Final project - Final thoughts

Hi Everyone,

Below is my final project and my final thoughts on the material summarized into a blog. Enjoy!

I. Introduction:
It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically in order to be the best provider of holistic medicine. Without developing in these ways, professionals lose credibility and the ability to understand their clients. How can someone explain what winning a gold medal feels like, especially after years and years of training and goal setting, if one hasn't ever had to train and achieve this level of completion? Also, in order to be able to support a patient/client, the professional would need to recognize and understand the pitfalls (or valleys) while training. By not having empathy, the professional risks losing the client's progress up to that point! For example, a non-smoker is not a great support to a person trying to quit smoking simply because they don't understand the cravings and mind-altering affects of nicotine withdraw. Last, but most importantly, professionals need to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically in order to keep the progression of holistic medicine moving. The Western world has already experienced what modern medicine looks like when the mind and spirit are lacking in the treatment process. Therefore, professionals who incorporate their development into their practice will be the forefront of future medicine.

For myself, I need to focus on developing my spirituality. This is the one area that has taken the biggest dip in my overall health over the years. By finding ways to re-connect to my spiritual side, I believe I will be a lot more balanced in my overall being. Physically and psychologically, I feel like I am tackling these each day. Running has helped my body and even my mind and spirit. I am watching what I eat and carefully watching the effects it has on my mood and body. Healthy food makes me not only feel better, but I also like the positivity that comes from the nutrients. Fast food and sugar foods have definitely proven to dampen my mood and affect my running. These are reasons enough for me to stay on a better diet. Psychologically, I am practicing clearing my mind and clearing out all the judgments, arguments, assumptions, etc. that fog up my clear mind and make for a rougher day.

II. Assessment
I have assessed my health in each domain, physical, psychological, and spiritual and have realized that although I was higher in two categories, spirituality was the domain in which I lacked. With spirituality, I am having a harder time with the loving kindness portion and feeling like I have a connection to my inner wisdom. I must say that I do feel like this is developing more so as I get older, but I believe a lot of it has to do with not taking the time to practice my mental exercises each day, such as yoga, visualization, meditation, etc. According to our text, I am being motivated through "instinctual, reactive, and ego-centered" feelings and thoughts (Dacher, 2006). Where I need to set my goals is developing the spiritual side and finding my inner wisdom and peacefulness. This will not only help me in a spiritual way, but also in a psychological way and also improve my health biologically.
As for physical, I am doing very well in choosing healthy food over grabbing whatever I believe I want. There are definitely ways to make healthy food tasty and exciting, and I love the overall feeling afterwards. When grabbing junk, not only is my blood sugar spiked from the sugars, but I also feel the heaviness and believe it turns into unwanted pounds. This makes for a depressed spirit as well. However, when I choose healthy foods, not only does my body suddenly feel refreshed, but I am happy knowing that I won't be needing to run extra long to burn off the useless calories and I am proud in knowing I had control and did something good for myself. I do believe I could take the food portion of the physical to a whole new level. For instance, I can choose where I will buy my food from and support my ethics when it comes to whom I support and what I believe in. Beyond food and fitness, which I have been really working on for a few years and I feel like I am only getting better at it for myself, I am also very heavily into preventive health care. I not only get regular check ups and monitor my different numbers, but I also request extra tests, research how and what I can do to remain as healthy as possible, and find ways to integrate even healthier lifestyle choices into my daily life.
Psychologically, I feel like this domain is one of the hardest to work on since I am not at the level where I can let the outside world not invade the inside mind. I am getting much better at this and especially since using the mind exercises provided I am learning how to clear my mind more so than ever. However, I feel like the spiritual part definitely impacts my psychological (although I understand mind, body, and spirit are connected). At this point the physical is what is keeping my psychological and spiritual as developed as they are. However, this also causes an unbalance and can throw off my physical side as well. I have much more development to obtain in my psychological domain, and I think I am on a good track with the mental exercises.

III. Goal Development
Physical - My goal is to be more active and not only see weight loss but also keep a healthy body.
Spiritual - My goal is to find a sense of spirituality and find a way to bring a sense of empowerment to my life.
Psychological - My goal is to have better focus, clearer thinking, and continue learning.

IV. Practices for personal health
Physical - I am going to do more cross training in my exercising. Not only will I be experiencing new exercises and helping my body, but I will also be reaping the effects of trying something new (keeping my mind young and healthy), and meeting new people (a plus for the spiritual side).
Spiritual - I am going to start researching different customs and traditions of many different spiritual practices and choosing which ones I value and bring me a sense of happiness. I am also going to make more time for my friends and family.
Psychological - I am going to practice clearing my mind, visualizing, and meditating, in order to have a more peaceful and clearer mind. I am also going to be taking yoga as well, as this will help with each area. I am continuing my education as well, which will help my mind in growing.

V. Commitment
In six month, I will look at my goals and my progress to see how far I have come (or lacked). In certain ways, I will be able to see this more clearly. For example, physically my weight will be less and I will see a toner body. Also, my health screenings will show healthy results and I will have confirmation that my progress is working. Spiritually, I will feel a sense of a higher power perhaps, and I will be able to feel as if I am thinking and acting form a place of loving kindness instead of instinctual. Psychologically, I will know I am making progress by feeling a lot lighter and I will find myself not stressing out as badly because I will have made progress through meditation and yoga.
I will be using a variety of strategies to keep me moving forward. One is to have goals, short and long term, that will be met along my journey. Second, I am going to keep my text on my desk and review a few chapters at a time to remind myself why I am doing this. Third, I will have motivational sticky notes hanging on my bathroom mirror and fridge. And last, because there is no negative recourse to pursuing this journey, but there is a negative consequence to stopping. That in itself is a great motivator!