Unit 10 Final Blog. My Thoughts:

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? Looking back on my responses in Unit 3, I scored myself an overall score of about 8. Physical wellbeing received a score of 10.Psychologica wellbeing; I scored myself as “9”. Now, I am experiencing a personal crisis and the midst of this, I have to continue doing classwork; and remind myself that these three areas are important in my life. I notice that my spiritual wellbeing was a 10 at the time Unit 3 was completed and it’s now a “10”. I am depending on my spiritual wellbeing to get me through this personal crisis.

2.        Review the goals and activities you set for yourself in each area. Have you made progress toward the goals? Explain. I have made progress towards all areas. Again, in the area of spiritual wellbeing, I made the most progress. I have more peace inside me when I encounter issues.  My Physical wellbeing temporary slipped, due to my personal crisis. But, I decided to get back in the swing of things. I have had to start from scratch again, walking slowly and stretching. Opposed to my usual walking/run and weight lifting routine. But I feel better now that I have started eating better again. My Psychological wellbeing has diminished a bit. In Unit 3 I scored myself as a “9”. Now, in Unit 10, because I have experienced a loss, I score myself at 6. I am more cautious and weary. I am careful of my feelings. Sometimes they’re under control, other times, they are erratic. Trying to keep my thoughts positive seems to be a challenge. Because of this, I look more to my spiritual wellbeing for help.

3.        Have you implemented the activities you chose for your well-being in each of the three areas? Explain. I have implemented the activities I set before for my wellbeing, with some adjustments. I still spend time getting closer to God in my spiritual life. This gives me balance.  Physically I am making more progress. Psychologically I have decided to speak to a Christian counselor. I have also expressed, I would attend some seminar to help me in the areas of spiritual or in

 

the mind. I have completed one seminar about keeping my mind stronger.

4.        Summarize your personal experience throughout this course. Have you developed improved well-being? In this course I had the chance to actually look at my feelings, thoughts and actions. I was able to see where I stood in terms of health in every area of my life. I learned that I have several areas to fix and improve. I found out that I am better in some areas that I would not have thought I would be.  What has been rewarding? What has been rewarding was learning relaxation techniques to help me stay calm and see things in a better perspective.  I can use what I have learned in this class in my daily life. What has been difficult? Difficult was learning to be calm to center myself enough to relax. Even though I knew I had to relax, it's just something I am not used to doing. How will this experience improve your ability to assist others? Now, I can assist others, because I can understand the turmoil some people must go through. I’ll be better able to look at what they are saying and help them, instead of just hearing what they’re saying, I will be able to focus and give some solutions.

Gail Pinkard-Rudolph

HW240-02 Project Unit 9

Aug, 03 2013

I.               Introduction :

IT is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically to be able to help a person heal in all areas.  They should be psychologically developed so they can enrich other people’s lives with understanding positive ideals in life. They should be spiritually developed to help some people realize they can heal and they can rely on a higher power, or simply other help then they can provide. A professional should also be spiritually developed for times when people they help, reach a time in their lives when they may eventually die. They should be physically developed, not in the sense of being a fitness guru, but in a way they are able to motivate someone else to become physically fit. Also, they will need the stamina to be able; to handle the issues of another person. A body that’s exercise will be able to withstand more than the body that’s not prepared. Physically fit people have little stress.

 

The areas I need to develop to complete my goals are exercise. I work out, but I have a reoccurring injury, that’s becoming persistent and wants to limit my activity. I still attempt to so more, so I do not become complacent and give in to injuries. Without much exercise I experience more stress.

I am always working to develop myself more spiritually. I believe God exists. Other people have their idea of who god is and what. In order to be certain I feel you should have a relationship with God, to do that, I must develop more spiritually. When I am seeking to be better spiritually, I experience stress, no worries and am able to feel for people more.

 

II.                  Assessment:

Assessing myself in these domains I find that I can certainly improve in several areas. I also realized that I was stronger in some areas; I thought I had no knowledge of. I am able to understand spiritual concerns some people may have and at times I find I am able to help them with solutions. I find that the areas in terms of letting people find out for themselves the results in issues, I seem to want to offer more help than they are ready to accept at that time. I score myself out of a 10, around a 5. I can do better.

 

III.                Goal development:

Well, Physically I want to be at a lower weight. Not because I want to be super skinny, but because I feel better when I do not carry so much weight. My body is less sore and less weak. Psychologically I have a goal of having a more appositive attitude toward things in life. I start off having the right attitude and then something or someone make me mad and then there goes my positive ness. If I can learn to maintain that good disposition, even though I am upset, I can improve more. Spiritually I would say the same things as I said above in Numeral II. I would like to become closer and deeper in a spiritual walk, where I don’t rely on just this life to sustain me, but my spiritual life in God.

