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.
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