Unit 9 Final Project

1.  Introduction: 


·      It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically. A professional must be able to balance themselves psychologically to be at a point where they can look at a patient and be able to fully envelope that individual, without damaging their own health and psyche. The professional must be as gentle and caring with their patients mental balance, the same way they treat their own psychology, with love, kindness and respect. Just as it is important for a professional to develop psychologically, but spiritually and physically. The spirituality is needed when communing with another human being, and trying to heal that precious live, with mutual love, respect, and a willingness to listen. In order to deal with the many stresses of the role of healer, the healer must watch out for their own stressors and try to control the way their body and mind reacts by keeping the human body trim, fit and focused. The purpose of the healers is to find balance in their own life and to be able to provide balance to someone else’s life, these goals as well help the professional be able to relate to the individual in all aspects.

·      The areas that I need to develop to achieve the goals that I have for myself is to have a more understanding mind of why people do what they do, and react the way that they do. There are some individuals that I do not agree with the way they have lived their live, however, it was not my life to live, and then when you actually look at a person, we have no idea how they may feel inside, or how many different kinds of hurt there could be under the skin. I also want to not be so quick to anger, and there is nothing I can do about things I cannot control.   

2. Assessment:

•           I have assessed my health in each domain as follows. For my physical well being on a scale of 1-10 I would put at a 6. I do have a few illnesses, and have aches and pains, along with many changes coming up and have passed, quite a bit of stress going on. As for my spiritual well being I would have to rate as a 5. Right now I am just trying to get day to day as the best human being I can be. I have good days and bad days, and I always try to learn from a mistake. I am extremely spiritual and find beauty in all kinds of things. My Psychological well-being is about a 6, things have been really hectic lately and it will be a relief to finally settle down. I do take the time to enjoy the small things and am excited about the future. It would be a lie to say that all of these changes were not scary but I am looking forward to it.

3. Goal development:

•           I have one goal for myself in each area of physical, psychological and spiritual. For my physical goal is to be continuously conscious of my portions. For my psychological goal is to do one positive thing a day. Such as clean something, or organize something, that makes my life a little bit easier. For my spiritual well being I want to continue to be the best possible me and count my positives more than the negatives.

4. Practices for personal health: 


•         The strategies that I can implement to foster growth in the physical domain, of watching my weight and to become more physically active. I often times question if I am hungry, why am I eating and what am I eating. I want to eat to live not live to eat. I also am increasing the walking time we do a day by 5 minutes a week. As for my psychological domain, of trying to get more accomplished, I am starting to write things down, and daily goals of what I would like to accomplish. This helps me focus and stay on task. As for my spiritual life, I am practicing the subtle mind exercise on you tube daily, and am focusing my thoughts on the current moments, and not take anything for granted, having an overall more positive outlook on life. 

5. Commitment: 


•         To be quite honest right now, while I am moving do not see myself adapting to a strict routine. However, that honesty being stated. I choose to see my life that is constantly growing and changing. The only thing that seems to be constant is the change itself. With each new accomplishment comes the growing list of responsibility, and for some one like me, it gets overwhelming and depressing. After years of therapy, knowledge and self-management, while I am not the best I could be, I am defiantly better than yesterday. In a time in my life that seems filled with uncertainty, in not only my physical life, like where will I live? The financial aspect, as well as my own past to cope with, along with a interpersonal relationship in which marriage is a fearful topic, along with that individuals burdens, and four children. I feel as if this class came at a perfect time. For the first time I can enjoy the moment, not hold on to anger or a grudge. Visualize how I would hold, like, love and treasure myself. Hold onto the positive, and the positive will seek you out. I choose to be more aware now, of what I say, how I react. Sometimes things get the better of me, but I choose to learn and grow. Loving kindness, the want to work to preform a service that can create happiness. I now take a moment to think about these things know. It gives me my own tool in my tool kit of how to give myself a reality check, a self check to really see the world around you the way we were meant too. Despite the struggle right now I still love my dogs, and sunshine and see a wonderful horizon of successes and failures and both are wondrous in the fact that the worst thing you could do with a life is to never strive for the wonderful possibilities of the present and future. In my opinion to remain stagnate is the worst kind of death. I will continue onward and practice my daily life with loving kindness, respect, and happiness. This class opened up a path of understanding in my own toolbox, which will be able to go with me for the rest of my life.

