After reflecting on my psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being I must say that my scores have changed in some areas. My score in spirituality is now a 7 out of 10, my physical is a 9 out of 10, and my psychological well-being is a 7 out of 10. I must say that my scores are far better than of those that were recorded during Unit 3. I believe that my scores have changed because of me actually opening my mind up to new ideas and applying what I've learned so far.

  I believe that I have progressed towards the goals I set for myself. For my spiritual well-being it has changed but there is always room for improvement. I have applied religion to help me be a better person. My psychological goals have been met, things like meditation, yoga, etc. has helped me maintain a calm unclouded mind. Last but not least is my physical goals. My physical goals have been met and I think that this was the easiest part for me because I'm a very active person.

  This course has opened my mind to all new thoughts and beliefs. Since Unit 1 I was eager to learn and could not wait until the next week. For this course I actually applied what was being taught to us in my everyday life to make those things learned second nature to me. I think the most difficult thing for me in this course was not getting ahead of myself and doing my discussions on time. Since  I have taken this course i can now assist others in the areas covered in this course because 1. I have taken this course and 2. I'm making things learned in this course part of my normal life.

Nieko

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?

  I believe it is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically because each of the three are key when it comes t helping others. For a psychological development this will allow us to have a clear mind of negative thoughts that may cloud the mind and disrupt helping others. Spiritual development can be associated with a specific religion but does not have to be. This development is each person’s own journey to discover things of importance in life as well as one’s place among them.

  Physically is always a positive in health and wellness. With being physical you choose behaviors that ensure health, avoid preventable diseases and conditions, and to live in a balanced state of body, mind, and spirit. My goals are to be more spiritual because I believe that I have lacked on this aspect for many years.

Assessment:

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

  After I assessed my health in each domain I can see that there is much room for improvement. As soon as I walk through the doors at work I become frustrated and defensive right away. I need to not get so upset when I come to work and learn to treat each day as a new day and not a continuation of the previous day. I score my spiritual wellness as a 3, my physical as a 8, and my psychological as a 4, yes these are not the best scores but I’m being honest.

Goal development:

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

The goal that I have for myself physically is to take it slow in the gym since I’m just getting better form my motorcycle accident. I must remind myself that I’m not able to lift as heavy as I once did because of my broken arm and dislocated shoulder from over a month ago. My goal for psychological development is when giving multiple task to do at work prioritize them and have some sort of organization, this is only one of the ways that will keep me from getting stressed out at work. Last but not least for my spiritual development I need to focus on clearing my mind and getting that inner peace that is much needed in my life.

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.

  I can implement strategies to foster growth in my physical domain by continuing to work-out. Working out is a great stress reliever for me and it’s just good to do anyway to stay healthy. I used to train here in Albuquerque at Greg Jackson’s MMA gym but after going 2-2,  I decided that I going to focus on being in shape.

  I can start my work outs by warming up with a 30 minute jog around the park and then go right into lifting weights. Another way I can foster growth in this area is by being opened minded to things like yoga and tempo classes. For my psychological growth I think that meditation will allow me to be more relaxed and clear of negative images, thoughts, etc... I should try to meditate in different environments just to keep the process interesting for me.

  Finally we have come to spiritual growth. With having an unclouded mind due to my meditation process, I think that I can find good in others and find my spiritual fulfillment as well. I think that by doing the things I associated with meditation will also allow for my spiritual growth.

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?

  To assess my progress or lack of progress I the following six months I should take the current assessments and compare them to those I will be conducting six months from now. By comparing I will be able to see if I’m meeting my own standards and expectations, or am I failing myself and my patients. To assist in maintaining my long-term practices for health and wellness on the physical side I can simply use my regular flight doctor visits that must be done every six months anyway. For my mental and spiritual practices I think that having others around me such as support groups will help me stay focused on the bigger picture.

Most Beneficial Practices

  Wow! We are almost done with this course. In the beginning of the course I thought that this class would be a drag but boy was I wrong! This course has really opened my mind up to new things and  has also changed the way I view different situations.

Review the exercises and practice sessions you have completed in this course. (Loving Kindness, Subtle mind, Visualization, meditation etc.) Choose two practices that you have determined to be most beneficial

  After careful consideration of all the practices we encountered during this course I found that meditation and loving-kindness are the ones that really work for me.  I think that mediation is great for me because it clears my mind of any negative images, thoughts that could hinder my performance at work or even affect me at home. Meditation allow me to leave work at work and not bring any of the bad vibes in my home.

  Loving-kindness allows me to embrace all living beings, including those that I may consider to be enemies.

  I have already implemented both practices into my daily life by setting time aside each night for me to meditate and by allowing myself to forgive others and treat them with respect even though they may not like me or vise verse. I have not perfected any of the two practices but I do think that if I continue doing them that I can keep an positive outlook on life.

Nieko

Mindfulness and Meditation

  I believe that mindfulness and meditation has helped me with my spiritual and psychological wellness because it gave me the tools that I need to focus on things that were and are in desperate need of attention. Meditating has helped ease some of my anger issues I based on things not being done correctly at work and it also helped me with my road rage with all these crazy drivers not using turn signals, texting and driving, and driving drunk (it's pretty bad out here in New Mexico).

  The saying "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" means if you have not done the task or never experienced what the situation may be you are not able to give direction or understand what your subordinates may be experiencing or going through. I think in the health and wellness profession this applies by being able to give meaningful feedback and guidance based on personal experiences.

  I do believe that we have an obligation to our clients to be developing our health psychologically, physically, and spiritually. My reason behind believing this is if you a a physical fitness instructor please practice what you preach and don't be the fat instructor telling others what to do if you can't even live up to your standards that you are trying to force on others.

Universal Loving Kindness

During the Universal Loving Kindness exercise I discovered that after saying the phrases for 10 minutes  I actually started believing in what I was saying but once it was over my feelings towards them went away. I'm not trying to be rude or anything its just that I really don't sit back and think this way or think about others that I don't know. I chose to focus my growth and development on interpersonal and worldly. I get what both the meditation and the assessment were trying to do but especially with the integral assessment the time was not there for me to really give it my all.

Nieko

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12mnLxh7bkWC8P6UqbuSz1fOOxRF8avqETwyyBxSQ3hE/edit#slide=id.p14

The website listed above is for my Unit 5 project

Thank you
Nieko

Subtle MInd

  Wow we are halfway through this course! In the beginning this course seemed extremely difficult, but since Unit 3 I have grasped what is going on and really enjoy this class.

  After doing both exercises IR can honestly say that I was really relaxed and ha a very clear mind. I must say that the subtle mind exercise differs from the loving kindness because with subtle mind you are focusing on a calm mind, this is only for yourself. With loving kindness you are focusing on having a positive attitude towards yourself and others.

  The concept mental workout is what allows us to focus our thoughts on relaxing. There are many ways we can have a relaxed mental workout. Things like checkers, chess, words with friends, etc... are greay ways to stay focused and sharp.

Nieko