 

 

IV.                Practices for personal health:

To foster growth physically I have created for myself a workout schedule to gradually get myself back up to a level that I can be satisfied with. My schedule starts with a walk around the neighborhood for about 10 minutes, and then I do some different types of exercise on the weight machine in the garage. Psychologically, I have said I will start to attending some seminars given about the mind and maybe developing a better mental health. The hospital near me, gives seminars at times. Maybe, I can gain more insight from these and get more understanding. Spiritually, there are seminars that are given by people at church. There are some I am interested in attending about the connection between dreams. I believe we get messages from God in our dreams, which can help us develop spiritually.

 

V.                  Commitment:

Assessing progress in the six months can be seen by how people say I help them. They will either be pleased or unhappy. I think other people are better judges of other progress. I will be watching my attitudes in things to see how much I have progressed. Hopefully, I will impress myself, by learning to add spiritual issues, physical exercise to the world’s view of how I should help people. In six months I hope to have a better grasp of everything in this book we have read in this class.

 

For me it's the Loving-kindness and Subtle practices :)

Your Blog

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 believe the subtle mind and the loving-kindness practices helped me more. From the subtle mind practice I am still learning to put my mind in perspective. I think that my mind has become a little more rested and stable since I have tried to incorporate the techniques of the subtle mind. I try to remember to do the breathing exercises, if not daily then sometime in the week. I do feel better. Things become clearer. I prefer the loving-kindness because it helps to remember to consider the feelings and lives of other people than myself first. Too much of the world had no concern for tier fellow neighbor. So, I choose to think of others more so. I think of my dada in this exercise a lot. The feelings I felt for my dad and wanting him to be better in health. I learn to use these feelings for others. Fostering these practices into my life will remove mental fitness by helping me to concentrate more. Exercises to calm my mind like Tai Chi and yoga will help me. I tried yoga, but it was difficult. I’m going to find another exercise.

 

Blog and Aesclepius

     

Complete the following and post in your blog:

1.        Complete the Meeting Aesclepius mp3 (located in the Doc Sharing area). Describe your meditative practices for the week and discuss the experience. My meditative practices for the week are the same each week. This week however, mediating seemed welcoming. I had a lot of unwanted stress and the meditative experience was needed. I have tried to remind myself to calm down when an issue presents itself. I am thinking more rationally, instead of first becoming upset. I took the time to separate myself from the issues and find a calming moment first, which helped stay focused. Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness. Meditation has fostered a spiritual wellness by helping me listen. How can you continue to apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness? Even though I have spiritual time set aside daily, taking on these techniques to teach myself to remain calm, helps alleviate stress, so my health becomes better. There are fewer headaches and fewer semi-panic attacks. I just learn to relax.

2.        Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" (p.477). This saying means that just because you are familiar with the territory, does not mean a person knows how to find their way around. This goes for personal issues as well. People assume they have about a person or their issues, because they are familiar with the person or the information given, but that doesn’t not mean they understand what that person is going through or what the situation is, unless they themselves have been through that very thing. How does this apply to the health and wellness professional? It is more important for the health and wellness professional to acknowledge this. Many professionals feel because they have the knowledge of something, they understand the ends and outs. Not so. They become almost robotic, and acting on that info alone can, really set back a patient struggling to have someone shoe compassion. Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not? No. If they will grow in wisdom and become better people, developing these things will be needed for them. How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?

Gail Pinkard-Rudolph

mp3 (located in the Doc Sharing area). Describe your meditative practices for the week and discuss the experience. My meditative practices for the week are the same each week. This week however, mediating seemed welcoming. I had a lot of unwanted stress and the meditative experience was needed. I have tried to remind myself to calm down when an issue presents itself. I am thinking more rationally, instead of first becoming upset. I took the time to separate myself from the issues and find a calming moment first, which helped stay focused. Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness. Meditation has fostered a spiritual wellness by helping me listen. How can you continue to apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness? Even though I have spiritual time set aside daily, taking on these techniques to teach myself to remain calm, helps alleviate stress, so my health becomes better. There are fewer headaches and fewer semi-panic attacks. I just learn to relax.

