2. Exercise Nine
Health and Wellness professionals need to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically
in order to guide and teach their patients. How can we as health and wellness professionals
help our patients find the root of their illnesses and work towards their own healing when we as
professionals have not done so? We need to practice what we preach. Health and Wellness is a
lifestyle. Our development will never end. As health and wellness professionals and individuals
we can continue to go into higher and higher levels of development, in each area through
continues practice.
My goal is to live a peaceful and happy life. I allow people to steal my happiness. I see that I
spend too much time angry and filled with resentment towards people that hurt me. For example
my husband’s ex-wife does not adhere to boundaries we have set up for her. This can make me
lose weeks of my life by staying so mad at her. I will fight with my husband because I am so
mad about this situation which we have no control over. Through this course I have learned to
identify that is an area I need to work on. The main areas I have identified have been in the
psychological and spiritual areas. I realized I will have to deal with situations I cannot control,
however what I can control is how I allow myself to feel or react. For example with my
husband’s ex-wife not adhering to the boundaries we have set up for her, what I can control is
how I feel. I realized that by staying mad the only one that is affected is me. My health is at
stake and my happiness. I need to work on not allowing negative thoughts or emotions to dwell
in my mind. I need to work on not taking peoples actions personal. In order to do this I must
retrain my mind by retraining my way of thinking. I replace a negative thought with a positive
thought. If I find myself being aggravated over a thought or situation I learned to find a happy
place in my mind and go there for a few minutes and when I come back I feel better and I see
the situation in a different manner. Sometimes after doing this I can see how a person did not
mean to hurt me. I can see that sometimes people are not aware of their own actions and really
don’t mean to hurt anyone else. I also use breathing exercises to clear my mind and think of
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positive thoughts or emotions. Spiritually I want to spend more time in prayer and meditation. At
the moment I can only do this on a daily basis but for only a few minutes. My goal is to look at
everyone around me with loving-kindness. See them for who they are and not for what they do. I
am looking to go into higher levels of spirituality where I live in peace and harmony within
myself.
After assessing myself in each domain I realize the domain I need the most work on is the
psychological. If I was to score myself in each domain from a 1-5 and 5 being the highest I can
score. I would say spiritually I score a 3. Physically I score a 4. Psychologically I score a 2.
When it comes to my physical domain I score the highest due to the fact that I was an athlete
my entire life. I was dedicated to eating right, sleeping well and training every day to improve my
strength, speed and reaction time. This knowledge and discipline I have been able to sustain in
a lower level now that I am retired. I do strength training 5 to 6 days a week combine with cardio
as well. I eat a very good diet and take more supplements that most people around me are
aware that exist. The domains I need the most work on are the psychological and spiritual.
Although my spiritual believes are strong and I rely on God for strength and knowledge I lack
loving-kindness, forgiveness and gratefulness. I have pursued spirituality since I was a little girl.
Found peace in attending church and also in prayer but continued to fall short in finding
forgiveness, being more grateful and over all loving to all people. Knowing that health and
wellness is based on integral health which comes from mind/body and spirit I realized that in
order to attain health and wellness I must work on all domains. Therefore I see that I need to
improve on my psychological domain. The reason I score myself so low in the psychological
area is because I realize that my thoughts since I was a little girl are very negative and
sometimes even destructive. With my mind and spirit working together I see that my anger and
un-forgiveness kept me very unhappy. I was always so discontent with what I received and how
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people treated me. I was always comparing myself with others always seeing that they were
treated better, they were loved more and they were of course happier.
Psychologically my goal is to react to negative situations in a positive way. I also want to
sustain a positive attitude in situation I have no control over. I want to be comfortable even when
I am not in control therefore making me less controlling. Ultimately I want to see things for what
they are and not take things so personal. My spiritual goal is to become loving and kind to all.
Being able to forgive and not hold any grudges as well as becoming grateful for every little thing
in life. My immediate goal is to be forgiving and releasing any resentment I hold towards people
that have offended me. My physical goal is to lose some weight.
In order to continue to foster more growth in the physical domain I find it very
important to maintain discipline to exercise every day. We must see exercise as part of
our daily activity while sustaining a good healthy diet. Goals are also very important and
help foster growth. I will continue to give myself small goals to attain as I continue in this
life journey of health and wellness. Variety is a big component in this journey. It is
important to be involved in different activities so our bodies and our minds do not get
bored. I am working out now 5 days a week. Now my new goal is to incorporate yoga at
least once a week. Psychologically I have learned about myself while going to see a
therapist. I a therapist may not give you the answers but they do shine the light on
issues we can work on. It also helps patients look deep inside of them and analyze
where the issue is stemming from. There are also so many books that can help us grow
and become stronger mentally. I am definitely incorporating brain games as part of my
weekly routine to continue developing my brain and hopefully one day is able to use
both side of my brain. Spiritually I have grown by waking up everyone morning and
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having a bible study. These bible studies remind me of being forgiving and how
everyone falls short sometime or another. It also helps me find peace and comfort when
no one else can give me that. In order to keep growing I am going to attend at least
once a year a bible retreat. I will also listen to spiritual music and spend quite time
meditating on the words I read from the bible.
In order to track my progress physically I wake up every morning and weigh myself.
This keeps me accountable of any weight gain. I may not be looking at losing weight
every day; however I will be making sure I did not gain any weight during the week. Also
with the small goals I gave myself I will be able to see whether I am progressing or not.
For example one of my goals is to do a yoga class once a week. I will be able to see in
6 months how consistent have I been with attending the yoga class. If I am progressing
I will be incorporating more classes a week. If I am not progressing I will be able to see
why and come up with a better plan. As far as tracking my progress psychologically I
have already been able to see small changes just by adjusting how I react to what I
cannot control. During this class I have been able to implement what I am learning. I
learned that a mind can be trained like a body can be trained and changed. Therefore I
am choosing to be in peace and happiness. As I receive a thought to speak about
something that already makes me angry now I chose to change the thought and speak
of things that make me smile. For example: Asking my husband about his ex-wife
communicating with him. Now I choose not to ask and I do not even want to know. In
result I have been at peace and very happy. My psychological goal is set on a daily
basis for now. To not engage in conversations that leads me to anger. I am also making
sure that I do not dwell in negative thoughts or memories. I will not allow myself to be a
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victim anymore. Even though I already knew that emotions like anger, resentment,
bitterness and un-forgiveness were so unhealthy this class has really confirmed this
information to me and it also gave me more tools to change. Now I will be able to asses
my progress by the thoughts that linger in my mind. My goal is to be happy, peaceful
and fill with loving-kindness towards everyone else. Therefore in 6 months I will take a
look and see if situations are controlling how I think or if I will be under control of what I
allow myself to think and in turn how I react to it. Spiritually I will look deep inside me
and see if I have changed. If I have released people I keep in my heart with resentment.
As well as if I am at peace.
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References
Dascher, E. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic
Health Publications.
Schlitz, Amorok, Micozzi. Consciousness & Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind –Body
Medicine.
