Personal Application of the Psychological and Spiritual
Aspects of Healing
It is important for health and wellness
professionals to develop psychologically, physically, and spiritually. This is
because in order to teach others how to improve their habits, one must practice
what they teach in their own lives. People are not going to take advice on
weight loss from a health and wellness professional that is overweight. This
same concept applies to psychological and spiritual areas of health and
wellness. All three areas affect the body as a whole and the human body
performs at its best when all three areas are flourishing. Personally I know I
can continue to grow in all three areas. Currently, I am mostly concerned with
my physical health. I recently had a child, and my goal is to lose the baby
weight I gained. I am also not able to exercise for the amount of time I used
to be able to. Developing my physical health will help me obtain my goal.
Having goals are an essential asset
to fostering health and wellness. It allows you to work toward something and
have a sense of accomplishment upon reaching the goal. In order to create
realistic goals, one must analyze each area of health and wellness and
determine where improvements are needed. Assessing where I was at the beginning
of this course compared to now, I know I have made significant improvements in
many areas.
My spiritual health at the beginning of the course was my weakest point.
I now feel I have bumped that score up to around a 6 on a 1-10 scale with 1
being the worst. This is because I have worked on changing my mindset when it
comes to health and well being. I know I must practice exercising my mind and
reaching higher levels of consciousness in order to foster total wholeness.
Physical fitness is not my only goal anymore; I want to reach human
flourishing. According to Dacher, human
flourishing is defined as
“a profound, sustained, and self-cultivated health, happiness, and
wholeness. It is an innate and natural human potential that each and every one
of us can actualize. It is the noble aim and final fulfillment of human life.
Its attainment is the highest meaning of human life” (2006).
My spiritual health still needs
development but I have made improvements with practicing meditation and the
loving-kindness concept more in my daily life.
My
physical health, as I discussed earlier, needs enhancement. However, I am
moving in the right direction. I am trying my best to eat healthy and get
enough sleep. For a score I would rate myself at an 8 overall. My fitness and
weight need attention but overall I am physically healthy. My weight is gradually
decreasing as time passes and as I increase my physical activity.
Psychologically
I believe I am very healthy. I am able to control my emotions which helps me
not to overreact in different situations. Having a good stress level is part of
psychological health as well. My stress level has been balanced with enough
stress to challenge my mind but not too much to wear me out. I would rank my
score at a 8.5 in this area, since there is always room for improvement.
I
have set goals in each area as a way to foster greater integral health. I have
already mentioned my goals for my physical health with losing weight and
increasing my stamina. Also in this area, I have a goal to improve my
nutrition. Maintaining a healthy stress level is one of my goals for my
psychological health. Spiritually, my goal is to work at achieving higher
levels of consciousness.
In
order to reach my goals I can incorporate many small changes into my lifestyle.
For my physical health, I can plan meals ahead of time in order to ensure
healthy options. I can also make grocery lists before shopping. This will
ensure that I have all the needed items to make the meals I plan. I tend to go
shopping on a whim and then forget things. I can improve my fitness by
gradually increasing my time walking and then move to jogging and then
hopefully start running again.
Having
a good balance of stress will keep my psychological health in check.
Maintaining a healthy stress level is the challenge. My life is very chaotic
with school, a full time job, and two young boys. This can be very stressful at
times. Finding time to relax is one thing I can do to de-stress and wind down. Scheduling
relaxation time is something that I can work in to my daily schedule. My
commute to and from work would be a good time for reflection and relaxation. Also,
enlisting a support system can help me to voice my frustrations without
judgment. Having an outlet for stress is very important in not letting it get
out of control. My husband does this for me currently. However, I could do more
with this idea by not relying on just him for this.
To
reach my goal in the spiritual health realm I can do more with practicing
meditation. I have just recently started to incorporate meditation exercises
into my life. Continuing this practice and focusing more time on meditating can
help with this goal. I do believe in a higher power, and I can do more with
allowing to let things happen the way they may. There are many things that I
try to control that I cannot, and it causes frustration. Learning to let things
go that are out of my control will help foster my belief in the higher power.
Believing everything will work out the way it is meant to happen is something
that I need to do more.
I
think all of my goals are very obtaining with a little more focus on my
wellbeing. Assessing my progress in six months will help to keep me on track. I
can measure my progress based on my physical activity level. Have I been able
to start running on a regular basis yet? Am I still making lists and preparing
meals in advance? I can also measure success in terms of stress. Have I been
bogged down by too much stress? My spiritual health can be measured by how
often I am able to meditate. Maintaining my long term practices can be
accomplished by monitoring my progress and changing techniques as needed in
order to adapt to my changing lifestyle.
References
Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral health: the path to
human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc
Hi Kalicia,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your assessment and I have to commend you for working full time, having small children and going to school. I though I was busy. To me, it sounds like you will have to be creative. Moving your body and eating not only healthy foods, but healthy portions. As far as exercise goes, there are ways you can work around your life. YOur workout just may be different for a while. Get down on the floor and play with your kids chase them, make them chase you. If they are stroller age, take them for a brisk walk. You can do walking lunges behind the stroller. If it is cold out just bundle them up good. :) Household chores? Do them with vigor. Put on up beat music and vacuum. Do squats when getting clothes out of the laundry.
I think your shopping strategy is good. Lists work well. Again the key is healthy portions. My bad habit wehn my kids were little was to sample their food and then eat their left overs. Bad plan.
Kids get timeouts, why not you? Hand the kids over to your husband when you are stressed and take a time out.
If you don't have time to meditate, try this trick I just learned from the manager of our Mind Body Wellness center. When you get in your car or better when you arrive at work. sit in your car and take 5-10 slow deep breaths. Set your intention for the day with one word. this can be any such as, breathe, peace, happy, or anything you want. Then when you leave work before you start your car repeat the breath and intention setting. I have tried it a few times and it helps me especially after a rotten commute to work.
Anyway, I wish you luck endeavors. Pease and joy to you.
Sarajane