the finale!

Introduction

          A leader is someone who guides others; someone who others follow.  As a leader it is important to live or act out what you are teaching.  This is especially true for health and wellness professionals.  An integral health healer’s goal is to heal their patient through helping them develop psychologically, spiritually and physically.  In order for them to help others to develop these areas, they must first develop these areas in their own life.  This is a life long journey with no “final destination” of perfect health.  Rather, it is a lifetime devoted to growing, changing, and gaining wisdom and understanding. 

          I think that I need to develop more in all three areas: psychologically, spiritually, and physically.  I have just begun on my integral health journey.  I have made a lot of slow progress, but the changes that have been made are ones that will stay with me for a long time.  I believe that there is always room for improvement.  Having said that, the area that I most need to develop further is psychologically.  I let my thoughts control me instead of controlling my thoughts.  I hope to gain a better understanding on how to control my thoughts and quiet my mind so that I can focus better and have a more positive mindset.

Assessment

          My overall spiritual, physical, and psychological wellness is pretty average.  My strongest area is spirituality. On a scale of 1-10, I would score my spiritual wellness at a 9.  Over the past year I have made great strides in my physical wellness, so I would rate it at a 7.  Psychological wellness is the lowest scoring area.  Currently, I would score myself at a 5.  I am aware of the changes that need to happen and am working on them, but they are just taking longer than the other two areas.  The assessment results are no surprise to me.  Mental weakness has been a lifelong struggle.

Goal Development

Physical—My physical wellness goal is to reach my target weight by the end of the year.  It has been almost 3 years since I started and I am so close!  I am finally starting to believe in myself and have the confidence that I can do it!

Spiritual—My spiritual wellness goal is to live in freedom instead of fear.  I was raised in a religious home and there was a lot of pressure, guilt, and fear.  I felt afraid to do many different things because I didn’t want to make a mistake, disappoint anyone, or feel like I was sinning.  I was afraid of failure and I was afraid of success.  Living in fear has led to most of my problems in physical wellness, spiritual wellness, and mental wellness.  I came to the realization that I have been living my life in fear, and I want to break out of that.

Mental—My mental wellness goal is to learn how to control my thoughts and not let them control me.  This has been the biggest struggle for me my entire life. 

Practices for Personal Health

          To reach my goals I will implement different strategies for each area.  However, I believe that since the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects are interconnected, the strategies will also overlap.  For physical wellness it is important for me to fuel my body with the right foods.  Exercise is also important, but I enjoy exercising, so it is not as much of a concern for me.  Food, however, has posed an issue in my life.  Life can get busy with work, school, kids, etc., and it is easy to grab a pizza, or a frozen entrée, or to skip meals all together.  My strategy is to keep healthy foods at hand.  Have snacks and meals prepared in advance to make it just as easy as ordering a pizza.  My other strategy overlaps with the other areas, and that is to get mentally fit.  I think the best way for me to do this is through physical exercise, such as yoga, and meditation.  I plan to exercise at least 5 times a week (my current routine), and incorporate time for meditation in my daily routine.  Getting mentally fit will help me have a clearer mind, have more control over my thoughts and in turn my actions.  I think that if I could develop further mentally I would make healthier lifestyle choices easier.  Meditation would also help me develop spiritually.  “This practice teaches us to tame and stabilize the moving mind, develop a witnessing consciousness, sift into calm-abiding when possible, and experience unity consciousness when the earlier stages have been mastered” (Dacher, 2006).  Another strategy to help develop my mental wellness is focusing on breathing.  The mind follows the breath, so peaceful breathing leads to a peaceful mind (Dacher, 2006).  The last strategy is practicing the loving-kindness exercise.  This exercise is very important to my overall health because I still need to learn to love myself.  Loving others, letting go of past hurts and forgiving are all much easier to do when you love yourself.  All these things lead to a better overall health.  I plan to practice this exercise during my daily meditation time a few times a week.

Commitment

          I am committed to reaching these goals.  All of my goals are interconnected with one another.  To help me reach my physical goals, I need to work on reaching my mental and spiritual goals; it’s a cycle.  I already do a physical assessment monthly, so I will just implement a mental and spiritual assessment with that.  This will allow me to look back at the last 30 days and see if I have made any progress or not and the reasons why.  A lot of my goals are part of a lifestyle change.  My hope is that after 6 months that most of the changes will become part of my new lifestyle which will make it easily maintained.  As I mentioned earlier I think there is always room for improvement.  There is a destination to my physical goal—to reach my goal weight, but there is no final destination to mental and spiritual wellness.  It is a lifelong practice of dedicating yourself to integral wellness.  By teaching integral health, this will also help keep me in-check and help me maintain my new lifestyle.  I want to be an example to others in all aspects and a source of wisdom and encouragement.

 Haddie S.

Reference

Dacher, E. (2006).  Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing.  Basic Health Publications, Inc.: Laguna Beach, California.