Unit 9

I.                    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 crucial for professionals in the health and wellness field to incorporate integral health practices into their own lives before offering treatment to others. The reason for this is because it will help these professionals offer more expansive health care to each and every patient. A professional will accomplish a better and clear perspective in their inner body, mind and spirit.

Professionals implement integral health in to their own lives; they “will come to know that the alleviation of suffering and the ascent to human flourishing are more than ideas.” These professionals will want to end needless suffering to the best of their ability and therefore, “the soul of medicine returns.” (Pg167)

Dacher, E.S. (1998) Integral Health, the path to human flourishing.

To achieve my goals the area that I need to develop is the spirituality because I can focus the body to work with the mind but, to be whole I must be in full contact with my spirituality body. The goals that I have given thought to be achieving a better and healthier state of body/mind so I can be aware and opened minded towards others. However, I must let go the past to live the present, and prepare for the future.

II.                  Assessment:

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

My health in each domain has not yet being assessed because; I need to practice all the stages to develop a path to flourish my life. However, I cannot give you a profound score in spiritually, physical, and psychologically stages of my life. In a scale from 1 to 10 I would probably give me a 5, 6 because, like many people out in the world I would have to gain control of my life to accomplish my goal. Prepare and be aware of the next step in it so I can focus my mind to do what it does best and it is analyze the outcome and income coming towards it.  

III.   Goal development:

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

My goal:

Physical: I have learned to eat better and exercise more. My goal was to become more fit and by doing this I have gain more energy.

Psychological: My goal is to be more opened minded. In this I have learned to focus and analyze every point in life before making a decision or taking action.

Spiritual: My goal is to be whole a better healthier and more completive person. Being full in my spiritual level I have accomplished my success in this B.A. course.

IV.   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.

The loving Kindness and subtle mind are the practices that have help me foster growth in each and every domain Physical, Psychological, and Spiritual. Loving kindness in my physical domain has helped me by loving myself; I learned to love my physical body. Loving kindness also develop love for who I am not who I want to be. Psychological domain it has controlled my thoughts and also my stress level. Loving Kindness practice on the psychological domain has increase how I think and judge my state of mind in a healthier and stable stage. Spiritual domain the practice loving kindness help me develop a point in my spirituality that I have been searching for , it makes me love everything good or bad accepted and learn from it.  My spiritual is free it travels and searches the world from one point to the other and it bring knowledge to my other domains.

We practice opening our hearts with kindness, care, patience, and generosity toward their needs. Loving-kindness can be expressed in our thoughts, prayers, and advice or through physical assistance and generosity that connect heart-to-heart. Loving-kindness includes sensitivity and openness to others and their differences, a warm heart, and the qualities of respect, fairness, honesty, patience, and acceptance. If we look very carefully, we may notice that these were always our natural intentions toward others before self-concern took center stage. Like clouds moving across a clear sky, our loving-kindness is all too often obscured by our calculating mind that assesses the cost to ourselves. Then our kindness, generosity, and care are reconsidered and modified to suit our ego needs. Our open heart is compromised by the thinking mind.  

 The subtle mind practice in my physical domain has helped me increase my breathing techniques. Physical domain the subtle mind help me controlled my breathing and it increases the oxygen going to my muscle so it can expand accurately to be healthier. The Subtle mind in my psychological domain has helped develop a strategy to increase my thought and focus all that energy to be a more concentrated being. Psychological domain is also a step in the process of analyzing what needs to be address and fix in my thoughts. Spiritual domain the subtle mind has train my body/mind to work together and help the spirit gain a portion of a healthier being. The subtle mind in my spiritual domain is the food and the nourishment needed to increase every other domain. Exercising, focusing and feeling the love for everything around us is the guide to a healthier and better life.

With practice, we learn how to stop the mind’s tendency to cling to random movements. Instead of grasping and ruminating, we learn to impartially observe and witness the natural rising and falling of thoughts, feelings, and images.

References:

Elliott S. Dacher, M. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach: Basic Health Publication.

V.  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?

In the next six months the progress that I intend to achieve is be a success in my school I want to accomplish my B.A. degree. I have learned through these practices in this course are helping me acknowledge the strength I have in me and also love who I am. I made a commitment with my life to be better and become a guide for my children and also my fellow peers. The strength come within and it is adapted to everyday we progress our goal in life.

Unit 8

1.       Review the exercises and practice sessions you have completed in this course. (Loving Kindness, Subtle mind, Visualization, meditation etc.) Choose two practices that you have determined to be most beneficial. How can you implement these practices in your personal life to foster “mental fitness”? Provide specific examples.

The Loving Kindness practice is one that I choose because, According to ( Dacher, Pg.68) Resting comfortably in your natural state of peace and ease, bring to mind an individual, someone close to you, who you hold with great love and tenderness. Allow these loving feelings to expand within your heart as if a faucet of loving-kindness were being fully turned on. Take a few moments to fully experience these feelings. With these feelings filling your heart, begin to turn them toward yourself. Start with your body and its sensations, pleasant and unpleasant. Give each of them your love, your kindness, and a sense of ease, spaciousness, and care. You want to loosen any grasping or attachment to your sensations. Experiencing this practice makes me love first my personal being and then forgive and love my fellow companion and people that surrounds me every day. The second practice is a subtle mind (Dacher, pg. 75) we begin with a simple yet profound ancient practice related to the breath. We use the breath for two reasons. First, there is a direct relationship between the breath and the mind. You will notice early in practice that as your breathing becomes more easy and rhythmic, your mind will follow. Peaceful breathing pattern leads to a peaceful mind. Still the breath and you still the mind. Second, the breath is always with us so we can work with it even in the midst of a meeting. Using the breath, we will learn how to tame and stabilize the mind by developing a witnessing consciousness. As witnessing replaces grasping and clinging, we progressively experience calm-abiding, and calm-abiding gradually evolves into unity consciousness. Subtle mind practice help me focus and relax my breathing it control the flow of oxygen going into my body and exhaling the negative that has make me discomfort .

Reference: Elliott S. Dacher, M. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach: Basic Health Publication.

 

Unit 7

Complete the Meeting Aesclepius mp3 (located in the Doc Sharing area). Describe your meditative practices for the week and discuss the experience. Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness. How can you continue to apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness? 

 

 Meditation has fostered both my psychological and spiritual wellness by helping me find an inner and calmer being in within my deeper thoughts. This practice has made me a better opened minded person; I can observe something instead of just looking at it. I can apply this on an everyday basis because; it can make me feel greater and more fulfill of life.

Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" (p.477). How does this apply to the health and wellness professional? Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not? How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?  

The saying “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” means that a person cannot help you on a journey if that person has not yet done the journey itself. In other words how can a person teach you if he/she has not yet learn? Yes, I have an obligation to develop my health psychological, physical and spiritual being before helping any client. Implementing psychological and spiritual growth in my personal life is a practice that I have been developing to improve, my wholeness within all the guide of the inner person or spiritual being.

Unit 6

The universal Loving- Kindness exercise is an exercise that make a person to become self concern of their body and mind needs and qualities to achieve full wholeness. In my opinion it's like when you are angry and need to calm down count from ten to one while taking deep breath in a relaxation stage.

The integral Assessment process is when a person has internal conformation of consciousness which he/ she are always asking what's next or what is the following step?  I feel it is a process where the mind is always evaluating the body and knowledge that it has become whole. For an example , if a person buys a used car he/ she will have doubt and at that point question would be ask until the feeling of comfort.

While in the process, I learned that for myself: in order for me to become whole I have a lots of deep seeking within my personal life. I have become more focus on my internal being than my outer because I understand that every area of life a person has to evaluate their interior before becoming whole.

To achieve greater and faster wellness I decide to meditate and relieve all the stress so I can focus on the area that is in conflict or maybe a problem.  The process will guide me to acknowledge my  mind over body to heal the interior before any conflict can result in the outer being. For example, if I can concentrate on a place that I was happy and fulfill with joy, my mind will travel and be relax with the view of the atmosphere, I will become one with my mind.

Unit 5

Loving Kindness exercise it open our heart to others and gradually diminishes self , centering's priming our mind for further development .

Subtle mind exercise it opens our mind and reveals a penetrating wisdom that knows the truth of our life and of existence.

Loving Kindness exercise help me open to a person and forgive a hard experience. Using this exercise it was hard because at first I did not open up to this practice.

Subtle Mind exercise help me to be opened minded and think to open my thought, wisdom and knowledge to help other. Using this exercise was different and frustrating because I wasn't clear of all negative thoughts.

Spiritual wellness is to connect to mental and physical wellness by becoming whole. First, mental wellness because to have a healthy mind its need to be clear. Second, the physical wellness because a healthy body needs a healthy mind to concentrate on its physical workout. Spiritual wellness is the combination  of the mind and body to make a person finds its wholeness, in other word, to be complete.

Reference:

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications.