Unit 10 Blog

     In Unit 3 I scored a 6 for physical, 7 for psychological and 7 for spiritual. Now I am scoring a 6 for physical, 6 for psychological, and 6 for spiritual. I realized that through this course from the beginning to the end, there was a lot I didn't know about myself.

     From the exercises we completed to the audio assignments, and meditation and yoga, which I tried both during this course and loved them, I found that I have a lot of room for improvement and by taking this course there a lot more tools that I can use to help me in my future endeavors and goals

     The progress I have made for physical has stayed about the same, however with the addition of exercises like Yoga, I realized that my physical level can improve quite a bit. The same goes for spiritual and psychological. I changed my score from a 7 to a 6 because I learned more about myself throughout this course, I found there a lot of ways I can improve myself that I wasn't aware of at the beginning of this course.

     I have implemented yoga, meditation, visualization and am starting a new physical fitness program tomorrow. My hopes are to become more of a complete person as the year goes on. I want to feel comfortable "in my own skin" as some people would say. I am not there yet but I am excited about the possibilites in the future with the knowledge I have gained in this course.

     I have learned a lot in this course. Probably the greatest thing I will take away from this course is the ability and the tools to reduce my stress levels. I have learned techniques to use at home and at work when the stress levels become challenging. Also, by learning mediation and visualization with the assistance of the audio background, I have found something inside me that I never knew was there before. It is a deeper, more calming voice that I use everyday. I feel these tools will allow me to be a better person, a better caregiver and a better man.

Thank you class and Professor for a great course!

God Bless all of you and Best of Luck in your future endeavors,

Scott Cranfill

Unit 9 Project My Plan for Health and Wellness

     This paper will discuss a plan for the writer to develop all aspects of health and wellness. The goal of this project is to educate the writer and the reader on the specifics for this individual to strengthen their inner and outer self through practices and open mindedness. An introduction will be written to explain the importance of health and wellness for professionals and their development in the areas of psychology, spirituality, and physically. The writer will also state what areas that they need to develop specifically to reach the goals that they have attained. An assessment will be discussed and explained on how the writer feels their current levels are for each specific topic of psychology, spirituality and physically. Also, a score will be assigned to each one based on their assessment of themselves. A discussion of goals will be written with the writer assigning at least one goal per area and the reasons why they chose these goals. Strategies will be discussed to reach the above said goals and how best to choose, implement and act upon these strategies will be noted. Lastly, a discussion will be addressed on how the writer plans to assess their progress in the next six months. The plan will explain how the writer is going to track and improvement or a lack thereof and possible alternative strategies to overcome and deficits using the initial strategies. By promoting such strategies, developing goals, applying techniques and constantly assessing the progress, the individual can personalize their own system to achieve their specific goals. Also, by scoring their current levels of progression, they can tailor the plan to focus more heavily on certain aspects of wellness in order to ensure they their progression is evenly spread across the entire spectrum of wellness.

     Why is it important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically? What areas do you need to develop to achieve the goals you have for yourself?

    

     Being a health professional for the last 20 years, I can tell you that it is very important for one to develop these facets in order to be a better caregiver. Mental health is very important. By being a health professional, many people depend on you. Your patients, your coworkers and your organization. By being mentally unhealthy, all facets of your surrounding seem to deteriorate as well. Mental wellness is important in your life away from your job as well. Whether it is learning new hobbies or taking care of your family or working out, mental wellness has a large impact on the enjoyment and benefits of these activities. By having a strong mind, one can tackle day-to-day problems and challenges easier and utilize good problem solving skills to make better decisions. Mental health is not just about using good mental practices and techniques. Nutrition and exercise play an important part in your mental fitness as well. Proper nutrition is important to give the body and the mind the right amount of nutrients and vitamins that it needs to function effectively. By exercising on a regular basis, this improves the mind because the body feels less stressed and more relaxed and healthier, and the mind benefits from this by a positive outlook and a feeling of wellness. Another facet of mental health is sleep. Your body and your mind require a certain amount of good, quality sleep every night. When you have a good night sleep, your mind is more alert and more focused in the morning. You are able to concentrate more effectively at work and make better decisions. By promoting exercise, nutrition, sleep and mental activities such as meditation, yoga, and tai chi, one can fully benefit from a strong mental outlook and improve their mental fitness. This is important for the health care provider by giving their patients a true sense of compassion, caring, focus on their needs and attention to their desires. This can be accomplished through a balance of mental fitness and a healthy lifestyle. The areas I need to focus for myself would be time for myself to practice such exercises like yoga, meditation, and visualization. Also, I need to work more on physical fitness and nutrition.

