My Integral Health Plan

Introduction:

            It is very important that health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically because all health and wellness professionals should practice what they are trying to teach. In order to provide the best possible care for their patients’ health and wellness professionals should strive for the same goals that they would have their patients set. Plus the benefits of developing their psychological, spiritual, and physical health go far beyond personal fulfillment, it also gives the professional knowledge of how to achieve their health and wellness goals in each area; this is knowledge that can then be passed on to their patients.

                        Personally, I must make improvements in all areas of my life, psychological, spiritual, and physical. Even though I feel that I need to make improvements in all these areas I do feel that my spiritual and physical healths are in need of the most work. I hope to improve all three areas of my health by setting small goals in each area.

Assessment:

            I assessed my psychological, spiritual, and physical health by first asking myself how I felt personally about my health in each area. I needed to be honest with myself during this stage since so much of it is also based on emotion. I asked myself what I want my health to be in each area. I use journal entries to help me discover how I felt about my life in each area. To finish my assessment I used the four-quadrant integral model to help me see which of the four aspects of human flourishing I need help with the most. This model also helped me break each quadrant down into specific parts that allowed me to see what I need to work on within the quadrant. The four –quadrant integral model is divided into psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal, and worldly sections. Each section is then broken down into smaller parts. Using this model was very helpful in helping me assess my health and wellness in all areas.

            When scoring my health and wellness in spiritual, physical, and psychological health I was slightly surprised. I was not so surprised that I feel that I need a lot of work in the physical area. I have health issues that I have been struggling with for a long time. Plus I am very out of shape and pregnant at this point in time, so weight loss is not really possible for three more months. The surprise for me was that I feel that I am lacking more in my spiritual health than in my psychological health. I have struggled with depression for most of my life, but at this point in my life feel that I am doing alright. I was very surprised that I have been neglecting my spiritual health almost completely. I had not realized that I was forgetting this very important part of my life until I actually took the time to think about it.

Goal Development:

            I have decided that the best way for me to achieve better health in each area is to set small manageable goals for myself in psychological, spiritual, and physical health. My goal to help me improve my psychological health is to start meditating at least once a day for at least 20 minutes. This gives me a chance to get away from the chaos of my life and to quiet my mind for a few minutes a day. The goal I have set for myself in the spiritual area of my life is to keep a daily journal so that I can start to rediscover who I am. In the area of physical health I am going to focus on hydration and nutrition until I have the baby. My goal in the area of physical health is to make sure I drink at least 6 glasses of water a day and to eat more whole foods and eat a lot less sugar and processed foods.

Practices for personal health:

            There are many practices that can be implemented to help foster growth in physical, psychological, and spiritual health and wellness; I plan on trying many of them as I improve my health in all three areas. In the area of physical health walking is an excellent activity that can also be useful in helping to clear the mind. As soon as I am able to I plan on starting a daily walking program.  Another strategy that can be used to help improve my physical health is to make sure I am getting enough rest, especially since I will be staying up most nights with a newborn very soon. I plan on scheduling in daily down time for me and the younger children so that I can actually get a moment to rest.

Practices that I plan on using to improve my psychological health are meditation and mental imagery. Both of these practices will help me clear my mind and help me feel more centered. I plan on using meditation on a daily basis and would like to try many different types of meditation to see which one helps me the most. Mental imagery I feel is going to be a wonderful practice for me to use while I try to improve my health. I think that I will try to use mental imagery a couple times a week while I focus on improving my health.

To improve my spiritual health I plan on trying practices such as journaling and volunteer work. By keeping a daily journal will be able to reconnect with myself. The volunteer work will help me improve my spiritual health by reconnecting with others. Both of these practices, I feel, will be very helpful in improving my spiritual health.

Commitment

            Over the next six months I will continue to assess my progress by being honest with myself and by asking myself if I have noticed any improvement or decline in any of the three areas. I will also use the four-quadrant integral model every couple months to help me make regular assessments.

            Strategies that I can use to help me maintain my long-term practices for health and wellness are to keep my goals manageable, make sure I use a variety of practices so that I do not get bored, keep learning about integral health and the practices that are sued to improve health in all areas, and to keep an open mind.

References:

Dacher, Elliot S. M.D. 2006. Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Basic Health Publications, Inc.

The benefits I discoverd from the meditation exercises.

