Unit 10 Blog

In unit 3, I rated my physical well-being at an 8, and noted that I try to eat healthy and exercise regularly, and that my goal was to maintain a healthy diet, and ensure that I kept a regular exercise routine.  I’ve accomplished both incorporating more healthy foods to my diet, and I have exercised at least 3 times per week since, except for weeks when there were things preventing me from doing so, such as the week leading to Easter as I had lots of preparations to do, and a week that I had to go out of town for work.  Even though I met these goals, I must be doing it wrong as I’ve gained a little bit of weight. For the most part, I feel the same as I did in unit 3, except I feel like my arms and legs have tightened up some. The tightened limbs in conjunction with the little bit of weight gain, I’d say I’m still at an 8. This means I will have to re-evaluate my diet and exercise routines and adjust them.

For spiritual, I rated myself as a 7, because of feeling happy some days, and feeling sad on others, and not knowing what is going on. I still feel this way, though I am starting to believe that this is a normal part of life, as life is never perfect.  The demands of everyday life- work, school, family, friends, bills- it’s a recipe for a rollercoaster ride. Because of this, I am now rating myself as an 8, because I’ve established that I may always have these feelings, and my goal now is to learn to cope with them in the best way possible, which has been reminding myself to be patient.

Psychologically, I rated myself as a 9, because I have always had a strong mind, and never let things bother me to the point of desperation or breakdown. Despite having moments of sadness noted above, I know in the back of my mind that these times will eventually pass, and I have to let it pass. So as of now, I am still at a 9. I did not set a goal here, so going forward, I will just keep doing what I have been doing, because it's obviously working!

Unit 9 Post

1. Introduction:
   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 sort of like the saying “practice what you preach”. If a health and wellness professional does not take charge of his or her own health and develop it, how can they help their patients do so? Health and wellness professionals need to lead by example, and develop their own psychological, spiritual and physical health before they can help their patients. Not only does it set a good example for the patients, but it also helps the health and wellness professional empathize with the patients because he or she will understand the treatments from having already gone through them.

I am not going into the health care field, and have taken this course as an elective because it seemed interesting. While I learned a lot and have been exposed to different exercises and ways of healing both physically and mentally, I do not think there are areas in which I need to develop or improve on. My one goal is to continue my routine of regular exercising and eating healthy to maintain my current health status. I have witnessed the deterioration of health of some of my older relatives due to lack of exercising, and do not want that to happen to me in the future. The thought of their health deterioration is motivation for me to exercise on days that I feel too lazy to do so.

2. Assessment:
   How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?

Physically, I have made a little progress in my health. In unit 3, I rated myself as an 8, and had set a goal for myself to exercise at least three times per week and to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into my diet. Though I have done this, I have gained a little weight. On the other hand, my clothes are a little bit loose, but I feel a bit tired. Either I am not exercising right, or I am gaining muscle weight. Because of the uncertainty of what my diet and exercise is doing, I am scoring myself as an 8 again. I will continue to exercise regularly, but will change my routine a bit to see if that makes a difference.

Psychologically, as mentioned previously, I feel that I am quite strong in this area. I have a strong mind, and do not let much bother me. Once in a while, I will get a little bit stressed out from work, but it typically does not last long. I always tell myself that problems cannot last forever which makes me stop worrying, or worry less about the situation at hand.  I also make sure I wind down each night, either by reading a novel or watching a movie. I have read articles that say you should not do either before going to bed as it can cause fitful sleep, but it seems to help me sleep better. To keep my mind strong, I try to do at least one Sudoku puzzle each day as it helps keep my brain active and helps strengthen it. I cannot think of ways to improve psychologically, so I will just keep doing what I have been doing, as it seems to work pretty well.

Spiritually is a little difficult as I am not a very religious person, despite having been raised Catholic.  I no longer attend weekly services but I do still pray, and I do not feel that I need to attend services to have a relationship with God.  I have noted in one of my posts that one can achieve spiritual health through belief as a form of faith, and that if you believe you will become healthier and mentally stronger then you will. This is a form of faith and in turn a form of spiritual health. Whenever I am faced with an illness, I concentrate of becoming well, and believe that I will become well, and of course, I eventually do. I have never been seriously ill, so I cannot say if having faith in becoming better works personally, but I have had people close to me go through cancer, to which I held on to the belief that they would get better, and they beat the cancer. I am not sure if it had anything to do with my beliefs. In this category, I feel that I am at an 8.

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

Physical- to exercise on a regular basis

Psychological- to strengthen my mind through activities such as Sudoku puzzles.

Spiritual- to keep a positive attitude about life and believe that things will turn out well.

4. 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.

For physical health, as mentioned above, I will continue to exercise on a regular basis. Exercises I have been doing are DVDs I own with routines that focus on cardiovascular exercises and strength training. I am nearly done with school, so it will be easier to incorporate exercising into my daily routine as I will have more time. I have started to schedule my exercise time into the day’s schedule. Another thing I will do is continue to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into my diet. I have started to work on weekly menus for myself which not only helps me control the groceries I buy, but it helps me eat better as I have noticed I am more inclined to eat healthier if I plan the meals ahead of time.

