Sorry
for the late post my daughter has been having seizures for the last two
days.
An Integral Plan
Looking
into the mirror, what do you see? You see what is on the outside ignoring that
the body has more than one dimension. Looking outward ignoring the inner self
will not lead you to integral health (Dacher, 2006, p.1). It is crucial as a
health and wellness professional to look inward and implement practices in their
own life that will help in teaching clients to flourish and to develop
psychologically, spiritually, and physically. Professionals that implement
integral health in their own lives before treating clients will know how to
alleviate suffering and understand that flourishing is more than an idea
(Dacher, 2006, p. 167). This understanding of integral health will give the
professional the ability to connect with their patients and the desire to
alleviate the suffering of their clients will be more than an idea.
The
basic idea of integral health is not good enough as a professional you must take
yourself and your clients to a deeper level to ensure a true integral health,
authentic happiness, and genuine wholeness (Dacher, 2006, p.3).
1.
True
integral health is self-cultivated and self-generated leading to a comprehensive
and holistic healing of the mind, body and spirit leaving you immune the
adversities of life (Dacher, 2006, p.3).
2.
To
authenticate happiness it must arise from within and be expansive, passionate,
robust, and not affected by the experiences of life (Dacher, 2006, p.3).
3.
Finally
to achieve a genuine wholeness the experiences of life that connect us must be
accomplished with an uninterrupted oneness, universal loving-kindness and the
lightness of being (Dacher, 2006, p.3).
To
achieve these goals it is necessary to work on and develop the inner-self so we
can move down the path of human flourishing. With the issues of my family it is
hard to find the time to work on developing the inner-self. It is important to
prepare a foundation to build upon and to progress towards the development of
the mind, body and spirit. Building the proper foundation can help in the
success of human flourishing (Dacher, 2006, p. 131). The goals for my life
includes changing my diet, starting a daily exercise regimen and incorporating
daily meditation exercises in order to relieve the stress life and improve my
physical health. These strategies will only be the beginning, but in order to
move forward this will be a good way to achieve a foundation in building the
inner-self and developing the mind, body and spirit.
There
are six principles that guide us through the integral assessment and these goals
are necessary in achieving and transforming my health from ordinary to precious
finding the potential source for ultimate human flourishing.
Those
goals necessary in assessing my health in each domain of integral health
are:
1.
To
assess and alleviate my needless suffering I must identifying the areas of my
life were the most attention is needed. There a two question which will
determine where the attention is needed in my life. The first is which aspects
of life bring the most distress? Secondly where is the greatest possibility of
growth and development (Dacher, 2006, p. 105)?
2. Then I must recognize the difference
of short-term relief and permanent relief of needless suffering and a
consideration for both while assessing my needs (Dacher, 2006, p.
105-106).
3. It will also be necessary to
recognize the difference between immediate pleasure and long-term flourishing. I
must set priorities for long-term flourishing to achieve the ability to enjoy
worldly pleasures with and without suffering (Dacher, 2006,
p.106).
4. In the development of
the psychospiritual component my consciousness must become expanded while
strengthening the capacity for attention, focusing on intention,
revealing
wisdom, opening my heart, and bringing to life human flourishing (Dacher, 2006,
p.106).
5. I must rely on the integral
assessment for deep listening and guidance (Dacher, 2006,
p.106).
6. The assessment also needs addresses
the aspects, levels, and lines of development relevant to the current
circumstances of my life (Dacher, 2006, p.106).
This process will make
me aware of the unhealthy sources of suffering and the potential sources of
flourishing by envisioning the possibilities to improve life my life and
flourish. The integral tool of assessment is used to transform health and life
from ordinary to precious (Dacher, 2006, p. 105-106). To be able to score each
domain and access my spiritual, physical, and psychological wellness these
principles are essential in achieving a healthy integral life.
In my reflection
on a scale of 1 to 10; ten being optimal I will rate my physical, spiritual and
psychological well-being. This has change slightly since unit three when these
domains were first explored. 1. My spiritual
domain will still be rated higher than the other domains at an 8 but slightly
lower than my previous score of 8.5. My spirituality does make it possible to
endure the long days, sleepless nights, doctors, therapies and daily needs of my
girls. But with the long days it has been difficult to stay positive and my
personal health issues have also affected this score but it will still be a
priority to continue to keep strong in my faith. 2. The physical
domain will be rated slightly higher at a 4.5 from my previous 3.5. This has
changed due to the change in my eating habits and some of the daily bad habits
that have been changed. It is no longer a daily habit to eat fast food,
television has been cut out with walks being added and we have started a
vegetable garden promoting family involvement moving towards a healthy diet.
