Introduction
Health
is often described as the absence of physical disease. However, in actuality it
is so much more. We have the ability to attain much greater levels of health in
physical, psychological, and spiritual areas than what most people realize.
Professionals in the field of health and wellness have an obligation to their
clients to demonstrate this ability, not simply teach it. Realistically, it is
impossible to teach something without a real understanding of it. In order to
truly be able to help others with an integral journey toward health, empathy is
required. A practitioner with hands on knowledge of his or her own personal
journey is the only one equipped with the required knowledge and capacity for
empathy. I am currently on a journey toward integral health and wellness. I
realize now that this is an ongoing journey, not a simple road map with an end
destination. However, my desire is to be able to share the secrets to this
amazing journey with others. Without experiencing it for myself, there would be
no way to do this, for I cannot share something I do not possess.
Assessment
Over
the past nine weeks, I have spent much time reflecting on my own levels of
wellness in the physical, psychological, and spiritual realms. After careful reflection,
I have concluded that I have a long way to go to reach my optimal wellness.
However, this does not mean that I am unhappy with my current level of wellness;
I just realize that it can be so much better than I previously realized. First,
I would say that my physical wellness is currently good. I feel that I am
functionally fit, and currently at a healthy weight. I rarely fall ill, and I
have very few physical ailments. However, I am not as fit as I once was, and I
know that I am capable of a much higher level of fitness. I have improved in
spiritual health in the past few years and even more so over the past nine
weeks. In the spiritual area, I actually feel a little stronger than the
physical. I feel much more grounded and secure with my beliefs than in my
younger years, and am happy with my spirituality, but I know there is always
room for improvement. My psychological wellness has also come a long way in the
past few years, and I feel quite strong in this area as well. I feel
comfortable being alone with myself, and am able to understand and control my
emotions more than when I was young. However, I do know that there is always
room for improvement.
Goal development:
To
improve myself in each area I have set a few goals. For my physical health, I
have set a goal of eating more fresh foods each day. It seems that as I have
placed more focus on my psychological and spiritual health, I have let my diet
slip a bit. I plan to bring more fresh local foods back into my diet. We used
to visit the farmers market every Saturday as a family, and we have recently
brought this practice back into our lives. My goal is to visit the farmers
market at least once per week. This one practice contributes to my physical
health by increasing my intake of fresh local produce. However, it also gets me
outside and walking with my family. My interpersonal health also benefits on a
family and community level. For my psychological health, I have set a goal of slowing
down or de-cluttering my schedule. In order to do this I have started by eliminating
at least one commitment per week from my calendar. I feel that my psychological
health will improve if I do not feel so pulled in multiple directions. With a
large family, it is easy to let our schedule become cluttered. Instead of being
a slave to the calendar, my goal is to only allow things on the schedule that
are necessary and meaningful. For my spiritual health, I have set a goal of
daily meditation. Over the past few weeks I have realized the importance of
meditation as a daily practice, rather than just something to be done for
relaxation now and then. In order to make this goal a reality, I have to plan
for it, and make meditation a priority first thing each morning. By setting the
alarm and waking up twenty minutes before everyone else in the house I am able
to take 15 to 20 minutes each morning for meditation to benefit my spiritual
health. In addition to setting goals, I am implementing some practices into my
integral health practice.
Practices for personal health:
For
physical health, I am implementing two new practices. The first is something I
have decided to call mindful nutrition. Although I consider myself pretty good
in the area of diet, I have fallen out of the habit of planning meals and
became a bit lazy over the past year. With a lack of planning, I was simply
throwing meals together and often lacking in certain areas and overindulging in
others. With an increase in intentionality in my meal planning and shopping, I
have been able to see huge improvements. I am the only person who shops for
food in our house. Therefore, my planning, or lack thereof, affects everyone in
the house. Instead of purchasing foods simply because they are convenient or
sound good, I have decided to only purchase what is beneficial. In addition to
helping my own physical health, I am helping the physical health of my entire
family.
My
second practice for physical health is yoga. Although I used to be an avid yoga
practitioner and even instructor, I was not faithfully practicing daily at the
onset of this course. Throughout the past nine weeks, I have picked up my yoga
practice once again, and the results have been phenomenal. I feel so much
stronger and energized. Yoga is wonderful physical exercise, but it helps my
psychological and spiritual fitness as well. Although I have often been told
that it is not good to exercise before bed, I actually find that the evenings
are my favorite time to practice yoga. I like to devote thirty minutes in the
evening after the children are in bed to my yoga practice. Eventually, I would
like to make this a daily practice, but for now I usually practice every other
day.
For
psychological health I am also implementing some new practices. The first is
the simple practice of deep breathing. This may sound overly simple, but the
impact is great. I have six children, and often feel overwhelmed or frustrated throughout
the day when my two year old is frustrated and my infant is fussy at the same
time that my six year old needs help with a project or my 12 year old forgot to
tell me he signed me up to bring snack to his class and the dog just ran
through the house after digging in the mud. When I begin to feel overwhelmed, I
immediately stop to take a few deep cleansing breaths. Not only is this helping
my psychological health, but also I am modeling healthy behavior for my
children. I recently told my two year old he could not have a snack before
dinner. Instead of having a fit, he sat on the floor and took a few deep
breaths. Someone else may have thought he was pouting or something, but I
immediately realized what he was doing. Therefore, by showing him a better way
to handle his frustration I am helping my own psychological health even more.
My
second practice for psychological health is journaling. Even if I only take
five minutes to write down something wonderful that happened or something that
I should have handled differently it is helpful. Not only do the journals give
me an outlet for frustrations, and a sounding board for new ideas, but they
give me a place to come back to for comfort and realization of personal growth.
Spiritual
health is also important. For this aspect of my life I am also implementing
some practices. Meditation is the first practice for spiritual health. I have
been practicing meditation each morning before I begin my day. This practice
helps me with my spiritual well being by keeping me grounded and ever mindful.
On days when I miss my meditation session, I notice that I feel less at peace.
For
me, spiritual health is closely tied to my interpersonal health. I feel more
healthy spiritually when I remember that everyone and everything in this world
is interconnected. Therefore, I need to remind myself of my interconnectedness
with both other people and with nature itself. When I spend time in nature I
feel refreshed spiritually. Similarly, when I perform acts of kindness or
service for others I also feel refreshed spiritually. For my second spiritual
practice, I have begun doing at least one thing each day to either help a
fellow human or appreciate the world I live in. Some of these things may be
things I do already, I have just become more mindful of them. For instance, we
visit a neighbor who provides us with fresh goats milk. Instead of paying for
the milk and being on my way, I now take the time to walk with my children
through the field to pet the goats. This simple act makes me feel gratitude to
the goats and the family who cares for them leaving me spiritually refreshed at
the interconnectedness of us all. Similarly, taking the time to volunteer at
the food pantry reminds me that others don’t have the security that I have, and
how fragile our lives are.
Commitment
When
it comes to setting goals, commitment is important. For my own health and
wellness I must be committed to my goals. However, this does not mean that I
should be inflexible. Luckily, within my goals I have some built in ways of
checking up on myself. For my psychological health, I have begun journaling.
These journals offer me a built in way of tracking my progress in every other
area of integral health. I am able to see my own progress or lack of progress
and make changes to my integral health plan. I realize that what works for me
now may not always work for me. As with a physical exercise regimen, changes
must occur to continue making positive gains. I plan to regularly check up on
my progress by checking my journal notes at the end of each season. I like the
idea of a seasonal checkup because I always feel ready for change with the
change in season from spring to summer or summer to fall etc.
