Unit 9 Project

 

Unit 9 Project

            It is very important that health and wellness professionals develop themselves psychologically, spiritually, and physically. As a health and wellness professional you work with schools, hospitals, government organizations, or individual clients to support and train people on their goals regarding health and fitness. The daily duties of a wellness coach is to educate people on how to make better choices in their daily lives to prevent illness, assist in weight loss, and other health related aspects. For these reasons a health and wellness professional should always be striving to better themselves to not only set the example for others to follow but to also apply what they are teaching to ensure experiences can be shared. Psychological development is important because a wellness coach needs to be confident and stable in order to work with people on their own stress management and mental fitness. Physically a health and wellness should set an example for the people they are educating. If a person is in poor physical shape or not well educated in how to help others than they will lose the confidence of their clients and their counseling will be ineffective. Spiritually a person should be well developed and fully understand the power that faith and prayer have over the aspects of integral health. Without properly developing these aspects of integral health as a health and wellness professional a person will not be effective and successful in educating others to improve themselves. In order to achieve the goals that I have set for myself I need to primarily develop my physical aspect of health. Over the past couple of years I have found it difficult to maintain a steady routine of physical exercise due to a very busy and irregular daily schedule. Physically I have gained about 12-15 pounds that I now need to lose in order to be back at my optimal weight of 170 pounds. I can achieve this through goal setting, proper diet and nutrition, and developing a regular exercise routine that is sustainable over the long-term.

            If I were to assess and score my health in each domain on a scale of 1-10 I would score my psychological health at a 7, my physical health at 6 and my spiritual health at an 8. I rated my psychological health at 7 because I have gone through some very positive changes over the past few years that have really brought my level of consciousness to a higher level. This has reduced my stress, gave me new appreciation for life, and has made me more psychologically sound. I used to have very serious issues with wanting to control everything in my life and therefore I would overthink and over analyze everything that happened from day to day. If I received bad news about something I would dwell on every possible future scenario in an attempt to figure out how it would play out in real life. Not only does this create chronic stress but it also takes over your ability to live in the present moment because you are always thinking about the future. The future does not exist so you can never control it and trying to do so is insanity. The only thing you can control in your life is the present moment because it is the only “time” that exists. As each moment in your life passes you live it, enjoy it and appreciate it. I know that there is always room for improvement and my score of 7 recognizes that there are times when I allow stress to affect me or go back to over thinking situations rather than trusting that the problems are not as big as my mind makes them out to be. My physical health I scored a 6 because I feel that I need more physical exercise and sometimes sway from my good diet. My average diet consists of very healthy foods and lots of water but there are occasions when a big cheeseburger and French fries are too much temptation. I believe my diet and physical health are above the average or at the average mark for my age however if I don’t start an exercise routine soon I could easily fall into a score of 5 or lower. My spiritual health I scored the highest at 8 because I am currently very connected with my spirituality and my faith in God is strong. I find that when I’m doing something during the day that makes me happy I get a strong sense of gratitude for all of the many blessings in my life. In the past two years I have moved to a new home, changed jobs, and increased my time with my family substantially and have had so many other positive things happen in my life ever since my spiritual health increased. There are times when I get seeds of doubt about why things in life happen the way they do and for those reasons I scored my spiritual health an 8.

            In order to achieve better overall health in the areas of psychological, physical, and spiritual health it is important to set goals. For psychological health I have set a goal to practice meditations that will raise my level of consciousness and help with my witnessing mind. The witnessing mind has proven to be such an important aspect of thinking in order to see how you react to emotions and thoughts. When I am witnessing my own thoughts I have an incredible amount of power to stay calm and not make the situation worse in my mind. My goal for my physical health is to increase my physical activity and create a realistic and fun workout program that I will use over the long term. Losing 10 pounds in 90 days will be my first measureable goal in the physical health aspect. A goal I set for myself regarding my spiritual health is to work on how and when I use prayer in my life.  It has been shown in various studies that people who regularly use prayer and have faith in God are less prone to disease and are generally happier than those who do not.

            Once you have set goals towards better health and fitness it is important to implement strategies to foster growth and improvement. Strategies that I would implement for better psychological fitness would be meditation exercises that reduce stress. Visualization exercises can help bring a sense of calm and relaxation to a person and are generally guided through a prerecorded set of instructions. In addition meditation exercises that promote generosity and kindness can elicit feelings of connectedness with the world and inspire you to help others as well as yourself. Strategies for better physical health would be creating a daily workout routine that is realistic to implement and fun for me to continue over the long-term. Too many people start exercise routines that they dread to do every day and eventually once the initial enthusiasm goes away they quit the routine. For me an exercise schedule needs to be convenient to accomplish every day and needs to keep me interested with variety. Traveling across town every day to exercise on a treadmill would last less than a week for me however brisk walks in nature I would willing do every day. Another strategy for better physical health is to improve my diet and not consume foods that are processed or high in fat and sugar. Including more vegetables and fruits in my diet along with foods high in fiber would provide the nutrition needed for an increase in physical activity. Strategies for better spiritual health would be to do something good for someone every day such as paying a compliment, giving to charity, or helping others. This not only makes you feel good but it makes others feel good as well. Praying more to God is another strategy for better spiritual health as it betters your relationship and your faith in a higher power. We all look for a higher purpose in our lives beyond going to work and coming home every day and prayer is that beginning step to finding out what that higher purpose is.

            I will assess my progress or lack of progress in the next 6 months by making each goal measureable. Physically I want to lose 10-15 pounds over 90-120 days so in 6 months I will be able to measure my progress in that area. Psychologically I will be able to reassess how I handle stress and problems and if I am able to stay in the present moment rather than over think and analyze situations in my life. Spiritually I want to be more giving and helpful to others in my life. It is very easy to be centered on your own needs and desires while ignoring the needs of the people in your life. By putting other people’s needs before your own in some cases you will foster a stronger sense of connection with the world around you.

           

           

Mental Fitness Exercises

The two exercises that I have found to be the most beneficial throughout this course were The Universal Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle Mind exercise. The Universal Kindness exercise could be implemented into my daily life very easily because it centers around four very easy to remember phrases that help to develop a higher state of consciousness. These four phrases are:

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.

This type of exercise works great in instilling a feeling of cooperative living with all other living things in the world rather than feeling alone and separate.

The Subtle Mind exercise was great for opening up the witnessing mind which also raises a person's state of consciousness. Through simple breathing techniques and watching how your mind reacts to thoughts allows you to stay in the present moment and not drift into random thinking patterns.

Both of these exercise have the same goal of raising your level of consciousness and getting better connected to the world through thoughts. Feeling connected to the world gets rid of ego driven thinking that we are all separate entities trying to survive in the world rather than a connected universe. When you understand that you are not alone trying to survive you are one more step closer to human flourishing.

Meeting Aesclepius

I listened and practiced the Meeting Aesclepius exercise this week and found it to be a very good meditation for empowering my inner healer. There are so many great discoveries when you are learning about raising your level of consciousness and this weeks exercise was another exciting discovery. What I have found over the past 4 years of working on my consciousness and witnessing mind is that as I get better at witnessing my random and ego driven thinking I can refocus and keep those negative thoughts out of my mind. Worry, anxiety, stress, and other negativities that affect our minds have such an incredible impact on our overall health including our physical health. Being able to shut that negativity down from the source is such a powerful tool that everyone should practice and harness if they truly want to live a happy stress free life. As the exercise tells you however is that the road to achieving this effectively takes practice and doesn't happen overnight. The mind is a very powerful and can take over all of your emotions if you fail to witness it in a stressful situation. One tool that really helps me is thinking about past stressful situations and considering how I became stressed by visualizing negative outcomes that actually never materialized. We over think how future scenarios will unfold and when they do unfold it is not at all the way we envisioned it. We cannot control the future so stressing about it is a futile and pointless action that creates suffering in our lives. Live in the now!

Universal loving Kindness

For this week I practiced the Universal Loving Kindness meditation exercise and found it to be a very simple yet effective exercise for developing a higher state of consciousness. The four phrases to repeat are:

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.

