As health and wellness professionals, we have an obligation to develop the psychological, spiritual, and physical aspects of our life. It is important for us to practice what we preach. We might have some knowledge and background about what we hope to teach, but if we have not spent the time experiencing it and living it, how effective or beneficial would our advice be. Before we help others, we need to begin to develop our lives in all three aspects. This can help us better relate to our patient’s trials and tribulations and develop a stronger understanding of what they need to succeed. According to Dacher (2006), “to become the agents of a more expansive health, we must begin with our own life. This is not only book learning. It is hands-on learning. This means that we must be willing to explore the inner aspects of our own life through psychological development and contemplative practice”. By taking time each day to do things to manage our stress, exercise, or help others we can make strides in improving our own growth. I need to develop in all three aspects to achieve the goals for myself. All three aspects need considerable work before I can achieve integral health. The psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, and worldly aspects of my life need to develop more to achieve my goals as well.
I have assessed my health in each aspect of my life (physical, psychological, spiritual) on a scale of 1 to 10. Earlier this term I rated the physical aspect of my life at 6.5, the psychological aspect of my life a 7.5, and the spiritual aspect of my life an 8. Now I would rate my physical well-being a 5 given some recent health issues I have encountered. These health issues have not allowed me to exercise, which takes a toll on me because exercise is something I love to do. Exercise is probably my greatest stress reliever and not being able to exercise can have a negative effect on me, both mentally and physically. I would rate my current psychological well-being at 7.5 still. This course has helped me find ways to keep my psychological state where it is, given the health issues I am currently dealing with. I still get frustrated and angry at times, but I find that the practices I have learned in this course to be beneficial. The Subtle Mind exercise is one of the practices that help me relieve some stress when I am unable to exercise. I find that I have a more positive mindset and am hoping more for the best of things. I used to be more of a pessimistic person and practicing the Subtle Mind exercise has helped me create a more positive outlook on things. I would rate my current spiritual well-being at an eight too. I have continued what I have been doing each day to keep my spiritual well-being good. I do say a prayer each day and I also get a daily spiritual reading in my email which helps provide some guidance in my life.
One goal I have for the physical aspect of my life is just to get back into good enough condition to start exercising again. Once my health gets back into good enough condition to exercise again, I hope to start training for the Birkebeiner. The Birkebeiner is a cross-country ski event on February 26 that covers different distances. I have never participated in this event before and would enjoy the challenge. Hopefully I can get my health issues resolved so I can have enough time to train for this event.
A goal I have for the psychological aspect of my life is to become a more relaxed and less stressed individual. This course has already helped me quite a bit in this aspect. I have noticed that since I have started this course I tend to not get as worked up about little things. I still do get easily frustrated with things at times and hope to make improvements with this. After I read the book, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, which is a book that discusses the effects stress has on the body and how it contributes to so many things in our lives, I realized I need to get my stress under control. Stress really doesn’t do anything good for our body unless we are getting ready run away from a robber or something physical like that (fight or flight response). Therefore, I need to take the appropriate steps to create a sense of calm about me and my life.
A goal I have for the spiritual aspect of my life is to do more things to help others. Whether I volunteer, or take part of something to help others, I want to take some of the focus off of myself and focus on helping others. I think this will help broaden the spiritual aspect of my life. I feel pretty good about other aspects of my spiritual life, and I think doing things to help others will provide me with a new sense of spiritual well-being.
There are a few different strategies I can use to foster growth in the physical aspect of my life. First, I need to be persistent my doctors to try and find the best solutions to help deal with my health issues. I am also planning to see a holistic doctor to see if she can provide me with alternative solutions to what my traditional doctors have come up with. Another strategy I can use, once my health issues are resolved, is to create a workout for myself to help me train for the Birkebeiner. This will consist of a lot of cardiovascular exercise. I hope to do some kind of aerobic exercise six days a week, whether it includes running, biking, or skiing once snow falls. Continuing my weightlifting regimen three or four days a week once I get healthy will help provide me with extra stress relief that is beneficial. All of these can help me improve my physical well-being.
One thing I hope to start doing to foster growth in the psychological aspect of my life is transcendental meditation. I have read a lot about the benefits of transcendental meditation and think that it would help me achieve my goal of becoming more relaxed and less stressed. I plan to ask my holistic doctor when I see her about it and where I can learn how to do it. I have also found a website that provides a telephone number I can call to get information about attending events where I can learn how to do transcendental meditation. Once I talk to my holistic doctor about it, all I have to do is call and get started. Another thing I plan to do to improve my psychological well-being is to use my time management skills to help create a schedule of things I need to do so I don’t get as stressed when I have things to do and am running short on time. I can get a calendar book to keep track of things I need to do each day and allow time to accomplish each task.
To foster growth in the spiritual aspect of my life, I need to find an organization and get in touch with them to see if I can do some volunteer work. This will help me achieve my goal of doing things to help others in need. I could find an organization to do volunteer work at in my local yellow pages or on the internet. Another thing I can do to improve my spiritual well-being is to attend church more often. I consider myself a spiritual person, but not too religious. I think that attending church more often will help add another aspect to the spiritual aspect of my life. I could either attend the church that I still attend on rare occasions, although it is an hour away, or I could find a new church in the city where I am living now. Whatever I choose to do, attending church on a more regular basis will help improve my spiritual well-being.
I can assess my progress over the next six months in a couple of different ways. I could rate my psychological, physical, and spiritual aspects of my life before I implement my practices, and then each month following. At each monthly interval I could take notes on how my progress is progressing or not progressing and come up with strategies to maintain or improve my practices. I could also use the Integral Assessment to assess my biological, psychospiritual, worldly, and interpersonal aspects of my life to see if there is an area where I need to focus on more. If there is an aspect that is causing other aspects to suffer, then I need to focus on that particular aspect.
One thing I can do to help maintain my long-term practices for health and wellness is to include social support when trying to accomplish my goals. I think social support is a big thing when it comes to doctor visits as well as exercising. A person will be more likely to exercise if they have someone to go to the gym with or to go walking or jogging with. I love exercising to begin with so I shouldn’t have a tough time maintaining this practice. Having someone to try transcendental meditation with can also make it more likely for me to start and continue it as well. Spiritual wellness deals a lot with social support. People are usually socially involved, whether it is attending church or church events, volunteering, or helping others in need. I think that developing a social network in the spiritual aspect of my life will help me maintain my spiritual practices.
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