I.                  Introduction:
There are many reasons why health and wellness professionals should develop psychological, spiritually, and physically however to begin Elliot Dacher said it best. In the text Integral Health he stated that he was given the opportunity to develop inner aspects of health and life (Dacher, 2006). He stated that without this education he would not have been able to go beyond his training (Dacher, 2006). To become the agents of a more expansive health we much begin with our own lives (Dacher, 2006). By doing this we must be willing to explore the inner aspects of our own life through psychological development (Dacher, 2006). Another reason why it is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychological, spiritually, and physically is because this is the most underdeveloped aspect of our life and of our current approaches to medicine (Dacher, 2006). We cannot teach others nor can we expect others to develop psychological, spiritually, and physically in their life.
     When looking at my own life I need to develop psychological, spiritually, and physically. Before taking this course I was unaware of just how much developing my life psychological, spiritually, and physically can help my entire body. For me I need to develop all three areas psychological, spiritually, and physically more into my life especially because I want to work in the health care field.  

                      II.                  Assessment:
When looking at my wellness broken down in the three domains rating them from one to ten (one being the lowest and ten being the highest) I would say that spiritually I am around a six or seven. For me my spiritualty is rooted in the church and my belief on god. I have never been one to meditate or something of that nature for spiritual health. Psychologically I definitely have some work to do I would rate myself at about a four or a five. I am a very nice person and always speak nicely to others however on the inside I think very negatively and this has a lot to do with my psychological wellness. Physically my rating is an eight. Physically I am fit and exercise on a regular basis which actually helps with my psychological wellness because it helps me have a more positive mind.    

                   III.                  Goal development:
Physical Wellness Goal:
I focus a lot on physical fitness such as working out and staying fit. However after reading the text and learning more about physical wellness I have learned that being physically fit is not the only part of physical wellness. The text states that if we were to focus half of the energy spent on physical fitness to mind/body activities we would see a considerable gain (Dacher, 2006). I focus a great deal on physical fitness and I need to as the book states spend less time climbing ropes and more time doing activities such as tai chi or yoga classes. My goal for physical wellness is to incorporate different activities like tai chi and yoga classes.
Psychological Wellness Goal:
The text states psychological Wellness as identifying destructive emotions and dysfunctional patterns and replacing them with a new set of healthy attitudes and behaviors. The goal for myself is to replace my negative thoughts and feelings with positive ones. A way in which I can do this is to continue to do the loving kindness exercise which will focus on good feelings towards others.
Spiritual Wellness Goal:
Spiritually I would rate myself fairly high because of my spirituality with god. However there are always ways to improve and I could improve my spiritual wellness by adding meditation into my life.

              IV.            Practices for personal health:
Implementing physical wellness goals:
To implement my physical wellness goals into my life I will find a tai chi and yoga class to take. I will take one yoga class and one tai chi class a week in the evenings. This will also help with my psychological wellness because it will relieve stress.
Implementing psychological wellness goals:
1. Listen to the Loving Kindness exercise once a week.
2. Read and participate in the Journey to the Center for Human Flourishing once a week.
The loving kindness exercise will help remove the negative feelings and thoughts I have towards others and will help send out wellness and good thoughts towards others. The Journey to the Center for Human Flourishing will teach me to turn my mind off from everything else when I am going through the exercise. This will help when I am having negative thoughts to be able to sit down and turn my mind off and calm my mind before I continue with my day.
Implementing spiritual wellness:
My spiritual goal was to implement meditation into my life. I plan to do this at least twice a week. There are a number of different types of meditation I can do and always keep it changing for my. Some of the different types of meditation are Vibrational Meditation, Movement Meditation, and Walking Meditation. The first type walking meditation is Walking Meditation which involves your focusing the mind while walking (Spiritual Now Editor, 10.2). It is not easy to practice this meditation type, but with practice it can prove to be really beneficial. As clear from the name itself, this type of meditation involves focusing on your own feet (Spiritual Now Editor, 10.2). When your mind wanders away from your steps, you need to refocus it again (Spiritual Now Editor, 10.2). The second type is movement meditation which is breathing and gentle flowing movements are combined to achieve the meditative state in this meditation type (Spiritual Now Editor, 10.2). Playing music or dancing is also allowed in this technique. The basic idea is to get focused in the movement (Spiritual Now Editor, 10.2). Finally the third type is vibrational meditation which involves repetition of a particular word or a sound that becomes the focal point of the meditation (Spiritual Now Editor, 10.2). The vibrations that are produced from the word or sound pass through your body (Spiritual Now Editor, 10.2). You have to do concentrate on nothing else, but to chant that word or produce the sound again and again. It is one of the most different among various meditation types (Spiritual Now Editor, 10.2).    

