This Chapter Ends and A New One Begins

As I look back on my personal assessment through this course, I can positively save that my assessment of my psychological, physical and spiritual wellbeing for the most part has improved. There are some areas that I need to continue to work on to get to my goals.  I had rated my physical wellness as a 5, I would say it is now a 6. I have been working out a little bit, so I am feeling better physically and can say it has improved since I have gotten back on my elliptical lately.  I can also say that my spiritual wellbeing has improved. I rated it in the beginning as a 4 because I had lost touch with the church and god.  I would say it’s a 5 now. I have talked to my counselor (pastor) about it and he has agreed to help me with this.  I do pray sometimes and this is why I feel that I have improved spiritually.  When it comes to my psychological wellbeing I must admit that it has been a personal struggle. I rated it as a 6 and I believe that it is now a 7.  This class has taught me so much about my mind and how to control it using meditation techniques. I feel like I have grown in this area and I have reconnect with family and friends. I didn’t join Zumba, but I have been getting out more. I know forgiving was one of my goals, but I am not there yet and I doubt it will be anytime soon, but the fact that I am trying says a lot about me.

This course has changed my life forever.  It has given me the tools that I can use throughout my life to help me through some tough times. I got to share and experience the lives of many wonderful people, who gave me great advice and words of wisdom.  I think that the positive comments from my fellow classmates were very rewarding and just know that they all have been there at least once in their own lives helps me move on. I think the most difficult thing for me was truly opening up to everyone and letting them into my crazy life.  Also believing that this course would help me was difficult for me to believe at first, but you were right Mr. Maule, I am now a believer. I know now that I can use the techniques learned in this class to better assist my patients, by showing them the exercises that I have use to improve my life to help them improve theirs.

This has been an awesome experience and class.  I have met so many wonderful people and I wish everyone the best in their careers and in their lives.

Fostered Growth

Introduction:

It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically because if they have not develop these things in their lives, than they should not be able to help you or give you advise if they haven’t worked out their own demons.  We trust the professionals who help us and guides us through live, so it is important that they have experienced the same sort of things so they can better help us understand how to deal with it in our lives.  Once they have developed these things themselves, then they can truly guide us on the right path.  I think at this point in my life I have come a long way psychologically, spiritually, and physically.  I am a stronger woman now than I was ten years ago.  I have made it through two abusive marriages and I am lucky to be here to talk about it.  I think the area I need to develop more on to achieve my goals in life would be my psychologically being.  I cannot let the pass keep haunting my future and for me to be truly happy in my life, I really need to forgive so I can heal my spirit.

Assessment:

In assessing my overall health in spiritually, physically, and psychologically, I will rate each category using the poor, fair, good, very good, and excellent scale.                      

    Spiritually, I would rate mine as fair.  I chose fair because I have lost touch with god, and I no long go to church.  Actually I have not been to church in years.  I do have faith and I do believe, but I think I can use some improving in this area.               

  Physically, I would have to rate myself as good think my overall health is good, I have good days and bad days, but I am healthy.  I do have Hemochromatosis and Lupus, so everyday can be a struggle, but as of right now I am well and in remission, so everything is good.  

Psychologically, I think this is where I need the most improvement in my life so I will rate mine as poor. Mymind is kind of a mess, I suffer off and on from depression, anger issues, and have trouble forgiving people who have hurt me and my family members.  This is the reason why I have chosen poor, and this is the area that I will focus on improving the most.                                                                                                                                                    Goal Development:

One physical goal I have for myself would be to start exercising on a regular basis.  I am the most out of shape skinny person you will ever meet.  As I get older I notice that certain areas are not as tight as they use to be, ok they were never really that tight to begin with, but now I’m really starting to notice a change.  Spiritually, I can make it a goal of mine to get back in touch with my spiritual self.  I can start by going back to church or asking my counselor, who is a pastor, to help me by adding some spiritually into our sessions.  I grew up catholic, but there were a lot of things that I disagreed with, so that is one of the reasons why I stopped going.  I can try a different type of religious group, such as Baptist or even Buddhism.  A goal for my Psychological self would be forgiveness.  I have a lot of ex’s, friends, and family members that I know I need to forgive.  This is an area that I have been working on for some time now, and it is the hardest thing for me to achieve.  So I will differently make this one of my top goals.  

