End of class goals

Well it looks like this class is finally over and I must say that I have learned a lot. At first I was very skeptical of this course and the outcome but I learned to enjoy it as we went along. That’s not to say that I loved the course but all in all I made improvements where I needed to.

In Unit 3 I scored my physical wellbeing as a 9 and I would say I am still a 9. I still train 6 days a week and the one area of improvement was to set up more of a schedule for running which I haven’t done as of yet. I have ideas just not ones I have acted on. My spiritual wellbeing back in Unit 3 was a 1 and that is an area where I do feel I have improved slightly. Although I haven’t gone to church yet like I had said I would, I have consulted with my girlfriend about religion as it is something she believes strongly in. Her insight has helped me immensely so now I understand its purpose more and can say my score now would be a 4. My psychological wellbeing was a 5 back in Unit 3 and now I would say it is a 7. The improvement is because I have used meditation more often now with success.

I have indeed made some gains towards my goals throughout the 10 weeks. I can say that I have even impressed myself with my ability to adapt to the new exercises that we have had to complete. I did not have the best of luck when attempting them but with each attempt I improved. The meditation is the one exercise that worked for me and one I also enjoyed. I find that each day 15 minutes is all I can do at a time but it is quite rewarding. I feel as though I am able to channel my stress through meditation and I feel much healthier. I haven’t really used the other exercises so I can’t say that work or don’t work. This class has certainly opened my eyes to the many ways that we can control our mind and body.

Final project

       I.            Introduction:

There are many health and wellness professionals that we can encounter in our lives. They are well-trained, knowledgeable individuals who generally specialize in a particular area of health care. We tend to go to these professionals when we need something like a simple doctor visit and even a personal training session. The question most ask though is why is it important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically.

I am a strong believer that health and wellness professionals need to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically. Not everyone is in agreement on that but the reality is these professionals need to develop just as we do as individuals. The psychological aspect for the health care professional is such that they need to have the knowledge to articulate to us when we go to them just how important this area is. They need to be able to explain how practices like medication can be useful to the mind and body. This is something they should have tried themselves so they can give a first hand experience. The spiritual side of things may be a bit different but just as important. I am not one that is big on spirituality but I do feel the professional should have a good knowledge of its importance. It would allow them to provide some ideas to me as to what spirituality is and what it can do for your mind and body. The biggest area where health and wellness professionals should be developed is the physical part. I realize that is my opinion but I do think health and wellness professionals should develop the physical part so when we meet with them it appears they exercise.

I can certainly say that I need to develop all three areas to achieve the goals I have set for myself. All three areas psychological, spiritual and physical play a huge role in our personal development and all three are equally important in achieving our goals. My psychological health is excellent in the sense that I feel I am able to deal effectively with stressful situations but I know there is far more to it then that. When it comes to my spiritual development I need a lot of work. I have never been to church, have no real religious beliefs and do not feel like I have a religious bone in my body. The physical development is my strong point as I have exercised for many years but even there I know I can make some improvements.

    II.            Assessment

Everyone should at some point assess their own health in regards to the spiritual, psychological and physical. That is an area that I have never really evaluated. In fact, I didn’t even know where to begin until I started this class. My interest in the psychological and spiritual areas were zero and I knew that probably wasn’t good but I felt as long as I was working out it didn’t matter. I work out six days a week so that was never an issue but I have learned how to improve even those workouts from proper breathing techniques. Those techniques were learned completely from this class. Starting with my spiritual well-being I would rate that at a 1 and that may even be a stretch. I have never attended church and do not follow any religious beliefs so assessing that would indicate that is an area of need. I would score my physical health as a 9 for sure and I feel strongly about that. I train six days a week and I do everything from weight training to Brazilian jiu jitsu. This creates a physical well-being that would be hard to beat but of course after assessing there are minor changes to be made. Stretching and running are two components that can be adjusted. My psychological health is below average and I would score it at a 4. It’s something I need to work on and by doing the exercises I have learned in the class like meditation I can get the score up.