     Spiritual fitness and wellness is a personal journey involving matters of belief, faith and prayer. Everyone is unique as to how they practice their spiritual techniques and exercises. Spirituality, in general, is considered the search for the meaning and purpose of human existence. This quest of who we are and why we are here leads us to strive for a balance of harmony for ourselves and how we are with the rest of the world. Reaching spiritual wellness is an personable, individual journey that everyone must take with their own goals, strategies and mindful questions. There are many ways to achieve spiritual wellness. Meditation, prayer, affirmations, attending church, yoga and specific spiritual practice that are part of an individual’s faith based beliefs. Facets that help you enjoy your spiritual wellness are compassion, the ability to love unconditionally, forgiveness and fulfillment. Your faith, values and beliefs are the core of your spiritual definitions. By making the time for yourself to find a quiet place and truly ask the questions that you need to find inner peace and harmony, this can lead to enlightenment and a better understanding of your spiritual goals. Some things you could ask yourself when trying to find the answers of why you are here are, do I make time for myself, do I have compassion and unconditional love, do I live my life based on the values and morals that I know to be right. Do I listen to others and accept their opinions and views. Some of these questions can only be answered by taking a long hard look at who you truly are, and are you the type of person that your spiritual higher being expects you to be, based on the studies of that particular spiritual realm. I believe that I am here for a reason, those things that I do and say are controllable and should be thought about before they are spoken. I believe that by having a pure heart with compassion and unconditional love, I am closer to spiritual wellness. Also, I believe that I can work on improving time with my higher being and communicate more on a daily basis. I think that by being closer and communicating more often, that the relationship becomes stronger and in turn, I become stronger spiritually.

     Physical wellness is an area where we are health professionals are called upon to promote this in response to the consequences of not being physically fit. Regular physical activity is important for your health and your quality of life. The reduced risks of coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes are all benefits of a good physical fitness regiment. Although this concept has been around for many years, a lot of Americans do not engage in enough physical activity to benefit from any of the positive reinforcements derived from exercise. In a study performed by the Physical Activity Collaborative (PAC), it is said that 25% of all adults in America are physically active in their leisure time. The same type of behavior is occurring in today’s youth in America. An epidemic of obesity is on the rise and has affected children due to their lack of physical activity comparatively to children back in the 60’s and 70’s. This can possibly be attested to the fact of the technological revolution that occurred in the 70’s that put children on the couch playing video games. It could also possibly be the fact the parents don’t practice physical wellness and don’t promote activity to their children. By being physically well, a provider can improve their personal health, have more energy, increase their focus, and be a model for their patients to work towards becoming. All these benefits of being physically fit are very important because as patient I want to know that my provider not only knows what they are talking about but also practices what they preach. If they are not fit, that says to me that they are somewhat hypocritical in their life, and I would rather have someone take care of me that is true to them as I feel they will provide better care to me. I feel I need to work on better time management in order to improve my physical fitness. By having a family, a job and going to school, it is challenging sometimes to find time to workout but I feel by effectively using time management and the support of my spouse, I will be able to improve with this topic.

     How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically? I have looked at each area and assessed the following.

