Unit 10

Hello Everyone,

I just want to say I have enjoyed this course and learned a lot along the way. When I read the instructions for this weeks blog I could not remember what I rated myself in unit 3 because honestly I feel the same in all categories.  Which is not a good thing but then I looked at how I rated myself in our final project to my surprise the numbers did change.

On a scale of 1-10:
Psychologically- In unit 3 I gave myself a 2 and now in the final project I gave myself a 7. Now thinking about it I think that I rated myself so high now is that I do have a more positive outlook and I realized through this course I have so many wonderful things and people in my life. I will continue to try to look at the positive aspect of thing in the future. I have lost a lot of people close to me this year and I started writing letters to the ones I love still in my life because I want them to know how much they mean to me and how I feel about them in case anything happens to them. It hurts my heart that I didn't tell the other people how I felt before the passed away. I'm sure that they knew but some died unexpectedly and I wish I would have told how much I loved having them in my life. This way if something happens to them or myself they will know just how I felt.

Physically- In unit 3 I gave myself a 2 and now in the final project I gave myself a 5. I think the reason I gave myself a better rating than before is because I have been walking my dog everyday and trying to have healthier eating habits. We as a family are eating our meals off smaller plates. I have not lost any weight but I am on the right track.

Spiritually- In unit 3 I gave myself a 2 and now in the final project I gave myself a 5. My children and I have started to go back to church on Sundays and we tell each other what we are thankful for basically because of the time of year which, we always do on Thanksgiving.
So overall I have improved in ways that I did not expect. I will continue to to follow the goals that I set in my final project for myself and family. At least now I have the tools and the know how to move forward in a more positive way.

In moving forward I can say that all aspects of this course have been rewarding. It has been hard at times because it is never easy to see all the flaws we have and how we are doing things that we shouldn't but we can't fix things if we are not aware of them. Because I look at things now in a more positive light this will help others around me because it will improve my interaction with people in a positive manner especially at work.Maybe it will have a chain reaction.

Thank you to all my fellow bloggers and Professor Maule. I wish you all the best!

