Unit 10.. My Brain Hurts:)

My scores from unit 3 to now are the same in the psychological and physical, but my score improved in the spiritual arena by a point.  I have been focusing mostly on the spiritual aspect because physically and psychologically I feel like I am solid and it is pretty routine practice for me.  I am going to use the meditative practices, yoga, and deep breathing to  try and get to a better place spiritually.

Physically I continue to reach my goals my using my GPS to track my progress running.  I have also started using strength training twice a week. I want to get to three times per week.
Psychologically, I have been using my journal to track my feelings and also keeping in touch with my friends to help me stay grounded and when I feel I need help to ask for it.  That is a hard thing for me to do.  But I am getting better at it and it is becoming easier.  Spiritually, I am using the meditative practices with MP3's sometimes when I do yoga.  My goal is to keep up this practice and so far so good.  This will probably be the hardest part for me to continue.  I will use a journal with this also to keep track of my meditative practices.

My personal experience throughout this class has been amazing.  I have realized that it is important not to think I have to do it all and do it perfectly.  I can say no and I can and will make mistakes.  It's my choice in my reactions to situations.  Letting go of the negative thoughts and only letting positive ones in in my path to human flourishing.  The most difficult part for me has been letting myself of the hook for mistakes I have made.  I hope this experience will help me in assisting others without judgement.  To help guide them to a place that is right for them personally.  Showing them it's in their power to change and become the person they want to be.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Unit 9 Final Project:)

Introduction

     Lead by example or practice what you preach, we have all heard these sayings before.   I believe that it is very important for health and wellness professionals to practice all the areas that they teach and maybe even more.  If you don’t really understand what you are teaching the client will be able to tell and there won’t be a good connection and there may even be a lack of trust. 

            Developing psychologically is necessary because we need to be able to have compassion, understanding, and be able to control our negative feelings in our own lives.  I believe that being honest with the client but not judging them for their choices and being able to guide them to find what works for them shows them that you are there for them no matter what is going on in their personal lives. 

            Developing spiritually is a very personal choice. I think that you don’t necessarily have to be religious to be very spiritual.  I also believe that you need to be very comfortable in your beliefs and be able to have an open mind.  Clients will come from all walks of life and have very different beliefs and religions.  Understanding is the key weather it’s your belief or not. 

            Developing physically is an integral part of being happy.  Our bodies thrive on activity.  It gives us clarity in our thinking, it releases the good hormones and it decreases stress.  I think that if a client sees that the health professional is taking care of themselves, it may make it easier because they won’t think, “why should I do physical activity or even try because my mentor doesn’t and they are doing okay”.  It may be hypocritical but in all honesty I’m sure that is what clients think. 

            The area that I really have been focusing on is spirituality.  It doesn’t come naturally to me.  I have learned that I am more spiritual than I ever imagined I was.  I didn’t realize that yoga and the love of being outside in nature to calm myself was spiritual but now I have learned that it really is.  Meditation and visualization have been my focus during the last 8 weeks and I feel like I have come a very long way but still have a very long way to go. 

Self -Assessment

            Scoring myself physically on a 1 to 10 scale, 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest.  I am a solid 9, I think my cardiovascular fitness is really good, my strength is pretty good but my arms need a little work.  My flexibility could be better, especially my hamstrings.  They get really tight because of  the running I do. 

            Psychologically I think I am an 8.  I am fairly well rounded with a pretty even temper.  I can usually think before I speak when I am mad.  I also have a pretty decent outlook on life and feel that I am very happy with my life as it is right now.  There is room for improvement and I have found tools to help me when I am down on myself. Some of the tools I have found to be effective are journaling, listening to the MP3’s from this class and some I have found on you tube.   I also have a very strong support system so when I fall I have good people in my life that pick me up.  In the past I never wanted to accept help from others because I thought it made me weak.  Now I realize I was very wrong in my thinking.  Everyone needs support sometimes and it takes a very strong person to ask and or accept the support that is there.  Knowing this, lets me be less afraid of living life and having failures.  

            Spiritually I rate myself a 7, before this class I think a 5 would’ve been the score I gave myself.  I feel relief that I am becoming more connected with my spiritual side.  Gaining faith has allowed me to know that everything will work out in the end because that is the way it is supposed to be.   I have been using meditation and I guess you could say prayer and I am quite frankly surprised how much it has helped me with not only self -acceptance but also accepting the differences of others.

Goal Development

            My goals physically are to complete the half marathon (HM) in April in 2 hours or less.  That would be taking 6 minutes off my last HM.  I have been doing some interval training to help with my speed.  I would also like to implement a better strength program but I’m not sure I have the motivation for this.  I have to figure a way to fit it in my schedule around my running and yoga days.  I have been using 3 to 5 pound weights twice a week when I walk on the treadmill to give my arms a work out. 