     Spiritually is an area where I definitely need to get involved in a church. When I was growing up I was heavily involved in my church. I attended Sunday school, was in the church choir and was in our church’s youth group, which put on plays about the Bible. I remember feeling a sense of worth, a sense of belonging and a sense of love by being in that church. It was one of the happiest times in my life. This might be because I was young and had not experienced the challenges of life at that point. That is probably part of it, but another part of it was the feeling I felt when I went to church and youth group meetings. There was a sense of completeness that I experiences that I have not felt like that since I haven’t been attending church. The other reason is that we are getting ready to leave Hawaii and head back to Texas in a few months. I know I shouldn’t feel this but I guess I don’t want to get to involved in a church, not only for me, but for my family, knowing we would have to leave it soon. I know I should go, if nothing else, attend Sunday school just to experience that feeling again for my family and me. My goal is to attend church from now until we leave because I want to show my daughter, even though she is only 3 years old, the experience of being around a group that loves through Jesus Christ. I would say that my score would be a 6 as I do communicate and pray to my God on my own, and at home and I teach my daughter the important of God and what he means but by not attending church on a regular basis, I know I have room for improvement.

     Physically I have room for improvement as well. I am 45 years old now and getting ready to retire from the military after 20 years of service. I can tell you that 20 years of being in the military can take a toll on you physically. Prior to me joining the military, I played football in high school, and got a scholarship to play football in college. I played for two years in college and got hurt, shoulder injury. I was unable to play after that. The lifestyle I chose to play competitive sports and the military service culminates now into aches and pains as the results of that lifestyle. Now, more than ever, I feel like I should start getting smart about the important of technique, body positions and exercises that I can do and not do. These are things I didn’t think about when I was younger as I didn’t think about or have to worry about the types of aches and pains that I have now. I am learning that as I age in years, that certain types of exercise are more beneficial now. Exercises like yoga, tai chi, core exercises, and back strengthening exercises are really more important now than they were before. Also, nutrition is becoming more and more important as I get older and it becomes more difficult to maintain a healthy body weight. By empowering myself with certain exercises and eating the right kind of foods I can continue to lead a healthy lifestyle and battle the aging war. I would score my physical well being with a score of 6. There are things I would like to achieve as short-term goals. I have 7 months before I retire from the military. Some of the things I would like to achieve is losing 25 pounds in the next 5 months, cooking and grilling more healthy foods for me and my family and implementing a better time management strategy to ensure that I am active everyday with physical activities. My goal at the end of 7 months is to work out in the morning before work, for an hour, performing P90X, Insanity, and things like that. At lunch, to work out for an hour, strictly cardio, and in the evening to powerwalk and to do weight training for an hour. I think by doing this and eating right, I will achieve my goals.

     Psychologically, I have room to grow and improve. I have seen a lot of death in my time. I joined the Army in 1994. That same year my grandmother passed away. Two years later in 1996, my mother passed away. Two years after that in 1998, my dad passed away. I was in my early twenties when I lost 3 of the most important people in my life in a 4 year time period. This was the hardest time of my life and the hardest thing I have ever been through. When I was deployed to Iraq, I saw death again. I developed what is called anxiety disorder from all of the death I have seen and I can’t even watch the news anymore because of all of the bad that is shown. I have been and am currently getting help with this and am in a much better place than when I returned from Iraq. I say all of this to say that my mental fitness has been challenging, to say the least, and is something I am aware of and am constantly trying to improve. Through assistance, I have come a long way and I can say that mental fitness is just as important, if not more as physical and spiritual fitness. By not being mentally well, this can affect all facets of your life, not just your body and your soul, but can affect your decision-making, your family, your friends and your coworkers. I would give myself a score of 6 because even though I have come a long way, I know there is room for improvement. I can tell you that by taking this class and practicing visualization and meditation, as well as listening to the audio exercises, this has taken me to a new level of mental fitness that I had not experienced before. I feel confident that I will continue to improve my mental fitness and get a to a place where I will be at peace and have calmness.

     List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological, and Spiritual.