2.        Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" (p.477). This saying means that just because you are familiar with the territory, does not mean a person knows how to find their way around. This goes for personal issues as well. People assume they have about a person or their issues, because they are familiar with the person or the information given, but that doesn’t not mean they understand what that person is going through or what the situation is, unless they themselves have been through that very thing. How does this apply to the health and wellness professional? It is more important for the health and wellness professional to acknowledge this. Many professionals feel because they have the knowledge of something, they understand the ends and outs. Not so. They become almost robotic, and acting on that info alone can, really set back a patient struggling to have someone shoe compassion. Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not? No. If they will grow in wisdom and become better people, developing these things will be needed for them. How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?

Gail Pinkard-Rudolph

Unit 6 Assessment

1.        Practice the universal Loving Kindness (meditation) exercise on p. 93.

2.        Complete the Integral Assessment discussed in chapter 11 (p.115).

3.        Describe the exercise and assessment process. What did you discover about yourself? What area have you chosen to be a focus of growth and development? Why? What are some specific exercises or activities that you can implement to foster greater wellness in this area?

The exercise and assessment process as another relaxation exercise to look into myself and ask questions about my current life’s goals and my future goals. Its focus is to help me move forward to another level of higher thinking. I discovered that I have moved forward in areas that I had prepared for myself in the past. I have accomplishment the goal of being in a place mentally that I was striving to get to. I realized that I have reached this area, but I have some other areas to cover to attain a more complete goal. I have chosen my thinking to be a focus of growth and development. In the last unit I learned why when I got into deep thought ,other weird thoughts would pop in my mind, It would make me think I was not being focused or serious. So, the area in this unit that I’m focusing on changing is my thought process. It will take practice. To improve this area I can began doing brain games. I do this now.

Subtle Mind Unit 5

Your mental fitness practice this week incorporates the concept of the subtle mind (Dacher p.75). This week, replace the Loving Kindness exercise of unit four with Practice 2: The Subtle Mind practice mp3 (located in the Doc Sharing thread).

1.        Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc., I have a different understanding of this Subtle mind exercises. When I listen to the loving kindness exercise, I thought it was boring. The waves irritated me, but in all truth, I am viewing this exercise in the same way except for one thing. I didn't think it was boring. There were waves. But this time, I focused on the waves and really tried to relax. I imagined myself and my husband with my 2 dogs at the beach. Oddly it was different. Maybe because I had other issues going at that time, I wasn't fully focused as I thought I had been. Also, a fellow classmate pointed out in the last loving kindness exercise that although I got nothing out of it, that someone else may have and I could use it to help them. But this time, It did help me. I needed to relax today. A lot went on this week. I am glad to have had a chance to rest in the Subtle mind exercise. I even thought the slight flute music was calming. The person talking was ok, just too much. Speak and be done. The voice interrupted my thoughts of meditation on the beach.  

2.        Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life. I try and stay close in my spiritual walk with God. The spiritual wellness in a person spirit has to be in order, for the mental and physical wellness to occur. The spiritual wellness is the starting point for mental and physical wellness.There's more peace and wisdom involved. You have a background to fall on when considering issues that plague the mind.

Gail Pinkard-Rudolph

Upon completion of reading chapter 6, review the section ‘Getting Started’ (p.66). Begin practice 1: Listen to the Introduction mp3 and Loving Kindness mp3 (both located in Doc Sharing). Practice the Loving Kindness exercise this week. In your journal (blog), record your reaction to the exercise.

Answer each of the following in your blog:

 

Unit 4 Blog-Relaxation / Loving Kindness

 

1.      Describe your experience. Did you find it beneficial? Difficult? Why or why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or why not? I did not find the relaxation exercise (Loving kindness exercise) beneficial because it bored me to hear the constant sound of the same voice and the waves were a bit distracting, almost like static. Maybe if there was a little music involved it would set the tone to focus better. Although I did try and imagine myself at the ocean with the waves this was ok, but sill maybe some bird sounds would help. I would not recommend this to another person. 

 

2. What is the concept of "mental workout"? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a mental workout? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health? The concept of a mental workout is using other motivating steps to encourage your mental thoughts to be balanced by medicating and concentrating to focus the mind. To foster your psychological health I would take part in mental trips. Such as relaxation techniques designed to focus at the mind and center the thoughts or deep breathing exercises. Another way I foster my psychological health is I listen to a CD my doctor at the Veterans Hospital gave me along time ago. It is used to help you completely relax. It has all sorts of bird, ocean and waterfall sounds in it. I had to take a health class a long time ago that was suppose to help me sleep better and feel less angry. It works at times. It also helps you to regulate your sleep. http://www.columbiamo.va.gov/services/Relaxation_Recordings.asp