I sincerely thank you,

Rebekah Vermeylen

Unit 8

The two practices that I think are the most helpful is the Subtle Mind Meditation, and the Loving Kindness exercise in daily life. I like the subtle mind the most, I enjoy how it makes my mind stay on topic in the current time, place and space. Often times I think that we, as human beings, always have our thoughts brooding deep in the past, or in the  stress, worry and "what ifs?" of the future. We often times forget just to be. To enjoy the good and the bad as it comes and goes. I want to maintain my own balance and become my own rock, this is why I like the Subtle Mind Meditation.

The other practice session that I enjoyed was the Loving Kindness exercise. Quite honestly, while in this class, my emotions have gotten the better of me. It seems like once a dicision is made to start bettering yourself, the worst kind of situations come up, that seems to bring out the worst person you are inside. I blew up at this lady for doing something that I thought was morally wrong, and for taking advantage of my privious ignorance. I was feeling totally ripped off. So I blow up at this lady, and I am suprised that this woman did not call the cops on me for verbal assult, granted I used to be in the army. After that incident I really do not like the idea of my emotions getting the better of me. Not to even mention the fact that I did not treat that women the way I would have liked to be treated. 

I no longer want to be a pawn to my own emotions and wandering thoughts, I want to enjoy the present and the here and now. Every day is a chance to practice loving kindness, towards myself, my significant other, and family as well as to treat everyone else that same way, to extend love, peace and harmony. As for my subtle mind meditation, I now do self checks occassionally to see where I am and what I am worrying about and wether or not I even have any control over the situation. I see where I am, take a deep breath and  pause and enjoy what is for what it is.

Just some thoughts,

Rebekah

Unit 6 Blog

     I personally like to meditate now. If you want to know the truth it is 9 at night, and I am exhausted mentally and emotionally. Right now I am getting ready for a cross country move, my fiancee just got out of the Army, and it has been a horrible experience due to miscommunication, and individuals not doing the right thing, and tomorrow morning my fiancee has to drive one of the two cars we have cross country, and catch a flight on Tuesday of next week, to come back to VA and then we move all of our things to WA. However, all that being stated I still made time for my loving kindness meditation, and enjoyed it. 
     I myself, due to the situation I am in, know that I need to work on my psycho-spiritual self. Unfortunately as well, I am in the emotional body, beginner level of my psycho-spiritual health. I chose this area to focus on because I tend to be an emotionally sensitive person, and tend to be very reactive towards my thoughts and feelings, meaning that I just let my emotions get the best of me. But honestly, lately I have begun to feel tired about how my emotions rule me. I want to become my own rock, my own enlightened being, and someone who brings about peace to others. That being said I must practice in stilling my own mind so that I can be a positive presence to others. 
    Lately I have been aware of just how bad my reations can be, and have been witnessing my thoughts and actions. I want to make it my daily goal of practicing a still, calm abiding mind for 20 min a day and try to start yoga on youtube. The goal is to create a firm calm center in my mind, and transfer that energy to my body, to hopefully get rid of its aches and pains. Wish me luck!

Talk to you all next week!

Rebekah

Unit 5 Blog

Hello all I finally figured this thing out I am so excited to talk to you all. So I proudly present Unit 5 Blog, lol.

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

- I thought that the Loving Kindness exercise was much easier than the Subtle mind exercise. In the loving kindness exercise there was an emotion that I could conjure up, imagine and feel. When it came to the subtle mind exercise, while I did enjoy it, was much more difficult. The whole point to the subtle mind exercise is to maintain positive control of you thoughts. There was no emotion, it was just being. I think a lot of times, as people, we forget that sometimes, there is no looking to the past or future, there is just the present. I forget often times of the present. The loving kindness filled me with warmth, comfort and joy, while the subtle mind exercise made me more aware than I ever have been, of the lack of control I have over my wandering thoughts. The whole point is that we do, in fact, have control of our minds. The subtle mind exercise was defiantly a work out, and something that I feel I will go back to in the future. I guess that I am tired of reacting to thoughts that often times get you nowhere. I want to be my own rock, to be able to calmly sit in my own mind without distraction. 

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

- Spiritual wellness is what gives an individual a sense of belonging, wholeness, gratefulness, forgiveness, love, and kindness. These are the pillars to creating a whole person. These pillars are necessary to live a whole, full life. Without any lacking, when there is no lacking there is no need to feel better. However, when there is lacking the feelings of emptiness, loneliness, fear, and sadness overwhelm and leave an individual to cope in negative ways, such as over eating, drugs, and any other forms of self abuse to feel something, if not anything. I know that once my physical wellness goes down, so does my mental and spiritual wellness. In any three of those essentials to life is off, my whole body and mind is off. I know that my physical wellness and mental wellness, are very connected, but as for spiritual wellness lately I am not sure what I believe in, but this class is making me aware that there are different forms of spirituality. 

