Unit 10: In Review & A Farewell

In unit 3 we did our initial assessment for our physical, spiritual and psychological well-being, this week we're to re-assess ourselves. I actually did some of this in my assignment and blog last week, including why I feel it has changed – but for the purpose of class I will once again reflect on my changes.

Assessment – Then & Now

Physical – Initially I rated myself a 6 in the health realm, that was probably a little high considering how I've seen others rate themselves; however I felt 5 on a scale of 1-10 was average. On average most people my age are not only overweight or obese, but also have little to no exercise and poor eating habits. At the beginning of the term I was exercising regularly, had taken all processed foods out of my diet and was doing well. As of last week I dropped that rating to a 5, but all things considered it may be a 4.5-5. I have fallen back into poor habits and “quick” fixes of take out and junk food. My “energy” is now not from exercise and eating right but a plethora of caffeinated drinks and “energy shots.” None of which is healthy for me. In addition, with the changes in my life I have stopped exercising regularly.

Spiritual – Initially I rated myself at a 4 for spiritual health. I felt on a scale of 1-10 I was most likely below average of the “norm”. Over the course I have learned the spirituality and religion do not have to be mutually exclusive and you can be spiritual with religion and religious without being spiritual. Since I live in the middle of an exceptionally Christian area (aka The Bible Belt) I have often felt at odds with my own personal beliefs which are considerably non-Christian, but range somewhere between Agnostic, Buddhist and Pagan. I'm not sure where I am in the realm of religions. I was raised in an exceptionally strict and cult-like religion, found paganism and have since been searching for where my beliefs truly lie. Since I've begun into the heavier science courses for my degree it has made me reconsider even more. Luckily I have learned that I don't necessarily have to have a “label” or “title” and can instead focus on the spiritual side of my life instead of what “religion” I am.

Psychological – Initially I rated myself at 8 for psychological/mental health. Right now I feel that I am about the same. I haven't gone insane adding my sister in law and two additional cats to the household, and with the ability to use the subtle mind and increase the “productivity” of my sleep I am more refreshed and rested than I was at the beginning of the term – which is probably why my rating hasn't drastically decreased with the changes in my life over the last 10 weeks.

Goals – Then & Now

Physical – My goal was to continue to make healthy changes and read my friend Abby's book. I was able to complete the book and made healthy changes until about February when life changes occurred and then I started falling back into poor exercise (aka no exercise) and nutrition choices. I intend to take the remainder of this week and next week and prepare to once again re-introduce healthy eating to my household.

Spiritual – My goal was to continue my exploration of spirituality and begin practicing again. I have continued my exploration and may continue to do so my entire life. In addition I needed to take more “me” time. I haven't had a lot of “me” time, but working on the subtle mind before sleeping has been most of my “me” time.

Psychological – My initial goal was to reconsider having three jobs, put myself first and time management. My time management has become better and I feel more rested thanks to more beneficial sleep. I have decided to quit one of the two part-time jobs and have talked to my manager about my full-time job and will actually be getting a promotion (and more money) hopefully before the summer. That will leave me with one full-time job and one part time job which is fun. I plan to continue working on this.

Behavioral Changes

My attitude has changed about all three realms of integral health. I will continue to work on each. I meditate more often now, assess myself regularly and work on all three areas of my health. I have a clear and focused game plan that I will be implementing before the beginning of the next term. I plan on adding exercise again and eating properly for physical health, finding a counselor for psychological health and continuing to explore my spiritual health.

The Course In Review

Throughout the course I have been giving the tools I need to achieve integral health, now I need to use them. I have improved in some areas of integral health and declined in others. Overall my “total” score is about the same. The most rewarding part to me has been the ability to apply what I learn in my life and keep my calm even under difficult circumstances which may have otherwise sent me to the hospital. I am not able to sleep more often yet, but my sleep is more restful. The most difficult thing has been taking “me” time and re-adjusting. My other course was actually more problematic than this one has been. Nothing in this course has been difficult really, just adjusting my own health and thought process. Change is difficult but not impossible.

