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?
Health and wellness professionals have an obligation to their clients and patients to set an example of positive health practices. This way, they can speak from experience and demonstrate to the people that they serve what integral health looks like and how it can benefit everyone's everyday life. For example, if I were to meet a nutritionist who was overweight I would not trust them to steer me in the right direction nutritionally since they clearly had some problems themselves in that area. I feel like I am already in a very good place physically since I run most days, work out with weights and eat very well nutritionally. However, I know that I have some work to do in the areas of spiritual and psychological health. As of right now I would not feel able to counsel someone in their spiritual life because my spiritual life is not terrible stable. I have some really good days but other days are hard and I do not necessarily know why they are hard or how I can fix that. Until I know that about myself there is no way that I would be able to help someone else through hard times. Psychologically I am in a better place than I used to be but I still have a lot of body image issues and I need to work on my mindset in reference to that before I can help someone else. I am also still working on being able to quiet my mind and focus on meditation. This class has been enormously helpful in this area but I still feel like I have a long way to go.
II Assessment:
How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?
Spiritually I would rate myself an average of 7. I have some really good days when I feel very close to God and feel like I can talk to him and he hears me. Other days though I feel lost and out of touch and it is very frustrating. Lately I have had more good days then bad days, something that I attribute at least partially to what we have been working on in this class. I'm hoping that once I switch my hours around at this job and am no longer working on Sunday mornings it will be easier to get to church. Since I grew up going to church every Sunday this has always been a very important part of my spiritual life and I know it will help me in my spiritual journey.
Physically I would rate myself between an 8 and a 9, though I'm sure my husband would say that I am a 10. I am always hard on myself about how I am physically but I think this is part of why I am able to push myself on my workouts and really feel like I have gotten a lot out of them. I think this is the area on which I need the least improvement and it is definitely the area that I enjoy working on the most.
Psychologically I would rate myself at an 8. I have begun having an easier time calming myself when I get stressed and keeping that calm for a longer period of time. Lately I have started to feel more in tune with my self and more able to appreciate and be aware of others as well. I know that this has made me a better employee, wife, mother and student and it is very exciting for me. However, although I have made progress I still feel like there is quite a lot of room for improvement. I know that this improvement can only come through practice and hard work on my part. It is particularly hard because this is something that I have never worked on before, but I know that I can do it.
III Goal development:
List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.
Physically I am currently in training for my first half marathon and I want to be able to run it in less than 2:30. This means that I not only need to work on my endurance but also on increasing my speed. The race is not until the end of April so I am confident that I will be able to do it.
Psychologically I want to become more aware of myself so that, when something goes wrong in my body I can immediately be aware of it and know what to do to make it better. This is something that I am working on and I know that it will be an asset to me physically as well.
Spiritually I want to become more consistent. I have some days that are really good and others that are not so good, but I can't yet pinpoint why some days are better than others. To really grow in this area I know that I need to be able to know why some days are better than others so I can make every day a good spiritual day.
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.
Physically I will run greater and greater distances and consciously work on running faster and longer. I want to make my body used to sustaining exercise for hours continuously so that I can be ready for the race. I also plan on upping my resistance and weight training so that I can increase my overall strength which I am thinking will also help to make me faster. These things will be easy to implement because I already have an exercise regimen in place, all this will take is increasing the intensity and length of my workouts.
Psychologically I plan on making more time for myself so that I can focus on myself instead of always only focusing on others. This can be really hard given that I am a mom and I like to take care of people but I know that it is important. I plan on taking time to continue the practices that I have learned in this class in visualization and quieting my mind to focus on the stillness instead of the frantic activity.
Spiritually it will be very helpful to me to return to church and get involved in that life again. I find that the support and encouragement offered by the church to be a great source of solace and positive reinforcement. I also plan on praying more out loud with my husband and children.
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?
Since I tend to be hard on myself and am therefore a poor judge of my own progress I intend on making my husband and sisters aware of my goals and how I intend to reach them. This way I can have several different viewpoints as to how well I am doing. I have never been one to enjoy or feel like I benefit from journaling, so I think that making myself accountable to other people and talking to them regularly about my progress will be better. In order to make sure that I maintain my goals I need to schedule meticulously in the beginning and really get myself into the habit of all of these new things that I have learned in this class. That way these practices will become a part of my life instead of something I need to think about.
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