            Psychologically I think that an important goal I have is to keep any negative thoughts from popping into my head.  I am pretty good at forgiving others I just need to learn to forgive myself for my past mistakes.  I am working really hard on trying not to be such a perfectionist in certain areas.  I also do not like procrastination and trying to be accepting that others like to wait for the last minute to do things.  That does drive me a little bit crazy (deep breathing right now just thinking about it) but I am learning breath by breath to be more understanding. 

            Spiritually, my goal is to become more connected to myself.  I feel that I need to stop and smell the roses sometimes.  Take a deep breath and enjoy the here and now.  I want to be able to build my faith so it is unwavering.  I still have moments of doubt and that concerns me so I want to work on gaining a faith that is solid and true.  I feel that practicing meditation has had a huge impact for me personally. 

Practices for Personal Health

            The practices that I want to continue doing in the physical arena are running.  I will continue to use the half marathon -training schedule which, is pretty intense, but it has kept me focused and I haven’t deviated from the schedule in over 8 months.  My plan that I would like to focus on is strength training.  I found a journal type exercise tablet and get shape magazine that has some really good strength exercises that don’t require having equipment.  I am going to save the pages and put them into the tablet and hold myself accountable to doing one of half hour strength workouts 3 days per week.  In the end I believe that my running times will improve with the strength training.

            Practices for my psychological personal health are pretty much in place also.  I want to continue journaling my feelings daily.  I actually do this on my computer and save it in a file.  I find really nice to write and it relaxes me.   For some reason to write my feelings makes me feel better and knowing that nobody will read them makes me feel safe.  Not that I really put anything bad, it’s mostly just emotional stuff but it gets it off my chest without hurting anyone’s feelings.  The next thing I like to do for myself is have some friend time.  I love spending time with my family, don’t get me wrong but I really need girl time.  It’s almost therapeutic for all of us.  It makes me feel like I’m not alone.  I want to try and make time for this, it seems like friend time is always the time that gets cancelled. I would like to make it more of a priority, the only problem with that is the girls may have something else come up. 

            In the spiritual area I will continue to meditate every morning, I would like to increase my time from 10 minutes to 15.  I can do this by setting my alarm just a little bit earlier.  The next exercise is listing to calming music like with the MP3’s that I put on my I tunes while I stretch and do yoga.  It actually becomes a fairly long workout.  Lastly the deep tissue massages with chiropractic lets me relax and feel so connected with my whole being.

Commitment

            I am a very committed person my nature.  I guess it’s in my wiring so to speak.  I will access my progress for the next 6 months physically by using map my run.  It is a GPS tracking that is downloaded onto my phone.  It keeps my time and distance and keeps me on track with running.  Keeping track of my strength is also through journaling.  I think I will use a reward system until it becomes habit.  My reward system would be if I complete three days of strength training I will buy myself a treat like a milkshake.  Great thinking right?!  I like that plan. 

            My commitment for psychological well- being is to journal daily, and have me time and also I forgot sleep.  I am so much happier and feel so much better with sleep.  I actually feel better just writing this paper it is making me do some planning and I like to have a plan.  I also want to at least get to talk to my girlfriends on the phone.  Not texting actual talking if we can’t see each other then I will definitely make it important to talk at least a few times per week.  My husband would tell you I don’t have a problem with that. 

            My commitment for improving spiritually is meditation, deep breathing and yoga.  I also like to just sit outside and watch my dogs run around like crazy.  My plan is to set my alarm 15 minutes earlier, this will probably be the most difficult because I love my sleep, but I am willing to try it at least a few days a week.  I will set my phone alarm with some very calming meditative music.  Wow I’m getting excited to start my new plan.  I think journaling really is the best and easiest to way to track my progress or lack of progress.

Thanks for the great learning experience this quarter Mark and all my classmates,  it has been wonderful to say the least.  I hope that we cross paths again in the future.  YAY for no references!!!

   

Unit 8

Welcome to my Unit 8 blog everyone, 

     I believe that I have learned so much in a short time in this class  (thank you Mark) it has been an amazing journey.  I have enjoyed sharing my blogs and learning so much from everyone in this class so thank you everyone:)

     So to pick to exercises that we have done is kind of hard because I am really enjoying all of them now.  I listen to them when I do my yoga (up to 3x/week now) and the time just flies by now.  If I had to pick the subtle mind mp3 would be my favorite because it focuses on breathing and some visualization and let go of the mental movements.   I find that so incredibly relaxing from my head to my toes.  The second pick would be from our last discussion board question number 2 I loved the visualization exercise in Dacher.  It was really enjoyable to remember how good I felt with memories and reminded me how fortunate and blessed my life has been.  I did have my oldest daughter read it to me, but I think I am going to make an audio of it so I can add it to my meditation mp3's. 

    I plan on implementing these practices with meditation in the morning and with yoga.  I might even try and listen to some of the mp3's when I run.  I'm no so sure that it's energetic enough to keep me running, but maybe it will be so relaxing that I will forget how long I have been going.. I will have to try it out. 

Happy blogging
Rachel