Unit 10

I have learned a lot about myself throughout this course I was aware that I needed changes in my life but this class gave me the awareness into the areas that I need to make changes in. When we first did the assessment I knew that my physical levels were not where I was happy I was already on the verge of making changes I already joined a weight loss program and I was beginning my journey into getting my physical self-healthy. I realized that my psychological health needed improvement I am easily stressed and stress leads to other things that make you feel unhealthy. Also my spirituality levels I wanted to improve. I am still currently working on improving my levels of health. Lately I have not been focused on my health and I am planning on getting all these things back into focus so I can own what I said I was going to do. I have to get motivated and with Hurricane sandy on the way it is a little hard to get focused I am going to begin reading the books again so that I can become motivated into making this all work in my life and gain optimal wellness and wholeness.

My Plan

Integral health is a total transformation of the mind and the body. In order to become completely healthy we have to learn how to use the mind and body as one unit instead of two separate entities. Integral health requires us to be open receptive, daring and bold (Dacher, 2006, p. 1). In the book entitled the consciousness and healing Ken Wilbur’s Integral theory states that the integral medicine is not only used to treat the dilemmas that are associated with medicine but it also is use to help the health care provider to treat his/her patients. Psychological, spiritual and physical health is important for professionals to develop these concepts because when the professional has experienced this journey and is healthy in mind, body and spirit then they will be more beneficial to their client’s treatment process. When the professional is healthy in their mind, body and spirit their clients will have a higher success rate with their own health. If one was to go visit a doctor and the doctor was not a healthy person then the client will most likely not gain anything from the visit but if the doctor was healthy in every aspect his/her being would be flourishing and this idea would transcend to the client. I have personally enjoyed learning about spirituality and I have become more aware of the changes that need to be made in my life in order for me to achieve integral health and be whole. I believe that all the areas in my life need to be developed psychological, spiritual and physical. Integral healing focuses on a multiple dimension of the human experience the four areas that are of focus are Psycho-spiritual, interpersonal, worldly and biological according to Integral health. I believe that one area affects the other areas so if one needed to focus of the physical area of their lives the psychological and spiritual would be affected. All the areas need to be well in order to be balanced in order to have complete wholeness.

         On a scale from 1-10 I rate my physical well-being as a five I rate it as a five because I am not yet where I want to be weight wise. I am not yet where I want to be with my weight but I am doing all that, I can do to get myself physically healthy. I was always into my health I  lifeguarded and swam my entire life when I had kids (two pregnancies) My body fell to the pits I keep saying to myself I am a tiger who earned my stripes but I am not one of those women who bounce back after they have children. I am one of those women who have to work extra hard to lose weight and get back into shape. I have joined weight watchers and since I have joined I am down 15lbs I am nutritionally healthier I incorporate a lot of fruit and vegetables into my diet and more healthy food. I give myself a six on my spiritual well-being because I want to be more spiritual. I pray to god all the time and he gives me hope and strength to get through my days. I want to be spiritual with everything else in my life and by doing the exercises I feel more at peace with myself and I think by continuing these exercises I will gain the level of spiritual well-being that I want to have. My psychological wellbeing I would give an eight I think that I am psychologically well but at times, stress and other things overcome me and throw me off balance. I want to learn how to have control of stressful situations at all times in order to gain optimal wellness and by engaging all three components and working at them.