Practices for personal health:

Strategies that I could use to help me foster growth in my physical health would be more exercise and eating better.  I have an elliptical, so I can start by using it at least four times a week like I use to, or maybe start taking long walks with my husband.  He could stand to use a little more exercise in his life also.  I could help us both by not baking anymore cakes and pies, oh wait the holidays are coming, so maybe I can bake less goodies than usual.  I can incorporate more vegetables and less meat into my diet so I can improve my overall physical health.

Spiritually, the first strategy that comes to mind to foster growth for me would be meditation.  This is something that I never believed in and until recently, I thought it was a joke. This class has tough me that it can work and does.  I will try and incorporate meditation into my daily routine to help relieve stress at the end of my work day.  I have used the exercises from class to help me get through some difficult days and I will continue to do so throughout my life. Another thing that I can use is prayer; I have learned that the power of prayer does work.  I think by adding prayer back into my life that it will help foster my spiritually and help me heal some old wounds.

Psychologically I need a lot of help.  The first thing I can do and have been trying to do is learn to forgive.  This is the only way that I am going to flourish in this area.  I could start by telling my first husband that I forgive him for trying to kill my son and I, but without outside help I would be lying.  I will continue to work on this so I can foster growth in this area.  Another thing that I can do to boost my psychological being is to use the subtle mind exercise that I have learned in class to help calm and free my mind.  This exercise helps clear my mind and helps me stay focused on my mental wellbeing.        

Commitment:

I know that in six month I will hopefully have reach most of my goals.  I think by keeping a calendar of events with the days I plan to exercise and meditate, will help me to stay on track.  I think if I can visually see the calendar and plan out the day and time it will help keep me focused.  I think if I give myself some kind of reward, like buying a new pair of shoes, or planning a trip if I reach my goals, will help keep me motivated.  I think that my psychological goal will be harder to achieve in six months.  I think I could keep a journal and wright all my thoughts and feelings down about my experiences.  I think this will help me towards my goal of forgiveness, I know I can forgive, but it is going to take more than six months.  I also think that continuing my counseling sessions will help me achieve my goals faster than doing it on my own.   

My Most Beneficial Exercises

I think that the exercise from Aesclepius and the subtle mind were the most beneficial to me. I like the subtle mind because this exercise had a visual component and it helped me stay focused on the exercise itself. I’m the type of person that needs something to focus on along with my breathing to keep my mind from wondering to my hectic life. I could use this exercise to help me stay focused on improving my life, by using it to help reduce my stress and tension after a long day at work or a stressful day at home. By doing so it will help me not to overreact to a stressful situation and reduce the likeliness that I will snap on someone who continues to make me angry. So far it has worked, but I will admit that last week I was willing to throw it all out the window to curse someone out, but I didn’t and that was when I realized that it does work and that I can do this.

I really enjoyed the Aesclepius exercise because it helped me get in touch with my friend Lynette. I have decided that I could also use this exercise to help me when I’m missing my family. I get lonely a lot and it can help me focus on the good times I have spent with them instead of constantly missing them and wanting to move there to be with them, which in not feasible right now. When I miss my sisters or my parents, I can focus on them and bring them into my heart and make it feel like they’re here with me, which can help me when I’m missing them. I can also use these exercises to help remind me why I’m still here and to try to help me focus on the good things in my life at this point, which is the only reason I’m still here, because the things here are more important to me right now than my long lost family. I know that my family will always be there for me and that’s why I have to stay here, to be there for my own family.

