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.