Even with no changes I still feel that there was improvement - but maybe changes will come after the holiday season.

In the unit 3 blog I made the following assessments of my wellbeing – physical - 5, mental – 7 and spiritual – 5.  While there are certain times of the year that are better for certain areas of my life the short period of my life that has been this class has helped bring up the changes, but the stresses of this time of year are bringing it down to make there no real change.  After the holiday season when the idea is not so pressed to make everyone happy this will have a dramatic increase in my wellbeing, I can change the focus from meeting society’s view of what I should be doing to the things that make me feel fulfilled and bring more positive to my life. 

The goals are going to remain the same with the emphasis being on the physical first; since, there are so many built in areas that are affected by the improvement in the physical area of life I can help with the mental side and the spiritual as well.  Giving myself more time to be unplugged or in a mind calming state each and every time I allow myself to engage in physical activates. 

At this state I have not implemented the changes since the kids are out of school and home with me all day long.  We are however going to explore the area we live in on our bikes and hikes to help with getting them out and moving like they do during the school day.  This will also give me a time to spend out of the house and the things that I am constantly being reminded I need to do – laundry, cleaning, improvements, Christmas cards, wrapping gifts and figuring out what to do for others. 

This course has allowed me to explore the connection of the mind, body and spirit with a better understanding of what will benefit me the most.  And, while I was not helped by all the practices we engaged in there were people who explained what helped them during the class, which I can understand better and use to help my clients, family, friends and patients in the future. 

Coming to the end of a evolution in the class and personal life.

I. Introduction:

For those people working the health and wellness professionals the need and ability to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically is important because, if we are not going to know the roadblocks that our client are not going to come up against then we cannot help them.  By developing our own mental, physical and spiritual links then we can help clients/patients overcome and explore new and different ways to create a better way of living leading to a more balanced lifestyle that can become a habit.

My life is ever changing just like others in the military life, so there are going to times when I need to stop all exercises and practices due to moving or military deployments.  This happened when I moved from Miami to Colorado Springs last spring, my exercise routine went out the door and I was pushed into a new area that was not as close to the gym as I was before.  Since that time I have included more walking than before, the next step is getting back to a gym in the area for strength training.  The classes I am taking are helping with the psychological training and personal growth, there are also the time I get to spend looking out at the scenery here – mountain, open plains and the amazing sky.  Each afternoon that I walk to get my kids from school there are these amazing clouds and I feel as if I could just reach up and feel their coolness and peace floating up above. 

II. Assessment:

There are so many ways to think the best is there but in truth there are so many things that can change on a daily basis.  My wellness spiritually needs improvement, but being a mother of two young kids as well as a military spouse there are things that are not allowing me to improve – time is a huge one.  My wellness physically is in need of improvement also, by adding more strength training and intense cardio to the daily routine I can pull it up to a better level.  Finally my wellness psychologically is good there are things that test me each and every day, but overall my ability to reduce or deflect stress is great.  Using techniques that can flush out the negative thoughts, feelings and emotions in everyday life and in the long run increasing the positive lifestyle I want to live.

III. Goal development:

I would love to have specific goals for each but in truth the goals I really want to accomplish are creating a healthier habit lifestyle.  Moving the desires of working out, meditation and increasing the knowledge of different beliefs from the things I would like to do to a habit I feel like are not a chore on a daily basis.

IV. Practices for personal health:

Taking little steps and knowing that there are areas that I am going to fall down on is a must.  To be able to accomplish the things I want – strength training for exercise, meditation for mental and learning more about religions for the spiritual side.  For the physical domain I need to have a person that relies on me for their motivation for exercise; as well as a place that I can deem as only for exercise.  Trying to do it here in the house I find that other things that I think are more important become my focus and I end up not sweating to the oldies.  For the psychological domain I need to continue learning exploring the path that of health and wellness, these classes not only teach me how to develop to be a more open and balanced person; but I get to teach and explain to others that there are ways to help improve their daily lives.  One thing that is not to well known is that when a healthcare professional helps others it can in turn help the provider as well looking at fixes for possible problems in their personal lives as well.  Lastly the spiritual domain is the most personal since there are so many way to connect spiritually for people.  The concept of organized religion is the most common; yet connection to nature for others is a great way to discover or expand their link to the spiritual side.  I the past I have seen and been part of the ways in which organized religion has included nature in their practices – water, open air  meetings and the sounds of the trees and wind have played the most common ones I can remember. 

