Wellness to the Last Drop

My psychological, physical and spiritual well-being has improved in the last ten weeks as I have focused and participated in the various exercises throughtout the course. My psychological well being is a 8 and remains the same , my spiritual wellbeing is a 10 and remains the same,  my physical wellbeing was a 5 and now is a 6. I think I personally have healthy thought patterns that attribute to my phsychologial wellness. My spiritual well being is having a ongoing spiritual foundation that I intentionally nuture daily. The physical well being is where I am focusing and consciously trying to keep exercise as as a goal and hopefully I can turn it into a lifestyle practice. I am making progress in all areas.

The course has renewed some of my old commitments toward my well being. The exercises help remind me that when I help others I help myself. This is the best aspect of being a health and wellness professional. The most difficult was the exercise aspect and finding time to take care of myself.

As we all move forward I want to say to everyone thanks for sharing and caring. Be encouraged as we raise our consciouness for health and wellnesss we will be able to impact others. I see great things happening we are just preparing ourselves for those who will indeed need our services.  Grace peace and blessings.

Sharen

Final Project - Mind Body & Spirit

I Introduction:

I think that is important for health and wellness professional to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically in order to develop the kind of practices that yield positive results. These components of wellness impact everyone from all walks of lives and in order for us to be successful we need to be practicing what we preach.  I am committed to the belief that achieving a healthy balance in all aspects of life is an essential tool for personal happiness and professional success. I have achieved a comfortable level of development when it comes to wellness and there is always room for improvement as my knowledge base increases so does my development towards self mastery.

II Assessment:
I created 3 assessment questionnaires for Spiritual, Physical and Psychological Wellness.

Each questionnaire consists of 10 questions that are centered on development and growth in that particular area.

The scoring is as follows for all the assessments.

Score: 15 to 20 Points - Excellent strength in this dimension.

Score:  9 to 14 Points - There is room for improvement.  Look again at the items in which you scored 1 or 0.  What changes can you make to improve your score?

Score:  0 to 8 Points - This dimension needs a lot of work.  Look again at this dimension and challenge yourself to begin making small steps toward growth here. 

My Assessment

Mind

The psychological dimension involves embracing creativity and mental stimulation. In this dimension I scored 15 to 20. I am always mindful and thinking of new ways to do things I have a pioneering spirit so I have to keep myself engaged mentally

Body

The physical dimension involves encouraging regular activities that produce endurance, flexibility and strength. In this dimension I scored 0 to 8. I have just recently started implementing exercise into my life.

Spirit

I believe the spiritual dimension of wellness involves seeking meaning and purpose in one's life. In this dimension I scored a 15 to 20 this is the part of my life that I take the most serious out of all.

III Goal development:
Goals are the things that I do to grow in a particular area regarding my wellness.

Psychological Goals – Although I am doing well in this dimension my plans are to continue doing things that positively stimulate mental activity.

Physical Goals – Implement a physical wellness plan that will exemplify the lifestyle of a 43 year old health and wellness professional that practices what she preaches first hand.

Spiritual Goals – My spiritual goals include embracing sharing and utilizing my god gifts talents and abilities with others.

IV Practices for personal health:

These are the strategies and practices that I use to keep my mind, body and spirit well.

            Psychological Strategies & Practices

Learn a new word and share what you learn with others

            Beat stress by exercising your brain

            Visit the library or an old museum

            Relax with a crossword puzzle or play a board game with your family

            Expand your horizons and be creative

            Be a careful decision maker

            Physical Strategies & Practices

Fit and healthy bodies can come in many sizes

The best way to keep your heart alive is to be unafraid to use it

The best way to make exercise a lifelong habit is to select an activity that you enjoy

Good nutrition does make a difference. Energize yourself by drinking lots of water

It takes more than meals to feed your body

Spiritual Strategies & Practices

Nurture your spiritual side

            Count your blessings, both big and small

Access the wisdom within you

Enhance your connection between your mind and body

Discover the paradox of forgiveness

V Commitment:

In 6 months of 3 months depending on my time commitment. I will re-take the assessments to help me gauge my development in certain areas it one helps me to stay on track and two helps me to work on areas that need improvement. I think the biggest aspect in maintaining health and wellness is me recognizing and taking responsibility for being well mind body and spirit. Not waiting for something to happen but by practicing preventive measures to keep me well. Now that I am committed to my well being I can honestly and successfully share my result with others.

            I will post Wellness Assessments in Doc Sharing of the class.

Being Well Begins With You

I have had an amazing time with these exercises. I have to say they were all great. The two practices that stood out most for me was the "Meeting Ascelpius" I think the idea of visualizing positive attributes of someone you look up to is wonderful almost like a mentorship meditation. I think we all need someone we can look up to not idolize. The loving kindness meditaion is the other favorite love makes the world go around. I think we can all benefit from setting time aside to just send warm vibrations and thoughts towards others.

I love meditation it has by far changed my life. It has helped me good bad and indifferent. I think we all can benefit from the exercises the most important thing is to keep engaged and the next thing is to share these exercises. Each one teach one.

Wellness Magnified

The “Meeting Asciepius” exercise was very interesting I think the most difficult part is deciding who has the attributes that you would like emulated. The thought of taking on the various parts of someone great when you don’t really have that level of consciousness. Mindfulness and meditation gives me such a real sense of well being mind, body and spirit. I think the more that I apply these practices it give me a real sense of self mastery.

