Physical, Psychological & Spiritual Well-being Reflection

Physical, Psychological and Spiritual Well-being

At the beginning of the class, I rated by physical, psychological and spiritual well-being on a scale of 1-10.  As I reflect back throughout the term, I realized that I have had growth in all three areas.  This course has been beneficial to help me evaluate all three aspects of my life and learn new techniques to help improve my overall well-being.

Physical Well-being:  At the beginning of the class, I rated my physical well-being at an 8.  However, as I read more about physical well-being and continued to focus on my physical health and wellness, I realized that my score was probably only a 6.  After implementing yoga into my work out and health regimen, I would now rate it as an 8.  I still need to continue to focus on and maintain my physical health to continue to grow and strive to lose weight and achieve my goal to be able to complete a 5 K this fall.

Psychological Well-being: At the beginning of the class, I rated my well-being as an 8.  After learning more about psychological well-being, I would have changed my score to a 6.  The readings and practices from this class have helped me to learn new techniques and practices to help calm my mind, relax and reduce stress.  I would now rate my psychological well-being as an 8.  Incorporating breathing techniques, meditation and yoga have all helped me to grow psychologically and implement new strategies to cope with stress and quiet the mental chatter.

Spiritual Well-being:  At the beginning of the class, I rated my well-being as a 7. I have continued to have spiritual growth throughout the course and would rate my spiritualty as an 8, now. Practices learned and implemented have helped me to focus on my spiritual well-being.

Goals & Activities

Over the past several weeks, I have been working on goals that I established previously to the course and during the course.  I have been continuing to focus on making a greater mind-body connection to help with my endurance while I am the gym to help with my physical well-being.  Part of the training process has been not allowing the mental chatter or self-doubt to take over and interfere with my goals to become more physically fit, lose weight and ultimately complete a 5 K.  I have learned that the mind has a great ability to perpetuate both negative and positive thoughts and behaviors which can cause an individual to have self-doubt and give up on or succeed.  I choose to focus on the positive thoughts and ignore the negative.

The focus on calming the mind has helped me psychologically as well to help prevent negative or racing thoughts from interfering with my daily activities and sleep.  Prior to becoming aware of the exercises to help calm the mind, I commonly became overwhelmed throughout the day and had difficulties falling asleep.  Thankfully, I am remaining more focused during the day and sleep better at night.

This class has been very beneficial to help me reflect on the areas in my life that needed to be addressed to achieve a greater sense of well-being and integral health.  The exercises and readings from the class have provided a resource or expansion on the knowledge that I had previously.  The breathing and visualization exercises have been the most helpful for me to help calm my mind and reduce stress throughout the day.  I have also implemented more yoga sessions into my routine, to help with the mind, body and soul connection.

Journey to Health & Wellness During HW420

INTRODUCTION

To be an effective and credible health and wellness professional, it is important to have a good understanding and also maintain integral health this may include the continual physical, psychological and spiritual development.  It is important for professionals to have knowledge about integral health practices and assist clients or patients to apply these practices in their life.  A health and wellness professional should strive to reassess themselves continually to ensure that they are maintaining integral health.  This process will help the health and wellness professional to be confident and share his/her knowledge with their clients or patients.

Personally, I need to continue to develop physically, psychological and spiritually to achieve integral health.  I will continue to work to develop mental health training to assist with achieving integral health.  I have found that mental training can benefit both physical and mental health.  To create a greater spiritual connection, I have been meditating and focusing on the overall mind, body and spirit connection that can be achieved through meditation.

ASSESSMENT

            

At the beginning of the class, I rated by physical, psychological and spiritual well-being on a scale of 1-10.  For this assignment, I have rated all three again to compare the growth that has been achieved throughout this class by implementing new practices and strategies.

Physical Well-being:

I rated my physical well-being as an 8, at the beginning of the class.  As I have read more about physical well-being and implemented more strategies and practices I realized that my physical well-being several weeks ago was probably a 6.  After implementing yoga into my work out and health regimen, I would now rate it as an 8.  I still need to continue to focus on and maintain my physical health to continue to grow and strive to lose weight and achieve my goal to be able to complete a 5 K this fall.