 III.            Goal development

Setting realistic goals is so important to a healthy lifestyle and one that we all should consider. I have goals in all three areas that I would like to achieve. It wasn’t easy setting goals in all three because I have never done anything spiritually so I am unfamiliar with the many aspects involved. I was able to get a better understanding after taking this course and the one goal I have spirituality is that I want to attend church. I don’t have an exact number of times but just going to see what it is like is my first goal. Once I go I am hopeful that I will make a future goal of attending more often. I am very involved with exercise already so I did have to really think hard of a goal that I haven’t achieved. One major goal that I would like to do is to compete in a 5K race. I have said for years that I wanted to do one and for whatever the reason I simply have not do so. My training involves lots of running so the transition should be easy enough and I love competing so this should be an easy goal to attain. The psychological goal I have is to start effectively using the practices I have learned in this class like meditation or loving-kindness. Meditation was one of the few exercises that actually worked or me for a short time so the goal would be to meditate for at least 15 minutes each day with the ultimate goal of being able to complete a 30 minute meditation session. All three goals are very attainable and after taking this class I feel as though they would be easy to achieve.  

 IV.            Practices for personal health

There are some strategies that I could implement to foster growth in my physical, psychological and spiritual well-being. To foster growth in my physical well-being I can start by implementing a running plan each day. I currently run but with no goal at all or even for any reason. I can set a number of miles each day to strive for. The other area I could improve in the physical area would be to cut back on a few of the junk items I eat. I’m not one to eat a lot of junk but I eat some so I could eliminate that. My psychological area is one I would improve by meditating. The benefits of meditating are huge and I would use that to eliminate any stress that I have. To grow my spiritual being the one practice I need to implement is actually attending church. I have never done it so it is a start and one that I know would be beneficial. Another option for me to grow spiritually is to meet with someone that understands religion and its importance. They would be able to explain in detail what it is and how it benefits me.

    V.            Commitment

Assessing my progress is something that is essential to my personal development. I know that I have areas I need to work on so maintaining progress is the key. My plan is to evaluate my progress at the end of every two weeks which gives me plenty of time to not only complete the areas of personal development but also implement any changes. I will not be perfect with my personal development and I may miss some goals but I will continuously evaluate my progress to ensure my success. Another way to assess my progress is to make changes along the way to avoid getting stale. One week I may do meditation each day and then the next week maybe implement the loving-kindness exercise. This way I will constantly be excited to achieve my goals.  

Meditation and loving-kindness

We have been practicing various exercises throughout this course and some I have found beneficial and some I have not. It seems like these exercises take practice because for some of us just simply sitting down and trying then the first time they don’t always work. I read so much about the benefits of these practices so I hope that I can one day use them all. There are two that I feel worked well for me and they are meditation and loving-kindness.

I found meditation to be an excellent exercise even though at first I was skeptical it would work for me. I have not had much luck with these practices but meditation indeed worked. I used it successfully for the first time last week when I was tasked to think of someone who we have great respect for. During the meditation I was able to picture my father clearly and it made me realize that I can do this with many things in my life. I can use meditation to think of positive thoughts and then channel that to a relaxed state which will help relieve stress. The second exercise I found beneficial was loving-kindness. This exercise was great because I simply had to memorize four lines and repeat them over and over again. It was a short exercise that allowed me to just relax in a quiet place and close my eyes for a few minutes. I didn’t think the loving-kindness exercise would be that powerful but it sure was. Any feelings of anger were quickly erased and replaced with happy thoughts. I can use this exercise at times when I am feeling angry for whatever the reason and get those thoughts out of my mind. Sometimes I have angry thoughts at people for cutting me off in traffic for instance but by using this exercise I can learn to control those emotions.

Spiritual Growth

So this week we were tasked to complete yet another practice which I was hopeful would work. My luck just isn’t good I guess since I seem to fail more that succeed.  But then again in life they say you must fail in order to succeed so I can’t complain then. I guess with practice I will be an expert before long as I find these practices very useful. There are many benefits to these types of exercises for sure.

