Physical, psychological, and spiritual development is an incredibly important process for every human being in order to live a healthful and wholesome life. This fact holds even more truth for a person who is an aspiring or accomplished health and wellness professional. There is a saying that has many different versions all with the same general meaning: “one cannot lead another where one has not gone him or herself” (George; 2005), “Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch?”(Luke 6:39) These bits of wisdom, offer the basic explanation for why it is so important for a health and wellness professional to be well developed in all areas of their life, before they can expect to assist a patient to develop physically, psychologically, and spiritually. The health and wellness professional must be seasoned in their knowledge, understanding from their personal experience the means of achieving a more integral health and lifestyle. Having this awareness will allow the health and wellness professional to form a closer relationship and bond with their patient, which will enhance the quality of their treatment.
In my own life, I am in most need of developing further in my psychological health. I have a very difficult time in dealing with all of the stress in my life, and I become overwhelmed easily. I also have severe problems with anxiety. By working to develop this aspect of my life, I believe I will find coping with these challenges to be much easier.
I was able to assess my health in the physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of my life by taking into consideration what positives and negatives each of these domains has on my life. When assigning myself scores on each of these portions of my life from 1 to 10, I concluded as follows:
Physical: I would rate my physical health at a 7. I am overall a healthy person and have very good eating habits. I have taken points away because I am rather weak, and get sick easier than most.
Psychological: I would rate my psychological health at a 6. I am not in a terrible state psychologically, but there is a great deal of improvement that needs to be done. I struggle with stress and anxiety on a regular basis, and I need to find effective ways to lesson and cope with these feelings. I also tend to have very low self-esteem which I believe also inhibits my psychological growth.
Spiritual: I would rate my spiritual health at a 9. I am very much connected with my inner, spiritual self and I am very secure in my personal beliefs. I am well aware of the inter-connectedness of life. Of course there is a great deal I have to learn, and much that I do not understand. However, I trust that with consistent practice in time, more will become clear to me.
Goals are very important things to have to work towards in every person’s life. They serve as wonderful motivations to assist in the improvement of a person’s life. “Without goals and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.”-Fitzhugh Dotson (ThinkExist Quotations; 2010) In order to achieve personal integral health setting goals in each of the aspects of my life (physical, psychological, and spiritual) is necessary. The goal I have established for my physical health is to have better toned muscles. For my psychological health, the goal I have set is to have the ability to cope with stress in a healthier way. The goal for improvement in my spiritual health is to be able to look upon the world with more loving-kindness, and being able to see beyond all the negative and depressing happenings in the world to observe the underlying good that is still to be found.
Goals, however helpful they may be, are absolutely useless without the desire and strategy to work towards achieving them. That being said, in order for me to achieve further development in each aspect of my life I must take steps to bring myself closer to my goals. For improvement in my physical health, the two strategies that I can implement are strength training exercises and taking up some form of dance. There are many different ways I could go about doing this. I could purchase workout DVD’s related to those two exercises, or I could even search for a class nearby to join. I would make the commitment to do one, or both of these exercises every day. Two strategies that I can make use of in order to improve my psychological health would be community volunteering, and joining some kind of group or club. I believe volunteering my time in order to do something that is valuable would be of great assistance in dealing with my low self-esteem. By joining a group or a club, my feelings of anxiety would be lessened by having the chance for interacting with a group of people brought together by common interests. For further development of my spiritual self two strategies that I can utililize would be daily meditation, and the completing loving-kindness exercise mentioned by Dr. Dacher within his book Integral Health the Path to Human Flourishing (2006). By doing these exercises each day my spiritual awareness would continue to grow and progress, ultimately bringing me closer toward integral health.
In order for the health of all the aspects of my life to continue in their improvement, it will be crucial for me to monitor my progress. I plan to do this by keeping all of my assignments I have completed for this class and on a regular basis I will review them to consider how my development compares from the time I completed the assignment to the time I look over them. I will ask myself questions such as, “Am I more or less advanced in this aspect of my life?” and “What can I do to advance my development further?” I must be vigilant in order to achieve progress. If I find that one strategy does not work for me the way I would like, I must find another. Any person wanting to bring themselves closer to achieving the ultimate contentedness that is integral health can never become negligent. It is a commitment that must be maintained for the rest of your life.
References
Dacher, E. (2006). Integral Health the Path to Human Flourishing.
Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications Inc.
Biblos. Holy Bible: King James Version. Luke 6:39.
Retrieved from http://kingjbible.com/luke/6.htm
George, L. (2005). Transformation of the Healer:The Application of Ken Wilber’s Integral Model to Family Practice Medicine
Schlitz, Amorok, & Micozzi. Consciousness and Healing.
St. Louis, MI: Elsevier Inc.
ThinkExist. (2010). Fitzhugh Dodson Quotes.
Retrieved from http://thinkexist.com/quotation/without_goals-and_plans_to_reach_them-you_are/252600.html
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