Psychological Well-being:

I rated psychological well-being as a 7, at the beginning of the class.  As I have learned more about psychological well-being, I would change my initial rating to a 6.  The reading and practices from this class have helped me to learn new techniques and practices to help calm my mind, relax and reduce stress.  I would not rate my psychological well-being as an 8.  Incorporating breathing techniques, meditation and yoga have all helped me to grow psychologically and implement new strategies to cope with stress and quiet the mental chatter.

Spiritual Well-being:

I rated my spiritual well-being as a 7, at the beginning of the class. I have continued to have spiritual growth throughout the course and would rate my spirituality as an 8, now. Practices learned and implemented have helped me to focus on my spiritual well-being.

GOAL DEVELOPMENT & STRATEGIES & PRACTICES

Physical Wellness

GOAL: To become more physically fit, to lose weight and continue training for a 5K this fall.

STRATEGIES & PRACTICES:

To continue to promote physical well-being, I plan to continue to practice the concept of Olympian Mental fitness and yoga.

Mental fitness involves redirecting one’s energy from the exclusive focus on outer things towards the inner development focus.  This type of fitness when accomplished can offer profound well-being of the mind, body and spirit.   Health and healing will begin to develop our consciousness and inner life. One must be willing to refocus one’s attention, energy, and efforts to explore uncharted frontiers of the mind and its capacity for healing.  To accomplish this process, one brings together the mastery of outer healing with inner healing, resulting in the transformation of ordinary health to precious health.   This concept emphasizes a holistic approach, which one needs to focus inward to ensure that one has the capacity to heal oneself, maintain wellness and achieve well-being. 

I have been implements the practice of yoga at least several times a week to help with physical fitness and the mind-body connection.  Yoga has been beneficial to help stretch and strengthen muscles and to focus on healing the body.

Psychological Wellness

GOAL: To manage my stress by reducing the mental chatter throughout the day and achieving a more relaxed mind to foster better sleep routines.

STRATEGIES & PRACTICES:

I plan to continue to use breathing exercises, meditation and yoga to help promote psychological well-being by reducing mental chatter, anxiety and negative thoughts that may cause stress throughout the day.  Breathing exercises have proven to be helpful throughout the day, to reduce stress while working, driving or at times when mediation would not be practical. 

Meditation during the afternoon or evening has been beneficial to help relax and calm the mind, when I have 20-30 minutes to dedicate to mediation.  When I began to mediate regularly, I mediated for 10-15 minutes and continued to increase the amount of time that I could calmly focus on my thoughts and breathing.  When my thoughts begin to wonder and the mental chatter begins to become overwhelming, I shifted my thoughts back to focusing on my breathing to calm my mind.  I have also incorporated visualizations into my meditation sessions, to help focus and calm my mind.

Yoga has helped to promote physical, psychological and spiritual well-being.  It has helped me to become more relaxed and focused.  Yoga helped me to focus on my breathing and making the mind, body and spirit connection.

Spiritual Wellness

GOAL: To become more aware of the higher powers, not necessarily GOD but believing that there is a reason for all actions and occurrences.

STRATEGIES & PRACTICES:

I plan to continue using visualization techniques and mediation to become more focused on my spiritual health.  Occasionally, I have implemented prayer into my mediation sessions to help calm my mind when I had concerns or worries.  This process calls upon my religious beliefs, to call to a higher power for assistance or guidance. Continuing to remind myself that there is a reason that situations occur or why events take place, has helped to create a greater spiritual well-being.

COMMITMENT

            

I will continue to assess my progress by gauging how my physical, psychological and spiritual well-being is working together to complete a unity of the mind, body and spirit.  I hope to have met my goals, by having a notable decrease of stress in my life, managing my mental chatter with ease and focusing on the overall unity of the mind-body connection.

 To promote the continual practice, I plan to make these exercises and integral part of my daily routine.  I think it is important to continually focus on well-being, to ensure that one is always striving for growth potential within each area.

Two Most Beneficial PracticesDuring this class, I found that meditation and the Loving Kindness were the two most beneficial practices. Throughout my meditation sessions, I continued to feel a sense of peace, calmness and relaxation. My mind continued to become more quiet and calm; my breathing became a point of focus as it continued to become slower. Following meditation, I continued to feel calm and less stressed throughout the day(s). When I would become overwhelmed or stressed, I began to focus on my breathing and quieting the mind’s chatter to help focus on the positive.

