Reflections on my Physical, Spiritual, and Psychological Well-Being

These are the reflections of my experiences in this course and how they have assisted in my well-being and ability to assist others.

Review of my unit 3 personal assessment:

Physical well-being: 8

Spiritual well-being: 7

Psychological well-being: 5

Looking back, I realized that my well-being has somewhat improved as I currently rate myself as follows:

Physical well-being: 9

Spiritual well-being: 8

Psychological well-being: 6

Truth be told, I arrived at these numbers based on the progression of the goals I established for myself during this course, which I am happy to say are in full swing. As I reflect on my goals, I feel a sense of accomplishment as I have dedicated myself to attend to my overall health as opposed to focusing solely on my physical health. As such, I am in a better place to keep progressing toward improving and maintaining my well-being.

With that, the goal for my physical well-being is to maintain my current exercise routine and include at least 2 other aerobic activities to prevent boredom as I was running 6 days a week. Besides, I wanted to develop upper body strength as my arms are were too skinny! As such, my goal was to vary my workouts with more circuit training exercises to include strength/resistance training in addition to cardio exercises. This way, I can focus on strength and cardio by working on different muscle groups while burning calories. Moreover, my goal of eating 6 small meals a day has helped to maintain my energy levels so that I can better focus on and perform my daily tasks.

For my psychological well-being, I have implemented guided meditation or loving-kindness practices after my workouts. As such, I am still maintaining yoga poses for flexibility, but also to help me shift into the mindset of preparing to meditate. In fact, it has become a routine for me now as I look forward to discovering the stillness and silence of mind; which helps me to find peace and become recharged. Even though I am working on taming my mind of its mental chatter, it can be difficult to diminish my preoccupation with negative thoughts and feelings when confronted with situations that create stress in my life. My goal is to maintain a sense of peace and calmness when bombarded with stressors by shifting my focus from the negative to the positive to help me gain control instead of automatically reacting during the trying times. Consequently, I rated this part of my well-being as mediocre as I am still a work in progress in this department; but I have learned this requires patience and time which tells me that I should not be so hard on myself when I fall short on those challenging days.

Last of all, one of the goals for my spiritual well-being is to re-establish my faith through daily devotions and attending church. I have implemented the goal of going back to church; which has helped my prayer life and communion with God and connect to other people who share a common belief. Indeed, it was an exhilarating experience to attend to my spiritual needs by going to church instead of committing to doing the same mundane routine every Sunday, which was really stressing me out. On the other hand, I still have not committed to daily devotions; so I am open to suggestions as I would like to find something that will speak to me in a profound way. In the meantime, I have been reading my Yoga Journal’s Daily Insight to inspire me and deepen my spiritual well-being. For instance, today’s article was based on how yoga provides many tools to help us cope when we are distressed. Hence, we become worried, anxious, or lose or cool when facing a stressful situation because our minds have a tendency to magnify minor disturbances that can appear threatening. As such, the article suggested engaging in a loving-kindness (metta) meditation to diminish self-concern and remind of us our interconnectedness with all beings.

Overall, this class has taught me the importance of finding time for me instead of stressing out over school work, kids, a messy house, difficult people, or the things I cannot control or change. As such, my eyes were opened when l discovered that I needed to attend to my inner life first by developing and growing psychologically and spiritually in order to improve my overall health instead of focusing solely on the physical part. Therefore, no matter what I do to improve my physical health, it can be affected if my inner health is neglected or underdeveloped. At first, this was not very encouraging, but I did not want to jeopardize my health by neglecting the very important part of my existence. After all, it made “perfect” sense to me! That said, I am able to find peace by focusing on my breath and observing my mind’s movements as I learn let go of negative thoughts and emotions that create tension and distress me. In addition, I am learning to cope with stress and life’s struggles instead of becoming overwhelmed, which is an encouraging step toward the development of my health and well-being. In addition, the benefits of meditation and visualization have been a rewarding experience, which have improved my outlook on life.

On the difficult scale, I would say that the workload for this class was intense, but it motivated me to go the extra mile by completing my assignments and implementing my health plan into action. I believe this experience will improve my ability to help others effectively as I gain a profound knowledge and understanding of integral health. While I may not be a perfect 10, I am inspired to be a role model for my family and others as I continue to work toward the development and improvement of my inner well-being. As such, the idea of attaining a perfect 10 is questionable as no one is perfect, which means there is always room for improvement. Besides, high scores are not indicative of health especially if there is a lack of inner control, self-confidence, or maintaining healthy relationships. If anything, one can become complacent when there is nothing to strive for which can cause them to backslide. With that said, we should start by improving our health and well-being first in order to share our challenges, struggles, rewards, and accomplishments; which can become a source of inspiration to guide and support those who may be curious or have a desire to make a change for a better way of life.

Thanks to everyone who provided kind words of encouragement that served to keep me going! I wish you good luck with your goals and aspirations.

Yours in health,

Allana

References:

Dacher, E. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Yoga Journal: Daily Insight. (2011). Money Meditation. Retrieved on February 16, 2011 from:http://www.yogajournal.com/dailyinsight/yjnl_20110216.html?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=site&utm_campaign=dailyinsight