The task this week was to imagine someone we saw as wise and someone that we had a great deal of respect for. I picked my father as I feel as though I am the man I am today because of the way he raised me. Quite the easy pick even though there are several people that I could have chosen. At first when I pictured my father I just had a sense of extreme happiness come over me and I couldn’t help but smile. It was a great feeling and I was surprisingly able to keep this feeling throughout the track. Near the end I started to lose focus but that is because I think the track was a bit long. I feel that way every time so I actually kind of expect that now. This was the best I have done so far though so I was happy with the results.

The saying “One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” is something I have actually heard before. I truly believe that to be true. How can you lead someone when you haven’t done it yourself? One good thing about being a parent is that I can teach my son to follow my lead so if I do things the right way then he is led down the correct path in life. It doesn’t mean he will always follow but if I do the right thing and he chooses to follow then he will be ok. I do think that when leading someone you must have gone that path yourself.

Loving kindness and integral assessment

Each week I hope that the given exercise is one that I not only can do but also one that I find beneficial. Don’t get me wrong, I think all of these practices have benefit to someone but I am not sold on the idea that it benefits me. So this week I was to perform the loving-kindness exercise and complete the integral assessment. Something very new to me yet again so needless to say I was skeptical at first. I imagined the meditation exercise being difficult because I had to memorize four lines but it was rather easy and actually pretty cool. I just kept saying them over and over again and closed my eyes in a quiet place and wow it worked finally. Quite frankly I had little hope of tis working as none of the other exercises provided much benefit at all.

There are several areas that I can work on and one particular area is more of the emotional side of things. Another student mentioned that in her blog and that is an area of concern for me also. I find that at times my mood swings towards my girlfriend are uncalled for and although they aren’t anything too serious they are enough for her to step back and say what’s the deal. It seems that I am only this way when I am feeling stress which I guess most people would say. Of course that doesn’t make it right so there are a few things I think I can do to help. The first would be meditation and I will begin that immediately. I could take 10-15 each day to meditate and this would help relieve the stress and in turn cause less mood swings.

Subtle mind and loving-kindness

Well lets face it, I am not really good at doing these exercises yet for some reason. Sure I make improvements each week but I just don’t get it like I should. The subtle mind exercise was pretty difficult as I could not get myself to actually have no thoughts. Is that even possible really? If it is I can’t do it. The loving-kindness exercise went a little better as I was able to picture what the narrator was saying. The problem is that lasted like two minutes. These exercises are just too long and although I am positive they can be effective I have yet to fully experience the effects. Maybe if I do a few minutes a day that will at least yield some benefit.

Developing a spiritual awareness is very important and it is something I actually need to work on. It would clearly benefit from it both mentally and physically. Unfortunately, I am not religious at all so that is one stumbling block I have to developing the spiritual awareness. I would consider going to church if I felt it would benefit me somehow. Many friends I have believe strongly in religion and in the spiritual aspect of life. It would be a smart decision to embark on the spiritual journey.

Loving kindness

The loving kindness exercise seemed great at first but I have to admit that after a few minutes I got a little anxious to move around. I hate just sitting still for very long so even though I was able to do it quite effectively for a few minutes it became difficult. I did find the narrator’s voice soothing and the sounds of the waves really made me relax more than I thought it would. The narrator said to have thoughts of something you love so I immediately thought of my son and that just made me smile. As I sat there with my eyes closed I simply imagined him growing up over the years and all of the changes he went through. That was such an incredible feeling that I didn’t want it to end. The long pauses between the narrator’s comments were good but after doing this a few times I found it to be too long. When the narrator asked to think of someone who is suffering I thought of my mother who is going through some medical issues right now. Of course that made me sad and I didn’t even want to do the exercise anymore. In fact I just stopped for a few minutes to collect myself before continuing but after that I found my concentration to be limited at best.

Mental workouts like the one we did for this exercise are a great way to harness those deep thoughts we keep inside. It is hard to get to those under normal conditions so finding a peaceful quiet place is important. We should be able to control the mind just like we do the body when we go to the gym. We go to the gym with a purpose so exercising the mind is the same although for me not as easy. Mental workouts are beneficial to our health because it allows us the relax which is something many of us have a hard time doing.

My goal is to try and develop a better understanding of mental training and how to effectively do it. I know it will be difficult but in the end it will make me healthier.