            I want to be able to spend more time outside exercising which would allow me to cover all the domains at one time.  Giving me the ability to have the quiet time needed for mediation, exercise to improve my health and strength and the time for connecting to nature.  Walking my kids to school is the best way so far I have found to do this; but, in this area there other things that are easily assessable – biking, hiking, running or rock climbing can also accomplish the same things as walking the kids to school. 

V. Commitment:

Assessing my progress or lack of progress in the next six months will be easy since there are indicators that I can use as makers – toner body, weight-loss, clearer mind, calmer moments with the kids and learning and teaching my children more about the spiritual world.  If I can use my children to help me move the change to my lifestyle from a new thing to a habit I will be able to make it long term since they are not the ones to think that life get in to the way as an adult would. 

 

Some of the mindfulness practices have helped me understand the life I have is amazing and wonderful.

Of all the mindfulness exercise we have practiced in this class the visualization and subtle mind have been the ones I have benefited from the most.  With the subtle mind exercise I have gained the ability to clear my mind and create a more quiet moment;  which has allowed me the ability to listen to my body and help me understand why I am having certain problem in the physical areas of my life.  The visualization has helped me remember and align my day with the things I need to get done - by using visualization in the morning I can map out my day by visualizing myself performing certain actives while not forcing them to be in a certain order or time. 

With the daily use of these practices I can help to create links between my mind, body and spiritual side that can help when I need to find better ways to help cope or find a solution to problems that are presented in my life.  These practices are also the ones that allow me time to relax and enjoy the amazing life I do have.

This week I used a lot of breathing and reading as a form of meditative practices.  I did complete the exercise meeting Aesclepius and for some unknown reason the idea of having a light burst from a person just kills the ability to quiet my mind.  Instead I see them in pain or about to explode and therefore can’t seem to focus on anything but the impending mess that I will have to clean up.  Another thing I had a problem with in this exercise is the idea that I need to become more like another person instead of clarifying and understanding the love, peace and knowledge within my mind.  While I do gain knowledge from the people I see as mentors; there are only parts of them that I want to understand and digest to help me with my personal path.  I did not enjoy this weeks practice. 

The phrase "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" is very simple to me – without living out a full life of failures and achievements you can’t assist others on their journey.  This should be a motto for those in the health and wellness profession; because, without the failures of ourselves we cannot truly understand the struggles of our clients, patients, family or friends.  Since the idea of integral healing is to evolve oneself in all facets of life, all healthcare professionals should work on themselves instead of being stuck in place and making choices for others without truly understanding the problems that can be in their way on their healing path.  As life progresses our meditation practices are going to change and this acceptance of the change allows people to explore several different types of practices that will expand growth in the psychological and spiritual areas of our personal lives. 

Even with meditation we need checks to help us balance

The exercise for loving kindness was so much better than the guided meditation of earlier in the semester.  This form of meditation was not one that made me feel like I was being crushed by the pain and stresses of others.   Instead the stead chant and relaxed feeling of the meditation exercise was easy and I was able to practice it anyplace I went.  The Integral Assessment we did in chapter 11 helped to feel ease the causes of stressors, by looking at our lives and the areas that could be causing disconnect in the mind-body connection.  By listening taking the time to listen to the body and allowing the mind to flush out the toxins or blocks in words I was able to get a better understanding of limits I had from the areas of life.  The areas that I have chosen for growth and development is the areas of fitness and nutrition; since these are the areas that I neglect most with the when trying to juggle a families schedule.  As a stay at home Mom I get to be the first one people go to with short notice things to do, taking away the time I might have set aside for making dinner or exercising.  By writing down the time on a calendar and making it known to my family I am going to exercise I have some one that check me on whether or not I accomplished it for the day.  Having an exercise buddy is also a great way to have a check system in place. 

Our wellness is like a stool without more legs we can't balance.

This mental exercise was very mind opening and helpful.  Unlike the loving kindness exercise I was able to use the exercise to gain the ability to feel accomplished afterwards; the loving kindness exercise was very heavy and did not allow me to explore the abilities I have within myself. 

