Personal Assessment Unit 3 - Unit 10

In Unit 3 I scored my physical health as a 6.  It is still a six, because even though I am doing what I have planned to physically heal, it is a slow and steady process.  My doctor has to remind me that even though recovery from reconstructive surgery on my foot will take over a year or more, my progress has been good and right on target.  My psychological health actually fell from a 6 to a 4.  I think that is because I have had a lot of added stress in all aspects of my life lately, and I haven’t taken the time to implement my new health and wellness plan.  Once I do that, I know this aspect of my health will improve.  In Unit 3 I scored my spiritual health as a 4.  I am now up to a 5, because I have been putting some contemplative practices into my life.  I have not made a lot of progress in this area, because I am still working on making a commitment to put contemplative practices into my daily life.  My classes are over and I am ready to graduate, so I am going to take the time after the holidays to put the program that I put together into practice.

This course in health and wellness has altered the way I look at my overall health, especially my recovery from surgery.  Up until I took this course, I was doing a fairly good job of doing what I thought I needed to do to help with the recovery of my ankle and the rest of my body and mind that have been affected by over two years of chronic pain and mobility problems.  I began a yoga regimen, relaxation exercises and weight loss program about six months ago, which I thought was the best way I could become healthy again.  This course has shown me that I have neglected one of the most important parts of an integral health program – the spiritual aspect.  I never thought o myself as a person who could meditate or bring contemplative exercises into my life, but this course proved that I could.  I’m beginning to understand that bringing contemplation practices of loving-kindness and Asclepius into my life will make a huge difference in how I will heal.  I had a few courses in mind that I wanted to take during my last semester at Kaplan, and I am really happy that I chose this course on health and wellness.  It will definitely change my path to recovery in a very positive way.

This course has given me so very good tools to use, when I go into the field of substance abuse counseling.  I will now look at each client from all aspects of his/her life, and I will be able to help them put together a plan to help them heal and recover from the results of alcohol and/or drug abuse and addiction.  Even if my client can only take a few small steps with a very basic plan for health and wellness, I know it will make changes that will alter the way they look at themselves and their health.

Unit 9 Wellness Blog

Introduction:

It is important for a health and wellness professional to develop the psychological, spiritual and physical aspects of his life with the ultimate goal of human flourishing.  He cannot teach or lead a client toward integral health and health practices, if he does not appreciate what it has done for his own life.   Following these practices can also bring challenges that need to be experienced before a person can really teach anyone else how to meet them.  I also think the health and wellness professional needs to be as healthy in all aspects of his life as possible, so that he can personally show the client through his actions and well-being how much these changes can enhance all aspects of a person’s life.  And, most people do not appreciate someone telling them to “do as I say, not as I do.”  Actions really do speak louder than words.

In order to achieve goals that I have set for myself, I will have to develop some aspect of each of the physical, spiritual and psychological domains.  There is not one area that I can truly say is close to the ultimate goal of human flourishing, even though the physical domain seems to be developing more than the spiritual and psychological domains.

Assessment: I have assessed my health in each domain by looking at each area to see where I am experiencing positive feedback in relationship to my health, and where I am experiencing dis’ease or other health problems.  Spiritually, I score my wellness at a 5.  At first I thought it was higher, but I now realize that I have not put any contemplative practices into my life and am definitely still living in my outer most world.  Physically, I would say that I am a 6 even though I have a lot of work to do to continue my recovery from reconstructive surgery on my ankle. Psychologically, right now I would say I am a 4.  I have had a lot of stress in the form of chronic pain, and juggling my work schedule, classes and physical therapy treatments.  I am definitely much more reactive than intentional, and it shows by the high anxiety levels that I am experiencing.  

Goal development:
I have two goals that I want to set in the physical domain.  Both have to do with my recovery from surgery.  My doctor would like me to lose weight to reduce the stress on my ankle.  The other goal would be to strengthen my ankle, so that I can eventually do my job and exercise without pain or the use of pain medication.

I have two psychological goals.  I want to be able to relieve the anxiety that stress is bringing into my life and become less reactive to situations. 

Spiritually, I would like to be able to move from my current outer life with constant distractions and “chatter” to a calm and quiet inner life.

Practices for personal health:
The following are strategies to reach my two physical domain goals.  In order to lose weight, I am changing my eating habits with the help of a physical trainer who is employed by the college where I work.  She told me that she would sit down with me and develop and outline a personal eating plan looking at calories and food choices.  As soon as I get the okay from my physician, I will begin to exercise at my lunch hour through basketball games with my co-workers to help with weight loss.  If I strengthen my ankle, so that I can do activities to include my job without pain or medication, I know that a lot of the stress in my life will ease.  I will do this by continuing with my physical therapy treatments three times a week and working with my yoga instructor at least once a week.  The yoga instructor is already giving me exercises to help me stretch, strengthen and flex my ankle. 