Unit 9 Final Project

Introduction It is important for health and wellness professionals to have a good sense of self in order to be able to reach out to others. I have been in a real dark phase in my life for a few years now and I have do realize now that I need to reach deep down inside of myself in order to improve psychologically, spiritually and physically. We are our own worse enemy. We have the power to control how we react to things and can choose the outcome. I not only owe this to myself but to my children. They are the light of my life and my greatest achievements. I am so proud and lucky to have them in my life and they make me want to do better. I thank God for them each and everyday and they give me the strength and courage to perceiver. I remember when I got pregnant for the first time I was 28 and single and scarred to death. I thought how am I going to be responsible for a precious little life all on my own. Even though her father and I had been dating for a few years I had no intention of getting married. Not really knowing what to do I decided to stay single. I used to say, " thank you Lord for getting us through another day". I remember thinking how are we going to make it each year. I can proudly say, " we did it!". My Savanna is 17 this year now and she really is a gift from God. She is beautiful, smart and funny. She cares about everyone and everything. I am elated of what a amazing young lady she has become. Five years after my daughter was born I was blessed with a beautiful baby boy. My Cameron is equally as special to me and because of my past choices I decided to stay with his father and live a wonderful life. The kind that I always dreamed of. These special years validated all the past decisions that I had made. I had a beautiful family and had the liberty of being a stay at home mom for the first few years. This is where things started to change for the worse. Over the course of time my life continued to unravel and all that I knew to be true as a lie. The life that I was building was built on lies and bedrail. Who would have thought raising two children on my own would have been a better alternative than living a lie. Well my son is now 11 and these past years have been very challenging. My son has a nine year old half brother. I chose this course to help me mend my broken heart and move forward in life and stop letting the past hold me back. We can not change what has happened to us but we can overcome it and learn to move forward. I am 45 years old and have been putting my life back together piece by piece. This course has shown me that the mind is a powerful thing it can lift you up or tear you down. Unfortunately over the past I have let it tear me down. I intend to use the exercises from this course to improve myself psychologically, spiritually and physically. I work many jobs in order to provide for my family and the only regret that I have in my life was not finishing my education. Which brings me to the chapter in my life. Finishing my bachelor degree is very important to me so that can build a career and get a one job that will sustain us making more time for my family and peace of mind. along with peace of mind I will be able to focus on my integral health by improving my overall lifestyle. I want to be able to look into the mirror and love all of me inside and out. I intend to learn how to give myself credit where credit is due. If children are a true reflection of the parents and upbringing then I have achieved wealth in ways better than money. I will witness these two wonderful people changing the world for the better and that started with me. This course has made me see the positive things that I have accomplished through adversity and came out on the other side wounded but in tacked in so many ways. The people in my life that have taken me under their wing have been total strangers. People that I am proud now to call family even without the biological ties. God continues to put these wonderful strangers into my life making a profound impact and everlasting bond. Assessment On a scale of 1-10 1 being the worst and 10 being the best Psychologically: I give myself 7 because I have great relationships with others and especially with my children but have to improve my relationship with myself. I have to learn through therapy to forgive myself for the mistakes that I have made in my life and learn to give myself credit for the things that I have achieved on my own. Through meditation, yoga, and relaxation exercises I will be able to teach myself through contemplative practice how to relax and clear my mind with the three levels of the subtle mind: witnessing, calm-abiding, and unity consciousness (Dacher,2006). I will be able to get rid of all of my negative thoughts, feelings and images and replace them with positive thoughts, feelings, and images. Spiritually: I give myself 5 because I believe in the power of God and I am thankful for the blessings in my life but spirituality is much more than that it is being at peace with one's self and a reformation of how we look at things and how we handle life's challenges. I believe that meditation will also help me in this aspect because when I reach a calm-abiding mind I will be able to put my mind at ease and feel peaceful. Once I have peace in my mind and heart then and only then will I begin to heal and be able to move forward in a more positive and loving way. Physically: I give myself 5 because even though I do look good for my age and I don't feel good. I don't feel comfortable in my own skin. I was only 98 pounds for most of my adult life even after the birth of my first child. I always felt that I was underweight but ate everything and never gained any weight. This was a blessing and a curse all at the same time. I never learned how to follow a health lifestyle with diet and exercise. I am not obese by any means but I would love to lose about 25 pounds in order to feel comfortable. I need to walk my dog to improve my circulation and heart health and lift weights to tone gain muscle mass. Goal Development Psychologically: Go to a therapist at least once a week for one hour for six months in order to get professional advice without medications to talk out my past and sort through my thoughts. To learn how to leave the past in the past and forgive not only the people but forgive myself for some of the decisions that I felt that I had to make. To continue to see a therapist once a month for a year to touch base and keep on a positive path. Spiritually: Continue to take the children to church once a week. Use mental exercises to relax and clear my mind once a day for 30 minutes. Meditate in a quite plateful place with scented candles once a week for one hour. Listen to soft music when I get ready for work everyday. Believe in myself and give myself credit for the things I do by making a list everyday. Use deep breathing exercises to reduce my stress and avoid unnecessary confrontations daily. Physically: Join my daughter in her workouts for one a day. Walk our Bailey boy once a day to improve cardio and get my blood flowing. Lift weights once a week with my son. Continue to ride my bike with the children as often as possible weather permitting. Make healthier food choices at the grocery store and shop weekly to reduce over buying and overeating. Eat on smaller plates every meal. Stop eating after nine pm. Practices Psychologically 1. Start a journal of my thoughts and feelings in accordance with my therapist to stay focused on the positive aspects of life and release the negative ones. This will allow me to measure my progress and to help me see how far I grow through time or what areas that I need to improve on. 2.Take long walks on the Montour Trail observing nature and use deep breathing exercise to lower my heart rate and blood pressure. Experiencing nature and all the wonders that it has to offer has a very calming effect. Spiritually 1. Continue to take the children to church so that we can be sounded by positive, loving, spiritual people. Changing your surroundings can have a profound effect our you feelings and thoughts. 2. Take hot relaxing baths with scented candles, dimmed lights, and soft music. Having quiet time to yourself can help clear your mind and reflect on all the blessings in your life. 3. Leaving positive notes for myself and children around the house to remind us of all our wonderful qualities. Physically 1. Start an exercise chart with times and weight to measure any weight loss towards my goal of 25 pounds in a year. Take before and after pictures to visualize my improvement. This will keep me on track and keep me motivated to lose the weight and also spending more quality time with my daughter. 2. Make a schedule with my son for our workout times and a list of measurements so we can keep track of our improvement and also spending quality time with my son. Start a calorie chart to help me keep track of my food intake. Commitment As you can see from my self assessment that I have a lot of work to do over the next six months. I hope to improve my psychological, spiritual and physical ratings on my assessment scale by at least two points for each category. I will monitor my psychological improvements by reading my past entries in my journal and comparing the entries to the more recent ones. I will monitor my spiritual improvements by how I feel each day keeping track of the good and bad days on my planner. I will monitor my physical improvements by the charts and measurements that I took in the beginning of the six months and compare them to the new measurements. Through the entire journey I will continue to use a journal as my guide to make improvements and stay on the path to integral health. With the love of my family and friends I believe that I will be able to achieve my goals. Once I have reached the six months mark I will reassess myself and set more long term goals, which includes finishing my bachelor degree and adjusting my journal accordingly. (Dacher, 2006) Dacher states the final goal of integral healing is human flourishing - a profound, hardy, and sustained health, happiness, and wholeness.

