Unit 9 Final Project

Jamie Lee Prince

HW420-02, Final Project

3.5.11

Kaplan University

Introduction

            It’s important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically for many reasons.  Not only is it good for them, but this is what they will be teaching their clients to practice too.  I always say practice what you preach, so I believe that all health care professionals should really practice integral health.  Integral health has been around for many years.  Dacher states that our contemporary approach to integral healing draws upon the modern-day wisdom and science of the East and West and relies on integral theory as developed by the modern philosopher Ken Wilber, (2006).  What do you think about when you hear integral health?  The few people that I have asked all had the right idea in mind.  They said acupuncture and meditation.  Yes, these are right but there is so much more to integral health that a lot of people don’t know about.  Some people are even skeptical of these practices and assume they don’t work, so they turn to conventional medicine.  Conventional medicine has been around for ages and has been used to treat patients and their problem area.  This type only focuses on healing the outside and whatever is wrong with the patient.  It doesn’t ever focus on the whole body and healing from the inside out, which is why a lot of the times, there are diseases people have and don’t know about.  Physicians that practice conventional medicine treat patients and try to get them out the door to they can attend to the next person.  They don’t know anything about you and probably don’t care to know.  Their focus is on treating what’s wrong and going on to the next patient.  The more patients they see, the more money they make.  To me, it’s very impersonal.  Every time I go to the doctor, I always feel rushed and I’m never in there with them for more than 10 minutes.  That is the difference between conventional and integral medicine.  Integral medicine focuses on treating the whole body, from the inside out.  The doctors that practice this are trained to get to know the patient on a personal level so they can understand them better.  They treat everything that’s wrong with the person and not just one thing.  They offer different kinds of treatments to best suit that person and their needs.  Yeah, some methods may not work for someone and some may.  Everyone is different and different things will work for different people.  People just have to keep trying what’s out there to find what will work for them the best.  Dacher stated that in order to love, you must love yourself (2006).  This quote has always stuck in my mind because I truly believe that, but I also believe in order to help a person, you must help yourself first which is why it’s so important health care professionals to develop these different aspects first so they can understand their patients, what they are going through and how they are feeling.  The areas I need to develop to achieve the goals I have for myself would be all of them: physically, mentally and spiritually.  I chose all three of these because I know I can make some improvements in my life to each one of those.  I will be listing my specific goals later on in this paper.

Assessment

            I have taken many assessments on myself while going to school at Kaplan.  Some of these assessments made me realize the things that I really need to work on, which is good in a way.  It’s also very stressful because you have to face the fact that you really do need to work on things to make your life better.  It’s been hard to realize that, but the first step to changing is recognizing it.  To assess myself psychologically, spiritually, and physically I’m going to do it on my own using a 1-10 point scale (1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest) without using any already written up assessments because this will allow me to expand my mind more.

            Psychologically, I would consider myself to be at a 6.  I’m pretty stable but I know I can do better when it comes to stress and how I handle situations.  I feel like I let things bother me too easily; which I know needs to stop.  By doing that, it leads to un-necessary stress.  I also feel like I could manage my stress a little better.  Most of the time, I’m good about it and can manage it just fine, but there are days that I don’t do anything and just let it build up.  Another thing I know I can work on is my anger.  I tend to let little things get me angry for some reason.  If I’m already frustrated and my son does something or something bad happens, then that gets me angry.  If I manage my anger better, I think I’ll be okay.  I also need to learn to stop yelling and raising my voice because it doesn’t help the situation.

            Spiritually, I would rate myself a 5.  I come from a very religious family and even though I pray, I admit I haven’t been to church in a while.  I feel bad for it because I remember the feeling I would feel after coming out of church; it was unbelievable.  I miss that feeling and need to get it back in my life.  Even though I still have a connection with God, I really need church back in my life to feel complete.  I need to stop making excuses and just go.  I always use my son as an excuse not to go anywhere because he is at his terrible 2 stage and it’s hard to take him anywhere.  If I really had to, I could try finding someone to watch him for an hour while I go or just suck it up and try taking him anyways.  Either way, I really need to change my lifestyle in this area.

