Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

Introduction: The importance of health and wellness professionals developing psychologically, spiritually, and physically leads to a healthy individual offering guidance to their clients. Psychologically a health and wellness professional should have a conscious and trained mind to offer objective solutions. A trained mind is also focused and calm. This individual would not be moved by situations offered pertaining to client's. Being psychologically developed will create unity in the mind and body along with shaping their pattern of thinking. Being developed spiritually is the driving force for our consciousness. The spiritual aspects of human development drives the physical to endure past the limitations. A person's drive and determination is nutured by its spiritural development. Physical develop manifest endurance in the body that strengths the mind. Endurance has to be fed by your psyche and spiritual ability.  Meditation allow me to stay focused psychologically. I have learned to continously train my mind stay calm and relax in tense situations. Spiritually I understand their is a higher power and all things happen for a reason. It is very important to look for the good in every situation. Exercise is something that I do at least 5 days a week. When I am physicially active I can relax mentally due to the endorphins that are released. Exercise releases a peace in my spirit that allows me to clear my head and focus. Stress and anxiety is something I work to keep to a minimal. Keeping your body constantly developing physically will control the stress, anxiety and anxiousness in your day to day activities. I need to develop my spirituality part of life to achieve some of the goals that I have set in place. In order to do this more time needs to be set aside for meditating and developing your inner self. I am so easily consumed with the pressures of the day that I often forget to take that time for myself.

Assessment: When I try to assess myself in all areas it causes a little uncertainty in how I see myself. I am very hard on myself for present and past situations. I know my weak area is spiritual but my strength lies in psychological and physical areas. I think because of past experiences concerning spirituality I can be bit apprehensive. However, I am trying to grow into a more well rounded spiritual person. Psychologically I understand life and what is has to offer. I try to spend my days looking at life as being a half full glass and not a half empty glass. Since I have been in school it has boosted my opinion on how life should be to each individual. In saying that, the choices and decisions we make throughout life belong to us as individuals. That is why is important to live your life to the fullest according to your needs and goals. My goals are very important and I am determined to complete them. One day soon I am going to run my first 5k and complete the race. I have never been a runner but now that I am training everyday towards that goal I am so excited about working out.

Goal Development: Developing my goals have taught me patience and understanding. I am 50 years young it is very easy have a feeling of urgency. However, I have more than enough time to complete the goals I have set forth. I try to be very realistic in what I set for me to achieve. I have a host of support from family and friends and that makes it much easier for to see my way. My goal pyschologically is to not be a critical of others. I need to keep my mind focused on not being consumed in trying to save the world, mostly my family. Now that I am taking care of my needs and goals my family has come on board with they are trying to be of help. My goal for my spiritual part of life is to spend more time with my inner life. My spirit needs nurturing to create peace and harmony in my life. To achieve I need to calm my mind and still the atmosphere around me a prescribed times. My mind is always racing and I am learning to close my eyes and calm my spirit at any given time. It takes a lot of self control to accomplish this and so I understand that is an area for me to work. My goal for physical  development is to continue to push myself during my workout sessions. I know what it is needed to participate in running a 5k and I will continue to work towards that goal. I will continue to incorporate  strength training to make my legs strong and durable.

Practices for Personal Health: The main thing is to prepare your mind to change. Once you start to implement change it is not always comfortable. Physically I can push myself harder and add different programs to my regiment, psychologically I can control my emotions more and be more understanding of others and spiriturally I can meditate and pray more. Each change will take time and effort. I can help myself by educating myself in each area. I read quite a bit now but there is always information out there to help my change.

Commitment: I will assess my progress by keeping a journal and exercise log. I will also continue to blog over the next six months. The strategies necessary are to undertand that all the changes will be lifestyle changes. That means they will be permanent and I will have to continue to evolve my life.

Unit 8 Optimal Well-Being

The Subtle mind has been one of the most beneficial practices because an open mind promotes healing. Having a high anxiety level I really need to practice achieving a stabilized mind incorporating a complete stillness in thought. Learning to achieve a peaceful state of mind will help with preventing disease in the body and lowering your stress level. Meditation has been beneficial in bringing the mind and body closer together. Creating harmony with your mind and body will allow an atmosphere of well being to flow in your life. Meditation works together with the subtle mind practice because the goals are very similar. Calming the mind will allow unity of the mind and body. Practicing meditation brings your inner self into that realm of peace. The body reacts naturally to the mind.