Unit 8 Blog

Hello everyone,

The first exercises that I got the most out of were the last unit 7 when it asked you to focus on a particular person and I could not stop focusing on my late mother-in-law Kelly. It did bring me peace and joy to think of her and remember how lucky I was to have her in my life for as long as I did. I was relaxed because she used to always be the one to listen and give me advice. She would always say, pray on it Marci. Being that I was not the most religious one in the family it made me feel better just knowing that I had her on my side. I would pray and still do.

The second exercise that I got a lot out of was in unit 3 our wellness and how we would rate ourselves so that we can know our strengths and weaknesses. The reason that I liked this exercise is because if you don't know where you are and how you rank you never will be able to improve on the things that you have to and keep up with. Then you realize that there are things that you are doing well in and how you can maintain that level. Achieving a balance is my overall goal and this exercise gave us the base in order to move forward.

I now can use these findings and create my own "mental fitness" program in order to achieve my goal of having a good balance. I know that physically I need the most improvement so I have been trying to change my diet, avoid eating after 9pm, walking the dog at least 3 times a week. Things of this nature. Mentally I have decided that today is a new day and what happens happens. So stop letting the past creep in and go with the flow. Meditate on a regular bases to calm the mind and relax. Spiritually I would like to start going back to church with the kids because it made me feel good just to be there and listen and sing. Over all I need to give myself a mental break and keep moving forward. I am blessed in so many ways! Have a great week everyone.

"One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself"

 "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" 

I Believe this means that one has to physically, mentally, and spiritually experienced something before they can tell others to do it.  If you have not truly experiences what you are telling someone to do you don't know how it will change that person's life. All aspects of their life. Also the experience one gets from something is different from the experience another person may get. This happens all the time in everyday life. Your parents will tell you to better in math class even though the math that they experience in their school years was very different and much easier, How does that parent not know that the grade that their child got was their best. Doctors will ask a patient that is depressed how they feel and come up with a treatment based on the information that the patient has told them. Has that doctor ever been depressed in their personal life? Does the doctor know how a depressed person feels? Is it painful? Is it sad? When I am at work a patient will say they are in pain and then the doctor and the nurse will say they can't be in pain? How can they say that? Many things in medicine are subjective. Subjective- Based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes,or opinions. 

