Saturday, February 12, 2011

My Holistic/Integral Health Plan: Unit 9 Final Project

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 health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically to gain a profound knowledge and understanding of holistic health in order to serve and guide their clients effectively. As such, “practice what you preach” should be the mindset for health and wellness professionals who seek to assist individuals improve health problems due to poor lifestyle choices and promote a healthy mind, body, and spirit. Thus, health and wellness professionals should lead by example, especially if they expect clients to adhere to their recommendations and/or advice. Moreover, they will be able to exhibit compassion, understanding, and empathy toward their clients and share personal testimonies in regard to their struggles and accomplishments; especially to those individuals who may have doubts about a particular health plan and healing process Personally, my physical health is quite strong, but I need to develop my psychological and spiritual health in order to achieve my goals.

Assessment:

How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?

On a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate my spiritual health, at best, at a 7 as I feel connected to the universe and bonded with my family, friends, nature, and the earth in general; but I would like to get back to church to reconnect my soul as I have neglected that aspect of my life. That in mind, I rate my psychological health at a 6 as I am still trying to maintain a sense of inner peace and calmness when bombarded with struggles and stress that cause me to waver. I meditate and practice yoga to help me feel balanced and centered; but probably not enough to sustain my inner health. In addition, I need to develop better skills on expressing myself to others rather than keeping my emotions to myself; which can become explosive if I become extremely stressed, agitated, or frustrated. Lastly, I rate my physical health at a 9 as I feel there is always room for improvement. I would like to focus more on maintaining my physical health by adding other fitness routines and not be too concerned about performance as I have a tendency to be too hard and critical of myself.

Goal development:

List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.

Currently, one of my goals for my psychological health is to incorporate meditation and guided mental visualization as a daily routine so that I may develop skills to foster peace and calmness throughout the day by slowing down and taking time to sit in silence as opposed to being preoccupied with all I have to do and rushing through my daily tasks. In addition, these mental workouts are to help me clear my mind of its mental chatter riddled with distracting thoughts and emotions. Likewise, I plan to use more forgiveness so that I may release past grudges and grievances so that I may openly express my thoughts and emotions instead of keeping them bottled up inside. For my spiritual health, I plan on attending church to reconnect my soul and get back to reading daily devotions to keep me grounded in my faith and spirituality. Last but not least, I plan on maintaining my current exercise routine of cardio (running), strength (weight resistance), and flexibility (yoga) exercises that I engage in six days a week to support my physical health.

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.

Physical strategies:

1. Cross train by adding cycling and swimming to my fitness routine to prevent my workout routine from becoming stagnant. I plan to cycle and swim when the weather becomes warmer at least 2 to 3 days a week.

2. Eat 6 small meals daily throughout the day to maintain peak energy level so that I do not become hungry and increase stress levels.

Psychological strategies:

1. Take a ballet class to help me express myself through the movement of dance and classical music. Needless to say, I danced when I was younger and still enjoy the creative expression of movement through dance which engages the mind, body, and spirit.

2. Meditate daily for 20 minutes to foster peace and calmness. During meditation, I plan to increase my self-esteem by reciting positive affirmations to keep me grounded so that I do not surrender to external stressors and lose my peace and calmness. In addition, I plan on lowering the expectations I have for myself and others so that I do not become frustrated or overwhelmed in stressful situations.

Spiritual strategies:

1. Read daily devotions that will encourage me and keep me focused on the positive things in my life.

2. Attend church to reconnect my soul where I can feel spiritually connected to others who can provide moral support, guidance, and fellowship.

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 best strategy for keeping track of my performance and progress is to keep a journal so that I can write down my goals, what exercises or activities I did for the day, make comments about my thoughts and feelings, and make note of any unpleasant or pleasant outcomes. I currently keep a workout journal to help me keep track of my exercise challenges, running times and distances, and my meals for the day. It helps me stay on track, and I am able to monitor my progress and know when I need to make adjustments, modifications, or increase my food intake. Keeping a journal will help me notice certain trends that may create a plateau in my workouts, the activities that may or may not be working for me, and identify strategies or goals that may be unrealistic or need tweaking. Likewise, I can monitor my stress levels by the activities and moments that may be creating stress in my life so that I can eliminate them and try another plan. Nonetheless, my plan is to maintain my current physical activities that help me reduce my stress levels and feel a sense of achievement and confidence about myself. Moreover, adding daily meditation, going to church, and expressing myself through dance should foster my psychological and spiritual health and help me heal as a whole person. In this manner, I will be able to develop peace, happiness, and health and become an inspiration to others.


5 comments:

CharlesBell22 said...

Hello Allana,

I just wanted to let you know that you did a wonderful job on your Final Project/Blog. I enjoyed reading your project because it was well organized and I enjoyed your thoughts and emotions throughout the blog. It seems that you a clear goal in mind and you are very committed to achieving your goals. I just wanted to wish you the best of luck and congratulations with all your hard work throughout the term. I definitely agree that psychological wellness is maybe the hardest one to achieve and is probably requires the most amount of effort to achieve. I think that it is a great idea to keep a journal because it allows you to keep up with your goals and helps keep your life organized. I definitely think that I could go to church a little more as well and integrate prayer a little more during the day. This would help me become more spiritually healthy and have a closer bond with God. The examples that you listed would definitely work for my clientele when it comes to physical wellness. The examples that you listed such as weight training, cardio, yoga, swimming, and etc. would help my clients. Also, eating smaller meals would help my clients get the energy they needed to exercise at a higher level. All the information that you listed was wonderful to read and I really appreciate your blog.

Thank you for your input and I wish you the best of luck with the rest the assignments for the term. Keep up the great work.

livehealthy said...

Allana,

What an organized and well thought out project, wow! I like your perpective on what a holistice practitioner should be. I also like how you understand not to put so much pressure to do more on yourslef or others which may cause undue stress. Each area you have outlined specifically tasks for yourself with goals and time frames, same as any practicing holistic practitioner would for their healees.
Good work. Congratulations.
Deb-

Hassel said...

Hey Allana,

As usual you have hit the nail on the head with what a health and wellness professional should be. I also like how you have laid out your plans for staying on track and continuing on your personal health and wellness journey.

It is so important to cross train, this not only causes muscle confusion, but also ensures that your exercise will never become boring or mundane. I also think it is imperative to have your goals written down with dates this way as you reach your goals you are able to cross them off and see your progress.

I wish you luck and thanks for sharing.

Min said...

Hi,
I think you are correct when saying practice what you preach, I believe I wrote that in my post as well. I think that is great that you can rate the domains so high. I cannot wait to get to the point where I feel that I am doing well in every aspect. You have come up with some great strategies. I think that it is amazing you can be so dedicated and have the time to do all of this. I don't think your strategies would work for me because everyones situation is different but perhaps when I get older and I am more situated I could use the same strategies. Great job here.

Amanda said...

Hello,
I think you have really excellent strategies that could benefit your life in many ways. It is great that one of the main focuses you have is to try and reduce stress in your life.