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?
Health and wellness professionals are expected to be physically fit, psychologically healthy and spiritually aware. These are the traits that a client would look for when hiring a wellness practitioner. A wellness professional is a lifestyle mentor that must show by example the complete picture of health for the purpose of being a guiding light, an influential teacher and grounded professional. A practitioner that is healthy in all three dimensions of their lives generally has a deep introspective awareness that they refer back to when working towards their client’s goals.
In order to achieve my goals of becoming a successful integral practitioner, I have to work on fine tuning my sensitivities around stress. My emotional, physical and mental health has all at one time or another been affected adversely by how I deal with stress. However, this personal awareness has driven me to be mindful about my triggers and most recently, to book consistent appointments with a Rogerian person-center psychologist. It is my intension to explore and develop my emotional self in order to increase my coping mechanism surrounding stress.
Assessment:
How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?
Wellness Spiritually - Scores = 9:
Since I was very young I was always considered a spiritual child, one that by age 12 could be found in the occult section of the library trying to decipher the bible, translate the kabbalah, decode hermetic symbols or learn how to astral-project. I have always been into spirituality and the deeper meanings of life and self. As an adult I have found job satisfaction by being in a career in which spirituality, intuition and energy is brought up in conversation as often as the weather. The same can be said about my personal relationships. I practice meditation, yoga, contemplation, mindfulness and other inner awareness techniques to keep me in tune with my spiritual self and with the world around me.
Physically – Score = 8:
My positive physical health is not just ranked on the bases that I have no diseases, illnesses or family history thereof. Physical health has many aspects which included: blood pressure, weight, ovulation, elimination, diet, breath, rate of inflammation, rest, acid/alkalinity balance, bone strength, excellent senses and homeostasis. I am very healthy and live a healthy lifestyle, I do suffer from pain due to arthritis and injuries which can hinder physical activity sometimes. However, I do address my physical limitations in various forms so that I am always looking to improve my overall score.
Psychologically – Score = 8:
Although I rated my psychological health an eight, I have to honestly state that my mental health score actually vacillates between a seven and nine depending on what my life brings. Part of my wellness lifestyle includes making the effort to look into my mental and energetic self in search of my deeper truths, inner awareness and cleansing from emotional baggage that I have yet to release in order to move toward optimal mental well-being. For the new year, I have taken the initiative to find a psychologist that fits my personal and spiritual values in order to increase my psychological score.
Goal Development:
Physical Goal: To address physical limitations I am going to seek both medical and alternative holistic health advice for my arthritis and any other bodily pains that I thought would have subsided on their own by now.
Spiritual Goal: To increase spiritual awareness I am going to incorporate time for meditation during my regular work days while on my lunch breaks. Since I get an hour for lunch, my goal is to meditate for the first fifteen minutes of my break-time before eating. Also, when possible, I am going to eat my lunch in complete silence to allow my mind a rest during my meal.
Psychological Goal: This year I am going to genuinely focus more on my psychological health by visiting with a psychologist one to two times a week. My goal is learn more about myself while fully participating in a mental health plan that will cultivate self-compassion, consistent mindfulness and healthy coping mechanism in an effort to minimize the effects of stress.
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.
Physical: To address my issues with arthritis, I am going to implement an anti-inflammatory diet developed by Dr. Weil. It is my intension to reduce my body’s inflammation in an effort to reduce or eliminate pain. Once I am free of pain I can increase my physical activity.
Psychological: As mentioned earlier, I have scheduled regular appointments with a Rogerian person-center psychologist. To find this practitioner, I first had to develop a list of my mental health goals and research the specific therapeutic approach that would best work for me before contacting the professional I chose. I know that as long as I am honest and open with the mental health expert, I will be rewarded with true emotional awareness with will increase my overall well-being.
Spiritual: In is my new year’s resolution to increase my mediation practice. Along with meditating everyone morning, I am going to incorporate meditation during the midday. It is my hopes that this extra meditative practice will keep me clear headed, focused and promote a feeling of awake-ness that will carry me throughout the rest of my work day.
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 track my wellness progress, I am using both my digital schedule and wall calendar to not only keep track of the time I am setting aside for the above mentioned goals, but also I will be using the wall calendar as a visual inspiration tool. I will be hanging a calendar next to my meditation alter at home to mark each day in which I took the time to meditation midday. I know that looking at the calendar before beginning my morning meditation will inspiring me because I will clearly see progress of the goal I have set. In regards to my appointments for both my psychological and physical health goals, as long as I stay consistent with my doctor visits and the health procedures they will prescribe me, I am sure I will begin to move towards a direction of optimal health.
One of my main mental health goals is to develop a long-term wellness plan that takes into account my future life’s goals (career, family, home, etc.). By working with the psychologist I have chosen to coach me through this process, together we will create a realistic strategy to incorporate my physical, spiritual and of course psychological wellness goals into my everyday lifestyle. The fact is, I already have positive lifestyle practices but because there were major changes in my life last year, one of them is being newly married, I now have to revamp my current wellness approaches to reflex how my life has changed. This method of reassessing my current wellness practices in regards to my ever changing life helps me maintain and evolve in all three dimensions of well-being.
