The Final Review

When I look back at Unit 3 and assess my psychological and spiritual wellbeing, I can admit that I paid much more attention to my physical state than anything else.  My growth throughout this course was needed as well as required.  The amount of work I had in this course and another was a bit on the extreme side along with going through an elite training class where I work.  So, learning how to maneuver from chaos to a focused and calm abiding mind and spirit assisted in my wellbeing over the last 10 weeks.  Granted, stress was still there, but I was provided an escape hatch through the knowledge I acquired.  I now have a plan in place that will be implemented and put into practice to help me grow further.  Waking 10 minutes earlier each day for meditation, keeping track of my progress, and then planning ahead to continue toward wholeness will continue to aid in my stress levels.  Implementing the program is always the hardest, but I have found that it is easy to program my psychological and spiritual growth along with my future workouts that has been a habit every Sunday for quite a long time.  Encouraging my clients to reduce stress through personal growth has already been a topic of conversation.  Without this pursuit, people often fail to stay positive and confident in life.

Final Project

Guiding a client or a patient to wellness requires first having traveled the road and then understanding the many facets of integral health.  Conventional allopathic medicine treats just the disease without a proper balance of concentration on the emotional needs of a patient, their ability to self-heal, the high probability for lack of patient compliance, or the dilemma of “where to locate the causes of any illness” (Schlitz, Amorok & Micozzi, 2005).  Integral healing brings the mind, body, and spirit together to work towards the greater good of the patient.  As each patient is different with many different life experiences, the health professional must be aware and have understanding of the many different aspects of integral healing practices.

            Exercise is an important component to one’s whole health.  In order to guide and progress clients to heavier weights, proper form must first be achieved.  So as a Personal Fitness Trainer, an understanding of proper body mechanics is vital.  Practicing the movements and refreshing the foundational knowledge is always a part of my weekly workouts.  The constant pursuit of knowledge in fitness, being aware of the latest fads, and having the ability to identify what is best for different populations will keep this professional ahead of the curve and valuable to clients.  On a personal level, a score of an 8 is given since there is always room for improvement.  Olympic lifts are the current challenge to perfect and have been programmed into my weekly workouts.

            Psychological wellness is another important component and can involve journal writing, meditation, or anything that allows one’s creativity to expand.  Deep and focused breathing has helped during this last term in school while tackling other things such as an elite training status at the gym along with working and being a wife and sending the last child away to college.  Although photography and guitar were previous favorites, each takes more time than is currently available.  Deep breathing meditation can take as little as ten minutes to experience the benefits that include reduced heart rates, reduced anxiety, and reduced negativity.  Working with clients who have anxiety, I am now able to make recommendations and provide links to guided meditations.  Waking early each morning and incorporating ten minutes of focused thoughts of thanksgiving has been instituted in my life in order to begin the day with positive thoughts.  So, on a personal level, my score may be at a 3 since it is such a new part of life.  Practice and consistency will bring more psychological growth.

            Spiritual wellness consists of the ability to find or to develop a purpose for one’s existence whether through religion or a moral belief system.  Having and showing compassion for others, acting responsibly, and feeling at peace with self are just a few of the many benefits of spiritual wellness.  “All integral practices must be infused with an aspiration for loving-kindness” (Dacher, 2006).  Loving-kindness diminishes our ego and allows us the freedom to love others.  In the fitness industry, trainers come in contact with many different people with different backgrounds.  Showing loving-kindness to all people, no matter my opinion of them, will be an area of intentional growth.  In this area, my score stands at a 5.  Through concentrated daily meditations, loving-kindness will be a focus.  As my loving-kindness increases and expands, clients will be encouraged to make strides in this direction as well.

            Strategies for physical fitness include the practice of Olympic Lifts each week along with 150 minutes of cardio each week.  Cardio is not always achieved each week, but is an important aspect of my fitness.  Psychological wellness strategies include the consistency of ten minutes of meditation each morning and making sure that family and friends are no longer left out of life due to a hectic schedule.  They are an extremely important part of life and must not be ignored.  A spiritual wellness strategy includes giving thanks in prayers to God each night.  He has also been unintentionally left out from life since returning to school and deserves my daily thanks for allowing me to wake up each day in order to positively impact the lives of others.  Beginning the day with thankful meditation will be complimented when ending it with prayer.  Practicing loving-kindness to others will also continue to be a daily focus.

            Growth in any area can only be seen through documentation.  Journaling the activity of psychological and spiritual growth will become a part of my weekly physical programming.  Instead of taking a chance that daily journaling would be hard to implement, weekly journaling at the same time of physical programming would make more sense.  As progression is necessary to gain more muscle and lose body fat, or to gain strength and flexibility, progressing the growth of the psychological and spiritual development will be easier to attain in this manner.  Each step will lead to greater growth and integral wellness.  Documenting and intentionally programming will provide the means to progress and the ability to review the gains.  This integral wellness growth will become a valuable tool when leading others toward their full potential.