I don't feel that we have an obligation to develop our health psychologically, physically, and spiritually. But it would give the medical professional a great advantage to broaden their mind,body, and sole. I think that this would give them more insight into others and be able to treat the patients maybe in different ways that will be beneficial to the patient doctor relationship.

We can implement this practice in our personal life by how they say," practice what you preach".  Easier said than done but one may stop to think about their actions before the tell someone to do something or judge another person. 

Unit 7 Blog

Hello everyone,

I found this weeks exercise comforting and relaxing. When it asked you to focus on a special person my mind went straight to my ex mother-in -law that just passed. She was a wonderful woman and I felt as if she was my mother even though I never married her son. She never turned her back on me and both of my children. I often called her and complained about my current boy friends and then my husband. She always listened and gave her best advice and it was comforting to even hear her voice. The world is a much lonelier place without her and we all miss her dearly but I am comforted to know that she is in heaven and dancing with her husband that she missed dearly. This exercise made me feel close to her and I'm not sure that we were to focus on a person that was dead or alive but she came to mind and didn't leave. I did this exercise every night before bed and it mad me relaxed and comfortable enough to sleep. I don't know if the exercise was intended for what I experienced but I was thankful for the experience. I hope that everyone had a good exercise this week.

Unit 6 Blog

Hello everyone,

Well as I post before I was not a fan of the Love Kindness exercise but I'm getting more comfortable with it and have been able to settle my mind a little bit more. I found it easier to get rid of the cluttered thought, feelings, and images that I was having trouble controlling before.  I'm doing well with the positive thoughts but still a little trouble when it comes to focusing that Love Kindness on the thoughts that concern the negative people in my past. I'll keep working on it! The integral Assessment showed me how I need to improve or stay the same when it comes to lifestyle and behavior.

I have discovered that there are aspects that I need to work on in order to improve my overall life. I need to learn how to let negative things go in order to reduce the amount of stress that " I " burden myself with. Put forgiveness in my heart and learn to hold my head up high and move forward. I need to give myself credit for being a good mother and solely carrying the head of household responsibilities. Emotionally I need to learn to forgive myself for the mistakes that I have made along the way. I do realize that I have no control over others and what they do but I do have control over how I react.

In all I am a good person and I always try to do things for others even though I keep getting burned. I am organized when it comes to finances and things. I need to take care of my physical person more because I let myself get run down and have a bad diet. I do know that my emotional aspect of life need to be improved before I try to improve my physical life because I have to get into the right frame of mind to implement a plan to work on my physical life. I do know that it goes both ways that if I improve by dieting and exercising it can release chemicals to my brain to improve my mental health as well. I will make a shopping list of good foods to get at the store and try not to eat after 9pm. I will start to walk our dog, Bailey at least three times a week.  I'll keep on pushing forward. Have a great week everyone!

Unit 5 Blog

Hello Everyone,

I really did enjoy the Subtle Mind exercise this week. I completely understood what they were trying to say there being three different levels of the subtle mind. Witnessing consciousness, calm - abiding, and unity consciousness. I can say that the man's voice is so annoying but the woman's voice I can handle. The breathing parts relaxed me and it was nice to get some peace and quiet. I have always used breathing to calm me ever since a child.  The background noise was helpful as well. So the first part witnessing consciousness I did get pulled back and forth with my cluttered thoughts, feelings, and images. I think because as a women we are taught at a young age it is a good to thing to learn how to master multi tasking but I think this is why I have a hard time slowing everything down enough to clear my mind. So there was a lot of clutter ed thoughts and i had to keep going back to the breathing but I got the just of it. The the calm - abiding a little more difficult for me and again had to keep returning to the breathing exercises.I did not achieve the unity consciousness, which I'm sure takes a long time to achieve. I will continue to try this exercise because I did find it relaxing and I would love to be able to reach a much calmer state of mind to help me reduce some stress.  All in all a positive experience with this exercise. Have a great day!