Unit 9 Final Blog- Personal Health Assessment

Personal Health Assessment

I.                   Introduction:

       In my personal life I feel that it is my duty to psychologically, spiritually and physically keep myself healthy and to strive everyday to get a step closer towards total human flourishing. It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically because it is their duty to themselves and their clients. The health and wellness professional wakes up every morning, gets dressed and goes to work just like someone who works for a maids service at a hotel down the street. Work will always be a tedious and enduring process humans will have to acquire until the end of time. However, if the health and wellness professional practice appropriate techniques, like meditation, breathing exercises or water aerobics, there biological, spiritual and psychological aura will be in balance with themselves. This leads to a better view on life including work, which then trickles down to the client. Now the professional is in a total balanced state of mind to basically teach the  client as well as receiving satisfaction from the clear view of human flourishing. The goals I strive to achieve for myself include total flourishing for my mind, body and spirit. Being able to have strong mind control, stress management and a healthy nutritional diet. In order to have strong mind control and a subtle mind I must develop a schedule for meditation in order to train the brain to only focus on the important information needed. Stress management requires me to work on breathing exercises and finding outlets that provide a peaceful state for the mind and body. As for my nutritional diet I plan to plant a vegetable garden in the backyard as well as only buying nutritious food when taking trips to the store, this cuts down room for unhealthy errors. 

II.                Assessment:

        Assessing yourself in my opinion means to look at the progress you have made, then set your goals higher. The way in which I have psychologically assessed my health is by not allowing the outside chatter to cloud my thoughts as it once did. A few months ago, before I began meditating, every action and situation that went on around me during the day was taken in deeply. My thoughts would be taken from what I needed to be focusing on and completely swaying my progress. However know I am a few steps closer and am able to acknowledge the thought and let it go. The way I have assessed my spirituality health  is inadvertently finding out my under lying fear of the unknown. I am a religious person, we all have to believe in something, but the more I have educated myself of the ways to strengthen my spirituality, the deeper the questions became. The way I assess my health physically is by my pedometer and work out regimen for the week. Everyday I will work to walk at least 5 to 10 steps more then the day before, just to keep up with my physical activity. Also four days a week I perform weights, cardio or yoga for an hour. My BMI has remained normal and I feel wonderful in my own skin. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being total flourished to one being no developed improvement, I rated my personal domains. Psychologically I give myself a score of 7, spiritually I would give myself a score of 5 and physically I would give myself a score of 8. 

III.             Goal Development:

       When setting goals for ourselves, must they be rational or out of this world? One goal I have for myself physically is to train, practice, enter and accomplish a 10 k run set up for the public. I know that my physical health has strengthened immensely in the past few months, however this goal would be very fulfilling for my physical health. I entered a 5 k run in my city last month and felt very liberated when the time came to walk across the finish line. That feeling keeps me striving for the goals I have set for myself. A goal I have for myself spiritually is to except that we are not going to understand everything about this life or ourselves, so improving on information already known is an accomplishment in itself. Each day helping others find a place in life and making a difference to except a place in this mysterious world we live in.  I have come to the conclusion that believing in something bigger then yourself will enlighten the soul and allow for a greater feeling of hope. The goal I have made for myself psychologically is to ultimately get to the point of being consciously aware of my choices. Choosing what enters the mind and what does not, being able to control the mind over emotional situations that may be jumping to conclusions. 

IV.             Practices for personal health:

                 The strategies that I can implement to foster growth in each of the health domain ultimately results in total flourishing to live a healthy and happy life. The strategies that need to be implemented to foster growth towards my physical health are visualization and breathing techniques. Visualization is used to imagine the body the way I want it and see what I need to do in order to accomplish it. Visualize the body increasing endurance, strength and correct movements in order for me to push myself to its full potential. Breathing techniques will allow physical endurance when workouts become unbearable. I must learn to control my breathing in order to enhance the power of the physical body. The way I will implement visualization is to visualize myself pushing the boundaries, using proper techniques and keeping my goals in mind before leaving to go to the gym. I can implement breathing techniques during the workout to reach optimal heart rate, but knowing when enough is enough and safely lowering the heart rate. The strategies I can implement to foster growth in psychological health would be the Loving-Kindness exercise and yoga. The Loving-Kindness exercise allows me to keep negative, cloudy thoughts and images from entering my mind. Focusing on taking in positive and negative energies to there fullest, then sending back Loving-Kindness into the heart of others. Even focusing on the individuals I have not had great memories with are sent compassion, love and health. This leaves the mind in a peaceful and clear receiving state. Yoga is implemented to relax and open the mind to messages needed to get to the brain. Total psychological flourishing is knocking at the door to come in and yoga bridges that pathway. Yoga allows the mind to be in a serene state of balance, love and tranquility. I will implement the Loving-Kindness by listening to the exercise three times a week in the morning, in order to open the mind to receiving and giving Loving-Kindness. I will implement yoga by proceeding in my usual yoga classes three days a week to keep the mind open and clear for the important information in life. The strategies I can use to implement spiritual growth are prayer and meditation. Prayer allows for an increase in hope, compassion and a greater sense of being. There is many ways to pray you can bow your head, light candles, sit in darkness or shout and scream. Personally I appreciate a quite lonely room in which no on will enter. I will implement prayer to my life by spending more quite time with the almighty, having a journal that includes problems needed prayed for and a place were the energy is very high. Meditation involves me getting to know my mind and what it takes to control the spirit. It teaches me that if it is possible to completely control the mind and its thoughts than it must be a spiritual connection. I would implement meditation in my spiritual life by focusing on my candle grandmother gave me from China, getting in the right state of concentration and listening to enlightened energy music to enhance the spiritual energy. 

V.                Commitment:

       A commitment is a promise to yourself that yourself will forever hold in high regards. The ways that I will assess my progress or lack of progress in the next six months is by  using a journal, checking my health status and using outside support. A journal can be used to keep a schedule as to what has been done over the past six months. Mark as easy as yes or no on the date if it was or was not performed that day. If it is desired I could get a health exam checkup to process my BMI, blood pressure and cholesterol levels as well as my mental state. After the six months are over I will go back and get another check  up to see the progress or lack of progress. As for outside support I need to find someone who can keep me accountable. Sending a message about practicing or exercising, setting up pictures that send a different times through out the day. The strategies that can be used to assist in maintaining my long term practices for health and wellness are meditation, water aerobics and prayer. Meditation never gets old and it never will be at the end, I can constantly improve on my psychological health through meditation. Water aerobics is my favorite workout because it takes pressure off the bones and joints as well as keeping my body in a healthy state. Prayer will help me in the long term to keep on a hopeful, positive track were good is seen in all living things.