Unit 9 Final Project

Holistic Wellness Plan

Final Project HW 420

Amanda McCord

Introduction:    

In his book “Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing,” E. S. Dacher talks about how while in his medical practice he discovered that he was unable to help his patients on all levels. (Dacher, 2006)  He decided to go on a journey and learn how to reach people on all levels, he discovered the only way to be able to do this was to learn the ways of integral health himself. (Dacher, 2006)  I agree with what Dacher discovered, if you haven’t journeyed through something yourself how are you going to teach others about it.  I was talking to a friend about this very thing today.  I am currently studying to be a dietitian but am overweight myself, it is something that I am working but am struggling with.  We talked about how I feel that I need to lose the weight before I can teach others how to lose weight.  I don’t feel that a person would be very interested in listening to someone who hasn’t been able to accomplish the goal that they are trying to reach.  When it comes to holistic or integral health we need to be able to grow spiritually and mentally along with physically. 

Assessment:

            I feel that I am still at the beginning of my journey.  As I mentioned I need to lose weight to be physically healthy but would also like to grow in my spirituality and become more faithful.  I am also working on my mental health.  I assessed my health but determining if I was happy and then determining what are my strengths and weaknesses.  Dacher’s book gave information on how to accomplish this assessment such as a spectrum, where we can put our abilities in and discover our strengths and weaknesses. (Dacher, 2006)

 I discovered that when it comes to my physical health it has to do with my activity, nutrition, and strength.  Out of these aspects which lead the others?  I feel that my nutrition leads the way, when I am eating healthy I want to do other healthy things in my life.  For my spiritual health it is about my faith, my devotion, and personal life.  My faith comes first and the others follow.  The more faithful I am the better I feel about my life and the more devotional I am.  My mental health is a little trickier.  I believe that it has to do with my emotional health and my cognitive health.  I tend to lead with my emotions, which isn’t always healthy.

 As I mentioned earlier I feel that I am still at the beginning of my integral health journey.  While I am working on these aspects of my life, and doing better, I am still not where I would like to be.  At the beginning of this class I believe that I was a 2 in all aspects, not very healthy at all.  I feel that I am about a 3 in my physical health, a 6 in my mental health, and a 6 in my spiritual health.  While I still have more work to do I am happy to be seeing progress.

Goal Development:

            When learning something new it is important to have a goal in mind.  When you go back to school the goal is graduation and a career in your field.  When it comes to integral health it is important to have goals in the different aspects of your life.  Since I think my physical health is the most important let’s start there. I would like to change my diet and exercise habits so that I can lose weight.  This takes a lot of mental health to be able to fight the temptations.  Mentally I would like to not stress and worry about everything.  Finally let’s talk about the goal I have for my spiritual health.  I would like to be more faithful and not doubt my beliefs.

Practices for Personal Health:

            When it comes to my personal health the first thing I think about is my physical health.  I think about nutrition and physical activity.  These are the two things that I would like to improve on.  I would like to start by cleaning out my pantry so that it isn’t full of processed foods.  By doing this I would be able to start eating clean and clear by body of all the toxins.  Recently I watched a documentary on the benefits of juicing.  I would like to implement juicing into my daily diet; this would help me to increase my micronutrient intake.  Exercise is also important to my physical health and this is something that I increasing in my life.  Dacher mentioned meditation while exercising to increase stamina, endurance, and strength. (Dacher, 2006)

            When it comes to my spiritual health I would increase my faith.  A great way to do that is to read daily devotionals and pray about what I have read.  I would also like to better develop the relationships that I have in my life.  I feel that I can do that by focusing more on my family and friends.  You may wonder how this can help me spiritually, I believe it would help by increasing my awareness of what is going on around me and growing stronger in all relationships in my life.  I have learned through my faith how important family is so to me a great way to increase my faith is to build on these relationships.

            Mental health is also very important to me.  I have lived my life constantly being anxious and worried.  I am currently talking to someone to better understand why I get so anxious.  I am also mediating to try to redirect my thoughts.  Dacher calls it a witnessing mind that leads to a subtle mind. (Dacher, 2006)  When I do this I am able to become more aware of my thoughts and redirect what I am thinking about.  If I think about something negative, I am able to change my thoughts to something more positive.