I travel quite a bit during the day and I am lots of traffic. I can implement these two practices when I am sitting in traffic and my anxiety level begins to rise. I then can practice meditating at home to accomplish a calm effect. Doing this will allow me to focus and my inner self will relax.

Meditating Exercise Unit 7 "Meeting Aesclepius"

This meditating exercise was very relaxing. However, what really stuck with me was at the end it was suggested that you have to continue to practice these exercises to become proficient. Practice is very important for me because of my personality. I am naturally very anxious and aggressive. These exercises have allowed me to learn to relax and try to calm my mind. The mind is the main factor in meditating. If the mind continuous to be overly active it will draw your thoughts away from what you are meditating about. Meditating and mindfulness has created a different perspective on how to deal with stress and mental activity in my immediate surroundings. I draw from my spirituality more and that helps to calm my inner spirit. I can continue to practice these exercises because I will continue to train my mind to send the correct signals to my body. Hopefully these will be signs of peace, love, happiness, harmony and well being. The body will continue to flourish in a healthy and positive way if the mind is in a healthy and positive state.

The statement " One can not lead another where one has not gone himself" simply means if you have not experienced certain things in your lifetime it would be hard to give advice to someone else concerning these things. This will apply to health and wellness professionals because people are looking for positive examples. Integral Health is a far reaching entity that will heal the body, mind and spirit. Not like most traditional medicines where the person can see treatments you are  offering, the individual has to believe that they can be healed by understanding that the mind, body and spirit are connected. We all know that "Experience is often the best teacher", and having experienced or learned much about the mind, body and spirit will give health and wellness professional information to regurgitate to the person in need of healing.

You have a very serious obligation to develop and nurture you own health psychologically, physically and spiritually. If you have a client in need of Integral health healing, the wellness professional should be on a competent level in all areas to offer the help needed. Psychological and spiritual growth in my life has already started by taking this course. I have implemented meditation more and the process of looking deep within my own consciousness to cultivate a better atmosphere for my mental state. I am learning more and more each day how to still the mind. If your mind is in a calm and peaceful place you can hear what is going on around you. Sometimes we are so consumed with our own situations we miss important things that are in our immediate circles.

Loving Kindness and Integral Assessment

The Loving Kindness (meditation) exercise is affirmations of helping others. There is much gratitude in helping others if you are not a selfish person.There are lots of affirmations that I repeat every day and I must admit most of them are for self improvement. The exercise shows us that it is not always necessary to put yourself first but in helping and caring for others you will grow to a level of consciousness offering your mind a special kind of peace. There is a level of consumption within ourselves that sometimes hinder us from noticing what the world needs. We all should want good health for all, happiness, wholeness and freedom from suffering for everyone. When we separate ourselves from others on this earth your inner self can become stagnant.The body needs the oxygen from the flowers and the trees to survive. I discovered that I can become very consumed with my immediate surroundings and miss so much of the outer world.

Deep listening and guidance is the area I have chosen to be a focus of growth and development. Developing these areas will bring about more focus and a state of mind that is clear and unbiased. In doing this I we will be able to listen to our inner voice and let it guide you to a calm-abiding that is stable and peaceful. That peacefulness in your mind will allow you to make good assessments of your health and wellness. So many decisions are made hastily and from desperation. When this happens you are being consumed with feelings and emotions. I have experienced this behavior in the past and being able to practice deep listening and guidance will help me make good decisions.

Some specific exercises to implement this process would be meditating and relaxation. An anxious mind will make hasty decisions. Another exercise is to practice getting enough sleep and rest. A rested mind will be likely to deep listen and wait for guidance from what we have observed. Physical fitness is another exercise because it helps relieve stress. A stress free mind is a clear and thought provoking mind.

The Subtle Mind

The love and kindness exercise was teaching how to love yourself through loving others. I found that a bit odd because I always thought you had to love yourself first before you could love someone else. This exercise shows you how to tap into what is really in your heart then share it with others. This can be good or bad but either way if you are being true you can not go wrong. One should be able to take on some suffering from loved ones and friends. I guess it is similar to hearing people tell others that they will pray for them in a time of need or that they will keep them in their thoughts. The subtle mind allows you to focus on your breathing to use it as a part of fulfilling your love and kindness deeds to others. Often we take a deep breath to re-group and finish what we are trying to accomplish. Sometimes that deep breath allows you to reconsider what you were about to say or do to someone. The focused concentration technique shows how to bring your mind back in tune with your immediate thoughts when the mind begins to wander. We know very little about the mind and these exercises give an opportunity to learn about the mind. They were very taxing for me because they required so much thought process. Again this exercise was a bit frustrating simply because it required you to still your mind. My mind naturally races all the time and to still the activity in my mind takes a lot of concentration.