         I have set up goals for myself in each area Physical, psychological and spiritual. In my physical being I feel that I am not totally healthy I am overweight I have lost 33 pounds since I had my daughter (2 years ago) I am currently on weight watchers where I am getting nutritionally fit and losing weight, but I need to start incorporating more physical activity into my weight loss goal. I need to start doing some cardio, toning and strengthen exercises. My psychological goal is to try and not let stress get the best of me there are stressful situations everywhere we look but having a better grasp on stressful circumstances in what I need in order to get my psychological wellbeing into the level where it will incorporate with wholeness. My spiritual goal is to encompass more meditation, relaxation techniques, and guided imagery. I think that by giving myself time to make meditation, relaxation and guided imagery into my life will allow me to be at peace with myself and allow me to enter into a new level I would be able to incorporate more loving kindness into my life and other elements which would allow me to deal with others and situations better.  For each area, I am going to make a commitment to have these concepts for the rest of my life. There is a lot of positivity that surrounds having total optimal health and being whole. This is the life that I want and I am going to do all that I can do to encompass the thoughts of integral wellbeing into my entire life. In the physical element I am already a committed member of weight watchers I am focused on my weight loss but there are times that I lose focus I  need to overcome the times that I loose focus and stay committed so that In the next 6months I can lose another 30lbs plus. I also have to start exercising more frequently. So my commitment is that I am going to stay focused at all times and have to work even harder during the times that I feel unmotivated and less focused and refocus myself because I am doing this for my health and wellbeing. I am taking a stress management class in the next month so I am planning to learn how to deal with stress and by incorporating mentation and yoga which falls into the spirituality aspect as well in order to overcome stressful situations. I want to be able to deal with stressors without in overcoming my wellbeing and myself. Stress affects every aspect of life because when we are stressed we take the stress home with us and it affects our home life. I want to be able to learn how to deal with internal and external stressors in away so they do not affect my life and my internal self. Spiritual goals for myself is that I want to being to meditate and practice guided imagery in order to have that alone time with myself, empty my head from cluttered thoughts and be able to elevate daily stressors I am planning on spending 15minutes a day on practicing meditation and other related meditative ideas in order to gain the level of spirituality to have wholeness in my life.  I believe that I will be able to have integral health and I am going to do everything I can in order to gain wholeness into my life. I am putting it into my head that If I am healthier my being healthier will rub off on my family and ultimately they will be healthier. I am going to own my goals and work on them in order to gain optimal health in my life.

 

Loving Kindness and Visualization

The two exercises that I found to be beneficial are the loving kindness and visualization. The loving kindness exercise allows me to sit calm and peaceful and allows me to be in a place of serenity and comfort and think about the people in my life and allows me to send love and positivity to the through meditation. The visualization exercise allows me to think about images that are calming to my soul such as my children, my husband and my family. It allows me to bring to my mind a mental picture of what I want to see and experience and what bring peace and joy to my life. These two exercises are beneficial to my journey love and kindness is inside of me and being able to focus my attention to the idea makes the journey even better. The visualization exercises allow me to focus my thoughts onto things that bring me happiness. I want to continue to adapt these practices to my life each and every day in order for me to feel whole.

Aesclepius Exercise

I think the meditative practice this week was very inspirational. A wise person in my life whom I look up to and has much wisdom is my grandfather. Throughout this exercise, I thought of my grandfather. I felt my mind becoming subtle I felt intrigued in order to see what was going to happen next with this exercise. After it was over I felt calm and relaxed hopefully I will become wiser.

The saying one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself is a true saying. I think this is true especially in this journey of integral health you need someone to guide you who has been through this journey because they can understand where you need to go. Someone who has not engaged in a journey like this cannot tell you what you are going to experience or feel if they have not gone through it themselves.

Loving Kindness plus assessment =)

By doing this Loving-Kindness made me feel more loving a whole hearted.  I have been in a loving mood and I have no hatred or feeling of anger so for me it just gave me more of an uplift and a good feeling. I think that if I had a day that I felt anger this exercise would put me right back on the track of wholeness and loving-kindness.

Before even knowing about this assessment exercise a few weeks ago by myself I did something like this where I thought about something that was bothering me about myself and I sat there and thought about it and then I thought about what I was doing to fix the situation and I changed my mind frame to a can do attitude that it may be a slow journey but I can do it and will do it and be happy in the process. Since I did this I feel a progress with my weight loss has been jump started instead of dwelling and focusing on it with all my energy I have been letting go and not thinking about my weight and it has been coming off more than ever.

Subtle Mind

The Subtle mind exercise was more being at peace within you than the loving kindness exercise. The loving kindness exercise there was more instruction on changing what you were thinking of and portraying what was in your heart. Whereas this subtle mind exercise was less instruction it took more focus to think about breathing and making that your main focus than to focus on different things during the exercise. You had the opportunity to see how the mind works it was kind of getting it touch with subconscious thoughts and learn how to refocus your attention to free your mind.

