This project aims to introduce why it is important for health professionals, others, and me to participate in integral health activities. The introduction will open up with the importance for health professionals and open up the areas that I need to develop. The assessment will introduce how I assessed these areas and how I scored the areas of wellness relating to spiritual, physical, and psychological wellness. The goal development section will address the goals for each of these areas. In the practices for personal health section I will explain the strategies and practices (including examples) that can address each of the areas. The commitment section will provide the plan of assessment for 6 months and for long term health.
Introduction
Dacher introduced a metaphor when
trying to explain the reason for why health care practitioners should develop
and practice health and wellness in the areas of spiritual, physical, and
psychological areas of their lives. Basically, the metaphor was suggesting that
if health practitioners, or any of us for that matter, are not willing and open
to developing these areas then we are not able to retain, benefit, or help
others. The metaphor specifically referred to a pot being upside down and the
inability to fill a pot when it’s upside down which means that you can’t retain
what was being filled into the pot and you are not benefiting from the
knowledge or practice. You are also not able to share what is in the pot
because nothing is there to share (2006). It seems that the metaphor is a
strong statement. Health care professionals, and the rest of us, have to be open
and willing to learn in order to benefit.
The areas I have to develop to
reach my goals would be the psychological, spiritual, and physical areas. These
areas are essential to my integral health and to be of a healthy mind, body,
and spirit they will be my focus going forward. The ones that are a bigger area
of need for me are the psychological and spiritual areas because stresses from
everyday life seem to take a large toll on me. More will be explained soon in
the assessment section.
Assessment
When
it comes to the psychological and spiritual assessment I looked at how I react
to things going on in my life or around me. I tend to react with knowledge and
reasoning when I can, but sometimes I react with emotions or the lack of self
control because I find it difficult to be at peace. Being at peace takes work
for me because we have to practice at it (I now know this) and it is not second
nature to do these things. Normally, I try to be upbeat and positive. I try to
look at the good that can come from a situation. When it comes to emotional
development, I can be driven by fears and anger – thus where stress comes in.
When
it comes to the physical assessment, I recognize I am not as healthy as I
should be. I have areas within my health that need addressed which have not
been. I do not always eat the right foods, but usually avoid the unhealthy
foods. I recognize that I could be eating more fruits and vegetables. Also, I
do not get enough exercise as I should.
So when I assessed myself in these
areas, I looked at a scale of 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. Then I
evaluated myself on the psychological, spiritual, and physical. Since I tend to
be upbeat and positive most of the time, I can say that I rated myself a little
above average with a score of 6. I know that I am not always upbeat because the
stresses can bring me down so I still have room for improvement. For the
spiritual aspect, I know that I am not at peace enough on a daily basis and I
am not able to be in a happy state like I should be. So I rated myself below
the midway point at a 4. I can see that I have a larger area of improvement to
do in this area. For the physical area of assessment, I rated myself at the
midway point of 5. I did this because I do make some effort to eat healthier
(try to avoid fast food burgers and fries most of the time and eat things like
Subway or Eegees when I eat out), and I have been taking on activities to get
some exercise. Some of the activities are bowling and just finding other ways
to be busy like chasing after my great nephew when he is over.
Goal Development
Dacher
suggests that integral practices aim to remove our daily or life’s wounds and
that it helps to remove our negative or conditioned reactions. He suggests that
through training of the mind and subtle consciousness we are able to be
successful in other practices which touch other areas of our lives. To be
successful, the practices should also be suited for our own needs and we are
responsible for our own development (2006).
With
these in mind, I evaluated the options and goals I must make. One goal for me
is to remove excess activities where I can to make life simpler and less
chaotic. I can remove things like controlling who comes over and when in order
to get things done when they need to be and to find more time for important
things. This primary goal can serve to address the psychological, spiritual,
and physical areas because it will allow me more time for the following goals. For
my psychological well being I need to make time everyday to incorporate
exercises that help lift up my mood and remove the stresses and anxiety. For my
spiritual well-being I need to make time for clearing the mind through
meditative exercises. My physical goal is to follow up with my doctors and to
take on physical activities which can improve my overall health. Overall, I
believe the goals are to make life simple, less chaotic, and to find more time
to focus on practices that will make my body, mind, and soul happy.
Practices for Personal Health
In the area of physical health I
have been lacking so I have three specific practices to address my physical
health. The first being, I need to make appointments to see the doctors and
then make sure I make it to the appointments, even when I can’t afford to go,
and any necessary follow up appointments. These will likely include a regiment
of taking any necessary prescriptions (probably for cholesterol levels) and/or
through following nutrition guidelines. The next practice would be to set a
schedule, outside the bowling exercises, to get better exercise. It might
include scheduling time to go on a walk. To start, I would like to set aside
time for at least two days a week. Hopefully, I can get my husband to join in
my efforts too. The third practice is to try to set aside time weekly to come
up with a menu in order to control food costs, but also in order to eat
healthier foods. My husband really loves cheese, but there is some truth to the
idea that too much of a good thing can be bad for you, thus my cholesterol
levels.