Aesclepius

This week’s exercise was meeting Aesclepius and in this exercise I was to think about a loved one living or dead. I thought about my friend and co-worker Lynette who was killed in a car accident 2 years ago. When I visualized the light coming from her throat I visualized it as her trying to reach out to me and tell me everything’s is alright.  When I visualized the light coming from her heart to mine it made me miss her even more and it actually brought tears to my eyes. When the light traveled down my body it made me feel like she was still with me and it made me remember the last time we went camping together and the last day at work before she died. It also made my heart smile because I knew she was in a better place and that she will always be with me in my heart. I can continue to us this practice in my life when work gets so bad and I start to miss her.

“One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself.” What does this statement mean to me and how can I apply it to my life through, health and wellness and for my patients? I think this applies to doctors who try to tell you to lose weight or go on a diet when they are overweight themselves. That’s like me telling my patients to floss, or to quit smoking if I don’t do these things myself. I think that psychologically, physically and spiritually you can’t expect someone to follow your advice and instructions if you haven’t gone there or help yourself in these aspects of you own life.

Exercise and Assessment

The universal exercise wanted us to close our eyes and rest our minds. After we were calm we were to repeat this phrase for ten minutes:

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.                            

It is used to expand our hearts and cure our anger and hatred. This exercise came in handy today because I had a bad day at work. When I left today I was so angry I couldn’t see straight. It actually helped calmed me down and helped me realize that I can’t change what happens at work, but I can change how I react.                                                                                                                       

The assessment process is a tool used to transform our life and our health. It uses the four aspects of the human experience, psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal and worldly. I have chosen the interpersonal aspect of my life to work on right now. I really need to work on all of them, but right now I feel that I need to work on this one. It focuses on interpersonal relationships with family and community. Since I don’t live close to any of my family I feel isolated and lonely. My son just moved out with his girlfriend and I’m not the number one women in his life any more. My life always revolved around him and now that he’s gone I feel lost and lonelier than ever and it just makes me miss my family more. I’ve isolated myself from my husband, my friends, and my community and I need to start getting more involved.  I need to reconnect with my friends and find a friggen hobby.

 

 

Love, Kindness and My Subtle Mind

The loving kindness exercise was trying to get us to fill our hearts with kindness and love. It wanted us to forgive our enemies and to let suffering dissolve in our hearts. This exercise taught us how to welcome our feelings and to change them into love and kindness. It showed me that if I can’t love myself than I can’t love anyone else and forgiveness is the best way to live a healthier life. I had a hard time concentration through this exercise because there was too much time between prompts so I found myself wondering in and out of thoughts that didn’t pertain to the exercise. The subtle mind exercise was another story, it kept my attention and I felt like I was being sucked into the screen by the hypnotic images on the screen. This exercise was to get you focused on stabilizing and keeping the mind still and focused on one thing. This did work for because I focused on the images while breathing and following the sounds of her voice. I will use this again when I need to focus and it will help me relax.  I think I will use the visual part of it with the loving kindness exercise to see if it helps me work through some of my issues.

Spiritual wellness involves possessing a set of guiding beliefs, principles, or values that help give direction to one's life. It encompasses a high level of faith, hope, and commitment to your individual beliefs that provide a sense of meaning and purpose. Physical wellness encompasses a variety of healthy behaviors such as exercising and eating healthy. Our mental wellness, or our minds, needs to be continually inspired and exercised just as our bodies do. People who possess a high level of intellectual wellness have an active mind and continue to learn.  Spiritual wellness, mental wellness and physical wellness all go hand in hand and without one it’s hard to have the other. When a person has all three then they can achieve true happiness, wellness and wholeness. I do have many beliefs in my life and I have some issues with physical wellness, but my mental wellness falls very short of where it needs to be. With continued therapy and growth, I can one day live to be happy, whole, and well.

Thanks

My "Mental Workout."

