Unit 9 Final Project

Introduction

            Being a health and wellness professional is not an easy profession. There are many different aspects to health and wellness in which professionals working within the field must be knowledgeable. However, being successful in the profession does not stop at only having the knowledge; one must practice what they teach. In regard to psychological, spiritual, and physical development, a health and wellness professional must seek to develop each aspect within themselves. I can best illustrate this point with a hypothetical example. Say a health and wellness professional gave their client nutritional counseling on Monday morning. Later that night, both the professional and client unknowingly went to the same restaurant. If the client sees their coach eating a big, high calorie, high saturated fat meal, they would most likely wonder why they would have to eat something that was healthy if their coach obviously did not hold themselves to the same standard. This would inevitably result in a loss of credibility on the health and wellness professionals behalf.

            As a student soon to be entering the health and wellness field, I must hold myself to the same standards I will hold my future clients. In order to do that there are some areas in which I must further develop. Physically I am where I want to be. I exercise daily and eat nutritiously. Psychologically and spiritually is where I must seek improvement. Specifically, I need to maintain the meditation that I have started from this class. I should try to meditate at least once a week for 30 minutes, and eventually increase the frequency of which I meditate.

            Even more important than developing psychologically, I must focus first and foremost on developing spiritually. My goal for achieving that is simple—read my Bible and pray every day without exception. That simple daily task would help me develop spiritually and get me on the right path.

Assessment

            Assessing oneself is not always an easy thing to do, yet it is important in order to maintain forward progress. This section calls for my personal assessment of the three health domains discussed in the introduction—spiritual, physical, and psychological.

I am not where I want to be spirituality; therefore, I give myself a rating of 5 on scale of 1 to 10 (10 being no improvement needed). Like I stated above, reading my Bible and spending time in prayer daily would greatly increase my rating.

I also have quite a bit of room to improve psychologically as well. Once again on a scale of 1 to 10, I give myself a rating of 7. What causes me to stumble the most psychologically is stress management. More to come on that in a little bit.

Saving the best rating for last, my physical health domain requires the least improvement. I give myself a rating of 9 in this category. My current exercise and nutrition habits are great. I attend the gym 5 days a week and eat very nutritiously during the work week. However, on the weekend I do tend to overeat and make poor food choices which is where I could make improvements.

Goal Development

            I did not assess myself at a rating of 10 in either of the three categories—spiritual, psychological, or physical. Therefore, I must establish a goal for myself in an attempt fully develop each area. I will start with the spiritual domain because that is the area needing the most improvement.

            I have already stated that reading my Bible and praying daily would greatly benefit me spiritually. Although this is a great first step, there are other ways in which I could develop spirituality. VibrantLife.com posted an article listing 21 ways to build a stronger spiritual life. Some of the ways that stood out to me included: speak words of blessing, be a grateful person, serve others, turn worries over to God, spread love wherever you go, and meditate on scripture (21 Ways, 2010). Aside from my goal of reading my Bible and praying daily, I would like to set a goal of incorporating each of the activities listed above on a daily basis.

            When it comes to developing psychologically, my biggest hurdle as I mentioned earlier is stress management. I can deal with most types of stress easily and efficiently, but when it comes to one particular type of stress I struggle a great deal. That type of stress is not knowing what I am going to do after I get out of the military. I have several ideas of what I could do, but I cannot decide which one I want to pursue. My goal to deal with this stressor and in turn develop psychologically is to adapt to the stressor. This strategy entails reframing the problem, looking at the big picture, adjusting my standards, and focusing on the positive (Smith & Segal, 2014). Using these techniques each time the stressor manifests itself will help mitigate my stress response from this stressor, as well as giving me practice for dealing with future stressors.

            And finally, while my physical domain of health and wellness is already in order, there is room for improvement. On the weekend I have a tendency to overeat and choose foods containing a lot of empty calories. Although incorporating a diet “cheat day” is not a bad thing, I have had a goal for some time now to lower my calorie intake and choose more nutrient dense foods on the weekend. This will help my stay on track physically instead of undermining the progress I made the previous week.

Practices for Personal Health

            Goals are great to have, but without an action plan a goal will never be realized. This section is about strategies I can implement in each of the three health domains that will foster growth.

