In looking at all of these areas for myself I have found that I am on a path to integral health and healing. There are areas that I struggle with more than others. There are times that I struggle with my spirituality and psychologically. In achieving success in these areas, along with keeping up with my physical, I should become a healthier person and can relax a little more than I do now.
For a personal assessment I used the chapter by Dasher on “Our Personal Assessment”(2006, p. 111). I started with some of the suggestions that he gave and wrote them down in my journal. From there I took some quiet time to reflect on each of the areas and to determine where I was.
At this time with so much going on I would rate my spiritual wellness as being a 5. I have not had a lot of time to do my meditation practices and I have not had a lot of time to spend talking with my guru. I was able to make it down for our weekly shaman class and after that class I felt much grounded. There has been a lot of energy shifting the past few weeks and this has taken a negative effect on my sleeping habits. I have enjoyed my dreams from this time and have learned a lot from them.
My goal for this area would be to get back to my normal routine of nightly meditations. I would also like to find more time during the week to seek out my fellow shamans and talk with them. I would also like to get back to a place where there is more intent behind what I am feeling and what my reactions and thoughts are to different situations.
For my nightly mediations I like to use a variation of the charka mediation. I start at my feet and feel what color they would be. I see that color and then thank my feet for the work that they have done that day. I do this as I work my way up my body. Seeing each part in a color and thanking each part for the work that it has done for me. I end with my head and by this time I have very relaxed and can only think of happy thoughts to put me to sleep.
While at work, if I encounter a stressful situation, I like to leave my office and find a quiet part of the building to be in. Here I can let my feelings go and work on calming myself down by doing some breathing exercises. I also work on a gratitude prayer and the combination of the two relaxes me enough where I am able to return to work fresh. At this point I am able to sometimes find solutions to the problem that I was not able to see before.
My physical wellness has also taken a back seat to some of the personal events going on in my life. I am going to rate myself at a five here also. I do keep up with my weekly personal training sessions; however my long distance running is not where it should be right now. I have only logged two, six mile runs for the month. If I want to turn in a personal best for my half marathon the first weekend in June, I should be running longer distances than I am now.
My goals for this area would be to increase my running distance and work in some more training sessions. I would also like to take some time to prepare some healthy meals for myself that I can freeze. This will allow me to take those to work instead of leaving the office to find a sandwich shop. Making my own food will also help with my mental state when worrying about financial situations.
For me to keep growing in my physical fitness area I need not let myself make excuses for the different situations that come up. There is always time in the day to fit in just ten minutes of walking. To help with my nutrition I would like to make a meal plan for the week. This will help to make sure that I get in a balanced meal for the daily activities that I will be doing to reach my running goals. To make sure that I keep on track with my running I will use the online tool by Garmin in combination with the running watch to help make sure that I am where I need to be.
My psychological or mental state right now is stressed. Here I am also going to rate myself a five. Work has been really busy and trying to finish up school, has taken a toll on my stress levels and mentality. I have found myself increasingly in a bad mood at work and have noticed that there are some people that make it worse than others.
By working on both my spiritual and physical health my mental health will also improve. One goal for me in this area is to keep up with my reading for classes. As I improve my knowledge, I will feel more relaxed talking to people about why I am going back to school and what I am going back to school for.
To keep up with my reading I will set aside time each night to read. I will leave the book next to my bed to remind me of my goals. The nightly mediations and the work meditations will also help with my stress level in this area.
To help me keep track of where I am in each area I will use a combination of my journal and a calendar. I like to use my journal during my meditations, so that any information that I might receive during that time can be written down and revisited if I need to. Putting a date and time next to each entry will help me keep track of when I am doing my mediations. Adding a date will also help me keep track of why I might be missing meditations of if I had missed them for an extended period of time.
I like to use a calendar and online programs for keeping track of my physical fitness. Marking on a calendar with an “X”for the days that I did workout will help me see over the course of the month how many times I went to the gym or ran outside. I use the online programs to keep track of how many miles I ran in a given time. This will help me reach my distance goals for each run.
I will also use journal writing to keep track of my mental wellness. Journal writing will help my write down everything that I am feeling that day. This will help relieve my stress and put it on paper where I can let it out. Meeting up with my friends every once in a while will also help with my mental stress. When I have support group that I can talk to, I am able to get everything out and forget about it.
After six months I would gather all of my journals and calendar and sit in my peaceful place. Here I would reevaluate where I am. Have I flourished in the last six months or have I fallen behind. I would take a look at my journals and calendar and figure out what happened in the last six months and try and relate them to what I had written down in the journals and calendar. Looking at these tools I should be able to see where in my life I needed a little extra help and why I might have fallen behind. I would make a new plan based on what I saw in my life, so when a similar situation came up I would be able to handle it in a more productive way so that I may learn from it and flourish
References:
Dacher, E. (2006). Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach: Basic Health Publications, Inc.
Angie,
ReplyDeleteYou have amazing wellness in your life, I too sometimes struggle with my physical growth it is difficult not to give into excuses but somehow motivation and my focus always get me through. I like what you said about when you have a stressful situation at work you do a gratitude prayer, I am going to try that! This is great work on your project, good luck on your integral health journey!
Ali
You are so lucky to have a guru. That must be wonderful. From what I read, I would have rated you higher. You seem to have a good head on your shoulders. You know where you are and accepting that reality allow you to help mold it to what you want. I am also guessing by what I read, You are a bit hard on yourself in areas that you do not need to be. What would you suggest would fix this? Now answer that question again with love in your heart towards yourself. ;) I think your journal is a great asset to you in finding what you need. Keep writing. It is a gift you have and enjoy reading your writings later so you can see just how far you have come. :)
ReplyDelete---Anita Rachel Scott (Goehring)
I like the fact that you are very honest with yourself and while rating yourself. You have a clear goal of where you want to be psychologically, spiritually , and physically. I think that it is great that you are going to be running a half marathon! I have not done one for alomost two years but continue to run througout the week. I think you had a good idea to look through six months worth of journaling to see how far you have come and what you need to work on.
ReplyDeleteAngie,
ReplyDeleteI was very happy to read your blog. You rated yourself too low I think. I could not give myself a number rating. I am too hard on myself for that. I too am keeping a journal of this journey of self development. Were you keeping a journal before? I was unable to keep one. Nosey roomies... Anyhow, I think the calendar idea is great! I am going to start one right away. Good luck with the marathon.
Blessed be, Angela