I.
Introduction:
Professionals that practice integral health treat the person
in a physical, spiritual and psychological level. Treating the whole person is important in
order to treat the symptoms along with the root of the ailment. Diving in to the whole person, as opposed to
just the problem, could, not only help them heal the problem, but prevent it
from reoccurring.
With integral health, the psychological and spiritual
aspects of a person are treated and strengthened. When the mind is clear and a person has a
positive focus, their body, in turn will strengthen. Clearing the mind of stress and anxiousness,
the body will follow. The organs will
work more efficiently and various ailments may treat themselves.
My plan would be to include various holistic practices
within my lifestyle such as meditation, massage therapy, visualization and
diaphragmatic breathing. These
modalities would help me clear my mind and allow my mind and body to function
properly. This would not only help with
my psychological development, but also with my spiritual development. It would rid my mind of a lot of tense and
anxious thoughts that I tend to have.
I find the older that I get, the more I struggle between
allowing little things bother me and having the knowledge that I need to think
clearly. I believe if I can include
meditation and diaphragmatic breathing into my life on a regular basis, I would
live a calmer life. Visualization will
help me to keep myself focused on things that I want and need to have in my
life. Massage therapy would be another
great way of relaxing in order to have a clear mind and body.
II.
Assessment:
I have chosen to assess my health within the three sections
on a scale of 1through 5. 1 would be the
lowest and shows that little to no improvement has happened and 5 would show
the most improvement. I feel that the
top rating should never show perfection.
The reason is that there is always room for improvement and I know, for
me, I always strive for that. I also feel
that since we are always constantly changing and evolving, there is always
going to be improvement that is needed.
To reflect my growth and development in the spiritual realm,
I give myself a 2. I do not meditate as
much as I would like to or say that I am going to. I feel if I just meditated a bit more, I
would be a little bit more grounded in my spirituality. I am not a religious person by any means, but
I do believe in a higher power and the power that resides within us and I would
like to develop that.
To reflect my physical growth, I do give myself a 4. I know what fitness level I am at and exactly
where I would like to be. I have a
complete plan to get there and I have been staying on track with it. The only point of change that I need to make
is that I need to be a lot stricter with my diet. Now I completely understand too, that have a
strict, healthy diet does become more difficult during the holidays, but I will
do my best to try. As far as physical
exercise, my plan consists of cardio-respiratory exercise in the morning and
weight training in the evening. I will
work out at least 5 days a week.
As far as my psychological fitness goes, I give myself a
3. Even though I have trained myself to
become a calmer person, I still have my moments where my brain is filled with
anxiety. During those times, it is hard
to talk myself into a calmer state. I
know that I still need work in that aspect in order to control my anxiety
attacks. I know it can be done; however,
it will take time to accomplish that.
III. Goal
development:
The personal goals that I have for myself are as follows:
In respect to my physical goal, I would like to continue to
hit the gym harder than ever and get in to competition mode. I want to be at my prime when I compete next
May. This means that I need to lift
heavier weight. I also need to find a
spotter to assist me with my squats as I am using the 45 lbs. bar plus extra
weight. Right now I am only up to 60 lbs.
of extra weight on my squats, but I know I will increase it over time.
For my psychological goals, I still need to decrease my
anxiety levels. Instead of reacting,
when I feel anxiety coming on, I need to do deep breathing and be able to take
a step back. I still find myself letting
my mind tell itself stories that are not true.
I will work on having the deep breathing exercise is an automatic
reaction to my anxiety.
Spiritual goal – I would like to get back in to performing
Reiki. I am a Certified Reiki Master;
however, I did stop performing it for many years. I will start practicing it on my family and
then expand to performing it on my friends.
I will also go to a Reiki practitioner to receive it myself. This will help with the cleansing and
clearing of me, so I can practice it on others.
IV. Practices
for personal health:
2 different examples of a method and how it is going to work
for each section (6 all together) – Explain how they will be implemented in
detail. Should be the longest section.
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.
Personal health should always take a priority. I feel that the older that I get, the more
important my mental and physical health is.
I need to take charge of my life and be sure to start practicing what I
have learned. It’s never too late to
start a new, positive habit.
For my physical health, the first thing I will concentrate
on is exercise. I will lean out with
doing a cardio-respiratory exercise in the morning such as running, walking or
doing the elliptical and then weight training in the evening. I will lift weights and continue to lift
heavier so I can reach my goal of a fitness competition in 2015. This practice will happen 5 times a week.
My second step to a better physical health will be
diet. I already eat healthy, but I can
do better. I will start tracking the
foods that I eat in a journal. I will
not “cheat” on this journaling, as some people do, because it will only hurt
me. I will review my journal at the end
of each week to see how well I ate or to see what changes I need to make.
My steps to a better mental fitness include diaphragmatic
breathing. Performing deep breathing
when I start to become stressed will play a key factor in calming me down
instantly. The moment I start to have anxious
thoughts, I will practice some deep breathing.
I will take a moment to clear my mind while I am inhaling and
exhaling. I will also practice
visualization to change the “story” that is in my mind into a positive
one.
My second step to a better mental fitness is the getting a
massage. I truly feel that not only does
massage help the body, but it helps the mind as well. I have heard that 1 hour of massage equals 8
hours of sleep and I truly believe that.
Getting a massage once a month will help me be more relaxed and allow me
to think clearer.
Last, but not least, is my development of my realm of
spirituality. For spirituality, I will
go to a Reiki practitioner and receive Reiki.
Reiki will help clear my power centers (Chakras) inside my body and will
also clear my mind. Reiki has the power
to remove stress and anxiety as well and I think that will help me get close to
my higher power.
The second exercise I will do to strengthen my spirituality
is visualization. I believe what you
think about, you bring about. I think
visualization is key in life. I have
started my vision board to help me determine and focus on things that I want
out of life such as a stronger family unit and better physical health. Not only is a vision board helpful with
visualization, but taking a moment out of the day to mentally visualize is important
as well. I will start to take a moment
in my morning to visualize what I want to happen during the course of my
day. I will perform this every morning
to help me focus on positive outcomes.
V. Commitment:
I will keep a journal of the healing modalities that I
utilize and how many times a week I partake in them. I will also need to make
my journal entry very detailed so it is easy for me to rate each step in my
healing process. It is important to know
the emotional and psychological outcome from each modality. This will help with deciding which modality I
need the most in the future. I will be
sure to write down how often I have feelings of anxiety and what thoughts are causing
them. It will be very helpful to see the
comparison of how often I am having anxious thoughts versus how often I am
taking part in a healing therapy.
I will continue journaling for a full twelve months so I can
continue to compare the activities and emotions in my life. After a year of working through the various
stages and finding therapies that I am most comfortable with, I will have then
formed a habit. This habit will be a
very beneficial habit of bettering the quality of my life, which in turn will
better the quality of my family’s life as well.
I have already started keeping a journal of my fitness
routine. I keep a log in my workout bag
as far as which workouts I have done on a particular day along with the amount
of weight that I lifted. This helps me
track my progress as to reaching my fitness goals.
I need to keep a journal on my mental fitness as well. I will track the frequency and the modality
of mental healing that I use. I will
also track my thoughts and my moments of anxiety. This will help me view my behavior and my
mental activity. Once I see a pattern, I
can improve my mental fitness by performing one of the modalities that I have
previously stated.
