Taking a strong look at my integral health.

I reflected back on my earlier assessment from Unit 3 this week. I have found that I am getting better about exercise. The key is to find something that I don’t think of as being exercise, and that I find fund doing. I have started roller skating about twice a week and am doing great at it. I am riding my stationary bike on days that I don’t go skating and find that this is filling in the gaps for now. I am still looking for some other form of exercise that I find joy in but am still looking for right now.

Spiritually I am doing pretty well at. I make time for meditation every night before I go to bed. This time works well for me because I don’t get busy doing other things. With practice I am doing better at the meditations, which is a good thing.

Mentally I think that my best defense against problems is to stay vigilant. If I become aware of problems early I can take action to curtail the problems why they are just small problems.

Over all I am doing well. I haven’t made enough progress to improve my rating of integral health of a 7. I am doing better and will continue to assess myself periodically. I am also journaling my progress and hope that will help me pinpoint any problems as well.

This course has been an amazing experience. I have had a lot of fun and learned much. I am looking at my health in a new way. When you look at your integral health instead of just your physical health you realize that problems that affect one area will cross over and cause problems in other areas. I have gotten much better at meditation and plan on continuing this process for the long term.

My Complete Wellbeing: Emotional, Physical, and Spiritual

I enjoyed writing my final paper for this class, it is also the final paper for my degree. I am so excited to be done with my BS in Health and Wellness. I hope that you all enjoy this paper and your journey to your degree as much as I did.

My Complete Well-being: Emotional, Physical, & Spiritual

Teresa Woody

Kaplan University

HW 420-01

Cindy Fouhy PhD

December 20, 2011

Introduction:

The art of staying health is a learned behavior. It is maintaining your emotional health, along with your physical and spiritual health. This helps to develop a strong, happy, and productive lifestyle. It helps you maintain a quality of life that is desirable on an elemental level. Studies have shown that the people who will volunteer, belong to clubs, and go to church are more inclined toward health than people who neglect these areas of their lives.  It is important to happiness to interact with others through social activities regularly.

Assessment:

            Emotionally my health is great; I live a relatively stress free life and am happy. I deal with everyday and traumatic stress well, and can let it go for the most part. Physically my diet is good, I am relatively healthy, my auto-immune disease is in remission hopefully never to return. I do need to exercise more and need to work on this daily. Spiritually, I am at peace, this is a natural state for me mostly. There are some days it is harder than others but I feel strong in this area. I have a strong spiritual faith, and my internal thoughts are loving, and filled with kindness. When they aren’t I will intervene and strive to change them. I am always aware when they take an unhealthy turn though and do my best to make it stop.

Though eating right, exercising, and getting the right amount of sleep help to maintain our health, there is more to over all well-being than this. Though these factors are important we must also look at ways to improve our emotional, physical, and spiritual good health as well. Prayer is considered to be good for strong spiritual health. Many people turn to prayer in stressful times, and times of poor health. Prayer is also good to help maintain good health at all times within our lives. Having a strong religious belief structure can help some people recuperate from illness and then retain their good health. 

I have a strong belief that we must to take care of ourselves on all levels, not just spiritually and religiously but there is a need to take watch our physical and emotional health as well.  The negativity within the world around us can change our health status easily if we don’t keep vigilant and protect ourselves from it.

Goal development:

            I personally have set goals for my emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. Emotionally I want to be happy. Physically I want to be strong, eat right, and be at a healthy weight. Spiritually I want to be at peace with the world around me and the people within it.

There are many good ways to maintain your emotional good health. Look for a type of exercise that is enjoyable for you. It will amaze you how a little fun exercise, even as little as 15 minutes per day will make you less depressed. You can call it a natural antidepressant. Ensure you look at many different exercise possibilities tell you find that activity that you will look forward to doing every day. Not only will it make you physically fit, and slim you down but it will bring joy as well!

Look out for those people who lift your mood, and then spend time with them. Make time to spend with close friends and go out socially. Don’t hesitate to initiate those interactions, even when it is scary at first. When work starts to get stressful, take some time off for fun, it will bring you joy and relieve the stress as well.

Laughter is truly the best medicine, so do it often. Seek out those things that make you laugh. Rent a comedy, read a joke book, or call a friend who always makes you smile. Go to a comedy club and enjoy yourself. Laughter is one of the most powerful mood enhancers out there so have fun (Aezstart, 2011).

Emotionally I have set out to be happy. If I start to experience those negative emotions and I feel myself loosing that happiness I make a concerted effort to change the thoughts and actions that are making me unhappy, to return to that state of happiness. I feel it is our choice to be happy and that is the way that I choose to be. Any actions, or events that happen around me I acknowledge them and set forth to change them. Since I have made it a personal choice to stay happy I find myself more aware of my emotional health and moving to correct things that impact it in a negative way.

Your nutritional as well as your physical fitness are a major part of any plan for health and wellness. Not only does your level of physical fitness effect how you feel, it effects how you think too. The main cause of this are these highly effective chemicals within your body called endorphins. These are the body’s natural painkillers which your brain releases during any kind of exercise which in turn causes us to feel happiness and a since of wellness (Keys to Living a Healthy Lifestyle, n.d.).

Physically I would like to make my body my temple. I have made great strides in this of late. I changed my eating habits, and now am much healthier. I would like to maintain a healthy weight for my height, and think that by adding exercise along with my healthier diet I will obtain this goal. Exercise is what I need to embrace. I am not a big exerciser and need to be proactive in this area. I try to walk everyday but this seems to be the first thing I skip over if the weather is bad or I get busy. This needs to change. I heard some advice from a woman who is 103 the other day. She has a row machine in her bedroom and she doesn’t allow herself to leave it tell she rows 150 strokes. I think I will do the same and move my exercise bike to the bedroom. If I do this first thing before I get busy with the day I won’t get distracted.

When first asked what spiritual health is I had a hard time explaining it. It is at time a hard concept to understand. To me spiritual health begins with and deep abiding awareness of things both seen and unseen around you. The development of a personal relationship with God or Spirit, or Universe; trust in your instincts and wanting to change; feeling gratitude in the blessings you have. It is necessary to make time for regular prayer, meditation, taking a walk, and taking a Sabbath day to rest and relax your mind and emotions. It is also important to find a sense of purpose and to be present in all moments in your life. Striving for these things will give you the components of optimal spiritual good health and a overall sense of peace and happiness (Shirley, n.d.).  

Spiritually I want to be at peace with not only the people around me but with the world as well. We are living in stressful times and I am looking for new and helpful ways to relieve that stress and find the peace within me. I do find it hard in this rural area but have found some meditation retreats that are offered in the area (about 100 miles away). I think that these will be very helpful in getting me into a meditation routine, and it will also help me with some problem areas.

Practices for personal health:

Emotionally, I think that the best practice for my emotional health is practicing avoidance. There are always people and events that bring both stress and unhappiness, and these must be avoided. I will make it a regular practice to avoid these situations whenever possible, without adding pain and stress to other people. I have quite a good paying job in the past because of the massive stress both the job and the people I worked with caused me. I deliberately set out to find a situation adequate for me to replace this job without causing stress, or financial worry to me family. This is a tact I need to apply to everyday life. If a person or event is causing me pain and unhappiness than I need to address why this is and fix it or avoid it altogether.

            Physically my biggest problem to overcome is exercise. I have avoided it for years to the point that I almost have a fear of exercise. Earlier in the paper I stated that I need to look for activities that bring me joy and aren’t a chore to perform. I realize that this is the key. I went roller skating last night with my family for my grandson’s birthday and had so much fun. I went out and was not able to do more than 2 laps before my ankles were on fire. I set down and rested for a couple minutes and was able to do 2 more.  After a couple more tries I realized that I was skating as much as I wanted to, and only was taking a break when I needed a drink. Before the night was over I was skating like a pro and did it for 3 straight hours and had nothing but fun. This is what I must seek out and do. Exercise that isn’t work and pain but joyful and brings happiness.

            Spiritually, I feel that meditation practices are hard for me. I also feel that they help center me and bring me a peace that has been missing in my life. I want to practice this and have decided to seek out some help with this. I am going to do a meditation retreat and help myself get centered and better at the process of meditation. Sometimes I have a hard time quieting the chatter in my mind and think that this might assist me with getting better at it. I also feel that I need to take a true Sabbath day; a day that I relax and stop to reflect on the joy, peace, and blessing that I have in life.

Commitment:

            I have talked to my older brother Bruce, and he is as close to a spiritual guide and councilor that I have available to me. He is at peace and truly peaceful in his life. He has had many life challenges but yet he has always come through on the other side with that since of peace and happiness not matter the lose or tragedy that happened. Bruce and I have put together a plan for me and a journal that he has helped me set up that I can put my thoughts and my journey to words. He will teach and council me whenever I feel the need and be a sounding board if I need one. He also will periodically talk to me about what I am doing and how I am progressing giving me a sense of accountability that will keep me traveling on the path I have set forth for myself.

            I am excited about this journey to health and wellness that I have undertaken. This is the final paper that I will write in my BS in Health and Wellness program, yet my journey has just begun. For me graduation is after this next week but do you ever truly stop learning and growing in this life. I look forward to all that life has to offer me and the many things that I will be learning from this day forward.

References

Aezstart. (2011, April 27). Tips for Optimal Emotional Health. Retrieved December 20, 2011, from Aezstart: http://aezstart.com/tips-for-optimal-emotional-health/

Keys to Living a Healthy Lifestyle. (n.d.). Nutrition And Physical Fitness Tips For Optimum Health And Wellness. Retrieved December 2011, 2011, from Keys to Living a Healthy Lifestyle: http://www.keys-to-living-a-healthy-lifestyle.com/nutrition-and-physical-fitness.html

Shirley, D. (n.d.). Practically Yours: Self-Care Tips for Counsellors – Spiritual Health . Retrieved December 20, 2011, from Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association: http://www.ccpa-accp.ca/blog/?p=614