Secret Circle

Final Blog project Week 10

1.            Review your unit 3 personal assessment of your psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being. Reflect on these areas . How did you score yourself on a scale from 1 to 10 in unit 3? How do you score yourself now? Has the score changed? Why or why not?

As for my physical I had rated it a double zero. Even though I am nowhere near my goal weight, I have made some changed in my diet and I am doing the best that I can do at the present moment. I do have fibromyalgia and I had went to the doctor and he prescribed me Lyrica. It has helped me out tremendously! I do not feel as much pain and I can do things easier than I could before. I actually have energy and I can clean, run, jump, play, work, walk, etc without much pain. I do still feel some and have my bad days; but, I am happy I am functional now. I was miserable before, now I am a little happier! I do try to get some kind of exercise everyday; however, I need to do more if I want to get to my goal weight. I have lost maybe ten pounds of weight, but it is a start! It is going to be a tough project, but I am looking forward to a new me, healthier me, and a happier me. So, instead of a double zero for my score, I will move it up to a one. One step at a time and no looking back. For my spiritual, I do feel like I am closer, but not as close as I would like to be. I rated myself a five and even though I feel closer to my spiritual, I think a five it should stay. I say that because, what I have been taught in this class is that it takes some time to heal the inner self. I believe I am on the right path though and look forward to a more spiritual me. I do know my psychological is better as well. I am not as depressed as I was and I feel more happier and less sad. I would say that I am lighter and not as heavy in my feelings. I may feel lighter, but I need to still work on my psychological. I still have low self-esteem; on the other hand, I am working on it. I had rated myself a one, so I think it is a two now. One day at a time I say. Even though I may be taking baby steps, I am getting there.

2.            Review the goals and activities you set for yourself in each area. Have you made progress toward the goals? Explain.

I have made some progress towards my goals; although, I still need a lot of work. I am taking it day by day. One step at a time. I have joined fitday.com and that helps with my diet and adding in my foods and keeping a track of what I eat and what I should eat. How much calories I am suppose to have each day. I still need to add more exercise. I do walk about a half an hour at least three times a week. If I can up it to five or six day a week, that would be better. I also need to add some stretches and other exercises. I need to continue to add more time to my meditation. I have made an appointment with the nutritionist to talk about what I can do about my weight.

3.            personal experience throughout this course. Have you developed improved well-being? What has been rewarding? What has been difficult? How will this experience improve your ability to assist others?

I have enjoyed this class very much and it was eye opening. It has helped me get closer to my spiritual, physical and psychological self. Yes, I have developed an improved well-being. What has been rewarding is being able to help myself be happier and healing myself along my goals and paths for the future. Happy to know that I am on my right path in life and it makes me blissful! What has been difficult it my frustration and not being able to have peace and quiet on my times I needed to meditate. I am learning to get over that. This experience will improve my ability to assist others because I have went on this same path that they are going to go through with my help. They will trust me and I can share my story.

Complete each of the five sections below and post the project in your blog, also submit it as a single Word document in your drop box.

                      I.                      Introduction:
Why is it important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically?

It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically because, how can a professional provide these services to others without practicing it themselves first? First the professionals have to learn and educate them self with materials and with those materials practice what is taught in them. They may even go to a guide as well to help them get the knowledge they need to be able to pass down the healing and knowledge to others. They must first heal their self before they can heal others as well as get educated. How is a professional going to tell someone how to heal them self if they do not even know what they are talking about and are not sure what they are doing? Professionals must have the experience to be able to provide help. An un-educated and un-practiced professional may give the wrong advice or information and that can harm and individual or make that individual an un-believer.

 What areas do you need to develop to achieve the goals you have for yourself?

I need help in all the areas! I need to continue to learn and heal myself. I really need to get myself into shape and healthy. I need to practice meditation to be able to help others begin meditation. I need to eat healthy and learn how to help others how to eat healthy. I need to heal my mind to be able to help heal other's minds. Basically, I need to work on my mind, body and soul. While I work on those, I will also keep educating myself along the way to be able to get as much information in me to be able to help others in the future.

