Final Project- A Plan for Integral Health

Introduction 


            In our quest to achieve a high level of integral health we must develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically. On a personal level developing each of these aspects can increase our quality of life, enhance our personal relationships, and give us a sense of being grounded. To be effective in our work guiding our clients toward integral health it is important that we engage in activities that enhance our own integral health psychologically, spiritually, and physically. Having the experience of our journey in seeking integral health will help us to relate to our clients thus enhancing our credibility, be empathetic to their experiences, and generally be more effective in assisting our clients.

Assessment 


            On a scale of 1-5, 1 being low and 5 being high. In looking at physical health I assess my fitness, nutrition, physical health, and body composition and would rate this domain a 4. Physical health is definitely a strength for me as it something that I have actively pursued for over 15 years. I have learned to tweak my activities to find what works best for me and while I feel that my physical health is good I feel that there is always room for improvement. Spiritual wellness takes into account our relationship with a higher power, contemplative practices, and the level of peace and harmony that we experience. I would rate this domain a 3. While I feel that I have a strong relationship with God the use of contemplative practices were not a regular part of my life, but through this class I have learned the benefits and have learned to incorporate them. Psychological wellness incorporates our thoughts, emotions, and ability to live in the moment or be mindful. In assessing this area I took into account my ability to live in the here and now, which I have definitely increased through the subtle mind practices, and my ability to process thoughts and emotions and not allow them to dominate my life. I would rate this domain a 4 due to my ability to process emotions and thoughts and be mindful although these abilities have definitely improved over the past eight weeks I feel that I can still improve.

Goal development

                        I feel that I am in the maintenance phase of change for physical, psychological, and spiritual wellness. I have worked for years to develop in each area and have had varying levels of progress in each. As far as physical health is concerned I want to continue to eat a well balanced diet and engage in physically challenging exercises such as interval training and crossfit workouts three to five times per week to increase my fitness. To increase my psychological health I will seek out new meditation and visualization practices and continue to practice the ones that I have recently learned at least three times per week. To enhance my spirituality I will continue to engage in religious services each week and work to increase my capacity for gratefulness and forgiveness daily by identifying my emotions and how I could get past them by seeing them in a different light and exercising gratefulness or by being forgiving. 

Practices for personal health

                        To support my goal of eating a well balanced diet one strategy that I will implement is starting my own garden, which will provide a variety of fresh produce as well as the ability to control the amount of toxins that go into my body. I have already planted some seeds in my garden and have several seeds started indoors. When the weather is warm enough I will plant and maintain my garden throughout the summer and into the fall. Another strategy to increase my physical wellness is to engage in physically challenging workouts such as crossfit, which is a high intensity workout that promotes increases in physical strength and cardiovascular endurance.

                        To support my goal of increasing my psychological wellness I will use visualization practices and the subtle mind exercise. Using visualization practices will help me to prepare for each goal or major project to see and feel how each one will play out in order to enhance my success in each. In using the subtle mind exercise I will be able to maintain control over mind by keeping my thoughts, images, and emotions in check and be able to increasingly develop a witnessing mind. This will be especially important to me as it will help me to be productive in all areas of my life.

            To support my spiritual wellness goals I will attend church weekly and actively practice being grateful and forgiving. The practice of going to church each week gives me the opportunity to grow in my faith and strengthen my relationship with God thus allowing me to grow in all aspects of my life. I have found that being grateful and being able to forgive are two of the most difficult things to do. To develop each of these a unique level of awareness is needed. To develop a grateful heart I will strive to view all things, both positive and negative, as a gift and look for the positives that can come from the gift. To openly offer forgiveness I will acknowledge feelings of hurt and let them go with the realization that holding onto these feelings are not a part of who I want to be or conducive toward my goals of achieving health, authentic happiness, and genuine wholeness.

Commitment

In my opinion two important parts to implementing change is accountability and measurement of change. One effective method that I have found to accomplish both is journaling. This offers the opportunity to set a goal, evaluate where I am currently, reflect on why the goal is important, and what impact the change will have in my life. The journaling process can be quantitative, where measurements are used to rate where you are or actual numbers that relate to body weight or percentage of body fat, or qualitative, where the quality of how you feel you are doing is indicated through self-reflection. The important part in journaling is to continue to grow by evaluating your goals and implementing new ones as each goal is accomplished. The benefits of journaling help to propel us forward by increasing our motivation through accomplishment or helping us to realize where we are falling short in our goals and motivating us to step up our game.

For the practices that I will implement for physical wellness I will write about my gardening experience, the progress that I can see visually and the benefits that I feel as I engage in the maintenance of my garden. The frequency of which I will journal about my gardening experience will likely vary as there isn’t much to write about in the beginning, but as the garden grows I imagine two to three times a week will be my goal. The yield of my garden will be indicative of progress in this goal. When I do a crossfit workout I make note of the exercises that I conduct, the amount of time it took me to complete the workout, and the amount of weight that I used for each exercise. Each time I complete the same workout I will reference the previous journal entry and work to lessen the amount of time for completion, increase weight resistance, and increase repetitions as appropriate. Increases in each of these areas will indicate success as well as how winded I feel after the workout.

            For the practices that I will implement for psychological wellness, visualization and the subtle mind exercise, I will write out my goals prior to each visualization and gauge my success based on the outcomes that are realized from the process. In engaging in the subtle mind exercises I can write about how I feel prior to the exercise and how I feel after each session. Additionally, I can note how I feel each session has increased my ability to overcome obstacles and tackle challenges that arise daily.

            For the practices that I will implement for spiritual wellness, attending church and practicing forgiveness and gratefulness, I will write about my feelings toward attending church and what I have gained from each service. Journaling about feelings of gratefulness will help me to identify the many things that I have to be grateful for and to openly express how I feel toward the gifts in my life. Although “gifts” may not always be appreciated initially having the tangible journal to reflect on can help me to move past those less than appreciated gifts and realize all of the ones that I have received that I am happy to accept. Writing about forgiveness and how this quality can contribute to the person that I want to be can help me to seriously evaluate negative emotions and help me to move past these emotions and be more forgiving. Putting my emotions into words and evaluating how I feel once I have forgiven someone will help to perpetuate the process.