In the area of my psychological
health I have been lacking control because stress can be overwhelming so I have
at least two practices I would like to use to help in this area. The first
practice is to use the loving kindness exercise. I will need to complete this
exercise at least every other day if I can and whenever I feel my mood slipping
away. The second practice will be to use the relaxation exercise because I am
more upbeat when I am less stressed and I can be more compassionate to others
as well. This practice should be completed at least every other day as well or
whenever the stress is overwhelming. For both of these practices, I will need
quite space away from others.
The loving kindness exercise will
start me off by focusing on love for myself – to breath in and let my own
sorrows go and to give back love to myself. Then I look to someone close to me
who I feel needs my love and I do the same – give them love by removing their
sorrow and only replacing it with my love. Then I look to others a little more
removed from close family and do the same. The end of the exercise will be for
me to repeat it one more time, but by repeating it for everyone. When complete,
I will feel the great mood I have created for myself and for others around me,
because it is hard to come away from this exercise feeling bad.
The relaxation exercise will be
good for my psychological well being because it gives me the outlet to release
stress. To start with, this exercise will require my minds power to move blood
around in my body to relax other areas of tension in my body. I will start by
channeling all the blood within the core of my body. Then I will envision
moving the blood to my neck and arms. When successful, I will find that my arms
will no longer be movable thus signifying that I have managed to fill them
like a sponge. Then I will channel the blood back to the core of my body to
lighten up the spongy arms. I will then be able to move my arms again. If
needed, I can focus on other areas of the body the same way. Sometimes we
workout our legs and need to relax them, so I hope to utilize this once I get
to more physical activities to see how it works.
The area of spiritual health can
use a couple practices too. The two I think that will benefit me are the subtle
mind exercise and the exercise of meeting my Aesculapius (my inner mentor). For
these exercises I will need time away from others, but also I want to be able
to use these either daily or at a minimum every other day as well. The subtle
mind exercise is easy to do because it’s about focusing on my breathing. I
start by focusing on breathing in, breathing out, breathing in and so on until
I have full focus. Then I focus on letting any images that come to my mind just
be – for a few moments and letting them go. Then I bring back the focus on breathing
in, breathing out, breathing in and so on until I have cleared the mind again.
I repeat for a while and any thoughts can be witnessed and let go again.
In the exercise of meeting my
Aesculapius, I focus on someone who is or was special to me. I focus on every
detail about the person such as their character, their wisdom, their compassion
for others, their love for others, or how they were at peace. I just sit their
focused like I am connected to them in the present. Once I have grasped the
vision of my Aesculapius, I envision a beam of light from their head to mine –
for them to share all of their being into my own and to cleanse and clear my
own mind. Once complete, I repeat with the envision of light from their throat
to my own – so they share their speech with me and I can sound like them. Next,
I envision a light from their heart to my own – in order of receiving the
loving and compassionate ways as my own. Next, I envision my Aesculapius a just a
white light and their being becoming my own by entering my body from top to
bottom. When complete I feel like I have all the qualities of my Aesculapius. This
helps me to feel renewed and strong, smart and wise, loving and loved, and
upbeat and positive.
All exercises will work best for
me in the later hours of the day where I feel the need to release stresses and
anxiety, but from time to time, I must admit that I have found myself trying to
do some of these on the fly around others. I may find it easier in different
situations to reach into my new toolbox and use different exercises to my
advantage. One specific example of where I used an exercise on the fly was where
someone recently was really making it hard to control how I responded and I
really felt like strangling their incompetent and arrogant butt, but instead, I
started practicing the loving kindness right on the spot. It seemed to at least
keep my mood reasonable and kept me from adding fuel to the fire.
Commitment
To be committed, I
must have a plan that tells me how I am doing. For this, I will evaluate the
success or lack of success over the next 6 months on a bi-weekly basis. I will
evaluate how I am doing in each area by evaluating the way I did for this
assessment. I will compare those results with previous results to identify if
my action plans or goals need modified. Also, I will see if I was regimented
enough to meet my goals as well. I will then make adjustments as necessary to
get back on track or stay the course if I am already on track. I expect that
some goals will be hard to keep up with in the beginning, but with constant and
continued practice, I will get better.
For
long term health, I need to understand that total commitment where I dedicate
time and resources to my health and well being is a must. Otherwise, I will
never have a whole and happy life or a well body, mind, and soul. For long term
success, I must also constantly re-evaluate the mind, body, and soul to
determine where I need to focus. I understand that this can change frequently
and without re-evaluation, I might not be focusing my intent and dedication on the practices where they need to be. I believe by having the intent and committing
to fulfilling my health and wellness, I can have a whole, happy, and fulfilling
life as well as a healthy mind, body, and soul.
References
Dacher,
E.S.(2006). Integral health: the path to human flourishing (eBook).
Basic Health
Publications.
No comments:
Post a Comment