I am a stay at home mom and most of my day is spent taking care of the house; others and making sure all schedules are met, followed and fit into each other.  Not having the time to help myself as well as my family I don’t get the chance to stop and enjoy my family, life and health.  By adding the spiritual wellness into the plan to improve my health both mental and physical I can create another leg to the stool I use to balance my life – and we all know that more legs on a stool help to create balance that is natural and not stressful.

The negative emotions of other overwhelmed my ability to open to Loving Kindness

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:

The Loving Kindness mp3 was a rather hard thing to get through for me.  The relaxed breathing was easy and relaxing, but the idea of breathing in the dark emotions and pain of other was heavy on my body and started making it hard to breath.  I wanted to fix it all and help them on the physical side; instead of being able to help them and fix I was over whelmed and found it hard to breathe.  For those that are not influenced by the emotions of other this might be a great exercise, for me personally this exercise was difficult.  Every day I am with children (my own and the neighborhood kids) they are always looking to me for ways to help with lifting their spirits and keeping their emotions positive for me this is easy since I can see the results in the end.  This exercise; however, did not allow me to see an improvement in the end instead I was imaging them in a happier place when in reality there are those that I know that would not be happier no matter what (negative Nellie’s).

The idea or concept of a mental workout for me is expanding and understanding our relationship between the physical and mental links of the body.  Long before the research was around the idea and proof that mental workout helped improve lives was valid and needed.  Today the idea of needing research to prove the idea of a mental workout is beneficial helps those that are not able work on the mind-body links.  For those that are more open to the idea of the links the research is not really needed.  Mental workouts are a great ways to foster the growth and understanding of a person psychological health – we are able to not only understand the reasons we are in pain (physically and/or emotionally) but in certain cases we are able to expel the pain and causes with the mental exercises. 

 

Color in meditation make me nervous

I started the relaxation exercise and it started off great, but when the speaker suggested that there was a red beam of light coming from the bottom of my spine I got a little nervous thinking I was going to poop blood.  Not a good thing.  The more colors added to the body got me more nervous; the idea that I was being torn apart from the colors was horrifying.  The idea that colors are the ways in which we expel our feelings was not very enlightening to me. 

Scoring my Wellbeing

When rating my physical wellbeing I would have to say it is a 5.  There is great room for improvement by adding strength training on a daily basis to help with toning, but overall I am able to perform activities daily that do not cause pain and exhaustion to me.  Walking my kids to school is a great way to help ensure that I can get some activity in and there are some days that I chose to walk extra because I want to clean my mind or just enjoy the day. 

My spiritual wellbeing would be a 7, there is a since of relief that I feel at the association I have with the way I want to live my life and help my kids become better people.  The idea of living life to see the best in people is a great way to find the special things that people will not always see themselves.  To improve my spiritual wellbeing I love to have my family spend more time together talking about the amazing things that happen to our lives.  During our dinner meal we already have each person tell the best part of their day to promote talking and finding the joy and good thing that happen in our lives this also gives us the opportunity to unplug and focus on the lives we are living not the lives of the people around us. 

My psychological wellbeing would be a 5; there is room for improvement since most of my days revolve around my family and their needs.  Taking classes and talking to my family, friends and neighbors are great ways to expand and explore the improvements I can make to my psychological wellbeing.  The idea of learning from other people experiences is a great way to understand why and what we can do in our lives that help to create a better person overall.  Taking the time to have calming time through either meditation or just with walking I can look to myself as a guide to the thing that need to me improved within myself. 

No one is to old to learn new things

Well this is a first for me - I feel like I should be covered in gray hair.  But real life I am only 40, so sad.  This idea of a blog is new to me - I have never read or used one before so I am learning all this on the fly.  Funny but I am thinking this is the newest version of a diary and I kind of like Doogie Howser from the old show.  Except it is going to be out in the world forever and for anyone who wants to read it instead of in the drawer next to my bed.

Here goes......  My parents have been visiting for the past two weeks and it seems that every time we are together I over eat, spend and over do it.  Today when they left I cleaned and put away SO much food, clothes and just stuff from their time here.  I have been wanting to get rid of so much more, but I am afraid that the next time they visit it will only get replaced by them again.  I am so glad we do not live closer and they only visit every few months.  But I did enjoy getting to creating and fix things with them - ceiling fans, storm door, planter boxes and fixing my dryer.  Strange to be so annoyed by the ones we loved we love so much.

Signing off - Heather Lopez