I am a firm believer that the most effective leader is one who leads by example.  We all have a responsibility to practice what we preach and teach. I pray and meditate regularly so that my psychological state and spiritual state is broadened.

Total Wellnes

I think as we all pursue careers in health and wellness the Universal Loving Kindness mediation is something we should practice daily as habit. The Integral Assessment may be difficult when doing it for the first time. I am not an advocate of this particular method of assessment because when going through this kind of assessment if you are not a grounded person you can become discouraged at the process.  I think we can all use improvement in all areas of our lives for me before I set out to do this kind of assessment my mind already knows where I need help. One of the major things that keep showing up in my life is the need to exercise more the fitness quadrant. The thought is that it has entered my spirit shifted to my mind and now waiting for my body to respond.  At 43 I have no health concerns except finding time to incorporate a regular fitness regimen. I am parking the car further and walking I’ve tried joining the gym and it’s a total waste of money I never go.

Mental Fitness

The loving kindness exercise and the subtle mind exercises are both great exercises. The loving kindness exercise is developing a compassion for others. The subtle mind exercise is developing a healthy attitude for ones own inner self. My experience was positive I believe it is very important to have a healthy concept for others and to also have a healthy sense of self.

When the spiritual, physical and mental aspects of my life are in synch. I am moving about harmoniously I find I am the most happiest. There is nothing like living a life that stress free and drama free and sometimes carefree.

Wellness is a continual active process. It's not a single goal or achievement its fine tuning the different areas of life. The spiritual aspect of my being is developed through a strong sense of my personal values  and ethics. The physical is the part that represents my body. Taking care of myself and leading by example. My mental wellnes is represented by the thoughts perceived and or imagined. The time that I spend thinking right thoughts that benefit myself and others. In my personal life I try to do whats right for myself and others. As I eveolve and learn new things I share with others.

Loving Kindness

An Overview of Loving-kindness Meditation

Loving-kindness meditation can be brought in to support the practice of 'bare attention' to help keep the mind open and sweet. It provides the essential balance to support your insight meditation practice.

It is a fact of life that many people are troubled by difficult emotional states in the pressured societies we live in, but do little in terms of developing skills to deal with them. Yet even when the mind goes sour it is within most people's capacity to arouse positive feelings to sweeten it. Loving-kindness is a meditation practice taught by the Buddha to develop the mental habit of selfless or altruistic love. In the Dhammapada can be found the saying: "Hatred cannot coexist with loving-kindness, and dissipates if supplanted with thoughts based on loving-kindness."

Loving-kindness is a meditation practice, which brings about positive attitudinal changes as it systematically develops the quality of 'loving-acceptance'. It acts, as it were, as a form of self-psychotherapy, a way of healing the troubled mind to free it from its pain and confusion. Of all Buddhist meditations, loving-kindness has the immediate benefit of sweetening and changing old habituated negative patterns of mind.

To put it into its context, Loving-kindness is the first of a series of meditations that produce four qualities of love: Friendliness (metta), Compassion (karuna), Appreciative Joy (mudita) and Equanimity (upekkha). The quality of 'friendliness' is expressed as warmth that reaches out and embraces others. When loving-kindness practice matures it naturally overflows into compassion, as one empathises with other people's difficulties; on the other hand one needs to be wary of pity, as its near enemy, as it merely mimics the quality of concern without empathy.

The positive expression of empathy is an appreciation of other people's good qualities or good fortune, or appreciative joy, rather than feelings of jealousy towards them. This series of meditations comes to maturity as 'on-looking equanimity'. This 'engaged equanimity' must be cultivated within the context of this series of meditations, or there is a risk of it manifesting as its near enemy, indifference or aloofness. So, ultimately you remain kindly disposed and caring toward everybody with an equal spread of loving feelings and acceptance in all situations and relationships.

The loving kindness meditation is a positive way to deprogram to reprogam. It's beneficial when using guided meditaion to help you achieve and develop positive health thoughts for yourself and toward others. I am always recommending positve alternative practices to enhance one's lifestyle.

A Mental Workout is your right to exercise your brain power! I think we spend a lot of time thinking. Positive thinking is beneficial to to the health and well being of a person. If all thoughts begin in the mind that means the brain is always working. How do we clear our thoughts? How do we improve the performance and functionality of our brain?  Your mind like anything else needs to be maintained.

Three Dimensions of Wellness

I personally live a well balanced wellness lifestyle. On a scale of 1 to 10 I am about an 8. These are the things that keep me focused on the goals that I set to achieve towards my plan of optimal wellness.

 

  

Physical

 

• Fit and healthy bodies can come in many sizes 
• The best way to keep your heart alive is to be unafraid to use it
• The best way to make exercise a lifelong habit is to select an activity that you enjoy
• Good nutrition does make a difference. Energize yourself by drinking lots of water 
•  It takes more than meals to feed your body

 Spiritual

 

• Nurture your spiritual side
• Count your blessings, both big and small
• Access the wisdom within you
• Enhance your connection between your mind and body

 

Psychological

 

• Fear not the future
• Find two positives for every negative
• Keep an attitude of gratitude
• A smile is an extremely powerful tool. Laugh at the little things

 

The Crime of the Century exercise is similar to a meditation that I do on a daily basis called the spiral sweep. The exercise is actually cleansing the energy fields called the chakra’s.

 

Journey on Relaxation Reflection

The journey on relaxtion was a good stress relieving exercise. As a person who teaches meditation I think there could have been some visual cues like color. I love guided imagery.

Welcome

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