Several weeks ago I had to do a personal assessment on my psychological, spiritual and physical well-being; I would love to say that I have made significant improvements since then, but unfortunately not so much, but overall some improvement is better than none. Reflecting on the scores I gave myself on psychological 5, spiritual 6 and physical 8, some small changes have taken place, but not enough to grade myself much higher. Psychologically I had a problem with centering my focus and allowing myself time to meditate and practice breathing exercises. Currently I am working on my focus and am a little better than I was, as far as meditation I just simply have a lot going on with school, home, family, work and the other demands I have in my life, so I will admit that I don't practice as often as I should.
My spirituality has improved from a 6 to 7; I am improving my spiritual health by being more prayerful, forgiving and practicing gratitude. Physically I have included some weight training to my workout routine, nutritionally I have also made progress by monitoring my food intake with a journal which has made me more cognizant of the foods I’m eating and my portion sizes, so physically I would say that I stayed the same because I am not consistent with the changes. I continue to have a regular workout routine, working out 4-6 days per week for an hour to two hours each day.
My personal experience of this class has been rewarding, learning the benefits of both emotion and physical exercises and the effects to our total well-being. I have developed my total well-being in various aspects, learning the exercises that are beneficial and the proper techniques for better results. There was difficulty with some of the exercises, visualization, meditation and the loving-kindness was challenging initially, but like with most exercise the more you practice and the more effort put forth, that all leads to better results. As health and wellness professionals, our job is not only to help others achieve optimal health, but we must also seek optimal health for ourselves. With the understanding and challenges, it put us at an advantage to be more understanding to others and to realize that we may have the same issues, but we have different ways of handling them.
The gratitude and forgiveness exercise was especially important for me. We oftentimes do things with little or no thought to how it affects others and an act of forgiveness or gratitude go a long way. A few weeks ago I wrote gratitude emails and most recently forgiveness emails to several friends. The responses were overwhelming, everyone responded positively, to quote one friend, 'this was a first from anyone to me, it reminds me that an attitude of gratitude is a wonderful virtue”. I now have a clearer understanding of some of what the profession of wellness entails and I feel confident that I be able to touch lives in the future.
Thank you for sharing all that you have learned in this class. It sounds like it has been beneficial for you. I hope that you are able to take what you learned here and continue to apply it to your life and professional goals. Best of luck with the remainder of your schooling!
ReplyDeleteKaren,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you did make small improvements and that you had a rewarding experience in the class. Good luck!
Karen I thought that your discussion was honest. You know it is immportant to remember to think about being grateful and to always remember the little things in life because they add up to the bigger things.
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