     Physical-

• Lose 25 pounds in the next 5 months
• Reach a level of fitness to where I am working out in the morning, at lunch and at the evening
• Would like to run a half marathon in the next year

     Psychological-

• Read more books
• Continuing to receive assistance to find my happy place, mentally
• Enhance my mind with increased knowledge and awareness

      Spiritual-

• Attend church
• Better time management to practice, meditation and visualization
• The willingness to expand my thinking to answer the questions of my existence

     What strategies can you implement to foster growth in each of the following domains; Physical, Psychological, Spiritual. Provide at least two examples of exercises or practices in each domain. Explain how you will implement each example.

     Strategies that I will use to foster growth for the physical domain will be modeled after the Socio-Ecologic model found in the Health Education Quarterly, published in 1988. Its design has 5 levels, individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, public policy. Individual strategy for my physical fitness will involve getting on a set schedule of time where I will be focused solely on fitness, no outside distractions. I will discuss this with my spouse and let her know that this will be the time every day that I will be working out. Interpersonal strategy for me will be to involve my family in physical fitness and get them excited about spending time together on top of my personal workout time. We will walk, hike, ride bikes. Exercises that we can do as a family to improve our fitness and spend quality time. Organizational strategy will be using social institutions to improve my fitness. I plan on joining a health club when I return to Texas and being around that type of environment will motivate me to want to improve. Community strategy will be using the different facilities in the community to promote fitness. Places like the community softball fields, water parks, and the Y.M.C.A or Y.W.C.A., for example will develop relationships in the community and develop physical fitness at the same time. The last strategy is public policy. Although this primarily is involved with national, state, and local laws, the idea of promoting fitness as a policy at my workplace is intriguing to me. The job I end up with when I move back to Texas, I plan on talking to my supervisors about promoting some sort of company physical fitness time or some type of resiliency program to assist in the physical wellness of the employees (Health Education Quarterly, 1998). Some types of exercises that I plan to use is P90X, Insanity, Yoga, Meditation, Weight Training, Running, Swimming, Basketball, Walking, Hiking, and Bike riding. I will perform P90 or Insanity in the morning before work. Running or Walking will be done at lunch and Weight training, Swimming, Basketball, Walking or Hiking will be shuffled for the evening workouts.

     Psychological strategies for me will include reading books, meditation, visualization, brain games, and assistance from professionals for my anxiety and going to church. I will set time aside to read every night before I go to bed, even if it is only for a little while, I will go to church every Sunday. I will see professional help as needed for anxiety and I will set time aside every night and during the day if I need to for meditation and visualization. Brain games will be done on my phone while I am on breaks at work.

     Spiritual strategies will be very similar to my psychological strategies. I will go to church, pray, meditate and try to be less judgmental and love unconditionally. I will go to church every Sunday and pray every day. I will meditate every night and during the day if need be and focus on show compassion and love with everyone I meet and know.

     How will you assess your progress or lack of progress in the next six months? What strategies can you use to assist in maintaining your long-term practices for health and wellness?

     I will assess my progress using Microsoft excel. I will create a tracker of the actions I mentioned above into a daily tracker developed into a monthly accountability format. As I perform these exercises or not perform them, I will place an X for completed or leave blank if I don’t. I will create a formula inside excel to tell me what my projected times for performing this exercise are and the actual numbers I have per month. I will create new tabs at the bottom for each month following and tally the results per month and finally for year for a yearly comparison. The strategies I can use to maintain is accountability using the tracker for my actions and to communicate my goals to my family and friends so they can keep me accountable as well. I will also post to Facebook so my family and friends know when I did something I was supposed to do or did not as I will post that as well. The Facebook posts will primarily be dealing with the physical part of the process but all of the domains will be tracked by excel for my own accountability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dacher, Elliott S. (2006). Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications

 

Health Education Quarterly (1998). Retrieved February 10^th, 2014 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

 

 

Beneficial Practices Unit 8

     The two practices that I found to be most beneficial were meditation and visualization. 