This is only a beginning with these important changes to improve my health and a
start to a strong foundation for complete integral health it will be beneficial
for my entire family.3. My psychological
domain is at a 6 which has not changed from previously. Overall my psychological
health is good but the things bring the score down are the long stressful days
along with family issues and health issues.
Establishing
goals to improve myself in each domain of health and wellness is very important.
Without improvement of my physical, psychological and spiritual health it will
be impossible to move towards integral health and wellness and flourish.
The
goals I must establish are as follows:
1.
In
the physical domain it will be my goal to incorporate a daily exercise routine
into my life. To keep this goal my daughter’s will be my inspiration. This will
be a great beginning of a foundation of physical health improving the health of
my heart, lifting my spirits, while strengthening my bones and maintaining my
weight.
2.
In
the psychological domain a daily meditation routine will be the goal put into
place. This will help in relieving life’s stress’s and aid in the Olympic
training of my mind. Training my mind to be free of mental chatter will benefit
me as I move through the psychological domain towards the final level of
psychospiritual flourishing.
3.
In
the spiritual domain my goal will be to become closer to God. Becoming closer to
my spiritual beliefs and opening my heart I will find an inner peace while
balancing my mind, body and spirit to gain an understanding of my conscious
self.
To obtain growth in the
physical, spiritual and psychological domains there are exercises and practices
that will be needed in my life to succeed in achieving integral health and
wellness.
1. In the physical domain the exercise
I will incorporate is yoga. Suffering from fibromyalgia and arthritis this will
be very beneficial to my physical health. It will create a toned, flexible,
strong body while improving my respiration, energy and vitality. A daily yoga
practice will promote cardio and circulatory health while relieving pain which
will help dealing with the complications of having fibromyalgia and arthritis.
The practice that I will incorporate into my physical domain is to start eating
healthy and quit the habit of drive-thru eating. This will be a project that
will be part of a family initiative. Healthy eating will be supported by growing
our own produce in which we have already started our first garden and are very
excited to eat the organic vegetables that we are growing.
2. In the psychological domain to
achieve growth I will use the two meditation practices that I have found very
helpful from our past lessons to lay the foundation of training my mind. The two
exercises that I found beneficial for my psychological wellness are the
subtle-mind and the loving-kindness exercises. The loving-kindness will be the
exercise I use to begin my day with and the subtle-mind exercise will be the
exercise I use to end my day with. Both of these exercises will be beneficial in
achieving integral health and human flourishing with the foundation being set to
open my heart and calm my mind from all of the chatter.
3. The spiritual domain is where I am
the strongest but to achieve growth the practice I would like to begin is to
practice forgiveness. In order to achieve the practice of forgiveness I must
learn to live my life by taking my pain and turning into love, beauty, kindness
and amend the grievances. I must choose to forgive turning off the replay button
and focusing on the positive. Most of all when I become upset I must practice
stress management and control my body’s fight-or-flight response (Schlitz, et.
al, 2006, p. 340). The other practice I would like to participate in is to
volunteer in the community. The type of volunteer work that I am interested in
is to volunteer at the day program for adult with disabilities. This will open
my heart fill it with compassion and help me learn things to help my daughter’s
as they grow older. This part of my spiritual growth will also be beneficial in
my desired occupation as an occupational therapist.
In accessing my
commitment to continue to grow in the area of health and wellness and flourish
the next six months will be a learning process. I plan to keep a journal and
schedule my activities just as I would a therapy or doctor’s appointment for my
girls. Keeping track of my progress or lack of progress will be a must in order
to achieve and maintain my goals as I travel the integral path. These next few
months will lay the foundation needed to move down the integral path and grow in
my physical, spiritual, and psychological domains. Most of all I commit to
myself to not settle for the ordinary life but to seek the extraordinary life
adjusting over time to fulfill the ultimate goal of true integral
health.
References Dacher,
E. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic
Health Publications, Inc. Schlitz,
M., Amorok, T., & Micozzi, M. (2005). Consciousness & healing:
Integral approaches to mind-body medicine. Elsevier, Churchill Livingstone:
St. Louis, MI.
My
spiritual well-being is still rated higher than my other domains at an 8 but
slightly lower than my previous score of 8.5.
My spirituality does make it possible to endure the long days, sleepless
nights, doctors, therapies and daily needs of my girls. But with the long days
it has been difficult to stay positive and my personal health issues have also
affected this score but it will still is a priority to continue keeping strong
in my faith. 