                      V.                  Commitment:
For my I like to make lists for everything. I think that with this writing it down will be a good way to keep track of the progress I am making or to make sure I am making progress. For my job I do skill sheets to keep track of how my children are doing on their goals and that could be a great way for me to keep track of it also. I could write down all the goals I want to meet and the ways in which I am going to meet them. Then each week I can write down if I was successful completing it or not. In order to continue working towards my goals I will change this up maybe the order in which I do them or the type of meditation I do that week. Also I will look at my progress and see what areas are working and what areas are not. By looking at what areas are not working I can change them and try something new that might work better. Keeping track of my progress or lack of progress is what I believe will help me not get tired of working towards my goals and will help me change goals that are not working so that I do not get discouraged.  

 

Reference:

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

·         Spiritual Now Editor. (10/2). Spiritual now. Retrieved from http://www.spiritualnow.com/articles/20/1/The-Different-Types-of-Meditation/Page1.html

Hi Everyone,
This class has been very informational for me and I have learned a lot about myself. The exercises that I feel have helped me the most are first of all the loving kindness exercise. I was able to connect with this exericse the most. It make me feel good to feel as though I was taking in someones pain and sending out healing to them. From time to time I can be very negative and judgemental towards other and I feel that continuing to do this exercise on a weekly basis with help me to have more compassion for others and help those in my life with the pain they are feeling. The second exercise that I feel will help me in my life is the subtle mind. I have a very hard time turning off my mind when trying to complete these exercises and this exercise helped me start to be able to do this. I also feel that once I am able to shut everything else out then I will be able to relax and relieve stress when I am feeling overwhelmed. I can get very stressed and upset sometimes and these exercise will be beneficial when dealing with the hard times.
-Ashley

Hi Everyone,
At the beginning of the exercise we were asked to visualize a person who we respect. I chose the former pastor of my church. I was able to see him and focus on him however as time went on and I was waiting for the next instruction I started to lose focus on him. Then we were told to think about his qualities and the goodness that they are. At this point I felt a happiness inside of me and a warming feeling. It made me feel great to think about him and all the greatness he is. Next we were suppose to imagine a beam of white light coming from his head into mine and have his good thoughts form into mine. At first I was able to create good thoughts like he would have done but as time when on I started to think of everything again good and bad. The part where we were suppose to have good things come from our mouths like he would was not something that I had to try very hard for because my problem is my thoughts and not what I say out loud. I never say negative things to others I keep them inside. At the point where our hearts were suppose to be transformed I felt warm again and began thinking of all the good things I could do like he would have done for others. I feel like I could continue to practice these steps by doing this exercise at least once a week. Also remember the steps throughout the week and continue to go through them even when I am not listening to it. The saying "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" is saying that if one has not experienced something than they themselves cannot give advice and help a person through the issue. This can apply a lot those who are in the health and wellness field because if they remember that if they have not experienced what the patient is going through they should not judge and they should have an opened mind to what the patient is saying and what they choose to do. I think that those working in the health field do have a responsibility to the clients to be develop their health psychologically, physically, and spiritually. This is because once they have obtained this they would be better able to help their patients go through the steps of creating a life that creates great health. I feel as though I have started implementing health and wellness into my life since taking this class by trying to train my mind to create a positive and healthy one which will in turn create a healthy body.