     I use meditation everyday because it helps me with stress from work. I also have high blood pressure, controlled with medication, but I also use meditation to help with that as well. I practice meditation in the morning before I go to work. I find a quiet place and sit peacefully with background noise in the room and focus on deep breathing, relaxing the muscles and calming my inner self. I do this for around 30 minutes in the morning. I also have a mini session at lunch, while I am at work. I do the same routine, only for 15 minutes. At night I practice one more session for 30 minutes before I go to bed. It is a very beneficial exercise and one that has helped me a lot. 

     I practice visualization as well. I perform this exercise every night for 15-30 minutes. I visualize how my day is going to be the next day. I visualize the positive actions I will bring to tomorrow and set mini goals in my head about how I can effectively perform my job and interact with my staff and patients. This really affects how your day goes. There are times when challenges at work become a hurdle into achieving your visualization goals. At that point, I handle the challenges as best as I can and I find a quiet place and perform an assessment of myself of how the situation was handled. Was there anything I could have done different or better during that experience. This type of visualization is after the fact but it is still a good practice that has helped me.

Scott Cranfill

Week 7 Exercise

     My meditative practices were beneficial to me after listening to the mp3 Aesclepius. It was very interesting to listen to this practice and to visualize another person/healer and to connect with them. The person that I visualized is my grandfather, who passed away in 1973. I have very few memories of him as I was only 5 years old when he went away, but I have many pictures of him and me when I was a baby. Pictures of him holding me and sleeping with me when I was a toddler and the look in his eyes was of pure love in these pictures, much in the same way I look at my 3 year old daughter now. I visualized him, for some reason, not sure why sitting in a large chair, the decor and design of the chair would be something you would see in a movie when you would enter into a monastery. I envisioned him sitting there with a very peaceful look in his eyes and found it difficult to concentrate on anything else in the room but him, as if the room faded away and it was just him in the chair. As the exercise went on, I felt like we were speaking to each other without saying any words and it felt like we were one in the same person. It was really quite powerful. It was also powerful when the instructor informed me to imagine the person dissolving into a white light and then entered my body and traveled throughout my entire person. This brought me to a place of total relaxation and happiness as I felt that my grandfather and I connected, even though he is in a better place and I haven't seen him in a long time. This is an exercise which I will do daily as I feel it benefits the connection between me and grandfather but also assists in my ability to reduce stress in my life.

     "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself". This statement I believe holds a lot of truth, however, it depends on the situation in which you are in. For example, as a Soldier, in order to lead others, I feel it is necessary to have experienced the same situation yourself before you can lead effectively. Another example of where this statement may not be as relevant would be if someone was very educated in psychology, for example. They have multiple degrees and have a vast knowledge of text and studies. If they are seeing a patient that is suffering from a divorce, for example, and is need of mental help, I feel the psychologist wouldn't necessary have to had a divorce in order to help that person if they can use all the knowledge and the tools they have learned through their education. With the example of being a health and wellness professional, I believe having been to the places where your clients are at now is very important and the quote above would be applicable in this case. By understanding the roads that your clients are going down by having experienced it first, I feel can only help them get the most out of their experiences. I can meditate, pray, relax, practice yoga and tai chi, are some activities I can do.

Universal Kindness exercise, Integral Assessment and more

Hello classmates,

I practiced the universal loving kindess exercise and it is one that I enjoy very much. It puts my mind in a quiet place and really lets me focus on love and the consideration of others and their needs. The voice and the background noise adds to the exercise by channeling my focus on the ones that I love and how to fully open my heart to them and to appreciate the people I have in my life and to not take them for granted.

I performed the integral assessment exercise and I felt it was beneficial for me as it allowed me to really break down the areas in my life and to focus one the areas in my life that I need to give some extra attention to and which ones were where I wanted to be. I found that all the areas are areas that I could improve in one way or another. