Thanks for Joining Me on This Part of My Journey! Best Wishes and Peace to All :)

1.        Review your unit 3 personal assessment of your psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being. Reflect on these areas . How did you score yourself on a scale from 1 to 10 in unit 3? How do you score yourself now? Has the score changed? Why or why not?

 

Unit 3: A-I rate my physical well-being a 6, mostly due to existing health issues. I cannot completely overcome these issues, but I am working to adapt and work around them. I am somewhat satisfied with my diet and activity level, yet I still have a lot of room for physical improvements.

 

Unit 10: I maintain the rating of a six at this time. I switched to a vegetarian diet in January. I am still working on ironing out the kinks in my nutrition because I think I was not doing a good job of balancing proper nutrients. Recently, I found a supplemental nutrition shake that my digestive system can tolerate, and I think I am beginning to feel better. Also, our Spring/Summer CSA is in full swing, so I am eating loads of nutrient dense foods now. I was unable to remain consistent with physical exercise when I was feeling weak and depleted, but I am almost sure I am on the mend now.

 

 

Unit 3: B-My spiritual well-being is improving due to all of the information from these courses I am learning and processing. I would rate my spiritual well-being a 7 at this point in time. The concepts in these wellness courses are clicking in my mind, and I find myself mindfully incorporating practices in my everyday life.

Unit 10: Contemplative practices are becoming a daily habit. I have to think about doing them less and less. Instead, I just automatically spend some time each day. I have also incorporated guided meditation in my youngest daughter’s bedtime routine. I would rate my spiritual well-being at a 7.5.

Unit 3: C-My psychological well-being needs the most development at this point in my life. I still find myself battling with immediate negative emotions and reactions, and I struggle with not expressing myself the way my mind wants to in a given moment. I almost feel like I have to suppress my feelings, but I am very slowly learning I can express myself in a less damaging way. This is a difficult transition, and I would rate my psychological well-being a 4 as of the date of this entry.

 

Unit 10: I have noticed subtle changes in my psychological well-being. I feel more calm and more able to participate in activities. I have a lot of work to do in this area of my life, but I feel comfortable rating myself at a solid 5. I am okay with slow progress, as any progress is still progress.

 

2.        Review the goals and activities you set for yourself in each area. Have you made progress toward the goals? Explain.

Unit 3: One physical personal goal is to overcome my tendency to use not feeling well as an excuse to skip a workout. Instead, I will compromise when I am not feeling well and participate in a lower intensity workout. I also want to prevent myself from overdoing it on days I feel well.

Unit 10: Unfortunately, I am still caught in this vicious cycle. This is a difficult habit to break. I have been doing it for ten years, and I cannot get past the mentality of working hard and making the most of my good days. It is not in my nature to hold back and conserve energy when I feel well. I guess I am learning the hard way.

 

Unit 3: My spiritual goal is to continue on my journey of minimalism, reducing attachment to physical objects, and focus more on finding my own peace. The more calm and content I feel, the better I seem to treat others.

Unit 10: I am making progress with this goal, as I continue to declutter my life of unnecessary material possessions. I am also working on organizing areas of my home and life, with success.  

 

Unit 3: My psychological goal is to catch myself before I say something negative, then mindfully choose a more positive way of relaying the same message. I hope this practice can become more natural in the future, and lead to a more constant positive state of mind.

Unit 10: I am making great progress in this area. I still occasionally lose my cool and say things out of anger, or in an angry way, but I feel like I have shown marked improvement in this area.  

 

3.    Have you implemented the activities you chose for your well-being in each of the three areas? Explain.

Unit 3: I can reach my physical goal by scheduling my workouts and writing them on a calendar for the purpose of accountability. Since I use Sundays as my day to plan for my week, I will just incorporate a workout schedule that I can stick to when I am planning our other activities and meals for the week.

Unit 10: I do this! The only thing that held me back from meeting my written commitment was not feeling well. On the days I was up to exercising, I do believe this helped!

 

Unit 3: I can work toward my spiritual goal in the same way. During my weekly planning, I believe it would benefit me to plan quiet time for myself when I can shut off the rest of the world and focus on completely relaxing to a state of peace.

Unit 10: I do not even really have to do this anymore. Because I did not allow any obstacles to stand in my way, I believe taking this time for myself has become a habit. I will just make sure I remain committed.

 

Unit 3: My psychological goal is going to take a lot more effort, and I will spend much more time practicing to reach this goal. I will take a few ideas from the text and mentally ask myself two questions before reacting: 1. Will this response cause me or someone else suffering?, and 2. Does this response align with my goal of integral health?

I am making progress in this area. I have learned to quiet my mental chatter and practice more positive self-talk. I will probably be working on this goal for a very long time, but I am making changes and attempting to live with intention.

 

 

4.        Summarize your personal experience throughout this course. Have you developed improved well-being? What has been rewarding? What has been difficult? How will this experience improve your ability to assist others?

This course has helped me the most in two areas:

1.    My anxiety issues

2.    My interpersonal relationships, especially with those in my immediate family.

 

At first, I was really struggling with the weekly guided contemplative practice exercises. I went back and read some of my earlier blog entries, and I was clearly frustrated with the process. At some point in the course, I stopped fighting it and actually began to enjoy the experience. My mind was just way too busy to relax. This breakthrough was rewarding, and I do believe it has improved my well-being. From my perspective, this entire journey will last a lifetime. This ten week course is only a tiny fraction of the time it will take to approach integral health. Sometimes the idea of the time commitment necessary is difficult to accept. I believe I will be able to offer guidance and assist others, and I think I can one day be instrumental in helping others also suffering from chronic pain and anxiety issues because I fully intend to continue the practices learned in this course, as well as digging deeper into the world of integral health.