One
Must Have a Plan
The
health and wellness field is vast in its treatments and modalities. To become an effective health and
wellness practitioner it is necessary to become familiar with the opportunities
that are available to for others to utilize. An important point is that the practitioner is most
effective when they themselves have developed their own psychological,
spiritual and physical health.
There is an essence that is given off that can also be used as a
motivational tool. When others see
the practitioner happy, healthy and full of vitality, they start to believe
that achieving those goals for themselves can be possible. Those people that are in the
contemplation stage of developing all aspects of their health need to be able
to see that all of the work they are about to dive into will have a positive,
healthy and loving payoff.
My
psychological well-being has always been a goal of mine and I have worked
extensively to improve it. Through
cognitive-behavioral therapy to reframing and loving-kindness exercises, I have
been able to gain higher psychological consciousness. My ultimate goal is to emancipate myself
from negativity in regards to thoughts and feelings. I believe that I am well
on my way.
Over
the past 4 years I have been actively practicing Reiki energy healing on my
patients and me. This requires me
to connect with my spirit guide and truly learn to trust him and his
knowledge. It has not been the
easiest task for me thus far. I
feel there are tremendous benefits to this practice; however, I have found my
mind wanders while in treatment.
With the integration of subtle mind practices I have been able to quiet
the mind and remain present in the moment. I love to connect with the divine and know that it loves
me. I will continue to strive to
further develop my spiritual health.
Further
development is needed in the physical aspect of my health. I educate others on how to abide by a
healthy lifestyle and find that I don’t follow it perfectly myself. I have a deep understanding that no one
can do everything perfectly and that life is a series of ebbs and flows that
make it what it is. I have spent a
lot of time and energy developing the other areas that I sometimes neglect my
physical health. I eat foods that
help nourish my body but exercise has been infrequent recently. I find that when I exercise more
regularly I am able to focus more clearly on my work, and when I focus on my
work I lose the time to exercise.
This continues to be a cycle that has been difficult to break.
On
a scale of 1-10 with 10 being optimal wellness I would rate my spiritual
well-being at a 7. I like to think I rate higher but that is not the
case. I am very close with the spirits that are around me all of the time.
I can feel them and I can hear them but my intuition wavers. I am
reminded often that I have a great energy but sometimes I let my environment
overshadow my feelings on that. Everyone has this ability but needs to be
practiced. Intellectually I know I need to spend more time on this subject but
emotionally I am stunted. I believe it to be a fear that I may uncover
things that have been repressed while at the same time I know that needs to
happen in order for me to no longer be a slave to my spiritual emotions.
I would rate my physical well-being
as an 6. I won't get into the details but I will say that I eat fresh, exercise
sporadically and don't smoke. A friend once told me that the number one thing
you can do for your health is to put down the cigarettes. I would like to
pass that on to everyone I meet and hope that people continue to pay it
forward.
I
would rate myself at an 8 for my psychological health. I spend a lot of time on
this section of my life since I returned from the war 5 years ago. Re-framing
is the number one technique for this and I have found loving-kindness and the
use of meditation to most beneficial in this development. Being able to
view negative events and interactions with a positive twist is like shining a
light in a dark room...it provides hope.
Having
goals in mind that are attainable are essential in making strides toward
health, wholeness, and human flourishing.
My goals in each domain are as follows:
11.)
My
goal for physical health is to reduce my body fat percentage by 10%. I will
make sure to not get so wrapped up in work and school work to make excuses to
not exercise daily. I will include
my puppy in my workouts with me for motivation.
22.)
My
goal for psychological health is to free myself of the past and the negative
feelings and emotions attached to it.
I will continue practicing meditation and loving-kindness and be
consciously aware of moments that I have not fulfilled this goal.
33.)
My
goal for spiritual health is to obtain a closer relationship with the
divine. My goal is to attend every
open speaking event to gain further knowledge and connection to the divine.
Following
through on the daily practice of each domain will ultimately lead to integral
health and human flourishing. It is most important as a practitioner to have a
clear idea of the practices to use and share with others. For development of my physical health,
I will walk daily with my puppy for no less than sixty minutes a day. I will also continue to do Bikram yoga
every other day as I have in the past.
It increases my flexibility and awareness.
The
practices to further develop my psychological health will be loving-kindness
and witnessing mind exercises.
Both were introduced by Dacher (2006) and have already proven immensely
effective. Having the ability to
love yourself and others around you, even if they have done wrong by you, is
such an important step in healing the mind. Those feelings of stress, negativity and harboring ill will
create dis-ease within the body in turn manifesting in dysfunction. I have created a space in my home as an
area just for me to meditate and feel at peace with the world.
Calm-abiding
and transcendental meditation (Schlitz, Amorok, Micozzi, 2005) have been
excellent tools to use achieve unity consciousness. Quieting the mind will turn
my focus inward to each and every breath.
It will keep me from getting bogged down by extraneous thoughts. Using
these techniques I will not only be able to become closer to the divine, but I
myself will be a person of clarity, peace and wholeness.
Accountability
is the most important tool for me to use for personal growth. Developing checklists and charts will
keep my on track toward each of my goals. The goals that I have set for myself
are reasonable and attainable. I
will break those long term goals down even farther into short term goals as
stepping stones toward the larger picture. I promise to not be hard on myself should I fall of
track. I will consider each of
those moments learning moments and work to rectify them. I will understand that life has ways of
testing me on my journey and will maintain a positive attitude throughout.
I
have learned an incredible amount of valid and useful information in this
class. There are so many takeaways
that increase my level of consciousness as a person, and help others as a
practitioner. The Integral Health
model will change the future of health care in it’s beliefs and treatments
ultimately leading to all peoples having a “more profound, precious, and
enduring level of health, happiness, and wholeness (Dacher, 2006).”
References:
Dacher, E. (2006). Integral Health. Laguna Beach: Basic Health
Publications, Inc.
Schlitz, M., Amorok, T., Micozzi, M. (2005). Consciousness &
Healing. St. Louis: Elsevier Inc.
