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.