After reviewing the three exercises, Loving Kindness, Subtle Mind, and the Visualization meditations I decided that the two exercises that I found to be the most beneficial were the Subtle mind and the visualization exercise. I struggle with the Loving Kindness exercise but so not plan on giving up on it, I feel that it can be very beneficial  once I learn how to use it well.  The Subtle Mind exercise is probably the easiest for me to sue and  find it very relaxing. I struggle with a mind that is often times way to full of stuff and the Subtle Mind exercise is helping me learn how to let some of this mind clutter go. The Visualization exercise I found to be fun and slightly difficult at times, but I found the visualization to be calming as well as inspiring. Because the Visualization exercise helps me feel more inspired I like to do this mediation before attempting homework or anything that needs a little creativity and thought.

Hello, Aesclepius!

This weeks mediation exercise was "Meeting Aesclepius". I chose a peaceful time in the house to try this exercise. When I was directed to choose or create an inspiring individual I stumbled. I could not think of anyone that I wanted to use. Finally, I chose Mary the mother of Christ, or the fictional image I consider to be Mary. Having been a student in a Catholic school throughout much of my youth, Mary was a large part of my life. As a young girl I found it easier to pray to Mary since she was female as well. As I changed my direction in religion and decided on a spiritual path rather than strictly religious Mary still continued to be a part of my life as a mother figure that could understand my own issues with motherhood, as a wife, and as a woman. I will probably continue to use her as my guide in this exercise. I am hoping that as I continue these exercises I will once again improve my spiritual well being.

The saying "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” means that if an individual should not teach or advise about things that they have not experienced themselves.I believe I do have an obligation to live what I may try to teach others later.

My Integral Assessment

I practiced the Loving Kindness meditation and discovered it is starting to get easier. Maybe the fact that I finally got my laptop out of the pawn shop and can lock myself in my room away from my loving children helped me with this meditation this week. I find it funny that some of the people that I love the most can make the Loving Kindness exercise difficult for me to complete.
After completing the Integral Assessment I found it difficult to decide which part of my life needs the most help. One area I really need to focus on at this time is in the biological quadrant , nutrition, this is especially important while I am pregnant and because I have diseases that affect my nutrition. In order to improve my nutrition I will make sure I take my vitamins everyday, drink more water and add more fresh fruits and vegetables to my daily diet. In the Interpersonal quadrant I need to work on my connections with my family, I have been quite distant with my husband and children lately and am not sure why, maybe hormonal mood swings. I do not like feeling this way and want to work on improving my relationship with all of them. My plan for making changes in this area is to take time to listen to each one of them everyday, make Sundays our family day again, and eat more meals at the table together. These are the areas that I will start with as I begin to make changes I will add more in the other quadrants of my life.

The subtle mind exercise

I really enjoyed the Subtle Mind exercise, I think I liked it more than the Loving Kindness exercise. They both have their benefits but I found the Subtle Mind exercise to be more calming personally. Being able to let my thoughts go is a much needed exercise.

I feel that the connection between spiritual, mental, and physical wellness is very important. I believe that many of the issues that I am having in my life are due to the fact that I have neglected manya reas of my mental, spiritual and biological health for a long time. It is definitely time to make some changes in my life.

Loving kindness... I could do this again.

I have to admit that once again I struggled with this weeks exercise, the Loving Kindness meditation. It was not the exercise that caused me trouble, just everything else going on in my life. I wish I had a pause button for everything else that is going on so that I can focus on one thing at a time. I really enjoyed the meditation when I finally got a chance to really try it. The sound effects in the background were very soothing and helped with the exercise. I would definitely recommend this exercise to others; besides who couldn't use  a
little loving kindness in their lives.
One of this weeks questions is "What is the concept of a mental workout?". The concept of a mental workout is to take time each day, just as one would for another exercise, to focus on the inner mind. A mental workout is a time to let go of the stresses of everyday life, to sit with a quiet mind  and focus on the workings of the inner mind. Research indicates that the benefits of a Mental Workout are improved health, control of emotions,  and reduced stress levels. I can use Mental workouts in my day to day life to help me improve my health and wellness. I could definitely use it to help me cope with stress.

