So Long, Farewell, Our Feet Are the Same (Auf Wiedersehen), Goodbye ???

Hello Professor and Classmates,

I choose not to say goodbye, because this chapter is not an ending, it is somewhere in the very beginning of my “Flourishing” and I wish to thank everyone who participated and walked this journey with me.  Without your companionship, the journey would have been much harder.

I find this posting to be similar to the Final Project that I posted last term.  I hope I do not bore you with my musings.  I try so very hard to keep it interesting each week.  Here I go.

When asked to review my unit three assessment compared to how I assess myself now, here is what I have to say.  In unit three I was a mess.  I really do not think my assessment was a reality as I compare it to myself now and all the things I have learned about myself along the way.  In unit 3, I rated myself as a 2-3 in Mind, a 7 for Body and I perceived my Spirit as an 8.    Looking back now, I do believe I was correct for the assessment of my Mind and Spirit, but way off on my Body.  This discrepancy was most likely due to the cogitative distortions about my body that were fueled by a Mind domain that was really in trouble.

As I review myself today, I will say the Mind has improved to about a 4 by my continued exercises and mindful exercises that keep me grounded.  The Body is more realistically at around a 5 since I have some things that I need to work.  Last but not least is my assessment of my Spirit.  I will say the Spiritual domain has not improved, but an 8 is pretty good.  I will keep striving for enlightenment and see if it changes.  Keep your fingers crossed.

In reviewing my goals, I wanted to exercise more, practice contemplatively and commune more with my higher power; I have to say I have achieved those goals.  Walking, meditating and praying keeps me centered and lowers my stress and I have found I can do all three while I am walking.  I will stick to my goals and become a healthier person.

My experience through this course has been a real eye opener.  I do not believe it could have come at a better time in my life or my education.  I was getting so stressed and burned out that I was starting to really not care if I graduated or not.  I needed loving kindness from myself and others.  I needed contemplative practices and I needed to take a long hard look at where I was and where I wanted to go.  I have gained these insights and more from this course.  I also think I have made some acquaintances that I want to nurture and keep them close to my heart as I feel that is what they deserve.  There uplifting comments each week have replaced the little voice inside my head that told me I could not.  Their voices told me, I could.

While I feel that there was a lot of course work each week, I know that there were valuable lessons to learn in each one.  These are life lessons about loving your neighbor, healing yourself and just down right being a better person.  These lessons have been a gift to me.  They have made me a nicer, stronger person, a person with skills that I will carry with me each day in my nursing practice.

So, my dear compadres, with that, I wish you all Auf wiedersehen.

Rufus J.

I Plan, therefore, I Can - Flourish to the Finish

Hello Everyone,  

I am saddened that this class is coming to a close.  I have learned for many of you.  I have learned much from a few of you.  I am honored to have to known each of you for this short time and I wish you many blessings in your future. 

To this end, I am allowing you all to view my plan for the future.  It goes something like this:

The importance of a well-developed mind, spirit and body cannot be underestimated for an individual in the healthcare field.  The idea of Integral Health as defined by Dacher (2006), is that it can lead to a holistic path in healthcare that can enable a person to heal themselves or become immune to maladies that plague the human body such as death, aging and disease.  As a healthcare provider, I have quite a way to go before I am able to incorporate the Integral Health into my every day practice.  I still have a journey ahead in attaining the skills necessary to practice using Integral Health.  I have made progress in my spiritual self and in the healing of my mind, but the body is still a work in progress.  I know and have been reminded that the mind controls the body so I have hope that I may someday pull the three pieces together and become the Holistic healer that I wish to be.

Assessment

            During my assessment back in unit 3, I had to judge myself in the domains of Mind, Body and Spirit.  In assessing myself, I had to take an in-depth look at myself and compare where I was now, in each domain, to where I wanted to be.  I also asked my life partner to try as impartially as possible to assess his views of each domain and I used the information that he gathered, in addition with how I view myself, to complete my assessment.  We both assessed my Spiritual well-being to be the strongest of the domains scoring an 8 out of 10.  Secondly we addressed the health of my body and the Physical domain as needing work.  This domain was measured at 7 out of 10 and was by no means as weak as my Psychological domain which was screaming for improvement at somewhere around 2-3 on a scale of 10.   I will admit that I have come a long way since Unit 3, in my Psychological domain.  With the tools I have learned from this course and my therapy sessions, I would say I am currently at a 5 out of 10 and still climbing.  

Goal Development

Through the studies in this course and additional outside readings, I have come up with the following three goals for myself:

1.     Physically, I am going to get out there and exercise more.  I have long used the excuse that I do not have time to exercise.  I have long used the excuse that with two jobs and full time school, I simply did not have time to take care of myself.  I can no longer lean on that distortion of reality.  I simply do have time and I will stop finding excuses not to exercise.

2.     Psychologically, I am will set aside a minimum of fifteen minutes to allow myself to practice my mindfulness exercises, meditations and exercises in Loving Kindness (Dacher, 2006).

3.     Spiritually, I will not be so closed minded.  I will open myself up to the wonders of the universe and the unlimited possibilities that exist in the universe.

Practices for Personal Health

            To foster growth in my physical domain, I can begin by making better diet choices and eating more fresh fruits and veggies instead of the many packaged and fast foods that I currently consume. I will have to be more mindful when shopping that I make better diet choices.  I can also start walking my dogs each evening.  If I only take them for a fifteen minute walk, they will appreciate it and my body can certainly use it.  This exercise will strengthen my bones and help to lower my blood pressure.  This one will be easy to implement as each dogs is most willing to walk when they see their leashes.

To foster growth in my Psychological domain, I will continue to attend my weekly group therapy sessions to lower stress and fight depression.  I will also continue to practice the exercises in mindfulness and Loving Kindness (Dacher, 2006).  I have found that the inner peace that I obtain while doing these exercises has enormous benefits in keeping me calm and lowering my stress.  Lowering my stress allows me the opportunity to love myself and to love others.  Lowered stress also equals lower blood pressure.  Practicing these exercises will keep my mind healthy and strong.  I have already put the fostering of this domain in place.  I only need make myself get out of bed every day in order to do them.

To foster growth in my Spiritual domain I will allow myself to pray more to my Higher Power and allow myself to commune with nature so that I can tap into the spiritual energies that I believe exist in nature.  Implementing the fostering of this domain actually begins with the prayer to my Higher Power to give me strength and courage to more forward and become a healthier person.

Commitment

            I will assess my progress over the next sixth months by performing another Integral Assessment (Dacher, 2006) and rating myself in the areas of the three domains.  I will use the number from my initial assessment as a baseline.  If I find myself progressing in an area, I will continue with my goals and my exercises.  If I determine that I am not progressing in a domain, I will change my strategies until I find one that works.  I will also continue to foster relationships I have developed in this class and I will continue to bounce my ideas off my cohorts as long as they will let me.  I have met some amazing people in this class and I my hope is, that the relationships will not dissolve with the termination of the tenth unit of this class.  My goal is to continue my blog as it has been a valuable tool for disseminating information and gaining insightful feedback.

Conclusion

            The goal of Integral Health is forever a work in progress.  Do I ever hope that I will attain Unity Consciousness (Dacher, 2006) and ultimate enlightenment?  The answer is yes.  Do I think I realistically will reach those goals?  Probably not, but that will not stop me from trying.  I will strive to meet my goals and I have a plan to meet those goals.  It is important for everyone to remember, it is in the journey that we receive the enlightenment, not so much in the destination.

References

Dacher, E.S., (2006). Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA. Basic Health Publications, Inc.