Unit 9 Final Project BLOG

I. Introduction: 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? It is important for professionals of health and wellness to develop psychologically, which is relating to the mind or mental activity, spiritually which is pertaining to the spirit or soul, "a spiritual approach to life”, and physically which relates to the body, as distinguished from the mind or spirit (Dictionary.com, 2014). The areas of improvement for myself would be all the above fore mention areas. Psychologically is the mental preparedness, mind-body for growth to achieve higher goals such as meditation. Spiritual is my deep down self-imposed acts to be as one with myself, my mind, body and spirit. Lastly is physically, this is my weakest area that needs improvement. Physically my body is limited because of a heart attack I had in 1998, but mentally I continue to work on all aspect for improvement and it is the most important of all aspects.

II. Assessment: How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically? Psychologically is my mental aspect of self-assessment. No matter what the situation is or how hard times get, I strive to keep a positive attitude. Never let them see you sweat and always keep your head up. Spiritually, the meditation technique helps me to maintain focus, visualization is my favorite and practicing it two to three times a week helps my spiritual well-being to come together as one. The last self-assessment is physical, we, (my wife & I) walk three plus miles every day for physical improvement. Then I must concentrate on the food, my diet intake and nutrition. Recently I’ve started the Atkins diet which fits my eating habits and still meets my nutritional goals, but there are days where bread is hard to avoid. My personal overall score of wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically I would say a “SEVEN”? Seven is the number chosen based on I referee high school football, walk three miles almost every morning and try to diet properly. Meditation is new to me but I try to practice it three times a week. God is always spiritually in charge and I keep him involve in my life so in that case I’m strong.

III. Goal development: List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual. Physical goal is to lose 30 more pounds by increasing my walk every morning to a jog and adding more distance to make a minimal goal of five miles. Psychological is the mental preparation for the physical portion of my personal goals, for one the weather is changing to winter and discipline is going to be a factor. Secondly I must remember that all things are possible through God that strengthens me, the ultimate psychological goal. Spiritual goal goes back to the visualization technique learned in this class. I have been meditating a least three times a week now, my goal will be to meditate every day until I reach the goal of two to three times a day which will help me achieve my other goals physical and psychological.

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. Strategies I can implement to foster growth in the physical domain would be to plot the route and time to ensure me and my wife safety, low traffic area and times. Psychological domain plans are to dedicate my mission, commit to it and then follow through. Spiritual domain is to meditate in an earlier timely manner to better prepare for the early morning walk/jog. Two examples of exercises, practices and how I will implement them are as follows: Physical-Walk / Jog up to five miles every morning no matter the weather conditions, dedication to mission accomplishment. Psychological-mentally prepare, keep mind clear and positive. Spiritual-the constant practice of meditation mainly the visualization technique and sometimes the use of subtle mind practice or the love kindness practice. All three techniques are very useful and easy to implement. I mix them up and suggest the same for others and not to get in a rut of just one meditation practice.

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? The plan to assess my progress or the lack there of would be to start a ledger and annotate each domain individually. Keeping check on my weight by charting the progress weekly, conduct a self BMI analysis for start of training and the finish results. Spiritually by improving my meditations techniques and frequencies, the before and after feelings. Psychological is no more than keeping a positive attitude throughout the desired goals. Staying focused, continuing to exercise on those days I really don’t feel like it and dieting IAW the rules regardless of the holiday season coming up.

 

Warren