Self Reflections and Goals

This weeks blog assignment asks us to asses our optimal well-being in three areas, physical well-being, spiritual well-being, and psychological well-being. After thinking about my life in each of these areas I realize I need to do some serious work in each one. Over the last few years life has become very difficult, and the past few months have been some of the hardest. I have suffered a great deal physically,spiritually, and psychologically. On a scale of 1-10 with ten being optimal well-being I would rate my physical well-being at a 3, spiritual well-being a 2, and my psychological well-being a 4.
 I gave my physical well-being a score of 3 because I am currently 5 months pregnant with my fourth child at the age of 37. My nurse told me that as pregnancies go I am considered elderly. I swear after I was given that information I discovered two white hairs had popped up on my head. This pregnancy has been very difficult so far. The first four months I suffered from all day "morning sickness". In my fourth month I started to have horrible back pain and contractions. I have also suffered from extreme headaches since the beginning. Even though I have felt awful the baby is doing great so I count my blessings and keep on going. During my second month of this pregnancy my doctor told me that my prolactin levels are too high, even for a pregnancy. She told me I should have never been able to get pregnant with such high levels and she recommends that I see a specialist as soon as I have the baby. High prolactin levels can occur if there is a tumor on the pituitary gland. Usually the tumors are benign. Still I am scared. What if I do have a tumor on my pituitary gland? Then I will not be able to breastfeed the baby and will have to go on medicine or have surgery. What if the tumor is cancerous? What do I do? How can I be a mother to three children and a newborn and battle an illness possibly fight for my life? Too many questions and no answers. I ma hoping that after the baby is born I will discover that everything is alright and can make the changes in my life that will improve my physical well-being.
My Spiritual well-being received a score of two. I considered giving it a score of 1 at first but because I still have hope and am still trying I decided a 2 would be fine. I have felt spiritually blocked for sometime now. I gave up on religion a long time ago. I discovered that religion and spirituality were not the same thing when I realized that I was using the religion that I chose to follow to punish myself. After trying a few different religious paths I decided to continue my life on a spiritual path rather than a religious path. I am not saying that religion is bad and for many people it is right for them and helps them grow spiritually, but it did not work for me. About three years ago I began to lose touch with my spirituality. I was pregnant with our third child, my grandmother passed away, my husbands job had cutbacks and our income dropped drastically, we lost our house and our cars,and had to move to a city that I hated. Life got hard and crazy. My eldest son was attacked by a man that tried to kill him, he developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and  tried to kill himself, we moved back to a small town hoping it would help our son and our family heal. Two weeks after moving into our new home my husband lost his job, I found out that I was pregnant with our fourth child, and my husband's former company decided to fight his unemployment. We went over 10 weeks without any money, had to get food from a local food bank, almost lost our new home, and had to beg family and friends for help. Throughout all of this I forgot how to live spiritually, I just felt the need to survive.Right now I feel spiritually blocked, I am afraid that if I pull the plug  that I will be unable to control the flood of emotions and tears that are sure to follow.
My psychological well-being received a higher score than my physical and spiritual well-being because I feel that after everything I have been through it could be worse. My psychological well-being received a score of 4, not a great score but not the lowest either. Life has been stressful, hard, and depressing, but everyday that I was able to get out of bed and move forward was a good day. Even though times have been hard I have not sunk into depression. I have battled depression throughout my life so I am very surprised that I have not been overcome with it at this time. I think my psychological health is a bit better because I always hoped things would get better and I knew I had to keep things going for my family, there was no time for feeling sorry for myself when I have had so many relying on me to keep the pieces together.

Now I am suppose to develop goals in each area, physical, spiritual, and psychological. I am going to set small reachable goals for each area and plan to continue building on these goals over time. To improve my physical well-being the goal I am setting is to add more physical activity to my life. My goal for spiritual well-being is to reconnect with myself. My goal for psychological well being is to face my emotions.

I plan on reaching each of these goals by using specific exercises and activities. To help me reach my goal for physical well being I will start walking or doing Tai-chi for at least 20 minutes a day. These exercises are safe for me to do while pregnant and can also help me relieve stress.To help me reach my spiritual goal I plan on taking at least fifteen minutes a day to be by myself. During this time I can enjoy the silence and take some time to reconnect with myself. To help improve my psychological well being I will start keeping a journal, this exercise will help me put my feelings down on paper and provide a much needed release as well as insight.

I went to the link for this weeks exercise Crime of the Century, once there the only thing I found was the Rainbow Meditation so I am hoping this was the right exercise. I had an easier time doing this weeks exercise. The house was much quieter and the kids were cooperating. I found the meditation very interesting and loved the use of colors. I noticed that as I focused on each area that the area actually felt warm. I thought it was funny that while I was focusing on the heart area for giving love that I focused on my husband and he actually called me at that time. I felt very relaxed after this exercise. I have to admit I did not feel more energized though definitely relaxed and tired.