Unit 10 The Final Blog

Hello Professor and Class,
I hope you are all well! Regarding my unit 3 assessment I rated myself in the following areas as follows:
A.) Physical wellbeing: I rate at a 7 because I am pretty active, although not as much as I was a month ago due to working 40 hours now, but I still walk an run daily. I eat healthy foods and take care of my body. My Goal and how I will implement in my life: To walk 30 minutes a day on my break at work.
Now, I rate myself still at a 7, although I am now implementing my goal of walking on my breaks, I have not been doing this everyday but it is a work in progress and I will be continuing to work on this.
B.) Spiritual Wellbeing: I rate this area at a 8. I am a very spiritual person and find that through meditation and yoga along with aroma therapy and prayer I feel whole and complete. With out this element of my life, I feel lost and depressed and my heat feels empty, so I do my best to exercise this element of my life daily although there is always room for improvment :)
My Goal and how I wil implement in my life: To pray to God each morning while drinking my coffee and thanking him for my life and all that I have, asking for continued guidence, unconditonal love and safty for my family and I.
Now, I would rate this area at a 9 as I have been pluggin away at this goal and feeling whole inside and out. I plan to continue on this journey/goal that I have set for myself. After I am done completing this blog, I am actually going to heat yoga for a few hours to exercise this goal and my spiritual health a little deeper.
C.) Pyschological Wellbeing: I rate this at a 8 as well. I feel that by exercising all other elements of my life in a healthy manner, my mind is at ease and my psychological wellness benefits. I feel happy and laid back instead of full of anxiety and sad and crabby. I have found that through my spiritual wellness, my psychological wellness justs falls into place and is exactly where it needs to be :) I am content and happy.
My Goal and how I will implement in my life: To take "ME" time each night at 8:00 PM after I put my son to bed to reflect on my day and let go of my anxiety and the things in life that I can not control making an extra effort to give give what I can not handle to God and just let it go like cleaning out my mind each day to start a new.
Now, I would rate myself still at an 8 as this goal is still a work in progress. Lately I have been trying to do "me stuff" but as life permits that does not always happen the way I would like :) But I will not give up! I believe that I am happy, healthy and living my life the best way I can and as I change, so will my goals as I feel that it is so crucial to be flexible with myself and never give up!
As I mentioned above, the goals that I have set for myself in the following areas have been keeping me focused and on the right track although they are still a work in progress. I have activily implemented the activites that I have set in place for myself and will contiue to do so as they "work" for me and they are things that I love and enjoy! I believe that this class has not only educated me on a number of tools and skill but also has opened my mind and my eyes to look at myself differently. The best part about this class for me personally was being given the oppertunity to "work" on me and this class came at a perfect time in my life where I felt as though I was perhaps at a cross road and was doing to much for others then I was doing for myself and it really began to take a toll on my health and wellness. Now, I feel alive and ready for my future because of this class, the exercises that we did and were taught and I could not be more grateful. Thank you all for such a wonderful class.
-Megan Bohlman

My Health Assessment Unit 9 Final Project :)

Hello Professor and Class,

 

Introduction:
Why is it important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically? What areas do you need to develop to achieve the goals you have for yourself?

According to Dacher, “if humanity is to evolve to integral health, it is imperative that our health care systems encourage and support our efforts” (Dacher, 2006). As health professionals it is crucial for us to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically within our own lives in order to help another. By the lives we choose to live and the choices that we make we must live and breathe health and wellness in order for our practice to be genuine. We first must find ourselves and explore ourselves to the deepest level in order to have a full understanding of how this all works, we must “go there ourselves.” Then through our own knowledge and experience, we will be able to authentically help guide another towards the life that they were meant to live.  We must be patient with ourselves and with others on this beautiful journey and allow for life to come and go on life terms. The area that I need to develop to achieve the goals that I have set for myself is the calm-abiding mind. Through attaining a continued calm mind, I feel that I will be holistically well and that is exactly what I need. In order for me to get there, I need to continue to practice mediating, yoga and visualization exercises daily as I have found that through these practices that my mind, body and spirit are calm and quiet. I need this in my life in order to reach my fullest potential and be able to assist others in getting there as well.