What I got out of this exercise is that happiness and sustained health should not be an individual goal but a collective goal. We are not separate entities trying to survive in the world but rather a connected entity that shares the whole life experience with one another. This exercise does a great job of pushing ego driven thoughts away and then pushes love and happiness to the front of your thoughts. In the past I was very ego driven to be "better" than everyone else in my life as if that held some form of status or level of measureable achievement. Happiness in life is not determined by how much better you do than other people but rather how you raise your level of consciousness to look beyond that type of thinking.

When I conducted the Integral assessment I easily found the aspect of my life that creates the most hardship and suffering. I am continually trying to predict the future and prepare for any possible negative circumstance. This is a problem because the future does not exist and therefore I have absolutely no control of the future. I can only have an immediate influence on the present moment and therefore I need to stop envisioning future scenarios in my mind that may or may not happen. In an attempt to stop doing this I am trying to keep my focus on the now and use my witnessing mind to see when I am drifting out of the now and into future thoughts. One thing that I find helpful as well is using positive thinking to manifest positive events. Rather than thinking about negative future scenarios I envision positive ones, which the mind does not want to do naturally for some reason. I guess the inherent goal of our ego is to make us think that we are alone in the world and we need to be constantly vigilant to survive. Not true at all and by living with this way of thinking you actually inhibit your ability to live and be happy.

I had a much better experience this week with the Subtle Mind exercise in comparison to last weeks Loving Kindness exercise. The Loving Kindness exercise to me was difficult to focus on and I thought some of the visualizations seemed like work rather than relaxing. The Subtle Mind exercise worked with two areas that I believe to be very important and that is breathing and the witnessing mind. Over the past several years I have worked on both of these areas and have seen a great improvement in my ability to maintain control of my emotions and thoughts but to also reduce stress and see the world through a higher level of consciousness. I have to admit that about halfway through the Subtle Mind exercise I fell asleep and woke up well after the exercise had completed so I did find it very relaxing. I'm not a person who takes naps during the day very often so for that to happen with this exercise is a testament to how well it worked for me. For overall effectiveness I give the Loving Kindness a score of 2 out of 10 and I give the Subtle Mind a score of 8 out of 10.

The connection of spiritual wellness to physical and mental wellness is very important and affects your overall holistic health. I was never very spiritual until several years ago when I got very ill, somewhat recovered, and then was sent overseas to Kuwait for a year in the military. During that year in Kuwait I went through a big change in my spiritual health and conducted extensive studies and research regarding my own belief system. The connection and growth of my spiritual health during that time aided in helping my physical and mental health return to an optimal state. I truly believe that if I had not focused on my spiritual health I would not have fully recovered from that illness and it could have had lasting permanent effects. The mind-body-spiritual connection is very powerful and needs to be taken care of for optimal holistic health.

Mental workouts

I participated in the "Loving Kindness" practice this week and had mixed reactions about the experience. I found that I really liked the imagery that the narrator suggests but the amount of time afterwards to hold the image was too long and I found myself getting distracted and thinking about other things. I did however enjoy the ocean waves sounds during the intervals and thought that the overall experience was relaxing. I would recommend this to someone if they were looking for a way to expand their consciousness and open their hearts. One of the parts of the exercise that I particularly liked was the part about visualizing your enemies and taking away their suffering. I think forgiveness is incredibly important in achieving optimal health. When you are holding anger or resentment towards someone and you can't find a way to forgive them you are only hurting yourself. They don't know all of the emotions that are running in your head about that situation and more than likely they don't care. You have to forgive in order to release that anger and breed healthy thoughts and feelings rather than harboring negative emotions.

Mental workouts are exercises that stimulate mental activity and engaging the brain in active ways beyond watching television. The largest controlled clinical trial regarding mental workouts was funded by the National Institute of Health and reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study found that mental exercises and cognitive training sessions improved the memory, concentration, and problem solving skills of healthy adults age 65 and older. The effects of these exercises were long lasting and erasing as much as 7 to 14 years of normal cognitive decline for at least 2 years. (NFNZ, 2014). There are several ways I can incorporate and implement mental workouts of my own to benefit from this knowledge. Social interactions have been proven to give positive results for healthy brain aging which means I need to continue to remain actively social. I start my new job at a school district working with many people so I think this new job will keep those social interactions very active. Continuing my education is another healthy brain exercise as it has been show that people who challenge their brain and actively gain knowledge are able to maintain healthy brain activity compared to lifestyles lacking in mental activity.