Hi fellow bloggers, 

I have to be honest; I had a hard time trying to concentrate on this exercise.  I found my mind wondering a lot more this time.  I’m sure it has to do with the drama in my life this week.  Also getting drunk at the office party last night isn’t helping either. I do think if I can try it again later it could be beneficial to me. I have a few enemies that came to mind, but there is one that is so far from being forgiven that when I pictured him in my mind while listening to the calming sound of the beach, I just calmly imagined myself burring him in the sand, lol.  I think that the beachy sound between prompts was long, which gave me more time to unrelax and visually bury ex-husbands. This is why I need to try again, because I know I can’t keep this anger and one day I will have to dig him up, lol.  I would recommend it to others if they can completely relax and I will try it again in the future.

I can obviously use some “mental workouts” right now to help heal my pain so I can move on.  A mental workout helps the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain. A mental workout is just as important as a physical one.  If our mind is out of shape we will suffer from illness and pain, which in turn slows the healing process, just as in physical exercise. We can use this process to train our minds to become free of the pain we feel. Life happens and it is up to our mind to decide how we will handle it and by training our mind to accept what we can’t change we can live better lives. This is something I need to implement in my life and will try to achieve.

My Reflections 1-10 and The Crime of the Century

 Hi Everyone, if I had to base my reflections on a scale of 1-10, I would have to say that my physical wellbeing would be a 5.  I say this because I feel like I’m out of shape and I have some health problems, stress and anxiety issues that make me feel sick often.  My goal would be to try and reduce my stress and anxiety levels because I know this will help with some of my of my health issues. I can implement a walk or ride my bike to help brush of some of the stress from my day.

  As for my spiritual well-being I would have to say it is about a 4. I don’t go to church anymore or pray, I do believe in god, but I really haven’t gotten in touch with my spiritual being.  My goal will be to let my therapist, who is also a pastor, help me get in touch with my spirituality.  He doesn’t talk to me about god or implement it into therapy because he knows I’m no longer a practicing catholic. I can try to attend church again, because this could help me with some of my other issues and I will definitely try to start praying again.

I will give myself a 6 on the psychological aspect.  For the past year or so I have pulled myself away from my friends and I don’t live near my family (17 hours away) which has contributed to my depression.  I have suffered off and on from depression over the years and I find myself not wanting to hang out with my friends anyone. Work and school also has contributed to me becoming a hermit.  My goal will be to reconnect with my friends and try to spend more time with them, at least once a week or spend more time talking to them on the phone. I could join zumba with my friends, my best friend runs it and I always have an excuse why I can’t do it. That is the activity I will try and do to implement some psychological into my life.

The crime of the century was very relaxing, it was a bit long and I did find myself wondering.  I did continue to get myself back on track, I think just the alone time, breathing and focusing on the colors protruding out of my body gave me a sense of relaxation. Than I thought if anyone could see how I was visualizing all the colors shooting out of my body they would think that I was out of my mind.  Overall, it did get me to relax even if it was just for a little while.

Journey on Relaxation

When I listened to this exercise I was surprised that the power of suggestion really did work.  Who knew that just by thinking about your blood flow, that you could move it to different areas of your body and it could be a technique to relax you.  His monotone voice and the music he used really calmed me. I need to use this technique before I take a test because I have horrible test anxiety.  I never realized that just by suggesting something and thinking about it over and over again that you could relax. I have used just the breathing technique to calm myself down, but using it with the power of suggestion was actually pretty cool, I will be definitely using this method.

Welcome and Reflection Statement

I would like to welcome everyone to my blog.  I am a dental hygienist and good oral health is my overall goal.  I hope to one day teach underprivileged communities the importance of good oral hygiene.  I have been in the dental field for 13 years now.  I started as an assistant and went back to school to become a hygienist after 7 years of assisting.  I am new to health and wellness, but I might like to incorporate this type of wellness into my practice.  I am skeptical, but I know you all will help convince me that the mind, body, and spirit can help my patients and even me.  I’m hoping that this type of health and wellness will convince my patients to start floss.  My life has been filled with very rocky roads and I’m trying to overcome all the pain in my life, so I can move on and be happy in life and in my marriage.

This is my first blog ,so I really don't know what I'm doing.