 

 

Assessment:
How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?

Since the last time that we were asked to address our health in each domain I would have to say that I have been doing much better with addressing all areas of my health hence the last week and my emotional down swing due to not getting enough sleep. The ways in which I have continued to address each domain of my health has all come down to consistency.  My physical health I would not rate at 8 out of 10. Physically I am feeling fit, and internally feeling really energized and over all well! I am eating healthy foods with little to no processed foods and no gluten. Getting enough sleep is one of my biggest issues and I have been working on this by going to sleep earlier but I still find that I wake up in the middle of the night and want to eat to fall back to sleep. This is a work in progress but I am doing much better as I have been keeping a food journal and meditating before bed.  I am rating it at an 8 because I know there is always room for improvement. I have been walking a lot and engaging in my yoga practice 5 days a week and I feel great! To continue to stay on this path I will need to continue doing the above things that I mentioned, yoga being my number one priority and consistency for me is the key! My spiritual wellbeing I would rate at a 8 out of 10 as well. I feel that through my meditation, prayer, yoga and visualization practices this area of my life has become much more in-tuned and I “feel” better and much more connected. However, consistency is the key for me in this area as well because I have found that when I do not practice my yoga, meditation, prayer and other exercises I feel off balanced and my anxiety gets the best of me which not only affects me but those around me such as my family. So I need to stay on the path that I am on and continue to practice each and every day. My psychological health I would rate at a 8 out of 10. I feel that again through my practices that I have been doing mainly my yoga, prayer and meditation I feel so much more alive, aware and ready for the day. When I am not practicing I feel a mess, very emotional and find that my anxiety will get SO bad that it immobilizes me to the point that I can barely get out of bed and my chest becomes very tight. In order for this to not occur, I must practice my prayer, meditation, yoga and visualization practices each day because it allows for me to be a better person because I “feel” better. Again, consistency in this area is the key component. I feel that I am doing all the “right” things that I need to do in order to be the person that I am meant to be, but it is through consistency that will truly make all the difference.

 

Goal development:
List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.

Physical: My goal in this area is to engage in 30 minutes of yoga 5 days a week.

Psychological: My goal for this area is to meditate 30 minutes each night (7 days a week) before I go to sleep.

Spiritual: My goal for this area is to pray to God each morning before I start my day and list what I am grateful for and thank God for the life that he has given me and ask for guidance each and every day. I also let go of anything that I am holding on to and give it to him.

As the days change and I continue to grow, I will reevaluate each of my goals that I have set for myself and be flexible with myself to change what needs to be changed in order to give my mind body and soul what it needs. I will continue to be open, honest and flexible listening to my body and what it needs.

Practices for personal health:
What strategies can you implement to foster growth in each of the following domains; Physical, Psychological, and Spiritual. Provide at least two examples of exercises or practices in each domain. Explain how you will implement each example.

Practices for my personal health will and already do include the following: I will wake each morning and do 100 sumo squats, then I will do 30 minutes of walking in the afternoon on my lunch break and then 30 minutes of yoga as soon as I come home from work.  I also teach yoga here at my house on Thursday nights for 1 hour and Tuesdays I play on a softball league that lasts 3 hours which is a great workout as well. Eventually, I will be getting back into my routine of running again and my goal for next year after my schooling is completed and I have more time I will be running 5K, 7K and marathons each month for the entire year.  For my psychological health, I will meditate in bed as soon as I wake up for 10 minutes and also at night before bed for 30 minutes as it helps relax me so that I can fall asleep. When I meditate at night, I listen to ocean wave sound tracks that I play in my bedroom and it helps me to let go of the thoughts in my head and focus on sleeping, breathing and relaxing. For my spiritual health I will start doing the loving-kindness exercise as a way to refocus my mind and gather my thoughts each day. By doing this I will have a quiet mind and be able to listen to the needs of others more readily and attend as needed. I will also continue to use my prayer each morning and each night and anytime during the day that I feel necessary to let go of the things that I cannot control and give my anxiety to God. I have found that through prayer, and giving what I struggle with away to my higher power I am able to feel better and I feel as though a 100lbs has been lifted from my shoulders. So this I will continue to do each and every day as much as I feel I need to.