References

Dacher, E.  (2006).  Integral health: the path to human flourishing.  Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Schlitz, M., Amorok, T., & Micozzi, M.  (2005).  Consciousness & healing: integral approaches to mind-body medicine.  St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Churchill Livingstone.

My Two Favorite Practices

Of all the practices, I think Meeting Aesclepius and the Subtle Mind are best suited for my life.  Meeting Aesclepius was probably the easiest to focus on of the two since I already had a mental image of the wise woman that sat by my bed in my youth.  When I think on her, I automatically become calm and feel cared for much like a grandmother would care for her grandchild.  The great thing about this practice is that I can do it anywhere.  I don't necessarily have to find a quiet place, or lay on the floor … just go to that mental image and she is there waiting to help me feel the calm of that night long ago.  I am confident that I will use that image going into this next term for school.  It will be a challenging 10 weeks, but it will only be 10 weeks of my life!

Carol

Meeting Aesclepius

This was the perfect meditation from an over-the-top hectic and crazy week.  Last week I attended a 4-day Elite Training course through the company I work for and had to take an exam at the end of the program.  I passed the exam and now I am an Elite Trainer at the gym.  It was well worth the agony, but I am grateful that my life can return to the normal stress levels.

Meeting Aesclepius brought an end to the chaos as I focused my attentions on the wise one.  The image that my mind thought on was one from my childhood.  It may sound a little crazy, but when I was a child I had an encounter in the middle of the night with an old woman sitting in the chair next to my bed who was just watching me.  I could not detect her facial features, but I felt comforted by her presence.  She is the only that I imagined as the wise one in my meditation.  She gave me comfort and peace.  I sat with her throughout this exercise and felt calm and was filled with love.  Although she dressed in black, her body was in silhouette as I held her hand placed in her lap.  As I continue to practice these meditations, I will seek her out in order to find my way to peace.

It is interesting how my mind brought the wise one forward from my childhood.  Practicing and exploring meditation on my own will serve me and my clients well.  I feel that I can no at least guide someone to find their way to meditation by simply experiencing my own search.  Concentrating on something besides the ego is the first step which leads to wholeness.

Integral Assessment

Oddly, before I read the assignment this week, I put the four statements of Universal Loving-Kindness on a 3 x 5 index card and fastened it to my bulletin board right in front of my desk.  Although I believed previously that I was a kind person, I fall down a lot with my criticisms of the general public.  I believe for the most part I have the biological aspects of my life down pretty well; I exercise 6 days a week, eat clean, and can resist things that are not good for me.  The other 3 aspects need some work.

Within the Interpersonal, the level of development in my family life is not necessarily the urgency.  Community efforts, attention, and attitude needs improvement.  All realms of Worldly need improvements and kind of goes along with Community.  I am often annoyed or put-off by behaviors of our society and sometimes vocalize them inappropriately.

If I gave a concerted effort to work on my Psychospiritual, I believe the rest would fall into place, or would greatly improve.  Mindful practice, such as meditation, is something that I am committed to developing even after bouts like last week where I could not quiet my mind.

Carol

Subtle Mind

I had difficulty with this exercise.  I could not concentrate … there was either too much noise going on outside, or too much noise inside my head.  I have a lot going on right now and the mental lists keep rolling through my mind.  It is obvious that I have a need for meditation and the practice of quieting my mind!  My fear is that if I don't create enough time for my spirit that my body will begin breaking down and I cannot afford to do that!  I hope to try this again.  I can only pray that my school work time will no longer be plagued with construction noise outside!

Carol

Loving Kindness

It is always a challenge to first quiet my mind.  It is usually racing with "to-do-list" items and scheduling my day.  At first, I could hear the outside noises, but as I got further into the recording, the noises left my hearing.  My mind moved toward an image of my sister as the waves washed over my soul.  What great love I felt!  I felt completely connected to her as I saw her before me.  I began to feel bad that I don't see her as much as I would like, but then I forced myself to feel the love we share.

I think meditation can be difficult for me and probably difficult for most people.  We busy ourselves so much during the day and probably do not give much thought to developing our inner selves.  The benefits for mental workouts are far reaching.  According to Dacher, when one gives love, they receive love back.  Calming the mind can help refocus the mind in order to concentrate on what matters most in life.  Making an appointment with yourself, if not for only 10 minutes each day and bring about a more harmonious relationship with the mind-body-spirit.

Carol