Neurological Foundation of New Zealand, (2014). Mental Workout. Retrieved from http://www.neurological.org.nz/brain-health/mental-workout

Overall Wellness

If I were to rate my overall well-being on a scale of 1-10 I would rate my physical well-being at an 8, spiritual well-being at a 9, and my psychological well-being at a 7. Physically I am very healthy however I do have a heart flutter condition that limits my ability to do intense exercise or work. I do eat relatively healthy each day and I drink lots of water so my diet is a positive aspect. I also take vitamin and herbal supplements which I feel attribute to my strong immune system. Since taking vitamins and herbal supplements over the past 3 years I have not gotten sick and I always feel positive and energetic. My goal physically is to establish a routine of activities that I am capable of doing without causing issues with my heart and then make that routine a part of my life. Distractions such as work, school, and other day to day activities can easily derail even the best daily routines so I want to develop a system that works around a busy schedule. I am in a good place spiritually and I have strong spiritual beliefs that keep my day to day attitude very positive. I would say that of the three aspects of health my spiritual aspect is the strongest. My goal for spiritual health is to take more time connecting in a peaceful setting. An exercise I have been working on lately is when I first wake up in the morning I keep my eyes closed and meditate for 3-5 minutes before I open my eyes. I think of peaceful things and also give thanks for all of the blessings I receive each day. This exercise has really made the start of my day so much better and positive. I rated my psychological health the lowest of the three because I still have some control issues in life that I have to work out. When things don't go the way I want them to go I have a bad habit of wanting to control it. That type of behavior can lead to stress and anxiety as most of the time we can't control everything that goes on in our lives. I have been working on present moment awareness to help with this and it has worked great. By staying focused on the present moment I don't put any negative energy into worrying about future "stuff".

I completed the relaxation exercise The Crime of the Century and found it to be an interesting method of meditation but not the most effective. I found the process of imagining windows on my body and then visualizing colored beams coming out of them to be a bit taxing and not very relaxing. It almost seemed like work by the time I was working on my 4th beam of light. In addition by using the colors of the rainbow I found it hard to think up what the colors should look like such as aqua-blue and emerald-green. I think the whole process could have been simpler to make it an effective relaxation technique. I'm pretty confident I wouldn't use that method again.

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog!
Hello,
My name is James and I currently live in North Idaho with my wife and 2 children. I retired from the Army in 2012 after 20 years of service and I am now a full time student at Kaplan University and I work at the local elementary school as a custodian in the evenings. I have really learned a lot over the past couple of years about taking care of my health, the mind-body connection, and how to achieve a sense of balance in my health and my life. My hobbies include snowboarding and hunting in the winter and motorcycles and fishing in the summer.

The experience I had with a Journey on Relaxation exercise turned out to be quite comical to me. I was getting ready to put on my headphones and listen to the exercise but decided to use the bathroom first. When I flushed I saw that the toilet was plugged so I knocked on my 12 year old daughter's bedroom door and asked if she clogged it. She told me she did clog the toilet so I told her I wanted her to get a plunger and unclog the toilet. She went downstairs and told my wife that she "couldn't" unclog a toilet and for whatever reason my wife decided to defend her decision and tell me that unclogging a toilet was something an adult should do and it would be demeaning to have a 12 year old girl do it. ....WHAT!...I grabbed the plunger from the bathroom and gave my almost teenage daughter a class on how to unclog a toilet and I will tell you that I was not pleased that I was the "bad guy" in this scenario for wanting my daughter to take responsibility for something that she messed up. I finally get back upstairs and close the bedroom door to listen to the Journey on Relaxation and I can feel my heart beating rapidly, my blood pressure was up, and all I can concentrate on is the fact that I became the bad guy because my daughter clogged the toilet. GRRRRRRR!!!! So I listened to the exercise and by the end of it I was nice and calm and had a good laugh about the fact that I was very upset because my daughter clogs toilets.