Well every one that is my post. Looking forward to next weeks, and now that I know how to use my blog, I am excited to hear more peoples thoughts. Thanks every one.

Bekah

Unit 4 Blog

Originally Posted: Shared publicly  -  Mar 25, 2014

Hello all, Here is a lot of thought. My hope next week to get this assignment posted so that I can actually enjoy some converstaion. Man we work hard on these things, lol. At least I can try to get it up to talk to a few of you guys, lol. Anyway here is unit 4 blog.

1. Describe your experience. Did you find it beneficial? Difficult? Why or why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or why not?

- I found all the information very informative, and beneficial. I have been in therapy for many years. My PTSD went undiagnosed for many years. I harbored, and sometimes still does, a deep hatred that stemmed from fear. I am much better now than back then, but only after a lot of hard work, in psychotherapy. Psychotherapy makes you talk out your concepts, thoughts anything really and eventually after all the chaos and bull shit in your life, you start to listen to yourself. A therapist is a mirror that talks to you about your rationalization of your feelings. You look inside yourself and going through your witnessing consciousness, and you work up from there. So all this information is putting a actual definition to some of the processes that I have known I have gone through.
- As for loving kindness I believe that love is a verb, or action word, you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, and that an honest compliment, no matter how small, will get you farther than anything else, and as for that individual ass, well you just appreciate the fact you are a better person, and try as hard as you can not to be an ass back, lol.
2. What is the concept of "mental workout"? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a mental workout? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?
- The concept of Mental Workout is to boost the brain, which is often referred as meditation, which strives to achieve total relaxation and relief of stress, but it requires lesser concentration as meditation to achieve its full effects. It is highly beneficial because it calms the inner state of wellness.
- According to Britain’s best known scientist Baroness, Susan Greenfield stated “ there is evidence that such stimulation prompts brain cells to starts branching out and form new connections with other cells. From Professor Schlomo Breznits, scientific and business leader in Cognitive Fitness field stated that physical fitness, cognitive/brain fitness both requires novelty, variety, and challenges, requires deliberate workout and exercising. We need physical workout and we need cognitive workout as well.
- Today’s mental workout encourages learning of new tools in your toolbox. The more you learn about your self the better you are at collecting the tools you need to help cope with things in a healthy manner. To at least know what your triggers are. Everyone has emotional triggers that bring about a range of negative emotion, with which an individual may or may not know how to handle. Some people need to been shown new tools to help apply new ways of coping in a more positive way. This is one reason why I believe that Psychiatry and using the mind, as well as a more integral medical approach is probably the way of the future.

Unit 3 Blog

Originally posted: Shared publicly  -  Mar 18, 2014

 

1. A. Physical well being - 6
         - I suffer from a few illnesses. Aches and pains, along with many changes coming up and have passed, a lot of stress going on right now.
     B. Spiritual well being - 5
        - Struggling with the ultimate "God", although I am extremely spiritual and find beauty in all kinds of life.
     C. Psychological well being - 5
        - Funny thing, was actually medically retired from the army for a few mental illnesses, and just like to stay emotionally stable.

2.  A. Physical - Try to maintain a regular sleep schedule. Do not sleep as much through the day. Walking my dogs once a day.
    B. Spiritual - Try to take Ancient Aliens and the Nostrodaumas Effec, along with John Lennon "The more I learn, the less I know" with a grain of salt.
    C. Psychological - Continue on going to my therapy appointments.

3. Some of the exercise that I can implement in my life is walking my dogs. Also doing the meditation that I can find on youtube, once a day.

4. I have a hard time knowing where to begin when some one says, lets relax and meditate, don't think, and don't stress, yah right, lol. However, the exercise, is one that I think is useful. It reminds me of what I am actually supposed to do, and gives me guidance of where and what I am supposed to do with my thoughts and mind. I think that these things are beneficial. 

Unit 2 Blog

Originally Posted: Shared publicly  -  Mar 11, 2014

Ok all. So I did the Journey on Relaxation, and have to say that I enjoyed it. I have a bad habit of over thinking and over analyzing and can make relaxation difficult. My mind had a hard time focusing on nothing, lol! Seriously when someone said that I needed to try to relax, I was like I am relaxed, my mind always moving to one thing or the other, so when I do these kind of relaxing techinques it is an actually very mentally active activity. It gives me a sense of feeling rested mentally. Well those were my thoughts on the topic how about yours?