Progress

I have reviewed my unit 3 personal assessment; in the psychological area I scored myself an 8, physically a 9, and spiritually an 8. I feel now that I scored myself too highly at that point. I think I was more at a 7 physically, 5 psychologically, and 5 spiritually. I was not doing anything to improve my spiritual and psychological areas like I am now. Now I would score myself a 9 physically, a 7 spiritually, and a 7 psychologically. I feel these areas have improved but still need more work. These areas have improved because I have been able to relieve my stress and ease my mind through mental practices. By continuing to do these practices, I will continue to improve these scores and my overall fitness.
I have made progress toward my personal goals. I continue to work out five or six times a week to improve my physical health. We also have been attending church every week. Although I cannot get involved in my church until we have been members for six months, we are still actively participating every Sunday. I also have been living more of a stress-free life by practicing meditation and letting many of the stresses of everyday life pass me by.
I plan to continue improving my goals and practicing these activities to live a healthier and more stress-free life.
I have learned a lot and improved my personal health greatly throughout this course. I have been able to become more in touch with my self and have improved my overall well-being. It has been rewarding to see the difference in the amount of stress I have. I used to get bothered by little things that really weren't important, but now I am able to relax my mind through meditation. It was difficult at first to connect with the exercises we did in class and to get much out of them, but after practicing them I was able to relax and learn from them. This will help me to assist others by helping them understand how much better they will feel if they can control their stress. I can explain the importance of practicing these exercises and try to help them improve their overall fitness as well.

Final Project

Jacob Davis

Unit 9 Project

1. Introduction:
   Why is it important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically? What areas do you need to develop to achieve the goals you have for yourself?

It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop themselves for a few reasons. Being in the health and medical field can cause a great deal of stress, and if you are not able to control that stress, you will constantly be held back from reaching your full potential. Also, it is important to ‘practice what you preach’. For example, a client would not trust a personal trainer as much if the trainer was overweight and out of shape rather than thin and very fit. If you want your clients to believe the importance of being in control of yourself spiritually and mentally as well as physically, you need to show them that you are able to have it together. Another reason it is important is because you will be able to put forth more effort into helping patients or clients if you do not have any emotional or mental issues going on. For example, if when you are seeing patients you keep getting distracted towards your own problems; you will not be able to help the client like you need to. The areas that I need to work on are the spiritual aspect and the psychological aspect. I plan to be a personal trainer; I work very hard on my physical fitness, but it can always use improvement and will need constant work in my field. In order to be more successful, I need to be more in touch with my spiritual self. I can reach this by practicing meditation and relaxing my mind.

2. Assessment:
   How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?

I would give my spiritual wellness a 5 on a scale of 1-10. I attend church regularly and pray occasionally, but I am not actively involved in my church and do not pray as often as I should. Physically, I would give myself 8 out of 10. I chose this score because I work out 6 times a week for more than an hour each time. I work hard on keeping myself physically fit and also keep a close eye on my nutrition. I would give my psychological wellness 6.5 out of 10. I gave myself this score because I feel like I can control my stress levels most of the time, but I sometimes have difficulty relaxing my mind. I am able to brush off a lot of things and keep them from bothering me, but sometimes I let things by that should not be an issue. I have really noticed, by doing the exercises in class, that I need to work on relaxing my mind more often.

3. Goal development:
   List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.

A goal I have for myself in the physical area is to work on my cardiovascular fitness. This is definitely my weakest point; I weight lift five times a week but do not follow it with enough cardio work. A psychological goal I would like to reach is to practice meditation every morning before I go to work. I want to do this to relax and ease my mind in order to keep from getting stressed throughout the day. I feel this will be very beneficial for my mental health. For my spiritual health, I am setting a goal to volunteer for an activity in our church. I feel that volunteering will help me become more involved in my spiritual health. I would also like to get in the habit of praying every night before I go to bed.

4. Practices for personal health:
   What strategies can you implement to foster growth in each of the following domains; Physical, Psychological, and Spiritual. Provide at least two examples of exercises or practices in each domain. Explain how you will implement each example.

Exercises I can implement for my physical domain would be to run before I begin weightlifting every day. I could begin by running a mile and try to work up to two or three before I weight lift. This will help me improve my cardiovascular fitness and help me perform better on my PT tests. Another exercise I could implement would be riding the bike. On days that I do not weight lift or do not want to run, I could ride a stationary bike for an hour to help improve my health.

To improve my psychological health, I would like to practice mental exercises and meditation on a daily basis. One exercise I would like to do regularly is the “Loving Kindness” exercise we did in our Integral Health book. I felt this exercise was very beneficial and helped bring out the positive side of everything. I would implement this by doing the exercise every morning before leaving for work. I usually watch ESPN before work; I could simply switch my routine by instead doing this exercise. Another exercise I could do is the subtle mind exercise to practice clearing my mind and forgetting about all of the stress. This would be a great exercise to do at the end of a chaotic day. I could implement this by doing it every night before going to bed to ease my mind and forget about anything that was bothering me from the day.

Two practicing for improving my spiritual health would be meditation and yoga. I would like to meditate every morning to bring forth a positive outlook for the day and to get me in a more spiritual state of mind. I could also add yoga to my workout, possibly once a week, to improve my spiritual health as well as improve my balance and other aspects of my physical health.