I will be able to use the tools to keep myself in the realm of integral health and I will be able to help others by sharing my experience and the tools we have learned as well. I hope that a small part of what I have learned will pass to others, especially considering eventually I will be going into end of life nursing care. The ability to help keep a “stable” integral health is important during a stressful time like that.

I have enjoyed this class than all but one other course during my time at Kaplan University. I am sad to see this class, my classmates and this professor go but am glad for the things I have learned and the time we have shared.

Unit 9: Integral Health Now & The Future

I can't believe we're in unit 9 already, it seems like this semester has just flown by. We began our blog with an assessment of our integral health - physical, spiritual and psychological so it's only appropriate that we wind down our term with the same thing. How far have we come in the last 9 weeks? How can we use what we've learned in our future both personally and professionally? By making a plan, which is just what we are doing in this week's project.

Our blog assignment this week is to post our final project into our blog and commenting on other's blogs as well (which is a weekly task) so here is my final project for HW420: Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing. I did my project in APA formatting with a title page and a reference page so it may not copy and paste exactly appropriately into a blog post, but the content will come across at least!

Integral Health Plan

Sandy Lacey

HW420: Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Professor Mark Maule

Kaplan University

Integral Health Plan

Integral health can be defined as “sustained health, happiness and wholeness” that incorporates body, mind and spirit as integral parts of the whole. (Dacher, 2006) So how can we as individuals apply what we've learned throughout the course about integral health in our personal lives? This paper will explore five elements with which we can apply what we've learned to “foster growth and health spiritually, physically and psychologically in [my] personal life.” (Maule, 2013)

Introduction

As a health and wellness practitioner I cannot “lead others where [I] have not been” it's like having a map without actually visiting a place, I may know the location – but the best and most efficient route to my destination is beyond my knowledge and experience. (Schlitz, M., Amorock, T. & Micozzi, M., 2005) In addition, we must ensure we take care of our own health and wellness before we can help others reach their goals for integral health. The areas that I need to develop in order to achieve my own goals are as follows: physical fitness, regular assessments,  meditation and stress management. In order to more fully achieve overall “homeostasis” or integral health I need to work on becoming physically fit by eating better nutrition and incorporating exercise into my daily routine. In addition I need to work on my mental health by incorporating meditation into my routine daily and incorporating it into part of a stress management regimen. As an ongoing part of integral health I need to incorporate regular assessments to see where I am and what areas need focus at any given time.

Assessment

Most people recognize the importance of regular physical check ups and either do them annually or more often. But how often do we assess our mental and spiritual health? Some tend to assess their spiritual health more often than others, however almost all of us allow our mental health assessments to lack and it's rare that we assess all three aspects of integral health to see what area needs attention and focus. How do I rate myself physically, spiritually and psychologically?

Physical – I currently rate myself between a five and a six, while at the beginning of the course I rated myself a six. During the first part of this course I was eating better and exercising regularly, however over the last eight weeks due to several reasons some which are beyond my control, that has almost completely stopped. The food I am eating is barely fueling my body and I have fallen into the bad habit of “quick fixes” which are not healthy or nutritious. I recognize what needs to change and it is my goal to change it prior to the start of the next term. I only have approximately a year until graduation and it is my goal to be physically fit before that time.

Spiritual – I currently rate myself a five, while at the beginning of the course I rated myself a four. During the last nine weeks of this course I have renewed some of my spirituality and have come to realize that spirituality does not have to be tied to religion which has helped immensely. I still have a long way to go to feel “spiritually fit” however with regular assessments I am able to see where I need to focus and plan to get my life back on track and stop letting it go so fast that I don't have time to slow down and protect all three forms of my health.