Psychologically, I recently created an account on Lumosity.com, which uses games to strengthen the mind. Since I have been creating daily schedules for myself, I have started designating a time each day in which to login to the site and play these games, which is referred to brain training. I will also continue to work on Sudoku puzzles on a daily basis.  This is easy to incorporate into my daily routine as I commute via train for work, and can work on these puzzles while on the train. It helps the time pass faster while also working on strengthening my mind. Spiritual health is a tough one as I am not really a spiritual person, and cannot really think of formal exercises to use here. I will continue to think positively and believe that everything will eventually work itself out. Also, as mentioned before, I feel I can talk to and have a relationship with God without attending church services, so I will try to incorporate conversations with God in my daily routine.

5. Commitment:
   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?

Measuring my physical progress will be the easiest task. I recently had a check-up with my doctor where my vitals were checked along with my blood sugar and cholesterol levels. I will know on my next check-up if I have failed or succeeded in eating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle if the blood work results are different then. I have also taken a photo of myself and taken down my measurements at the beginning of the month, and will take down my measurements and take a new photo at the beginning of each subsequent month to compare the results and measure the changes brought on by regular exercises.

Psychologically, I do not know how I will measure progress or lack of progress because I feel that I have always been mentally strong. The Lumosity site keeps track of mental game scores and shows progress on a graph. I will continue to use this site and review my progress. I think this is a great way to improve mental health and develop the brain to its full capacity. Spiritually, I do not know if there is a way to measure this, but I will continue to believe that things will get better whenever they are not going well.

Unit 8 Post

Well, for me, all the exercises in which we had to listen to the sound clips such as loving-kindness, subtle mind, etc, are not for me. I think this is because I do not have trouble relaxing, and these exercises really just made me sleepy.  With that said, really, none of the exercises have been very beneficial for me.   Maybe this is because I need to be surrounded by loud, extravagant noise in order to focus, and I’m the kind of person who hears ringing in my ears when sitting in a room that has no sounds in it. The ringing keeps me from falling asleep, whereas the ocean waves are too constant and too calming for me.  If I had to choose which ones have had an impact, I would say yoga. Yoga is similar to meditation, except there are positions that you have to sit or contort your body into which requires concentration. Yoga works the body when stretching it for the different poses, and works your mind when concentrating on the poses. I used to do yoga a long time ago, but did not have the patience for it, and so I quit. My patience is better now, so I believe that with time, I will get better at the yoga poses, and maybe it will help me get to a place of not needing to be surrounded by noise. I have actually just placed an order for a book titled Yogalosophy by Mandy Ingber, and will give it a try once it arrives, hopefully soon.

Unit 7 Post

Part 1- the exercise

The exercise started out easy, and I was able to visualize a loved one, but when the woman noted to make a connection with the loved one, I found that hard, as I just can’t seem to connect with someone who is not physically there next to me. Again, the sound of the ocean waves made me sleepy, and also made me want to take a vacation. 

For meditative practices for the week, I have returned to doing yoga. I tried doing yoga back in the 90s when what I like to call the second wave of hippies emerged, and suddenly yoga was the popular thing to do. I tried it then, and I’ll admit, I found it hard, and did not have the patience for it. So I am trying it again. I did some poses for about 15 minutes three times this week. While it is still hard, I found that I have more patience this time around, but then again, I only just started doing it again, so my patience may wear thin. Nevertheless, I will try to continue doing yoga each week and see how far I get. I am hoping the yoga will help me to stop slouching so I can stand taller, and avoid developing osteoporosis.

Part 2:

“One cannot lead another where one has not gone before” is sort of like telling somebody not to be a hypocrite in a sense. That may not be the best analogy. You can’t really give parenting advice if you’re not a parent yourself. Basically, it is saying that you cannot help somebody to heal unless you have learned to heal yourself.  You can’t understand and teach the healing practices if you have not learned and practiced them for yourself. You must take your own advice before you give it to someone. For a health care provider who practices holistic healing instead of conventional medicine, he or she should practice the exercises and become familiar with them before having a patient do them. As far as my profession,  I don’t think this applies to me, since I do a lot of administrative work, and there isn’t really a cause for me to do a task before telling a client to do it because the things I do are completely different than what is expected of the clients. Psychological and spiritual growth can be implemented into my life as noted above, but continuing with my yoga exercises. I am also going to try to incorporate some daily prayers instead of praying whenever I think about it.

Unit 6 Blog Post

As with the first time around with the loving-kindness exercise, I had a hard time with it, for the same reason as before- it made me want to sleep and is also too “out there”.  I know these things take time, but I don’t think these exercises will come together for me because they are not something that interest me. 

For the assessment portion, I feel that the area in my life that is ready for development is biological. I chose this because I am in my 30s and not married, and lately I have been feeling like there is a piece of the puzzle missing, and has been causing me to feel bouts of loneliness. I think it is finally time to start focusing on finding love and starting a family. I have shut this part of my life out in recent years because I just haven’t had the time between work and school, but I am almost done with school, and can devote some time and effort in completing my own personal puzzle.  Specific activities I can do is to start signing up for community events and activities that interest me, and start joining social groups. Since starting school, I haven’t had much time to go out and do things, so I think getting exposure to people other than my family and friends will be a huge step in this area.