Commitment:

            Sometimes it is hard to see the changes we make in our lives.  When a person is losing weight other people will notice the changes before they will.  So how do you track these changes and if they are working?  When it comes to losing weight watching the numbers drop on the scale is an easy way to see the difference, but sometimes that takes more time then we think it will.  So, until those numbers drop how can you tell if there is a change?  I have learned that when you are healthy you feel better, so there is your start.  Not where or not the numbers on the scale are going down or if you are wearing smaller clothes but how do you feel.  Of course during the time that I am focusing on becoming physically healthy dropping weight is a big factor as to my progress.  I have heard that if you are able to do something for 6 weeks it becomes a habit, if you can do it for 6 months it becomes a permanent habit.  One way I have found that I am better able to accomplish goals is to write them out and make them visible. 

How do I know if I am growing mentally?  Am I happy?  Do I feel like I am making progress in my life?  These are just a few of the questions I can ask to determine if I am progressing in my mental health.  I would love to be able to go a day without worrying about the foods I eat, or what my children are doing when I don’t see them.  I plan to continue to meditate and focus more on integral health.  I would also like to re read Dacher’s book and really focus on the exercises that he provides.  I will also continue to practice yoga and Pilates.

When it comes to my spiritual health I think it ties in with my mental health.  If I am faithful I do not worry as much because I put my cares and worries on God.  My spiritual health always has to do with my faith in God.  Do I feel stronger in my faith?  Do I feel closer to God?  My faith has a calming effect on me and I can’t wait to see how I grow.  I plan to continue my devotional and focus on praying more throughout my day.  I also plan to become more involved in my church.  As I talked about earlier my relationships with my family are important in my spiritual health so I want to focus on spending more time with my family and increasing their awareness of integral health.

References:

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach: Basic Health Publications Inc.

Week 8 Blog

I went back and thought about the different exercises that we had throughout this term.  I have to say even though I feel like I struggled through some of them they really did help me.  These past few weeks I have been struggling a lot with depression and anxiety.  Through out this journey I have working on meditating and a subtle mind.  I just used subtle mind today when I was feeling an anxious moment.  I was very frustrated because I was trying to get this thought out of my mind and it was not working.  So I decided to "cut" it out.  I closed my eyes and slowly started to focus on my breath.  I got to a point where I was able to see my thoughts coming in and when the thought that was  bothering me popped up I stopped it and "cut" it out.  I then imagined taking it outside and starting it on fire, it was a contained fire (safety first!).  After destroying the thought I re entered my mind and focused on filling that void with something positive.  This wasn't a quick fix.  I had to meditate on the thought that I put into that space to really instill it into my life.

So when it comes to the exercises that I will continue to focus on in my life are meditation and subtle mind.  These are the two that I found easier to do and easier to focus on while trying to relax.  I like that with subtle mind I can "control" the thought that come into my mind and which ones leave.  It has a calming affect being able to do this and is even better when I am able to meditate on the positive thoughts of my mind.  This has changed my outlook on how I can do things.  I am able to create a more positive mindset and happier outlook.

Unit 7

I can't believe we are completing week 7 it feels like we just started.  When I look back at the last 7 weeks and realize all the has happened it is crazy what I have been through.  I will be honest this was a very difficult week for me in all avenues in my life.  All week I kept thinking that I just needed to meditate, but my thoughts consumed me.  I couldn't focus and have been an emotional mess.  I have had enough.  I don't like feeling this way anymore and want to feel healthy and happy again.  This week I decided to do my meditations differently.  I listened to the recording when my anxiety was at the highest and I couldn't seem to focus.  I will be honest I don't know what was different but this week I felt more relaxed and calm during the meditation.  When she said to focus on a wise man I imagined standing there with Jesus.  I know this is not for everyone, but being a faithful person going through a difficult time this is the person I needed to see.

With the water in the background what I thought about the footprints poem and pictured myself walking along the beach with Jesus.  I felt at peace and calm, two things I have not felt in a long time.  I plan to continue this practice.  It was just today that I realized that I need to get a better schedule started.  Instead of wasting a day and going to bed late I need to shift my focus so that I can get up early to practice my meditation and yoga.  If I hadn't been so focused on the different avenues of my life I am not sure how I would have made it through the last few months.  Just being aware of what my body needs has made a huge difference.

If you were to hear "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself", what would your thoughts be?  For me it is the thought that how can you help someone or guide someone if you haven't bee there yourself.  I see that in what I have gone through.  Just a few short weeks after my experience I learned of someone else who was going through the same thing.  I was able to help her and later learned that me just talking to her and encouraging her made a difference in what she was going through.  As terrible and hard as it was to go through it does make me feel good that I was able to help someone else. 