Psychological – I currently rate myself at an eight which is the same rating as the beginning of the course. I personally feel on a scale of 1-10 that 10 is a score that means you cannot be touched mentally and I recognize the fact that I am human and am not untouchable in any aspect of my health. I feel that psychologically I am a strong person, I am a survivor (of many things) and in the last nine weeks not only have I endured several life changes, but I haven't let it alter my performance as a parent, person, at school or at work. I started out the term with five people and two cats in my home and since have added another person and two additional kittens and haven't lost my mind yet despite the fact that there is never “silence and stillness” in my life anymore. (Dacher, 2006)

An important part of growth is to make sure that after we make an assessment to follow through with creating goals to reach in order to focus on what changes need to be made before the next assessment.

Goal Development

It is an important part of an assessment that once you are complete to use that extra clarity to focus on the changes that you need to make for the future, either short or long-term or both.

Physical – My current goals for my physical health are to both add exercise on a daily basis and return to health nutritional habits. I want to not only provide adequate and nutritious fuel for my body, but also to be able to use that fuel more efficiently which means adding exercise. It is my intent to start eating no processed foods again and to exercise a minimum of five days a week and at least 30 minutes per time in exercise.

Spiritual – My current goal is to continue my exploration of spirituality and continue meditation and taking time to get back into nature where I can experience “silence and stillness” as well as working on my spirituality. (Dacher, 2006) I need to start actively practicing faith again as well.

Psychological – My current goal is to find a counselor just to have someone outside of my situation to talk to about everything that is going on in my life. I do not want to extend that burden to my friends and I don't have any close family so I feel that finding a professional to have some “couch time” with is what will help keep me healthy and on a good path psychologically. In the beginning of the course I stated I was going to reorganize my jobs, considering I have one full time and two part-time jobs currently. I have quit one part time job that was more stressful than helpful and am considering quitting my full time job as well. These are still things I am taking into consideration in order to keep myself psychologically fit.

Practices for Personal Health

Physical – The two practices I will implement in my life for physical health are eating nutritionally and exercising at least 30 minutes a day on five days a week. This will help in both physically and psychologically as I feel better physically my mental health increases. In addition physical activity has been shown to affect the chemicals that alter your mental mood. As Dr. Pert says “The mind is the body, the body is the mind.” (Dacher, 2006) In addition to removing processed foods from my diet I will attempt to incorporate both cardiovascular activity by starting with walking at least five days a week and toning by doing weight training at least three of the five days a week.

Spiritual – To choose only two practices to assist spiritually after exploring so many good exercises isn't easy. I want to continue to use all of the exercises we've learned throughout the last eight weeks of classes such as the subtle mind, universal loving-kindness which I need to develop and meditation. In addition I will begin to do yoga every week which will help both spiritually and physically.

Psychological – Two practices I can incorporate to help my psychological growth and stability would be to continue to work with the subtle mind exercise which will assist me in stress management and to find a local counselor to speak to. While contacting a counselor isn't a practice really it will incorporate exercises to help me reduce stress, so it will be part of a stress reduction practice.

Commitment

In the next six months I plan to do an integral assessment of my health at least once a month and any time I am feeling unduly ill – physically or mentally. I will keep assessments like we were given in my exercise and fitness course to track my physical health, and I will keep track of my exercise and nutrition changes as well as physical changes in a journal. I will continue to assess how I feel spiritually and psychologically with the exercises we've been given. In addition I will use forms from NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) to assess my psychological state and regular discussions with a counselor/therapist.

In addition to regular assessments and goal setting with tracking via a journal I can set both short and long-term goals and work towards them with the use of a “dream board” where I put my goals in sight daily and word towards them. I can even include a checklist of goals so that I can check off the goals as I reach them.

References

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

Maule, M. (2013). Unit 9 project. Retrieved from https://kucampus.kaplan.edu/ Kaplan University course HW420: Creating wellness: Psychological and spiritual aspects of healing.

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). (2013). Retrieved from http://www.nami.org/

Schlitz, M., Amorock, T. & Micozzi, M. (2005). Consciousness & healing: Integral approaches to mind-body medicine. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Churchill Livingstone.