Creating Wellness

Psychologically, spiritually, and physically

Dacher states “to become the agents of a more expansive health, we must begin with our own life” (Dacher, 2006). In order for a health and wellness professional to better teach a patient, one must first develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically in his/her own personal life. In order to be teachers for our patients, we must have firsthand experience of the learning process. If we are not ready to embrace integral health into our own lives, we cannot expect our patients do so. Incorporating integral health practices into our own lives, we begin to learn about ourselves, what happens as we evolve a more expansive life, we will begin to see that alleviation of suffering and the ascent of human flourishing are more than ideas, and gain more confidence in ending human suffering. Once we are able to embrace the integral approach in our own lives, we are then able to share our own experiences—thus making it far more personal with our patients.

Lately, I feel like my life is a series of dead ends and U-turns. It is like my life moves in cycles and even though I begin each morning excited and ready to start a new day, I allow all this mental chatter to totally ruin it leading me back to a place where I do not want to be. I feel I need to continue to develop spiritually and psychologically in order to better meet the goals I have set for myself. I have lost touch with the psychological and spiritual aspect of integral health, and I feel if I am able to shift back inward instead of constantly focusing outward, I will begin to start healing the broken pieces. Once I am able to start piecing myself back together, I feel I can begin to start getting back to the basic again—loving myself.

Assessment

            I try to assess my health in each domain on a weekly basis. I know that I am a work in progress and that I will eventually meet the goals I have set for myself. I do not like to measure or assess my health in each domain with other people because I know we are all different and have our own individual strengths and weaknesses. I believe that somewhere along the way, mainly in my youth, I learned to believe that I had to prove myself to everyone in order to gain their acceptance. Because I have always felt I had to be something other than what I truly am, I have lost touch with who it is I truly am. It is no wonder I am so far from knowing my true self and question everything.

              

            I would score my wellness spiritually 6 out of 10 because I am still trying to discover what it is I believe in and what all of it means. I believe in a higher power, but there is so much more I question than believe that I feel it is an area I still need to work on. I do meditate and find peace and harmony in doing so, but I do not really know if it is really helping me spiritually or if I want to believe it is.

My wellness physically would be 8 out of 10. I have followed a special diet since my diagnosis, but I have since begun exploring the vegan lifestyle and I am amazed at the amount of energy I have. I am physically active on a daily basis, but I feel I could allot more time for activities. There are days I just do not feel like working out or I want to sleep in, but I am learning to better motivate myself instead of procrastinating.

Psychologically my wellness would be a 7 out of 10, which is one below it was when first starting this course. I feel when I have quality time for myself and not so wrapped up in everything else going on I am able to see myself more clearly. Then there are times when I feel I have to stretch myself too thin and take on way too much than I feel is fair. I have decided that I am not completely satisfied with where I am and where I have allowed my relationship to be and it worn on me mentally. I question whether it is even possible for me to achieve complete satisfaction or if I hold myself to high of a standard.

Goal development

My goal for spiritual wellbeing is to try and keep a perfect balance of peace and harmony in my life to lead to optimal spiritual wellbeing. I feel it is important for me to really figure out what it is I truly believe and what the belief means to me spiritually in order for me to have confirmation that my beliefs are accurate and to then translate my beliefs into action and love. I know that I can be a spiritual person without being religious, but I just have so many questions that I feel I need answered before I can fully embrace spirituality.

My goal for physical wellbeing is to continue to maintain a healthy quality of life that ensures me and my family the ability to get through daily activities without any undue fatigue or physical stress. I want to continue to recognize that all my behaviors have a significant impact on my wellness and that continuing healthy habits such as a balanced diet, exercise, etc. and avoiding destructive habits will lead to optimal physical wellbeing.

My goal for psychological wellbeing is to continue to focus on all the positive things in life and remember to continuously create positive relationships, emotions, and to learn to love myself. I do realize it can be difficult to remember to be positive, especially when things are not always going the way I planned them to be, but remembering that life itself is a blessing will lead to optimal psychological well-being.

Practices for personal health

 

When we incorporate and practice all of the exercises that we were given in the past 9 weeks, we may very well have the opportunity to experience human flourishing; living a life full of great health, happiness, and wholeness. I always tell myself that life never made anyone a promise to be easy; it is our responsibility to make the best out of what we are given. Incorporating all of the techniques into our daily lives leads to better self-awareness of both mind and body.

            

 I enjoy doing Yoga, Pilates, kickboxing, and strength training. All of these help me release all my anger and tension I may be feeling. I feel these exercises are important to my spiritual, psychological, and physical health and will continue to assist me in moving toward each goal. I also enjoy writing poetry and short stories; these activities keep me relaxed and give me the ability to express myself not only creatively, but spiritually and psychologically. I would like to continue the Subtle Mind exercise because I feel like I can be so wrapped up in everything else going on that I cannot focus on those around me. I am an avid thinker, so I really enjoyed learning ways to quiet my mind. I of course also have a very busy mind, so I do struggle with trying to stay completely focused on how I want to make changes and ways to incorporate those changes into my daily routine, so I feel this exercise will be very helpful in my psychological wellbeing.

            

 Loving-kindness is a skill that is “our most powerful antidote to destructive emotions like anger, intolerance, jealousy, pride, and greed that agitate our mind and make it unavailable for further development” (Dacher, 2006). In learning to show others around us loving-kindness, we must first learn to show ourselves loving-kindness. I have always heard in order to truly love another; you must first learn to love yourself. Those that are unhappy with themselves are usually very unpleasant to be around—misery loves company. I am a very giving and selfless person who wants those around me to have nothing but complete happiness. If I can put a smile on the faces of others, it means the world to me. I often spend more time worrying about making everyone else happy that I often forget about myself. I suppose my way of loving-kindness is backwards. I can admit that I have grown a bit resentful of others that do not show appreciation of all the things I do, so this is an area I need to work on—starting from scratch—learning to first love myself.

            

 Skillful action is aimed to “bring an end to destructive knee-jerk reactive behavior by becoming increasingly aware of its negative effects on our ability to still and calm the mind” (Dacher, 2006). In other words, we want our mental attitudes, as well as the actions we take, to support our inward and outer efforts. Just as I stated above, misery loves company. If we keep ourselves in a state of misery, we will make those around us miserable. Misery will breed misery. If I continue to grow resentful towards others that I feel lack appreciation, I am the one who will ultimately suffer from that resentful action more so than the one I am growing resentful towards. In order to move forward toward integral health, I first need to recognize that certain actions will inevitably lead to certain consequences. In order to move forward, we must first stop doing what hurts us. We all need discipline and restraint in our lives because without them, “we cannot grow our inner life, we cannot attain integral health” (Dacher, 2006).

Commitment          

  

I have begun a new journal that I have been keeping track of my progression and what I feel I need to work on daily, weekly, etc. I have learned that in order to stop a downward spiral, I have to really figure out what it is I really want and who I really am. I am committed to prioritizing and focusing on those priorities and not allowing unhealthy thoughts and behaviors to sway me from my end goals. I am re-teaching myself to love myself again and to let go of everything that has been holding me back. Sometimes it is a lot easier said than done, but I am finding it very liberating to finally be getting my life back on track.

             

I have come to realize that I did not know as much about myself as I thought I did and that I cannot blame anyone else for the things that have plagued my life over the years. I have to remember that we all have a past and things that are beyond our control, but that does not define who we are and what we plan to be. I plan to revisit all of the exercises we have learned in this course and really figure out which ones are the best for me. In 6 months, I plan to be in a totally better frame of mind, body, and soul.