During this class, meditation and the Loving Kindness were the two most beneficial practices for me. Throughout my meditation sessions, I continued to feel a sense of peace, calmness and relaxation. My mind continued to become more quiet and calm; my breathing became a point of focus as it continued to become slower.  Following meditation, I continued to feel calm and less stressed throughout the day(s).  When I would become overwhelmed or stressed, I began to focus on my breathing and quieting the mind’s chatter to help focus on the positive aspects of the day.

The loving kindness exercise helped me to feel calm and relaxed.  I also reflected on several individuals that I need to focus my attention on to ensure that I am treating them with loving kindness.  Additionally, the exercise helped me to emphasize the importance of loving oneself. Throughout the exercise, my mind became more quiet and calm throughout the exercise, as I let go of negative thoughts and focused only on positive thoughts. Following the exercise, I felt more focused on the positive aspects of my life, which included my family and friends.

           I plan to continue to practice both meditation and Loving Kindness exercises to help with mental fitness.  I have implemented meditation at least twice a week, to help reduce stress, relax and calm my mind.  Calming the chatter has been beneficial to help me to focus throughout the day and avoid overwhelming negative thoughts created by mental chatter.  The Loving Kindness exercise has been beneficial to focus on loving myself, family and friends to help promote more positive thoughts and a mind that is more calm and focused.

Meditation Experience

During the meditative process, my mind became less noisy.  As directed by the excercise, I was able to visualize a loving woman who had been an important part of my life for many years.  As I focused on her and the qualities that she represented and ones that I aspired to have, I felt calm and relaxed.  I reflected on her compassion and love for others that she demonstrated to all of those with whom she interacted.  She was a beautiful person who was always positive and offered help and kindness to others.  I continued to feel a sense of peace, calmness and relaxation throughout the duration of the exercise.  My mind continued to become more quiet and calm; my breathing became a point of focus as it continued to become slower.

I can continue to apply these practices to help create a greater sense of peace, calmness and create more positive thoughts throughout the day.  The experience was very positive for me and I plan to continue to practice this type of meditation regularly. 

The saying, “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself”, refers to the idea that one must be able to understand or have practiced what he/she is trying to teach or convey.  A health and wellness professional must continually be aware that his/her psychological, physical and spiritual develop must be an ongoing process and focus, if he/she intends to help the client.  Using the techniques discussed in this class such as meditation, self-reflection, visualization and mental fitness I plan to continue to grow spiritually, psychologically and physically to ultimately achieve integral health.

Subtle Mind Excercise - Reflection

Throughout the Subtle Mind exercise, placing the emphasis on the breathing helped to calm my mind and helped me to feel less stress or negative thoughts.  Following the completion of the exercise, I continued to feel calmer and my neck muscles felt more relaxed during the day.  I will continue to practice focusing on my breathing as a way to help create calm thoughts and relaxation.  For me, during the day it is sometimes difficult to keep my thoughts focused and calm since there are often many distractions and activities that require my attention.

The difference between the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle Mind, are that one focuses on loving oneself and others, being kind and thinking positive and the other focuses on reflecting on calming the busy mind.  The narrator mentioned “tame the busy mind”.  I think this is so important, it is difficult to focus on daily activities, remain calm and positive with a racing mind that has a constant inundated of thoughts, some of which may be negative or unnecessary. Breathing exercises are helpful, because they can be practiced throughout the day to regain control of the mind.

Throughout contemplative practice, one can train the mind to develop psychospiritually.  Subtle and still minds are an essential component of integral health and life. 

Personally, I have found yoga and relaxation techniques such as breathing and visualization techniques to help achieve a mind-body connection.  Incorporating these practices and techniques has created a stronger connection.  On days that I practice yoga and relaxation techniques, I feel less stressed, less muscle tension and experience a calmer mind throughout the day.

Loving Kindness Excercise - Thougths & Reflections

Throughout the loving kindness exercise, I felt relaxed and reflected on several individuals that I need to focus my attention on to ensure that I am treating them with loving kindness and it also reminded me of the importance of loving oneself. My mind became more quiet and calm throughout the exercise, as I let go of negative thoughts and focused only on positive thoughts. At the end of the exercise, I felt more focused on the positive aspects of my life, which included my family and friends who are always there offering love and support.