            Physically, I would rate myself a 5.  Even if lately I’ve been really active, physically I’m still not where I want to be.  Every time I start working out, I end up stopping after a few weeks.  The motivation and the time commitment has always been a challenge for me.  I found myself making excuses for why I would stop, which I think of it now, and they aren’t really great excuses.  Everyone has at least 30 minutes to an hour to work out or do some physical activity in the day.  I remember I gave the excuse of not having enough time in the day to my friend one time, and he told me it wouldn’t hurt me to wake up one hour earlier to work out.  After that day, I never gave having no time an excuse anymore, because he was right.  Even though I’m not a morning person, and it’s hard enough to wake up for work, but I knew it was possible if I really wanted to.  I have just now started on a steady workout schedule and haven’t let anything get in my way so far.  I try to work on school work every chance I get, so that when I get home from work, I have time for house duties and time to work out.  So far, for the past month, it has been working.  I admit I have put things on the back burner, just so that I can get my workout in.  I feel that until I get myself to where I want and need to be, it’s what I have to do.  I try to work out 5-6 times a week, 2 hours a night.  I do about 40-45 minutes of cardio (Zumba) and then the rest of the time I use weights and then abs.  Even though it seems like a long time, when you add everything up, it takes a while because you’re not only doing weighs, but you need to add abs in there as well as stretching and little breaks in between sets.  I think if I continue on this path, I will be at my weight loss goal in no time.

Goal Development

Psychologically, my goal is to manage my stress and anger better than I have been.  I need to not let things get to me to easily and just live life.  I always tell myself life is too short to be stressed about little things like a spill on the floor or toys scattered around the house.  I think if I just live life and not stress the little things, I will be a much happier person.  I think that my life is really stressful right now because I have a two year old son that is all over the place, work full time and then go to school.  I know how to manage my time wisely, but with everything going on, it gets to be very stressful at times.  During work or right after work, I need to do something to clear my mind so I’m not taking my stress out on my family when I get home.

Spiritually, my goal is to go to church.  I need to stop making excuses and just get up and go.  Even though I still have prayer in my life, sometimes I feel like it’s not enough.  Nothing can make me feel the way I feel after I leave a mass at church.

Physically, my goal is to lose about 50 lbs and to be physically fit.  After I had my son, I never lost the baby weight.  Well, I probably lost some for like a couple months and then gained it back.  I’ve always had a job that required me to sit down all day so I wouldn’t be very active during the day, and after work I just went home to spend time with my newborn.  Working out was the last thing on my mind, because I was still trying to get the hang of taking care of a baby by myself.  Plus, I was really attached, so outside of work, I wanted to be with him every chance I could get.

Practices for Personal Health

            There are many strategies that I can use to foster the growth in my psychological, spiritual and physical health.

            For my psychological goals, there are many different exercises that I can practice to help me achieve my goals of managing my stress and anger better.  What I have tried in the past is meditation and exercise.  I would say yoga, but I never really tried yoga before.  Before this class, I never tried meditation but doing the meditation exercises throughout this term, made me love it.  It clears your mind of absolutely everything and makes you feel great afterwards.  Exercise has always been a great stress reliever and an anger reliever as well.  I think if I keep these two things in my life and actually do them when I feel stressed or angry, it will benefit me a great deal.  I noticed when I work out when I’m angry, I take my anger out in my workouts and I actually work out a lot harder than I would do normally.  It gives me that drive.

            Spiritually, I just need to add time during my Sundays and go.  Also, if I add more prayer to my life as well as going to church, I think my spiritual health will develop more.  This is what I need in my life to help me make it through tough situations and it’s what I have grown up believing.  The power of prayer and healing is amazing and it has amazed me reading the research and studies that have been conducted on prayer and healing.

            Physically, I just need to keep cardiovascular activities like Zumba or running and weight training in my exercise routine.  It keeps your heart healthy as well as your muscles and bones.  Maintaining my 2 hour workout schedule is what I’m going to need to do and mixing up my exercises so that my body doesn’t get use to doing the same thing.  Time management has also been hard for me.  I just need to keep in my mind that my workout should come first before anything, as it’s for my health and to keep me healthy.  Motivation is all I need to maintain.

Commitment

            Staying motivated has always been the key to my success, always keeping in my mind that these changes I’m making may be hard, but is going to benefit me and my health in the long run.  I’m planning on keeping a journal or log of my progress over the next 6 months, weather if I fall off my workout schedule or not.  By doing this, will not only keep me motivated, but I can look back to see the progress I have made.  When I do get to my goal, I will have records of my accomplishments and how I was feeling at the time that I can always to back and read.  I believe to keep and stay healthy; you need to change your lifestyle for good and not just for the time being.  What I have done is incorporated this into my families lives, so they are healthy as well.  I admit, there are still things that I need to give up or lower my intake of, like sweets and bread, but it’s in the works.  I know I will get there over time by eliminating one bad thing off my diet every month.  So instead of it all hitting me at once, I can gradually change it. I think this will help me stay motivated to change because it won’t be so hard.

References:

Dacher, E. (2006) Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Basic Health Publications, Inc., Laguna Beach, CA.