                    II.                      Assessment:
How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?

I do not calculate well in each domain. I would say I am at a big fat zero in my physical domain. I am pretty out of shape and obese. I have cut down on my portion sizes and do eat a little more healthy; however, I still have a long way before I reach my goal size. I do like to walk and walk at least four to three days out of the week. I do know I need to step it up a little to be able to start losing more weight. I need to exercise more and add in weight training. I have in the past liked to ride a bike. Hopefully I can buy one soon and I would ride every day. That would get me to do some exercise each day. My psyche is not perfect, but needs work. I am a little depressed, nevertheless, I am working on it. I am trying meditation and surrounding myself with positive friends and family. I do rank my spirituality my highest domain though. I like peace and quiet and enjoying what the earth has to offer. Although I may rank this my highest domain, by far am I the best at it. I do need to work on this trait as well. I know I just hit the tip of the iceberg with my spirituality and need to go all the way to the bottom of the iceberg and back up again. I need to encircle the iceberg and accept he wholeness. We all want to take giant leaps, but in reality we need to take baby steps!

                 III.                      Goal development:
List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.

My one main physical goal is to exercise more and lose all this extra weight I am carrying around. My mental health goal is to meditate more and keep adding on time to master this art as best as I can. My spiritual goal is to look into each religion and learn about them and other cultures.

                 IV.                      Practices for personal health:
What strategies can you implement to foster growth in each of the following domains; Physical, Psychological, and Spiritual. Provide at least two examples of exercises or practices in each domain. Explain how you will implement each example.

I need to increase my physical activity. If I want to lose weight I need to make sure I am getting at least three hundred minutes a week of exercise, or if I like, I can do one hundred and fifty minutes of vigorous passion of exercise. Swift walking can be one exercise I could carry out as one of the regular hundred and fifty pace and jogging or running could be for the vigorous work out. I can start off with a walking program and move to a faster pace like jogging or running when I am able to reach those mile stones. Another activity I can use is jump rope. I can start at a slow pace and end up going as fast as I can in a certain amount of time. I can get creative in my way of jumping as well to make it interesting. Same with the walk/jog/run, I can go different routes. I can even jump rope down the street if I want. All of it can be added to my minutes of exercise.

To enhance my psychological alertness I can learn different ways to relieve my stress. Meditation is one big thing out there that helps with easing the mind. I can explore different types of meditations and see what works best for me and continue to do this daily a little at a time and work my way up to longer practices to keep my mind at bay. Listening to music or deep breathing is another way to sooth my mental stability. Listening to music that calms me down or listening to a CD of waves and soft instruments like the flute can help relax the mind. I can make sure I have a specific time I can do this relaxation for my mind, or I can stop where I am and take deep breaths to get a sense of slowing down.

As for my spiritual growth, I need to do a lot of research, reading and practicing to heal my inner health. I would like to learn more on other religions and cultures and how they practice inner peace and dabble in those to see how they work on me; so that, I can use it in the future for possible people that I will help along the way. Next I can perform a mantra each day and a mantra is: "A word, sound, phrase, that is repeated by someone who is praying or meditating." (Merriam Webster Dictionary) I can come up with one word or phrase a day and interpret it into my life that day somehow. For example, the word happy, I would do happy things this day for myself and others.

                   V.                      Commitment:
How will you assess your progress or lack of progress in the next six months? What strategies can you use to assist in maintaining your long-term practices for health and wellness?

I can keep a journal on-line/off-line. I can put on the calendar with monthly checks on how I am progressing. I can have a blog and post how I am doing each day on my progresses. There are many thing on-line and off-line I can use to assist in maintaining my long-term practices for my health and wellness. There are websites, notebooks, calendars, alarms, friends and family, etc. that can pertain to me maintaining my progress.

