As a health and wellness
professional, I find it extremely important to familiarize yourself with your
own spiritual, psychological, and physical health. By assessing your own health
and developing ways to improve it, you gather a type of experience that can be
used when working with others. By trying new ways to improve your own health,
you become better equipped to influence others to do the same. A person may
find improving their own health to be easier when a professional can speak from
experience.
Assessment
If
rating myself on a scale of 1-10, ten being the highest, in physical, spiritual,
and psychological health, I would rate the following. I am in overall good physical shape
and enjoy regular physical activity, eat a fairly strict diet on most days, and
am very health conscious. In this health category I would rate myself at an eight.
I do tend to slip on my diet at times, and often depend on caffeinated beverages.
Although I am not a religious person, I have my own personal beliefs, morals,
and values. I feel comforted by my beliefs and don’t find myself struggling
within them often. Although I have found that meditation exercises throughout this
course have been extremely helpful, I would rate myself at a seven in this health
category. I don’t handle stress very well, but am overall mentally healthy. I
tend to think outside of the box, yet let minute details drag me down. I often find
my mind wandering in several directions all at once. For this reason, I would
rate myself at a six in this health category.
Goal Development
My personal
goals for each of the three health categories that have been discussed are as follows.
In regards to physical health, I would like to do more physical activities with
my family, and include all of them. I tend to find myself walking the dog or other
activities alone. At time this can be relaxing and allow me to clear my mind, but
other times it would be nice to make it a family event. In regards to psychological
health, I would like to focus on one task at a time without my mind wandering, and
stress less about the things I cannot control. When setting goals for spiritual
health, I would like to explore different forms of religion and spiritual practices.
Practices for Personal Health
I have mapped out a plan for the next six months that will help evolve and
improve my spiritual, psychological, and physical health. As far as my spiritual health aspect, I plan to
begin praying 3 times a week for approximately 5-10 minutes periods. Over the
next six months, each month I will lengthen the amount of time spent praying a
frequency. I also plan to continue using the meditation practices learned throughout
this course once a week, and increase the frequency over time. My plan in regards
to physical health is to continue improving my eating habits, and slowly eliminate
my consumption of caffeinated beverages. I also plan to find more physical activities
to participate in with my family at least once a week. These activities may include
bike riding, walking, or playing a sport. My plans to improve my psychological
health are to worry less, and try to focus on one thing at a time. I plan to create
a “to do” list, and prioritize the items on it. By doing this, I can focus on e
the most important tasks, and worry less about the smaller less important ones.
Commitment
In order to hold myself accountable for the goals and practices I have
set in place, I plan to create a growth chart. On this chart I will list my different
goals each week and reward myself with a small treat each week that I stick to the
plans and practices in place. When the six month time frame has elapsed, I plan
to re-evaluate my spiritual, physical, and psychological health and create new
goals and practices.
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: [DVD-ROM]. St.
Louis, Mo: Elsevier Churchill Livingstone.
