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