 

Commitment:
How will you assess your progress or lack of progress in the next six months? What strategies can you use to assist in maintaining your long-term practices for health and wellness?

The ways in which I will assess my progress or lack of progress over the next 6 months or more will consist of writing everything down as I do now. I have found that if I write each and everything down on paper that I need to do for each day I will get it done, and after I complete each goal that I have set for myself for that day I get to cross off each item that I have completed and it makes me feel as though I am getting a lot accomplished and give me the motivation to continue achieving and reaching higher and keeps me on track. I also keep a journal and write down how my day went, what I accomplished each day, how I feel on that day and what emotions or negativity that I want to let go of and I write it down and let it go. This helps me to evaluate myself on a daily basis and continue to stay on track. The above I will also use as my strategies to keep my on track for the long term as well. By practicing all the exercises that we have used in this class, being open and flexible with myself and change what needs to be changed as the days go and talking to others about my goals I will be where I want to be, balanced, loving –kindness, calm-abiding, and passionate. One of the biggest things that I will be continuing to do is reading our text Integral Health by Elliot Dacher over and over and over again as I have found that through reading this book I am a different person because it has gave me a different view on life and for that I am ever so grateful. I never thought that I would ever say that because I do not enjoy reading but this book has changed my life.

 -Megan Bohlman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Dacher, E. (2006) Integral Health: The path to human flourishing. Published by Basic Health Publications, Laguna Beach, CA. 

Unit 8 Meditation & Visualization

Hello Professor and Class,

I cannot thank you enough for all of the posts that were left on my last week’s blog. I really appreciate all the advice and thoughtful words. I am feeling so much better and I guess I needed to take a step back, evaluate my own wellness and work on addressing the areas in my life that were lacking and care for myself and I did and this week has been great!

Throughout this class and all the exercises that we have learned about and have completed I would have to say that the visualization and meditation were my favorite to engage in because they really enhanced my mind, body and spirit connection. Through both of these exercises I have been able to feel more at ease calm internally and externally and feel less anxious and for that alone I am forever grateful. Ways that I will continue to implement these practices in my life to foster mental fitness is through my daily yoga practice, followed by 30 minutes of deep meditation and before bed a 15 minute meditation coupled with visualization about the ocean and all the wonderful and blissful happiness thinking about the ocean creates for me. The ocean is the one place in the world where my life makes sense and my mind body and soul feel complete and one day, I plan to retire in a beautiful place right on the beach. I loved the way that through completing the visualization I could “feel” the ocean and my heart was filled with love and compassion and I felt whole and because of the feelings of bliss that I get when I complete meditation and visualization I will continue to practice these exercises. I hope that you all have a fantastic week and send wellness your way!

-Megan Bohlman

Unit 7 Meditation Practices

Hello Class and Professor!

Complete the Meeting Aesclepius mp3 (located in the Doc Sharing area). Describe your meditative practices for the week and discuss the experience. Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness. How can you continue to apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness?

Through completing the Meeting Aesclepius  mp3 my meditative practice for this week was a little bit off because I was finding it difficult for me to find inner balance and mind focus due to having an abnormally busier schedule than usual. I did engage in meditating and doing deep breathing each day, but only was able to find time to engage in my yoga 3 days this week and I noticed that not doing yoga more than the 3 days really through me off schedule. I have felt SO overwhelmed lately especially this week! My mind, body and soul are feeling very scrambled and I am mentally barley above water. Through feeling this way, I am not aware of what I can commit to in different areas of my life which is not much. I found through this past week that I need to cut things out of my life and focus on ME, because I feel not well. As I mentioned, my mindfulness/meditation has helped this past week but I feel very off balance and need to refocus. Meditating helps me to calm my mind and decrease my anxiety and as soon as I am done writing this I will be engaging in my meditation practice for 1 hour before bed as it helps me to sleep and I think  that is exactly what I need right now. I need to sleep a good 7-8 hours solid without waking and that NEVER happens but my mind and body are just EXHAUSTED and I need to take better care of myself and listen to my body and attend to MY needs more then I have been. I am ALL about increasing my health and wellness through the mind-body practices that I engage in and believe that without my meditation and yoga I feel lost. They help me to be who I am meant to be and fully experience life to the fullest, but I am just off right now but I am hopeful for the days to come as I will be attempting  to get some long hours of sleep shortly here and pray that I feel better in the morning.

Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" (p.477).

My understanding of this saying is that I cannot lead another to wellness if I myself have not experienced and practice wellness myself.

How does this apply to the health and wellness professional?

This applies to the health and wellness professional in the simple fact that one (myself) cannot help another attain holistic wellness if I myself am not well or living and breathing health and wellness. It is like preaching to the choir so to speak. That is why we must live, eat and breath wellness in all aspects of our lives so that first we are well, experience wellness ourselves, continue to live this way and help others get to that beautiful place in their lives as well, but it all starts with “US” and we must be the people that we claim to be and lead by example.

Do you have an obligation to your clients to be developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why not?

Currently I do feel an obligation to help my clients develop holistically wellness because of being a yoga instructor. Through my practice I guide others to center them and find that inner peace we all search for at the same time helping them attain their flexibility and fitness goals as well. My main focus though is their inner wellness and helping guide my clients to experience that bliss and centered and balance within themselves.

How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal life?

I can implement psychological and spiritual growth in my personal life by not taking on more than I can handle, listening to my mind-body and soul and attending to my needs so that I can attend and assist others, meditating each day and practicing my yoga each and every day. No excuses!!!! That is my goal for this week.

I hope that you all have a wonderful and blissful week and I look forward to hearing from you!

May love, passion, health and wellness, and internal balance be with you all today and the future days to come.

Namaste

-Megan Bohlman

 

Unit 6 Blog- My Practice with Loving-Kindness

Hello Professor and Class,

Describe the exercise and assessment process. What did you discover about yourself? What area have you chosen to be a focus of growth and development? Why? What are some specific exercises or activities that you can implement to foster greater wellness in this area?

       Through completing the loving- kindness exercise I felt relaxed and at peace. I felt as if what I was saying was helping me to feel that it perhaps would send good ju-ju out in the world and maybe my positive thoughts would make a difference, or so I hope anyways.  Overall, it made me feel really great and gave me good warm feelings inside. Through the assessment process I was able to really focus in on myself and getting out of my own way. I find that I really struggle with anxiety and I want to free myself of that because it gets in the way of me enjoying my life and makes it hard to laugh and smile the way that I should. So that is what I focused on for this exercise and it helped, but through consistency perhaps it will help the anxiety fade away permanently. I discovered that I need to get out of my own way, allow life to come and go without trying to control it so much, it is just too much mental work and in all actuality, I really have no control as to what will happen, it’s life and I need to let that go and just relax and enjoy life for what it is and let go of control and instead live, laugh and love. The areas that I have chosen to focus on for my growth and development is self regulation. By doing this, I will feel full, emotionally, mentally and physically. I will not eat unneeded calories just to feel emotionally full, I’ll take care of each area of my body by just being calm inside and out. I’ll play more, let go of the things that hold me back such as my anxiety and when it gets to bad I will meditate and LET IT GO!  Through all of this I have really discovered a different side of myself and I like that side of me better, I’m a better mom, I feel calmer, less anxiety, I am healthy on all levels of my being, I do not binge eat and eat in the middle of the night, I sleep all night long and I wake up feeling ready to conquer the day! I love myself and through that I am able to truly love another, I laugh and play and I enjoy it!!! The best thing that I can do to continue to implement this in my life is to be aware of how I am feeling, meditate, positive self talk, stop letting homework and school rule my life because it makes me crabby, love myself and others, remind myself that others love me just the way that I am, practice prayer and yoga to touch the depths of my mind body and soul to really “feel” and not numb out bad feelings like anxiety and loneliness with food, and just live a happy life! Well, not that I have said all that….I am going to HAVE FUN and go spend some time outside with my family instead of cooped up in the house doing homework like I have been for the past 4 years of my life. I never give myself a break and I think I need one now. I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday weekend and remember life is too short to not enjoy it. Live, love and laugh!

