Looking inside of me

Introduction

It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically for many different reasons. A health and wellness professional needs to be able to present themselves as a model of what they are trying to teach others to do. If they do not practice what they are teaching then people will not be able to take them seriously.  If they work at developing their psychological and spiritual health it will help them to better relate to their clients as they will be able to be present in the needs of the client without their thoughts wandering off to other places. Physical fitness is important because if a person is working in the nutrition field a client would not take them very seriously if they were overweight. They would think things like why should I listen to them look at how they are.

Personally I need to work on myself in all three of these areas. I have allowed myself to become lazy in all three of these areas and feel that I have even regressed some in them. I have let the hustle and bustle of daily life get in the way of me working on myself. I have gotten into a habit of letting everyone else’s need come before my own.

Assessment

In order to assess my health in each domain I need to look inwards at myself and be truly honest with myself. I do not feel at this current time I am in the best physical, psychological and spiritual health. In the area of physical heath I would give myself a 4. I am in good health as far as the doctor is concerned but I am very over weight currently and need to work at losing the weight. In the psychological area I would give myself a 4 here also. I have gotten out of the habit of meditation and have really put myself last. I can tell this because I have noticed that I let little things bother me again, I find my mind running away with my thoughts, and I also have been having a hard time concentrating on the project at hand. In the spiritual health department I would have to give myself a 7. I am attending church regularly and making sure that I am at the one place they I feel myself fill up and over flow with joy and that I working at the dinner our church provides on Sunday evenings to those who need a healthy meal.

Goal development

In the area of physical health my goal would be to make sure I did some form of physical activity every day for the minimum of thirty minutes a day. This could be taking a walk, swimming, going to a yoga class, or even a Zumba class. For my psychological health I need to take at least 30 minutes and get back into meditating. This will help to calm my mind and help relieve some stress. For my spiritual health I believe that I could grow in this domain by attending bible study class or a prayer group.

Practices for personal health

In the physical domain I could attend classes for yoga and Zumba at the local health center. I could prepare for the classes so that I would hold myself accountable because I would lose the money if I did not attend. To increase my psychological health I could use the half an hour or hour before bed for meditation. This would help me to relax and clear my mind to help me sleep better at night. In the spiritual area I could let someone know I was going to go then I would not miss because I know someone would be looking for me.

Commitment

I will set an appointment on my calendar so that in six months I can reassess myself in these three areas. I feel that if I let others know what I am trying to do for myself I will be able to stick with things as I do not like to let anyone down. I am a habit type person and I feel that once I get myself into a habit doing these things I can be able to continue doing them. The more positive results I see for myself the more I will want to keep doing it.   

References

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