ones have commented on my size and how I continuously stay active, I’m not a marathon runner but I can walk, when I have had enough I will sit down take a couple of deep breathes and back at it again. My employer healthcare system has a Live Well program; it creates an environment for employees to increase longevity and quality of life for everyone, and reduce healthcare costs. Through this program I have found peace, joy and physical relaxation that reduce my stress, blood pressure and slow the heart rate.

The word WELL stands for;
Work meaningfully
Eat healthfully
Learn continuously
Live more fully

3. Goal development: List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual. During my health and wellness physical this year, my physician and I were talking about Setting realistic health and fitness goals to stay motivated. One of the questions he asked me, was how much weight was I wanting to lose? I told him I would like to lose 100 pounds; he said that’s too overwhelming, he said you have to take small steps along the way to making big changes; you need to focus on losing 1 pound per week to get to your goal. For my physical goal I will break it down into small, specific and achievable mini-goals, such as walking for at least 30 minutes three times a week. Spirituality is the key to life of happiness and peace of mind, and manifesting the enormous power of the inner spirit. Being involved in several church groups has helped my Spirituality growth, however over the next 12 months my goals for spiritually will be as follows; I desire to grow spiritually in becoming the person that God that has predestined me to be. My Psychological goal would be to eliminate stress, stop dwelling on problems and personal issues for a long period at a time, let them go and release that negative energy.
4. Practices for personal health: What strategies can you implement to foster growth in each of the following domains; strategizing psychologically, spiritually and physically domains requires willpower, inner strength, self-control, committing to take action and achieving goals despite obstacles and inconveniences.
Physical, Psychological and Spiritual provide at least two examples of exercises or practices in each domain. Explain how you will implement each example.
A). as I close my eyes and start to inhale and exhale slowly, I found that one of the best ways to calm my mind is meditation. Meditation affects the body in exactly the opposite ways that stress does, restoring the body to a calm state, helping the body to repair itself, and preventing new damage due to the physical effects of stress.
B). Water aerobics is a great physical exercise, very soothing. It also helps your muscles and tissues stretch, making movement easier. The last class I was in we started implementing water aerobics by walking from one side of the shallow end to the other as quickly as you can., this improves your circulation and relieves joint soreness.

5. Commitment: How will you assess your progress or lack of progress in the next six months? I will need to make a firm commitment, by writing down my affirmation in a place where I can see it every day. This will help me to stay focused when my actions get difficult.
What strategies can you use to assist in maintaining your long-term practices for health and wellness? Calls for addressing the mind, body, diet and exercise, I will began to read more spiritual and uplifting books and try to apply or use the information in my life. Eliminate negative factors and meditate for at least 15 minutes every day. I will modify my diet by taking in more proteins, fresh fruits and vegetables. Exercises Twenty to 30 minutes of walking three times a week, this will also improve your mental wellness.














References;
Dasher, Elliott, S. Integral Health The Path to Human Flourishing, (2006), Basic Health Publications: Laguna Beach, CA
Marilyn Schlitz and Tina Amorok with Mar S. Micozzi, Consciousness & healing(2005), Itegral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine
www.webmd.com (2011)

Unit 8 Choose two practices that you have determined to be most beneficial

Choose two practices that you have determined to be most beneficial
The two practices that have helped me tremendously are Meditation and Love and Kindness. Recently I have been through a lot; having two parents in the hospital at the same time, is very stressful, it makes you tense and of course worried. I have repeatedly utilized Meditation as well as the Love and Kindness practices. Meditation gives you a sense of calm, restores your inner peace and balances those benefits of both your emotional well-being and your overall health. Love and Kindness practices have helped me to focus on positive emotions, such as feelings of calm and joy, and decrease the levels of negative emotions like anger, anxiety, and sadness.

Unit 7 blog Meeting Asciepius" exercise

1. Complete the "Meeting Asciepius" exercise on track #4 of the Dacher CD. Describe your meditative practice(s) 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 enjoyed the "Meeting Asciepius" exercise on track #4 of the Dacher CD. The peaceful waves and music; relaxed me, I was able to get a deep state of relaxation and focus on eliminating jumbled thoughts that has been crowding my mind and causing stress.

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 we live our lives, or the lifestyle choices we make, can play an important role in maintaining good health psychologically, physically, and spiritually. How can you teach someone something you have not done yourself, that’s where Self awareness comes into play, you cannot expect to change what you are not aware of. Self awareness provides the clarity to choose whether you express emotions of love or express emotions out of reactions of fear by identifying your unconscious patterns and raise them in your consciousness so they can be changed.

Healthy Life: Lovin-Kindness and Integral Assessment

Healthy Life: Lovin-Kindness and Integral Assessment: I thought the loving-kindness exercise was easier for me to focus than the one that I tried on the cd. It was short and easy to repeat. It w...

Loving Kindness (meditation)

Loving Kindness (meditation)

Loving Kindness (Dacher2006) is an embrace of life that softens the mind and opens the heart. This exercise has helped me tremendous; recently I have gone through a lot of issues in my life. I realize stress is necessary for life however stress is only harmful when it becomes overwhelming and interrupts the healthy state of equilibrium that your nervous system needs to remain in balance. Through this exercise I was able to close my eyes and imagine a restful place where all my worries drift away.
The Integral Assessment brings my attention to what is going on at the present in my life, with my inner feelings, thoughts, and reactions. I’m trying very hard to accept the current reality and to stop resisting the good feeling as well as bad feeling experiences. I am constantly learning from my interactions with my outer experiences to look at my physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.

Having inner wisdom helps me to concentrate on this exercise, through spirituality and meditation. It helps me to navigate through my difficulties, through my values, beliefs, gratitude, peace and love.


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

Doc Sharing

Doc Sharing

The Subtle mind exercise

Throughout these exercises I’m Learning how to connect to spiritual wellness, mental and physical wellness by relaxing, improving my focus and reducing my stress through meditation, prayer and faith. While listening to this exercise I closed my eyes and let my worries drift away, reducing my anxiety and stress. I love the beach so I imagine that restful place. I was able to connect to a higher power through meditation, prayer and faith.