The spiritual wellness and physical wellness connect the mind and body. Your spiritual wellness concerns your inner life. Your inner life needs to be in complete harmony to feed the body what it needs. Your physical wellness allows the outer frame to stay healthy and strong. The mind has to be strong to allow the body to maintain strength. Your spiritual wellness works with the body to push you to limits you thought you could not achieve. My personal life shows manifestation in my physical workout regimen. When my workout appears to be very difficult I listen to my spiritual and inner life to continue on and it allows me to achieve a much better physical workout. I really notice this working during my training for my first 5k run/walk this fall.

Relaxation Exercise

The exercise was very different because it made you channel in to all your emotions. It was beneficial in a sense that it forced you to go beyond your normal boundaries. It was difficult but more so uncomfortable. Sometimes it can be hard to tap into your deeper aspect. Then you have to visualize a loved one who is suffering. This part of the exercise was uncomfortable because I have lost a nephew and 3 close girlfriends over the last 4 years to tragedy and disease. This part was overwhelming because the friends suffered before they died. Yes I would recommend this to others because I feel everyone should tackle different areas in their lives where they need to grow or heal.

The concept of "Mental Workout" is the same as physical workout. The mind needs training and exercising just as the body does. If you skip training sessions you will find that you are not as strong in your innerself. The same applies to your physical training. If you skip to many days you will find that you are not as strong as you were when you were training daily. The research indicates that you will learn how to open your heart and mind to others and not be as self-centered in life. The benefits are also to have a conscious mind and have open mind to receive healing if needed. We do get back what we put in life. It is primarily how you treat others that count. The understanding is that it is "karma" meaning that you reap what you sow. The mental work out teaches you to love others and to have a subtle mind. You can implement the mental workout by practicing with family and friends. You can constantly focus on settling your mind to stop it from racing. You can focus on others and helping them to succeed in their goals. Taking the spot light off yourself is a good way to foster psychological health.

Let's Stay Positive!

We should all remember the words of  Mary Anne Evans aka George Eliot, " It is never to late to be what you might have been." Mary Anne Evans was a English novelist, journalist and translator. She used the male name George Eliot because she was born in 1819 and died in 1880. During those times using a male name ensured her work would be published and taken seriously. It was also an attempt to keep her personal life separate.

My Reflections on Unit Three

My physical well being is rated a 8, my spiritual well being is a 9, and my psychological well being is a 6.  My physical well being is not where I would like for it to be because of lack of exercise over a 3 year period. A sedentary lifestyle is very harmful to the body and mind. The body (inner and outer) needs movement to stay fluid and healthy.  Last October I started a new exercise program by joining a fitness center. I try to go to the fitness center 6 days a week and stretch along with cardio and strength training. My spiritual well being is much stronger than my physical because I am a very positive person and I operate with a conscious mind on a daily basis. My psychological well being needs some healing due to the stresses from outside influences. Spiritually I am working to heal my psychological well being because I understand there needs to have an even balance within the mind, body, inner and outer being.

A goal to address my total well being is to continue my exercise regiment, continue to monitor my nutritional habits and concentrate on correcting the problems that I have concerning a healthy body. My spiritual well being could use an over haul with with more meditation, more reading positive information to feed and inspire the mind concerning healthy outlooks, and try making positive affirmations. My psychological well being would benefit from my spiritual over haul. I should also try a new exercise program like Tai Chi to relax. I should invest in anxiety and relaxation techniques to calm the mind. My body is sometimes exhausted at the end of the day from trying to keep pace with my mind. My personality is naturally very anxious and to improve my psychological well being relaxation techniques should be incorporated in my daily routine.

To move toward each goal I will try Yoga, Tai Chi, and Breathing Exercises. These exercise programs are designed to help tame and relax the mind. This will also affect the body. I am also training for my first 5k run/walk this fall. Having realistic goals to reach will help keep me motivated and give  me inspiration to keep my goals.

The Crime of the Century relaxation exercise was beneficial but frustrating at the same time. That means I benefited from the exercise but it was some what frustrating in the beginning because of how slow the context was moving. I need to relax but it has always been hard to engage my mind. I constantly speak to my mind to focus and concentrate on how to relax. The exercise is very nice but I chose a hectic time to engage. I will try again before the session is over.