Health and wellness professionals should continually be developing the important areas of life. Some of the best teachers are the ones who have experience themselves. Professionals that deepen their development psychologically, spiritually and physically are the best guides as they have overcome many of the obstacles that their clients face while trying to achieve integral health. For my personal health I could use a little work on each area. Psychologically I am struggling with depression, separation anxiety, and adjustment disorder. For these issues I am dependent on medication, I hope to achieve integral health and not be on my medication anymore. Throughout this course I have grown the most in my spiritual health which is helping me psychologically. My physical health is improving the less I let myself become stressed. I am making more time for me physically and mentally and in turn my spiritual health is still flourishing. I am just trying to maintain a balanced growth in all three.
Since our blog post back in unit three, I would say each domain of my integral health has improved greatly. The more I become closer to God the less stress I feel. The more I workout the less depressed and stressed I fell. In turn when I am flourishing spiritually and physically; it spills over to my psychological health. I have some goals that I would like to accomplish in each area. Physically I would like to achieve my weight loss and nutrition goals. The more time I take to care for my body the better I perform at work, home and school. Psychologically my goal is to work on the physical and spiritual areas to relieve my psychological issues. I’m also going to practice meditative, contemplative and visualization practices to turn to during times of anxiety, depression and stress. My ultimate goal is to be off of my medication for good. Spiritually I would like to maintain and grow my relationships within my church, family and friends.
In order to foster growth in each domain I plan to work on specific things. Physically I plan to continue improving my current workout schedule of training for a marathon with cardio, strength training and yoga/pilates. Also, use knowledge from my sport nutrition class to meet my weight and performance goals. Psychologically I plan to maintain meditating 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night. My aspirations are to work up to 30 minutes at each meditation session. Find contemplative and visualization practices to continue my mental workouts; dedicate two sessions a week for this. Spiritually I plan to continue current Bible studies, but add daily devotionals for me, my husband and our family as a whole. I will also strive to become more involved within my church; our church is in need of someone for military outreach ministries. I plan to become involved or lead the military outreach ministry with my husband since we are both veterans and can relate well with active duty members.
In hopes of achieving integral health I will implement monthly assessments at first and shorten the period to weekly after two months. Once I have been completing weekly assessments for three months I will strive to accomplish daily assessments. The need to increase assessments is due to the ever changing maturity in my integral growth. The practice of self assessing daily is ideal as you should always be aware of what areas you are weakening in. This is the key to maintaining and growing in my integral health. Possibly in six months I may sit down and complete this project again. Comparing this assessment to one in six months will show me how much I’ve grown and what areas I am still lacking in. I will never be perfect in all these areas but my goal is to be stable enough as to not hurt my integral health.
Congratulations Kayla on writing such an honest and encouraging assessment. Planning to get off of your medications is a wonderful goal to have. It shows your level of awareness and desire for self reliance rather than dependency. I would also like to train for a marathon this year, but you are one step ahead of me. At least you have started your training and know when you're going to run, I haven't even picked a race yet, lol. My meditative goal is only 15 minutes right now. I think thirty minutes would take a lot of discipline and dedication, so I cheer you on with reaching this goal. Your church is lucky to have a member that is willing to step up to the plate and take on a much needed post. This sort of selflessness will increase your loving-kindness towards others. It's interesting that you're going to reverse your assessments level of frequency from less to more. I think most people slowly start to decrease the amount of times they assess themselves as they grow in awareness. That's the great thing about integral health, you can tailor the program to suit your own personal needs and no one else's. It's been a pleasure being in class with you and I wish you all the best.
ReplyDeleteYour post defines the relationship each of the three aspects of integral health have with one another. You are brave to approach the issues you are dealing with with such honesty. You appear to have a detailed plan of attack, which I believe is critical to see any meaningful results. There are no perfect situations out there, and you seem to be making the most of yours. We have all learned a great deal in this class, more than I ever thought. I wish you luck and many blessings throught the rest of your school and beyond. I think you are on the right path to flourish!
ReplyDeleteKayla,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like you have a good plan in place. It is nice to see how far you have come since your Unit 3 blog post. It is interesting that you bring up yoga/pilates for your marathon training because I have recently took that up as well for my marathon training. I am going to be participating in the Pitsburgh marathon in May and I read that yoga helps to prevent injuries when training for marathons. I have been doing yoga for a few months now and I see a huge difference in myself physically especially in my posture and I feel more centered and balanced. Good luck with your training.
Hello Kayla,
ReplyDeleteYou have made changes in your life since we began this class. You have noticed that you are less stressed and this is moving you in the right direction toward a calm abiding mind. You seem to be a person who has a good start in reaching your goals, keep up with your practices and exercises for calming the mind and loving kindness. I say this because it seems like you have your physical fitness under control with your marathon running. Good luck in all you plan for your self.
I have enjoyed keeping up with your progress. This is a great summary of what we have been through.
ReplyDeleteI wish you success in getting this implemented and I am so happy that this class really focused on us as individuals.
I am keeping it short as I still have a ton of work in this final week. I really enjoyed it.
Kayla,
ReplyDeleteGreat post of your final project. I really enjoyed reading it and God bless you for all your hard work and accomplishments that you have achieved. Keep up the hard work. Depression is a battle everyday but one that you can win.
It is wonderful that you have improved in all areas of your life. That shows that you are headed in the right direction. Celebrate the accomplishments that you have made. Remember every little improvement counts and reward yourself for them.
It is wonderful that you have found running as a way for you to improve all areas of your health. Many people use running as a stress relief, coping mechanism, physical workout, and spiritual as well. That is great that you are planning to run a marathon. Good luck with that and I will remember you in my prayers.
It would be a wonderful thing for you to get involved in the military outreach program at your church. Just make sure that you are not going to put more stress on yourself with school, family, church, and that which could lead to more problems with your depression. Make sure that you have a planned time each week for working on this that will work with the other demands of your life.
That is great that you are making time twice a day to practice the meditation practices. Every little bit helps to clear the mind and refocus. Good luck