If I can begin to develop my spiritual domain, I know that it will also positively affect my physical and psychological domains.  I will begin by going to a site that was recommended in our book by Elliott Dacher.  The site is The Shambhala Centers at www.Shambhala.org.  They have videos and exercises on the site that can help the beginner start meditation.  After I go through these exercises, I will begin a daily routine of contemplative practices to include Loving-Kindness and Asclepius (the inner healer).  I will start with only 10 minutes in the morning before work and 10 minutes in the evening before I go to bed.  I will practice Loving-Kindness in the morning and Asclepius in the evening.  I think that the Asclepius exercise in the evening will help me to relax and sleep better at night in addition to bringing a healing presence in my life.  As I become more comfortable with these practices, I will increase them.  I will also get some input from a holistic practitioner that I work with, so that she can give me support and suggestions on how to stay on track.

My psychological goals are to relieve the anxiety that stress is bringing into my life and to become less emotionally reactive to situations.  I will already be working with my yoga instructor to help with the goals in my physical domain.  She told me that she will also teach me relaxation techniques through yoga practices.  During the two breaks that I have at work each day, I will practice these relaxation techniques.  I know that the contemplative practices that I am adding to my life for my spiritual domain will also help me be less reactive; however, I will also practice deep breathing each day that my holistic practitioner suggested.  This practice can take a person out of the present into a relaxing and rhythmic state of being, reducing or negating stress.

Commitment:
I will assess my progress or lack thereof within the next six months through the use of a journal and a wellness chart.  Each day or at least every other day, I will journal and look at each area noting progression, a plateau or regression.  I feel that this will help me to be aware of any changes that are happening in my life.  The wellness chart will help me to focus on my goals.  I will make a chart for each month with my goals written at the top of the chart color coded to indicate physical, social and psychological domains.  The rest of the chart will be a calendar of that month with enough space in each day block to make a notation for each domain by putting a check in the code color on the calendar to show whether or not I have worked on my goal that day through the activity I chose.  If I see too many blanks in a week, I’ll know that I am not staying committed to a specific part of my plan. This will also work in a constructive way, in that it will give me positive feedback, if each day has an activity or practice notation for each domain.  I can also evaluate my progress by the changes that I am experiencing in my overall health.

Loving Kindness & Visualization

Two of the practices that I found worked best for me are Loving Kindness and visualization of meeting Asclepius.  I would like to begin with 15 minutes of Loving Kindness in the morning during my break at work and take about 10-15 minutes the visualizing Asclepius exercise in the evening before I go to bed.  It may take me awhile, but I would then like to  increase these times until I can get to at least a half hour each.  I know that these exercises will help foster my “mental fitness,” but right now I am too caught up in my tight schedule involving a lot of overtime at work, physical therapy and doctor’s appointments and assignments for my Kaplan classes to be able to focus.  The fact that I have ADHD doesn’t help.  This is my last semester before I graduate, so I hope to be able to take the “down time” over the holidays to put my thoughts and plans into action.  I know that the Loving Kindness will help me to quiet my mind, and to deal with the way I tend to over empathize and “feel others’ pain.”  By breathing in a person’s suffering and pain and then letting it dissolve in my heart, before I let out my breath with happiness and peace directed at them, I know that I will do a better job with helping my future clients instead of being overwhelmed by their personal pain and sorrow.  

Since I am still healing from my summer surgery, I think the visualization with a healer or wise person guiding me from within will really help me to focus on how I can continue to heal myself without being so reactive to my pain and frustration.  I feel that both practices can be a very beneficial addition to my integral health and daily living.

The Inner Healer

I liked this practice of “Meeting Asciepius” the best of all the ones we have done.  I do well with visualization and found it easy to see the healer in my mind and begin to connect with him.  I know it will take a lot of practice to really appreciate what can happen, but it will be a good exercise for me.   I am still practicing loving-kindness, and I find that it has helped me to begin to be aware of others in my life in a different light.  I find that I am less reactive, which is a very good for my overall well-being.  I can continue to apply these practices by setting aside a daily time to practice these exercises.  Although I haven’t reached calm-abiding yet, these practices have really helped me to ease my anxiousness and stress.

A health and wellness professional cannot teach or lead a client toward integral health and health practices, if he/she does not appreciate what it has done to his/her life.   Following these practices can also bring challenges that need to be experienced before a person can really teach anyone else to meet them.  I also think I need to be as healthy in all aspects of my life as possible, so that I can personally show the client through my actions and well-being how much these changes can enhance all aspects of a person’s life.  And, I don’t appreciate people telling me to “do as I say, not as I do.”  I don’t think my client would either.  I can implement psychological and spiritual growth in my own person life by practicing contemplation techniques and loving-kindness as a part of my daily life and routine.