5. Commitment:
   How will you assess your progress or lack of progress in the next six months? What strategies can you use to assist in maintaining your long-term practices for health and wellness?

To assess my progress over the next six months, I feel it would be very beneficial to keep a journal. I can write down how I feel I am doing and if I am keeping up with my goals on a regular basis. Then, if I begin to fall behind in my goals, I can look back and see what I am doing wrong and what I need to change. In order to maintain long-term practices, I would need to set small goals. For example, one of my goals is to improve my cardiovascular health. I can set a small goal of running one mile without stopping three times a week for the first month and improve my time by a few seconds every time. Then, the next month I can increase it to one and a half miles. By making these smaller goals, I will help myself to reach my main goal and get in a habit that will help me maintain this practice. I need to make these practices into habits in order to continue them in the future.

2 Exercises

The two practices that I found to be the most beneficial were the Subtle Mind exercise and the Loving Kindness exercise. I enjoyed these two because I found them to be easy to do and got positive results from them. I can implement these practices in my personal life by practicing them on a regular basis. For example, if there comes a time where I am overstressed, I can practice the Subtle Mind exercise to clear my head and relax my mind and body. Also, if there is a time where I am having a bad day or negative thoughts about something, I can practice the Loving Kindness to turn my mood around and lead a more positive and beneficial life.

These are also practices I can do with my clients when I am training in order to keep them on the right track toward mental fitness as well as physical fitness. I really feel these exercises have benefited me, and I hope to continue doing them in the future to work toward an improved mental fitness.

Meeting Asciepius

With these meditative practices, I feel like I am becoming more in touch with my inner peace. I am beginning to understand how I am able to bring my whole body into a restful and peaceful state and how to let go of any stress I have bottled up. I can continue to apply these practices to my life by practicing them more regularly; the more I seem to practice them, the easier it is for me to become calm and at ease. If I continue to practice them, I hope it will allow me to let go of the stresses of my everyday life and look at everything more positively. I also hope to be more forgiving and loving toward others. This is a practice I think would be beneficial for my clients as a personal trainer to help them deal with everyday stresses.
I strongly agree with the saying, "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself". I would not accept nutrition advice from someone who is overweight, and I would not expect someone to want me as a personal trainer if I did not take good care of myself. The health and wellness professional needs to have good nutrition and a good exercise plan himself in order to successfully help others. If the trainer was overweight and out of shape, the client would have a hard time trusting everything he was saying, but if the trainer was fit and healthy, the client would be more likely to take the trainer's advice. I can continue to improve my psychological and spiritual health in order to come across to my clients as a healthy and positive individual and also to improve my overall health. If I was healthier at a psychological and spiritual level, I have no doubt that it would improve my relationships with my friends and family and also the people I work with.

Loving Kindness & Integral Assessment

The Loving Kindness exercise was easier for me this time than the first time I did it. I think it is one I need to practice more on a regular basis; it is not difficult to do and does not take much time. By letting out loving kindness I am more able to bring in loving kindness. I really like the positive reflection I get from doing this exercise.

The Integral Assessment was an interesting assessment. It really made me realize what areas I was struggling in by writing it down on paper and really looking at it. I think the biological area is my strongest point. I work out regularly and eat healthy and nutritional meals. The interpersonal area is probably my next strongest area. I am very close to my family and friends and have great relationships with them. The psychospiritual and worldly areas are what I need to work on. I need to do more volunteering and become involved in my church. I want to be more involved; I just need to take the initial step in doing this. I can work on strengthening my psychospiritual self by continuing to practice these exercises more regularly. I feel very connected with myself and have a more positive outlook after doing them, and it would be very beneficial for me to continue these on a regular basis.

Subtle Mind Exercise

The Subtle mind track on the Dacher CD was one that I enjoyed. It seemed simple; concentrate only on your breathing and let go of any distractions. It was difficult for me at first to only concentrate on my breathing, but once I started getting it I was able to relax and enjoy it. I felt this benefited me because I was able to leave behind all of my stress and focus. I need to use this approach more in my personal life; instead of thinking about everything throughout the day that needs done and wondering how I am going to complete everything, I should instead focus on one task at a time and concentrate on doing that particular task. After that task is complete, then I can focus only on the next task. This would help me from stressing over something that does not need stressed over and will keep me happier and healthier.
The Loving Kindness and Subtle Mind exercises were similar because both involved concentrating on one particular thing-either a loved one or your breathing. These two were different, however, because the Loving Kindness exercise focused on a loved one, giving you a feeling of love. The Subtle Mind exercise focuses on breathing in and out, leaving you emotionless and undistracted.

Loving Kindness

While listening to these tracks, I felt very relaxed. The tracks gave me a very positive and relaxed feeling. I enjoyed this one and found it beneficial because it put me in a very good mood. This assignment did not seem as difficult as a few of the previous ones were. I would recommend these tracks to others because of the positive and relaxed feeling they left on my body.
A mental workout involves exerting yourself mentally in order to accomplish something. Each practive brings greater insights making us feel grateful and blessed. We begin to feel as if we can actually change the course of our health and life. We will begin to have confidence which will then turn into certainty. By practicing these workouts each day and building on them, we can gain the confidence we need to keep our health in check and be able to make a positive change on the body.