Review

After reviewing my unit three and nine assessments I would say that I am still around a 5 out of 10 or solid “C”. I would love to say that I have jumped up to a 7.5 or 8 out of 10 but I would just be lying to myself. Since my unit three assessment I have made a couple changes to my integral plan by switching out meditations, changing my goals in the physical and spiritual departments which I believe will better suit me in the long run. With that in mind I do feel that I have made progress towards my end goal for the reason I am taking my health and wellness plan and molding it to what I need to become healthier. This course has brought the different aspects to the mind-body-spirit relationship that I was compartmentalizing and pieced them together. Being able to link and see personally how one aspect of your life affect the others is a large stepping stone, at least it was for me. The most difficult portion of this course was, and still is, the loving-kindness exercise. I believe that because I am having such a difficult time with it, when it does come together for me I will have made a significant development in the my psychological and spiritual areas. To finish, I truly believe that my health and wellness can help further others even if it is just being a role model for them. Personally, I would rather make a significant difference if a few lives than a haphazard difference in a thousand lives.

Creating Wellness

The absolute worst experience is walking into a medical or healthcare practice and feeling uncared for only later to meet your physician and either feel as if your words are going in one of his ears and out the other or to see your physician practice medicine as if he or she were going through the movements waiting to clock out for the day. This is why George’s words “one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself” (p. 477) and the relationship of Doctor-patient transforming into Person-Person beings with the personal development in the integral practice of mind-body-spirit (Schlitz, Amorok, Micozzi, 2005). How can anyone expect to teach another through blind leadership? Within my mind-body-spiritual practice I need more development psychologically, physically, and spiritually if I intend to reach my current goals. With that said, there will always be room for growth and improvement in all areas if I aim to reach my desired level of flourishing. Within my mind-body-spiritual journey I will be assessing my health in three domains and how I score myself spiritually, physically, and psychologically. Next, I will list one or more goals for each of the three areas that I have graded and two or more exercises or methods I can use to develop growth in each area. I will conclude by discussing ways to assess my future growth and development over the next six months and how I will be able to maintain my journey in the long-term.

To begin, after completing my integral assessment I gave myself the following grades in the areas of spirituality, psychological, and physical development. My physical assessment was graded as a “C” based on three areas. The first area is my physical health, I am currently overweight which creates added pressure on my body aiding in the symptoms of certain chronic diseases. The second area is nutrition, I overall have many healthy habits but could improve by decreasing processed foods. The third area is my transition from allopathic medicine to a more integral approach. My spirituality assessment was graded as a “C-“for the reason I am including interpersonal and worldly aspects as part of the larger picture of the world or universe. On the interpersonal scale, I am transitioning back and forth between the “you” and “us” aspects and I am also firmly planted in the creative expression portion of worldly development for the reason I have not found an area where I can put myself into my work for fulfillment and service. My psychologically assessment was graded as a “C” for the reason I am currently at the beginning of my journey developing my witnessing mind. I feel that having an overall “C” is an improvement from eight weeks ago and a stepping stone into further development.

Next, after my integral assessment I created goals in the three areas of physical, psychological, and spiritual wellness. My two goals pertaining to the physical wellness category is to maintain an open mind on my journey from allopathic medicine to my version on integral health and to incorporate a regular fitness program that will also decrease my level of tension and stress produced by daily events. Within the spiritual category I also have two goals the first deals with my interpersonal relationship with others which relies on the development of my emotional intelligence to remove the self-indulging barriers to grow an awareness of others feeling and concerns. The second goal is to keep the mindset while working that my occupation is a service to others, no matter how small the job I am making a difference in the world. The last area psychological wellness has one goal to move from a witnessing consciousness into a calm-abiding consciousness removing unwanted suffering.

Following my goals I will be providing at least two exercises for each area of development, physical, spiritual, and psychological, to help achieve the current goals along my path to human flourishing. Within the physical area, I will be planning my weekly dinners out on Sunday’s to reduce the amount of processed food in my life. As for developing my physical fitness to incorporate stress relievers, I am going to incorporate two exercises jogging/running transition from walking/jogging to improve my active meditation and yoga. Practicing yoga twice a week will improve my posture, diaphragmatic breathing, as well as decrease my stress and anxiety levels. Within the spiritual area of my life the exercise that I am going to use to help improve my awareness of the feelings of those around me is the loving-kindness meditation. This is one of the most difficult exercises for me and I think it will improve my transition from self-involving to a caring awareness of others. To improve my attitude or perception of work I am going to incorporate two of the “small steps” Dacher recommends to transform work. They include taking a work task and putting my kindness and care into it and the second is to take time at lunch to re-find my inner calmness releasing any stress that may be building up. My last area of development, psychological, will include three different meditations each practiced twice a week. The first meditation is the Rainbow Meditation which helps to keep me grounded, centered, and confident in my daily life. The second meditation, Subtle Mind, will help my growth from a witnessing mind to a calm-abiding mind. The third meditation is mentioned in Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing under the taste of human flourishing section (Dacher, 2006, p. 144). This exercise brought so much energy, calmness, and happiness into my body after competing. I loved this feeling and would like to maintain it each and every day.

To conclude, each health plan needs to be reassessed on a regular basis to ensure that goals are being met and that the exercises and methods implemented are still practical to the end goal or stage of life I am in. For myself, it is harder to break a habit when exchanging it with a healthier habit so for the first seven weeks I will be assessing my goals at the end of the week to see if I am on schedule to reaching my goal or if I need to reassess to make my goal more realistic. Similarly, depending on the week I may need to switch practices to accommodate stress levels. After the seven weeks, if I am applying the exercise into my life I will extend out my reassessments to the end of each month up until the six month mark. At that point, if I am pleased with my progress and still working toward my goals I will reassess my progress and future goals at the end of every other month. I do not think that I would ever wait longer than two months to reassess my progress and goals due to the fact that I feel my life and environment are constantly changing whether it be from the seasons, family, friends, or occupation and I may need to change exercises to reach my end goal of human flourishing. 

References

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

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