I feel that to lead others I need to continue to grow and develop.  I am studying to be a dietitian and how can I do that if I myself can not get my eating under control and lose weight.  Would you listen to an overweight dietitian?  Probably not, but I know I would listen to someone who has been there and made it through.  Someone who is continuing to work on their journey.

Amanda M.

Unit 6 Blog

I want to start by talking about the assessment.  A little over a month ago I received some bad news.  It was at this time that I took a good hard look at my life.  I realized that I am out of shape in all aspects and needed to make changes.  I need to work on my life physically, mentally, and spiritually.  I began to work on working out more often, I started talking to a counselor, and began to read books to help spiritually.  Today when I was talking to my counselor she asked me what I would need to change in my life to feel good about myself.  I remember when I graduated from college in 2004 I had just lost a lot of weight and had great self confidence.  How did I get to this weight loss?  Well in all honestly I was very depressed.  I was at a point in my life where I could walk away or I could dive in.  I chose to dive in.  I decided that if there was a time I was depressed or upset I would go work out.  I rode my bike instead of driving and when I wasn't on my bike I was rollerblading.  I started a daily devotional and started reading christian fiction.  At this point in my life I didn't do much with meditation or my mental health.  So in February when I realized that I needed to make a change I decided to try some of the same things.  I will be honest it is difficult to do when you are raising two young children.  I am still working and still struggle but I feel like I am learning.  I honestly wanted to say I am gaining a little more control over my life but I realized that I am not in control and the moment I give up the control to God the better my life will be.  I began practicing yoga and Pilates.  I love them.  My muscles hurt while I am in class but afterwards I feel so centered.  I love it.  Just recently I started having a little more pain like I was feeling when all of this started.  I will say it makes me feel panicked but I also realized that these are the times I need to relax and pray to God to help me over come the pain.  Last night I was panicky and decided I wasn't going to give into the fear, I prayed and the pain was gone.

I will be honest it was a little difficult to concentrate on the meditation with two screaming little boys.  When I did close my eyes and focus, I couldn't help but smile.  Just thinking about everyone without pain or everyone praying for others.  Think of what could be done if everyone prays for other people.  Not just saying they will pray or meditate but actually doing it.  I felt happy and it is a great feeling.

Week 5 Blog:

This week instead of focusing on loving-kindness I focused on the subtle mind exercise.  This was another hard week.  Just like last week I was out of town for the weekend celebrating Easter.  I have to say that I did like the exercise of subtle mind better than the loving-kindness exercise.  It had the same people speaking and same ocean sounds, but didn't seem that there was as much to the meditation.  I was able to better focus during this exercise and follow what they wanted me to be doing. Last week the focus was on loving someone with the mind, whereas this week the focus was calming the constant thought in the mind.  I focused on where everything was coming from and worked to quiet my mind. I was able to imagine my mind like a computer screen where if I had a thought come in that was not what I should be thinking about I would either "delete" or "re file" the thought.  I was able to identify each time a random thought would come in, redirect it, and refocus on what I was supposed to be thinking of.  I will admit I am not perfect at the process yet.  I am trying to make these exercises my daily morning process but am not there yet.  I plan to save these and try them once again later.

All aspects of wellness are connected, something that I am learning more and more recently.  Sometimes we have to have something unpleasant happen in our life before we are able to realize how unfocused the rest of our lives are.  I have always thought I was a healthy person.  Sure I have anxiety but thought I did pretty good physically and spiritually.  I never thought about the fact that they are all connected.  Recently I have had a loss in my life.  It was this point that I realized how unhealthy I was.  Not only was I not eating the right foods, I was physically inactive, mentally I felt like I was falling apart, and my spiritual health was no where close to where it should be.  I decided I needed to make a change.  I started working out and changing my diet; I began Pilates, yoga, and meditation; I also started focusing more on my faith.  You have to start somewhere and for me that was   working out physically.  I started out slowly with yoga and began taking classes.  I will say that the more I worked on myself physically they more I wanted to fix the other things in my life.  I know that you can't fix one thing with out fixing the others.  This is still something that I am working on and right now am moving my focus a little more towards the spiritual aspect of my growing.  I feel great physically, and am doing a lot better emotionally.  I can't wait to see what my life is like when they are all better developed.  When it comes to mind, body, spirit.  One leads to another and you can't be healthy until you are healthy in all aspects.