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.