References

https://www.myctb.org/wst/npaoeval/Shared%20Documents/Guidance%20Document%201.%20Physical%20Activity.pdf

http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/mantra

Unit 8 Blog project

Complete the following and post in your blog:

1.            Review the exercises and practice sessions you have completed in this course. (Loving Kindness, Subtle mind, Visualization, meditation etc.) Choose two practices that you have determined to be most beneficial. How can you implement these practices in your personal life to foster “mental fitness”? Provide specific examples.

I think that the best practices that were most beneficial to me was the loving kindness and the visualization. The loving kindness relaxed me and set me at ease. As for the visualization, I  have always closed my eyes and see things flash behind my lids. Whether it be shapes, people or places, I always try to see it more in a clear way  like we watch TV and I usually get a head ache! Lol J I like watching images flash in and out and adding meditation to it is even better. Listening to an individual speaking and telling you to visualize an image is fun and relaxing. I do like meditation as well. It is a good way to calm down your brain. The subtle mind was satisfactory; although, I prefer the others to do before I would do that one. If I practice daily with one or more of these exercises, my mental fitness will improve dramatically to a more healthy state of mind. I would be happier, saner, more relaxed, and able to accept things better and with a happy face. I would be able to help others as well. Instead of sending negative vibes to people, I would be sending happy vibes and would not contaminate anyone with bad juju. A happy person sends of happy vibes and makes others happy as well or feel better. Stay away from the ones that are angry and send of bad vibes. It brings a person down and others can sense it as well and bring them down.

Week 7 Blog post!!! :) :) :)

Devery's Blog Post Week 7

1.                 Complete the Meeting Aesclepius mp3 (located in the Doc Sharing area). Describe your meditative practices for the week and discuss the experience. Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness. How can you continue to apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness?

I always seem to have distractions or some kind of sound in the background to disturb me on these meditations I do; so, I do not fully get to experience the true outcome of this practice. I love the background sounds of the ocean and flute playing. I think it would be interesting to get those sounds and play them on a stereo throughout the house. Even though  I did no other meditations during the week, I did close my eyes and took deep breaths to relax myself when needed. I did try to get rid of my sinus headache by pushing it out. That seemed like it was starting to work and then I had distractions as always and it did not work. I believe that meditation has increased my psychological and spiritual wellness; however I need a lot more practice. When I meditate, I feel relaxed and refreshed feeling with a clear and uplifted mind. I can continue with doing these practices more often and adding more meditation time. I can also look into different kinds of meditation on the net to keep it interesting and to expand my knowledge, health and wellness.

2.                 Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" (p.477). How does this apply to the health and wellness professional? Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not? How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?

What is meant by that saying is that if one person has not gone to that place, how can that individual take someone else there if he/she had never been there themselves? Maybe they can go together? Or see if the other individual knows the way. If I am not healthy and well, then how can I guide others into health and wellness if I do not practice what I preach? Yes you do have an obligation to your clients, because a well schooled, spiritually attained, psychologically stable, and physically fit individual can guide others that need to obtain these things as well. Schooling and practicing can help and individual grow in psychological and spiritual health.

Week 6 blog exercise

Being still and quiet always sooths me. I am relaxed and feel good. I do not think there is a problem with my interpersonal flourishing; however I can get deeper into it. I need to work on the others as well. The main one I need to work on is my biological one. My whole biological system needs a huge amount of work on it! I need to learn to eat more healthier, even though I have made changes, it does take time to get used to in a daily perspective. I have many medical problems I would like to address and work on. I also  would like to be more into my psychospiritual self. I know I need to work on my worldly in addition because I am more introverted. I have been working on that and that takes time as well. I do believe my whole self needs healing and a lot of work. I know I can improve my attitude and actions. I already know I  am becoming a better person because of the field I am working in and the degree that I am going for. I want to help and heal individuals from the inside out  and from the outside in. I must always know to make sure I take time out for to heal myself as well and make sure I am happy inside and out.

Buffy The Vampire's Spike