I think the exercise is beneficial; to remind an individual that it is important to love oneself and project loving kindness to others. It is important to focus on loving kindness or re-direct negative thoughts or feelings which can cause a person to have negative psychological and physical conditions or illnesses. I love the idea of getting back what we give, which the author mentions at the beginning of the session. I think this idea is so important to remember, because if one is a negative person he/she tends to attract or more readily accept negative feelings on a regular basis. Those who are positive and project love and kindness to others and often think of others feelings and emotions, tend to strive for more positive thoughts or feelings, have a calm mind and greater sense of psychological well-being.

Mental workouts help to train or retrain the brain to shift focus or redirect certain thoughts or behaviors. I plan to continue to implement mental workouts to help focus on more positive aspects of my life and re-direct negative thoughts and feelings. Also, I think that incorporating mental workouts into my life will help to calm my mind, which is sometimes racing with thoughts about daily activities or responsibilities which can create stress.

Welcome to My Heath & Wellness Journey

In 2013, I began my journey to wellness by changing my diet and focusing on my health.  At that time I was unhealthy and at my all time highest weight, I knew I had to make some changes.  I began reading about plant-based diets and that changed my life!  I became a vegan and began to immediately lose weight and my physical wellbeing began to change. 

My journey is still ongoing, I have chosen this year to focus on incorporating more exercise into my routine.  I have set a goal this year to prepare to complete a 5 K this fall!

My Journey to Psychological, Spiritual and Physical Wellbeing

Based on my reflections, and on a scale of 1 to 10

Based on my reflections, and on a scale of 1 to 10

(ten being optimal wellbeing):

I would rate my physical wellbeing as an 8.  I have been on a weight loss and fitness journey for over a year now.  Last January, I decided to completely change my diet and become a vegan.  It has been a fantastic journey, so far.  I plan to continue to make efforts to work on my physical wellbeing by continuing to lose weight and incorporate more exercise into my daily routines.

I would rate by spiritual and psychological wellbeing both as a 7.  With the everyday stress in life, I sometimes find it difficult to focus on the spiritual aspects of my life and avoid becoming overwhelmed.  I recently incorporated yoga and meditation into my exercise routine to help focus on both of those aspects. 

I have seen substantial improvements to my mood and psychological well-being on the days that I practice yoga and meditation.  I have a greater sense of being centered and calm.  Also, it helps me to relax which allows me to focus on the important things in my life which are my overall wellbeing and my family.  

Goals for physical, spiritual, and psychological wellbeing:

My goal for my physical wellbeing is to create a more consistent work out regimen.  I made the goal this year to participate in a 5K this fall.  At this point, I have made the progression from walk to jog! However, I have a long way to go before I will be able to run for distance.

My goal for spiritual wellbeing is to become more focused on the positive aspects of my life and avoid negativity.  On a daily basis it can be difficult to avoid negative thoughts and emotions that can create turmoil for one's spiritual wellbeing.

My psychological goal is to continue focusing on addressing exercise and wellness activities that can help reduce anxiety and stress. 

Plans to implement several goals and build upon my current routines:

1. I am planning to implement breathing exercises to help with stress and anxiety.  I have been reading about the benefits and success of utilizing these exercises throughout the day to help calm the mind and relax during stressful situations.

2. Also, I have begun incorporating Zumba into my exercise routine to help lose weight and become more physically fit to hopefully achieve my goal to lose an additional 20 pounds and run in a 5K this fall.

3. I am planning to continue to try to redirect my negative thoughts to more positive thoughts to help with spiritual wellbeing.

Relaxation exercise experience:

The relaxation exercise offered me the opportunity to focus on my breathing and become more relaxed and calm.  I have practiced similar breathing and visualization exercises in the past and have found them to be beneficial.  I think there is a great benefit to practicing breathing and visualization techniques to help create a calmer mind, which can help those who have a tendency to become stressed and anxious due to a racing mind or inability to relax from a stressful state.  As part of my wellness plan, I intend to incorporate similar exercises into my routine to help with focus and as part of a stress management plan.