Holistic/Integral Health

I.              Introduction:

It is very important for professionals who work in the health and wellness industry to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically because you can’t truly believe in something unless you yourself have been there to understand and relate in some factor. It is best for professionals to develop in all areas because if there is an area in which they aren’t fully developed then the only knowledge they will be able to give is what they’ve been taught. They wouldn’t be able to relate on a personal level. We all love to go to professionals who understand or have been in our position at one point and have surpassed challenges and hurdles and are happily on their way to flourishing and finding wholeness. Considering I work in the health and wellness field I do my best to find balance between all areas. If I had to work on one area to progress in it would be to develop more spiritually. All in all though I am pretty balanced!

II.            Assessment:

After assessing myself by using Dacher’s integral assessment I would have to score myself very high physically. I have developed very much physically in the past 8 years with a lot of hard work and dedication. Growing up I didn’t eat healthy at all even though I did exercise every day. I have always been an active person but I had much improvement in eating healthy and educating myself in that area. Now I take very good care of myself and eat at least five times a day. I would score myself right down the middle when it comes to my psychological health. I am a very busy person and try to do my best to stay focused and I am very good at dedicating myself to something and achieving it. I do get overwhelmed quite often with overdoing it quite often. I need to work on concentrating and relaxing my mind more. I would score myself moderate to lower spiritually. I am a spiritual person but don’t take the time to appreciate it fully and benefit from it.

III.          Goal Development:

A physical goal for me is to get my Professional status in either the Fitness category or Sports Modelling. I have been competing in fitness for many years and have just started in sports modeling this year. I would like to achieve this goal within the year. I’m excited about pushing myself to my personal best! A psychological goal for me is to take more time letting my mind relax and just breathe. I find a lot of relaxation when I spend the time to just take a deep breathe. I would like to give meditation a try on a regular basis. Finally, a spiritual goal for me is to be more open to my spiritual connections and appreciate it more by participating in more along with my family as a bond we used to have. I feel as if it is much needed during this time in my life and that even my daughter would benefit from it greatly.

IV.          Practices for Personal Health:

Physical Growth-I want to implement diet and rest to foster growth physically. I am a fitness competitor so I do eat healthy when training for a competition but I would like to implement those healthy eating habits into my daily life in general. By just simply cutting back on certain things such as fast food it will make a huge change in my body. I am an extremely active person so when I do eat unhealthy I tend to train much harder. I beat up my body on a daily basis and would like to implement set rest days to let my body recover. Recovery is just as important as being active.

Psychological Growth-I would like to implement things such as not making my standards of achievement so high. I make it so difficult to be proud of myself and set so many goals at one time. If I don’t achieve all the goals as originally set and planned then I get really down on myself which develops a lot of unwanted stress. I would also implement the subtle mind exercise so I don’t let things build up and stress about them.

Spiritual Growth-I would like to implement having more faith in my spiritual beliefs to foster a greater sense of wholeness. I would like to go to prayer and appreciate my faith more. I would also like to implement a connection with nature in order to develop growth spiritually. I would like to teach the importance of spiritual growth to my daughter and it must be because it is the area in which I lack the most.

V.            Commitment:

Physically-I will assess my progress for the next six months by writing down my goal into my workout calendar I keep on my phone and set bullets for where I need to be each week and reminders to keep up.

Psychologically-I will assess my progress by writing down the things I have achieved and worked hard for to remind myself that I do a lot and I have to take time aside to relax and breathe. I will take up meditating at least twice a week and put it into my schedule as mandatory.

Spiritually-I will assess my progress by informing family members of my goal and using them as guidance…where they are strong I lack and they would love to help me as I help them in other aspects. I notice when I make promises publicly I always keep them so I do use that as a means of assessing my progress.

References:

Dacher, E. Integral Health: The Path To Human Flourishing. Basic Health Publications (2006)

Schlitz, Amorok, Micozzi. Consciousness and Healing: Integral Approuches To Mind-Body Medicine. (2005)

                                                                       Name: Erin Nomura