Good Evening Everyone,
Just when I think the exercises for the blog are going to get easier they just get harder for me. In weeks before I thought it was hard to listen to someone tell me what to do but then I tried to read the exercise and then do it and it was even harder for me. For the first exercise I got into a comfortable place and began to repeat the sayings. I repeated "May all the individuals gain freedom from suffering". I repeated this numerous times and did begin to feel happier myself as if saying it for everyone included me. When I was finished with this say I had to stop and look back at the text for the next saying which pulled me out of the place of peace that I was in. This happened each time I moved on to the next saying. Because of this I found it hard to get back to a place of calmness each time and began to loose interest. This week I have found that it is easier for me to get to a place of calmness where I'm not constantly thinking of something else. However with this exercise I was able to get to a quiet place but when I began the exercise which was to ask myself " What aspect of my life is the source of difficulty and suffering. Just by asking myself that question my mind flooded with everything going on this week, this month, this year, everything I started thinking about. By this point I had to stop and go back to the text and read it again I was impossible for me to get past this point. Just when I thought it was getting easier it got harder for me. This week I discovered that I still have more work that I need to do in order to completely turn off my mind during the exercises. I also need to focus on letting go of the negative aspects of my past and everyday life in order to live a happier and healthier one. I feel as though in order to release these aspects I need to acknowledge each of them and fully release them from my life.
-Ashley

Hi Everyone,
This week and last week were very beneficial however last week was easier for me but this week was more needed. I have said from the beginning that focusing was my biggest problem. Last week I was able to connect and think about someone I cared deeply for as well as someone who is suffering. I was also able to feel pain as if it was there's. This week is very needed for me and it was also very difficult for me. I was able to focus on my breathing I concentrated on my chest rising and falling and when she told us to look at the images coming into our mind I was able to do that but still focus mostly on my breathing. The hard part for me was when she said to stop concentrating on your breathing as much and acknowledge your thoughts but you will not be consumed by them. At this point it was difficult for me to look at them but then to stop thinking about them . I instantly became consumed by them and kept thinking about everything going on. This is an exercise that I think I need to do everyday. For me there is one big difference between spiritual wellness and physical and mental wellness. The difference for me is that spiritual wellness comes from an outside source whereas physical and mental wellness comes from within. Also with physical and mental wellness there are ways to train your mind which is different also from spiritual wellness. For me I am training my mind to shut out my thoughts when I am going through the exercises.
-Ashley

Good Morning everyone,
While listening to this weeks exercise I was able to connect to it much more than I have during the previous weeks. At the beginning when it said to think about a loved I thought about my boyfriend. I was instantly filled with warmth and happiness. as it went on further and we were told to think about a person we love who is hurting I thought about my father. I took in his pain and suffering and sent out healing and happiness. When I brought in his pain I could really feel it however when I sent out happiness and healing it was like I healed myself. I felt the same way when we were told to do it for strangers. For my even though my father may not feel any different I was able to take in his pain and send out healing and felt healing within myself and it made me feel as though he will get through it and on the other side feel the way I did. I would recommend this to others it very much helped me and I have no doubt that it would help many other people. The concept of the mental workout is to do something daily to workout your mind and train it to be a certain way. The research shows that the outcomes of this is that one will have a source of peach and calming, ease and delight, and creativity and wisdom. I think that one of the ways I could implement this in my life is to continue to use the recording we heard this week. As well as doing the second practice in the book which is the subtle mind. By doing this we train our mind accessing its deeper levels and exploring the essential nature of mind and experience. This weeks was very encouraging to me and makes me want to explore it more.
-Ashley

Unit three

Hi Everyone,
While thinking about this weeks blog post I was thinking about my physical health and overall I would rate this at being good the best of the three being at probably a 9. This is because I am overall healthy and exercise regularly to stay in shape. My spiritual well being is lower probably at a five I would consider myself a some what spiritual person however I could improve on it. My psychological well-being is probably a 6 I try to stay positive with my thinking and try to keep an opened mind however sometimes it is harder to do then other times. A goal for my physical health could be to eat more healthy, my spiritual goal would be to try and meditate more, and for my psychological health would be to train my mind to be more positive more of the time. I could try to eat one thing a day that is more healthy then move to more and more. Then for the meditation it would be just to try and incorporate meditation into my life as well as incorporating training my brain to be more positive on a daily basis. After listening to the link I realized like before that it was very difficult for me. I was unable to stop thinking about everything else from what I still needed to get finished to day to what I was going to make for dinner I just was not able to shut my mind off. I also had a hard time imagining all the images the man was telling us to. It could have been because I was thinking about other things. The one thing that I was really able to imagine was the red color and feeling grounded maybe it was because it was at the beginning of the recording and I was not thinking of other things yet. I think that I need to do these exercises more often in order to be able to do them better.
-Ashley