Week 9 final

Creating Wellness Week 9 Final Project

My Integral Health Plan

By Francine Kleiner Browning

I-                Introduction – The reason that is important for health and wellness professionals to develop spiritually, physically and psychologically is for many reasons. One reason is that by opening up our heart we can be more open to help someone get better and we can be a better teacher. If we look at our work, in a way were we say how can I help, and to look at your work as a mission to serve others. Also be helping ourselves we can be a better teacher because we can better understand our clients or patients. If we do not practice what we preach it will be difficult to lead someone to a path that we have not been down. My area that needs improving is spirituality, which I am currently working on by meditating daily, as well as doing the Loving Kindness exercise, I have also been looking at my work and the bigger picture by how food can affect moods. I currently working out, so I am fine physically, psychologically I feel I am getting better due to the fact that meditation is making me calmer.

II-              Assessment – I have scored pretty well on all areas, the only thing that I feel like I need to work on is my spirituality, also physically I am good but I think I workout too much so I am doing more gentle forms of working out such as yoga. I think that if you improve one area the other areas sort of flow and get better. So I feel that when I am spiritually connected I feel better physically as well as less prone to getting so stressed out about something which then effects my psychological aspect.

III-            Goal Development

My goals for spirituality are the following, I am working on my commitment to say prayers, and do some form of meditation daily. In addition I am practicing the Loving Kindness; I want to do at minimum five minutes a day, and hopefully more as time allows. My goal is to really open my heart and not let stress affect my life.

My goal physically is to continue my regular workouts and also include some form of moving meditation, such as yoga. I find that when I do yoga along with deep breathing my body can let go of stress more easily.

My goal psychologically is to have a group of friends that I can talk to to keep me sane, also to do some sort of memory game, such as a crossword to keep my mental fitness good.

I feel that by working all three, my life would be much less stressful.

IV-           Practices for Personal Health

Spiritual- 2 exercises I am trying to foster growth are Loving Kindness, and also the Witnessing mind. With the first practice I have been slowly building up to doing 10 minutes a day, I love doing this because it keeps my head clear for the whole day. Exercise two I have been sitting and meditating, I started with 2 minutes and now I am on 4 minutes, If my mind wanders I feel them and release them by using my breath.

For the physical I am doing yoga, preferably in the morning or right before I go to bed and I also run usually after the yoga, and also in the morning. I say my run is almost like meditation as I live by the water, and when I run you can see the sunrise and it just puts me in a good mood for the rest of the day and I also tend to eat much better.

For the psychological I have a group of friends that I talk to when I am stressed, and if I do something such as a crossword it keeps my mind sharp and focused.

Accessing my process- I think my struggle for me will be my dad’s unveiling in two months, so if I can make it through that without getting to stressed, that will be a good way to see if all these exercises are helping me. Strategies that I am currently using, for instance I try to get up a little earlier to pray and meditate. I also have been using my kids and having my children pray and say affirmations. There are times when I feel rushed and have no time; however I feel that even if I do one thing such as 5 minutes of meditation I will see some benefit. My problem is I tend to beat myself up if I do not do all of it and I need to tell myself it is better than doing nothing. For me the biggest challenge is the spiritual not because I do not believe but more because of time , I even say prayers in the car before I drive or before I meet with a client so at least I am getting it in