Love Meg

Unit 5 The Subtle Mind

Hello Professor and Class! Week 5 has really come fast!

Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.

I felt that both of the exercises had much of the same concepts, such as mind focus, guiding and letting go to regain a sense of awareness and mental health.

I believe that they were different in the fact that they spoke on different topics, but through practicing both of the exercises I felt very emotional in the beginning and in the end felt so in touch with my mind, body and spirit I felt ALIVE! I did not have any frustrations through either one of the exercises, I only felt the benefits as I mentioned above. Yes, I did cry, and that could be viewed as a frustration, but I view it as a sense of releasing toxins and bad juju and feelings that I have been harboring that were so deep I was unaware as to how to even reach them on a level to release them and through these exercises I was able to let it all go! How amazing is that?

 

Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.

I personally feel that one aspect of wellness without the other will not satisfy my overall wellness. I feel that spiritual, mental and physical wellness are all equally important and should all be equally attended to in order for one to attain overall holistic wellness as one without the other will through one off balance and balance is what we-or I constantly search for. All aspects, mental, physical and spiritual fit together like a puzzle and the puzzle is not complete without all of the pieces. All of these aspects and elements are manifested in my life through the choices that I make and the life that I choose to live. This connection with all the aspects of human wellness are manifested in my life through the person that I have become from the person that I use to be, through the path and journey that I now follow being holistically health and searching for balance in all areas of my life. I chose to follow my heart and spirit where ever it may take me, allowing myself to be “in tuned” to my needs and being flexible to meet those needs as they may change throughout my days and throughout my life.

-Megan Bohlman

 

 

 

Unit 4 "Getting Started" Exercises and my experience

Describe your experience.

My experience was almost hypnotizing. I think that had to do with the woman’s voice. I felt as peace, my inner self was in full peak and I was able to connect my whole self to its self if that makes sense. I was able to feel my body’s sensations to a very intensely and I felt as though I was at the ocean-“the ONE place in the world where I feel complete.” I experienced my mental movement shifts often and it was disturbing at first due to what I was thinking about. I am not sure why, but I felt as though, when i closed my eyes I felt like I was flying with my mother, that she was holding me in her arms and telling me how proud she was of me for the woman and mother that I have become and that she was so sorry that she had to leave this world so soon. I am sitting here, and with the prompts on the MP3, I can feel her presence. I then began to cry, over whelmed with emotions, but I feel that this is well needed. My mother suffered for too long. Through this exercise, I gave to her my love, compassions, peace and calmness, heart, and my spirit.

 Did you find it beneficial?

Yes, I found this very beneficial. This exercise provided me to explore my inner self to a point that i have NEVER been able to do unless I was at the ocean. I will be using this 1 time a day for as long as I need. I may even have my boyfriend and perhaps my co-workers explore this as well. I feel in a heightened way that words cannot define. This was not difficult for me although it was emotional. I did not expect to connect with my mother in the way that I did. But it was well needed as I am still healing from losing her. I would defiantly recommend this to others and I will as I mentioned before because of the heightened spiritual experience that I had. I feel so much more light hearted and at peace. I feel no anxiety and that makes me cry because this is an aspect that I constantly struggle with. I feel so still and full of heart and compassion.