There is a connection to spiritual wellness and mental and physical wellness. Through such exercises such as this subtle mind exercise, you are gaining the spiritual/mental wellness you are allowing your mind to be a rest through a spiritual serene exercise, which is calming and relaxing. With Physical/Spiritual wellness is exercises such as yoga or Pilates in which you are gaining physical exercise and at the same time, you are connecting with the spiritual aspect of the silence and stillness, serenity and harmony.

Andrea <3

Love and Kindness

This week’s exercise was uplifting. I am a naturally loving and kind person. I realized when I was doing the exercise that I really have no enemies I could not visualize any or think of anyone who I consider an enemy of mine. I had a tough week with my brother and to take his suffering away and send him health and happiness was something that needed to be done. My brother is suffering right now; he is a drug addict who is dependent on drugs for happiness. This week he decided to check himself into rehab. I know that he is having a tough time. By doing this exercise, it made me feel more at peace with the situation. When doing the part of the exercise where I had to take the pain and suffering away from him all I saw in my mind was a black cloud but and when I sent out the health and happiness the cloud started to get lighter and lighter in color. By the end of that section, all I saw was white. It made me feel like the message I was sending got to him. My brother and I are like twins. They say that twins can feel each other’s pain; I feel it when my brother is suffering. So when I did this part of the exercise even though we are far apart I felt like the message was sent to him. By the end of this exercise, I had a feeling of happiness I felt like the love and kindness was through me. I like the exercises I feel every time I do them that I get a different experience and they are all different but the result is that they are always fabulous.

My Spiritual, Psychological and Physical Well-Being Rating =)

On a scale from 1-10 I rate my physical well-being as a five I rate it as a five because I am not yet where I want to be weight wise. I had two kids my youngest who is two and my oldest who is five I am still trying to get back to where I was before I had kids. Currently I am working on my weight loss I attend weight watchers and soon enough I will be back to where I want to be with my physical health. I give myself a six on my spiritual well-being because I want to be more spiritual. I pray to god all the time and he gives me hope and strength to get through my days. I want to be spiritual with everything else in my life and by doing the exercises I feel more at peace with myself and I think by continuing these exercises I will gain the level of spiritual well-being that I want to have. My psychological wellbeing I would give an eight I think that I am psychologically well but at times, stress and other things overcome me and throw me off balance. I want to learn how to have control of stressful situations at all times in order to gain optimal wellness and by engaging all three components and working at them, I will be able to gain optimal health.  I really enjoy doing these exercises; I find them to be beneficial to the road of optimal wellness. I think these exercises are something that I would want to stick with forever because they work to make me feel calmer and more peaceful and relaxed.

Mind Suggestion =)

Welcome to my blog... I want to share the experiences that I am learning through health and wellness. We can all have the power and ability to become healthier in our mind, body and spirit.

We all have times when we feel tense and stressed. Relaxing feels like a hard thing to do but with the power of our minds, we can relax our bodies and feel a sense of calming and peace throughout our entire being. By the power of suggestion, we can redirect blood flow from our core to our outer extremities, which brings upon our bodies a feeling of warmth and calmness. I did the relaxation technique before writing this blog. It made me feel like a new person. I feel fresh and ready, in five minutes I feel like I just took a trip to a spa for the day got a massage and total relaxation. All I did was sit on a computer chair with my eyes closed my headphones in my ears and I am rejuvenated. The power that our minds have on our bodies is astounding and can make us or brake us. If we can control our minds and learn how to relax when we feel stressed, we would be much happier, healthier and calmer people.

About me =)

My name is Andrea Detorfino. I currently live in Brooklyn New York. Brooklyn is home to me. I am a stay at home mother and wife I have a wonderful husband who is supportive of all my decisions and is supportive in me fulfilling my goals. I have two little girls who are 5 and 2 years old. My kids are my whole life. I love being home with them but at the same time, I wanted to continue my education so 3 years ago I started working on my Psychology degree here at Kaplan. My goal is to one day be a practicing psychologist.