unit 9 project

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1 Introduction:

            Health and wellness begins where you are.  Many people discover that the physical aches and pains are signs and symptoms of their own creation.  Our ulcers can be relieved with a pill, diet, or an antacid.  We soon find that the relief is short lived and we are in need of continuing the regimen of daily pills and antacids and watching what we eat.  When we realize that maybe there is a long term solution we are intrigued and listen closely for the answer.  Control your stress, respond instead of react, change your perspective, and learn to like what you do.   Sounds like platitudes and mumbo jumbo, or whatever justification we choose, and life gets busy, we forget how many pills we’ve taken and learn to live a satisfactory life, ulcers and all.  Then there are the rest of us.  We believe that health and wellness comes from being balanced psychologically, spiritually and physically.  One part of us touches the other parts of us.  We are more than just a body and a chatty mind. 

            It is important for wellness professionals to develop their own wellness psychologically, spiritually, and physically.  Practicing what you preach is the first step towards being able to bring wellness and wholeness to your clients.  My goal is to educate clients regarding the benefits of healing through the practice of stress relief, learning to respond instead of react, and diet and exercise.  Stress relief can be accomplished through meditation, goal setting, looking at ourselves and how we may be responsible for the creation of many of our stressors, and also through a healthy diet and staying physically active.  Meditation, diet and exercise, and being emotionally

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balanced, will decrease the level of stress and suffering that many in our society deal with daily.  I am a work in progress.  I am aware that my diet lately is not what it should be.  I know I can work on that.  I am physically active but should include an exercise plan into my daily activities.  My goals can sometimes be too ambiguous, leaning more towards ideals than an actual plan I can set in motion.  My life is evolving and developing.  These goals are set and within my reach.  Tomorrow I may become aware of another area in my life.  Every day is changing and I am flexible and dynamic enough to change directions when needed. 

2 Assessments:

            To assess my health in any area of my life depends on my attitude of the moment.  I may have become aware of a personal experience that I thought I had gotten over.  Another aspect of the past has come to light and must be worked on, dealt with, and let go.  I may have been exercising and eating well for a few weeks and feel great.  Two weeks later my diet and physical activity will be less than hoped for and I must again work on the physical.  Life may have gotten busy and my priorities have changed.  Today I am spiritually sound with more work to do, I respond instead of react and try to remember that my take on a situation may not be what it seems, and my diet and exercise is less than desirable due to finals, cold weather, and a priority shift.

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3 Goal Developments:

            My goal is to continue to meditate, (the subtle mind, loving kindness, and the Aeslepian) to continue my journey towards inner health.  I have a goal to return to my previous diet, mostly vegetarian, and to make yoga more of my daily routine.  My experiences (though personal and justified) are only my opinions, delusions, belief systems, and denials and may have nothing to do with truth.  My goal is to continue to realize how small and limiting I have created my world.  My goal is to expand my world, to express myself and know myself enough (or better) to relieve my own suffering and so to relieve the suffering that I unknowingly extend to others.  This life, this journey, is evolving.  There are many layers to peel back and many aha moments to come.

4 Practices for Personal Health:

            All areas of my life, no matter how satisfying they are, have room for improvement.  I am physically strong and am lucky enough to not need prescription medicine.  I also know that I will soon be 54.  My strength and health of today is not a guarantee of health tomorrow.  As we age we must let go our belief that we can start tomorrow.  A regular exercise program, flexibility and strength, are necessary if I wish to be as well at 60 as I am at 54.  Proper diet is more important today than when I was 20 or 30.  These two practices are strategies that are needed to foster growth and implement my physical health.

            When I implement my plan for my physical health this will reach into all the other levels of my life.  My psychological and spiritual areas are more responsive and less

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reactive today than when I was in my teens, twenties, and thirties.  I raised five girls and succumbed to the drama queen syndrome that surrounded me.  I had to grow up along with my children.  Sometimes there is a lot of fun when the passion of the drama is in full swing.  Learning to laugh at myself and being able to recognize when a daughter is manipulating me into her drama was a blessing.  The reaction (from my daughters) because I did not go along with their ploy, was worth the hard work of wanting something more by relinquishing the drama that was holding me back.  The psychological and spiritual aspects of my life were transformed when I began breaking the mold of mom.  Through meditation, journaling, deep breathing and becoming interested in outside subjects I began the journey of remembering who I was and what I wanted.   Children are only yours for a little while, when they are grown and gone you need to have a life of purpose and meaning.

5 Commitment:

              My journey begins again each day, moment by moment.  Everyday lessons to learn will be shown to me.  I have found that journaling is a great way to assess where I was, what I was up against, and where I go.  Journaling helps me to see how strong my foundation is and how many obstacles, or walls, that I have climbed, knocked down, or at least chiseled into manageable chucks.  Every life is a story and everyone has an amazing story.  To be human is to know pain, to know joy, and to figure out how we got to where we are.  Writing something down allows us to express that which is hidden

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from others and makes us see the futility of denial.  Journaling is a helpful practice that will remind us of the work that we have done physically, spiritually, and psychologically.

            The support of family and friends is a great way to keep us on track.  With the integral practices my relationships grow stronger and deeper.  Old wounds are healed.  The health and happiness that I have strived for is a motivator by itself.  I may want to look like I did in my 30’s but never would I want to be that person again.  I am more comfortable in my own skin, more confident in myself, and have a deeper understanding that the universe does not revolve around me.  My long term practices include meditation, yoga, journaling, laughing, and expressing my compassion and joy that life truly is.