What is the concept of "mental workout"?

The concept of “mental workout” is to exercise our mind and psycho spiritual life to touch a deeper aspect of one’s self and relate to others.

What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a mental workout?

According to Dacher, research indicates that the proven benefits of a mental workout are happiness, wholeness and health (Dacher, 2006). Dacher explains that that by practicing the mental workout each day will help one embrace and awaken loving-kindness and have a calm subtle mind (Dacher, 2006).

How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

I can implement mental workouts in my everyday life to enhance my psychological health. I believe that by mediating, practicing yoga, doing the Mp3 exercise and journaling I will be able to continue to touch the level of mental health that I need to be able to be the person that I am mean to be without suffering with anxiety and moodiness.

-Megan Bohlman

Dacher,E. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing.

Unit 3 Optimal Wellness?!?!?!? :)

Hello Class and Professor! I hope that everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather. I finally got out and went for a 6 mile run and I feel so much better and ready to finish the homework I got left.
A.) Physical wellbeing: I rate at a 7 because I am pretty active, although not as much as I was a month ago due to working 40 hours now, but I still walk an run daily. I eat healthy foods and take care of my body. My Goal and how I will implement in my life: To walk 30 minutes a day on my break at work.
B.) Spiritual Wellbeing: I rate this area at a 8. I am a very spiritual person and find that through meditation and yoga along with aroma therapy and prayer I feel whole and complete. With out this element of my life, I feel lost and depressed and my heat feels empty, so I do my best to exercise this element of my life daily although there is always room for improvment :)
My Goal and how I wil implement in my life: To pray to God each morning while drinking my coffee and thanking him for my life and all that I have, asking for continued guidence, unconditonal love and safty for my family and I.
C.) Pyschological Wellbeing: I rate this at a 8 as well. I feel that by exercising all other elements of my life in a healthy manner, my mind is at ease and my psychological wellness benefits. I feel happy and laid back instead of full of anxiety and sad and crabby. I have found that through my spiritual wellness, my psychological wellness justs falls into place and is exactly where it needs to be :) I am content and happy.
My Goal and how I will implement in my life: To take "ME" time each night at 8:00 PM after I put my son to bed to reflect on my day and let go of my anxiety and the things in life that I can not control making an extra effort to give give what I can not handle to God and just let it go like cleaning out my mind each day to start a new.
4.) My thoughts on the exercise: I loved it! I could do this each day. I really enjoy doing these deep meditation exercises as it allows me some given time to not only get homework done but also get to relax while doing homework. I couldn't ask for more. I felt my mind being to quite and my breath become more calm and steady. In the end...I am ready to sleep :)
-Megan Bohlman

Welcome and Unit 2 Relaxation Exercise

Hello Class and Professor,
I hope you all are doing well and enjoying this beautiful weather that we are having. Welcome to my blog page :) I am NEW to this whole BLOG thing, and in all honesty I have no idea what I am doing and this is bringing me anxiety because I am unsure as to if I am doing any of this correctly...but hopefully I am not alone in feeling this way.
My experience with the relaxation went well. I believe that it came at a perfect time, as I was feeling So anxious and up tight that I thought I was on the verge of having an anxiety attack as I have been overwelmed with writing papers and studying all weekend. So, this exercise could not have come at a more perfect time. I was able to slow my breathing and clear my thoughts which was exactly what i needed. I needed someone to give me the permission to stop, breathe and calm down and that is what that exercise did. So, perhaps we could do more? :)
-Megan Bohlman

Hello Professor and Class,
What an adventure that was setting this whole thing up! I am new to this and have never done anything like this before.
I hope you all are well and having a fantastic day! My url is
http://creatingwell.blogspot.com

-Megan Bohlman