            There are many different forms of physical exercise. I am primarily a strength athlete and focus on resistance training while incorporating only a small amount of aerobic activity. In order to balance out my workout regimen, I should implement more aerobic activities. Since I get bored easily while running, using the elliptical, and using the stationary bike, I need to get more creative. Kayaking is not only a good aerobic workout, but it is a lot of fun. Incorporating Kayaking into my workout schedule is one way to foster greater physical growth.

            A second exercise I could implement in my workout routine is yoga. I have done yoga a handful of times in the past and found it very challenging. Challenging my body with new exercises is a great way to continually develop my physical fitness.

            When it comes to fostering psychological health, there are several exercises one can perform. The best way in my opinion to foster psychological health is to practice meditation. Since starting this class I have tried several different types of meditation and guided imagery and enjoyed most of them. Continuing to practice meditation will help foster my psychological growth.

            Another practice I could implement to further my psychological health is positive self-talk. This is not something I normally do and in the past I even degraded myself. Although I have stopped that harmful habit, I have not incorporated positive self-talk on a regular basis. This practice would help boost my self-esteem and my attitude leading to greater psychological growth and development.

            The final domain is the spiritual domain. This is currently the domain in most need of growth. Aside from reading my Bible and praying daily which I have already mentioned several times, another way in which I could develop my spiritual health is by associating with other individuals of my faith. My church has small groups I could join which would keep me accountable as well as further my spiritual development.

            Another practice I could adopt which would lead to greater spiritual development is allowing God to take control. I have always tried to control situations even though I know that God is truly in control. Letting go of my need to control and letting God lead me down the path he has already planned for me would be difficult, but I think it would lead to greater spiritual growth by forcing me to become more trusting in God.

Commitment

            Changing one’s practices can be very difficult in some cases. In the case of fostering greater spiritual, psychological, and physical development, I do not think change will be exceedingly difficult. However, I still need to implement some way of monitoring my progress or lack of progress. The best way I can think of is starting a journal. When it comes to my spiritual development I could write down what passage in the Bible I read, my biggest take away, and what I learned from the passage. I could also record what I prayed for.

            When it comes to tracking my physiological development, I could chronicle each time I meditate. Indicating the amount of time, what I meditated on, and my feelings before and after would be a good place to start. If I felt the need to record additional information I could do that as well.

            And finally, my physical development will be the easiest for me to document because I have done so in the past. Because improving my dietary habits on the weekends will be my main goal, I could detail everything I eat. That would give me a sense of how many calories I am eating and the best way I could improve. In addition to my weekend diet, I could also record what form of exercise I completed each day. That would give me an idea of when the best time would be to implement activates mentioned above such as kayaking and yoga.

Conclusion
             Personal growth is something we all should be striving for daily. James Freeman Clarke famously said, “We are either progressing or retrograding all the while. There is no such thing as remaining stationary in life.” That means failure to progress is simply failure. This assignment has clearly demonstrated which areas in my life I need to develop, the actions I must take to develop, and how to monitor my development. It is up to me to observe these prescribed changes and better myself spiritually, psychologically, and physically. 

References

21 ways to build a stronger spiritual life. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.vibrantlife.com/?p=199

Smith, M. & Segal, R. (2014). Stress management. Retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_management_relief_coping.htm

Unit 8: Exercise Review

Throughout this course, we have listened several different types of guided meditation sessions. At the beginning of the class I was skeptical about these sessions and did not think they would serve their purpose. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The session I enjoyed the most and found most beneficial was the very first exercise we did, the power of suggestion. It was the exercise in which we envisioned our blood flowing to specific regions of our bodies. I really enjoyed this exercise because I could feel the physiological effects of the meditation (my hands were warmer after the session and my arms were heavier when I envisioned blood flowing into them). 

My other favorite exercise was the subtle mind exercise. Although I did have a little trouble quieting my mind at times throughout the session, I did feel much more relaxed after the session was over. One of the things I found most enjoyable about this session was the sound of the waves crashing. Having my breathing to concentrate on was also soothing. 

I could use these meditation techniques in my personal life in a variety of ways. For example, I could the subtle mind exercise before I go to sleep. That would be a good way to quiet my mind and help me fall asleep quicker. I could use the power of suggestion exercise when I get overwhelmed at work. Taking a few minutes to focus on something other than work would help reduce stress and make me more productive when I returned to work.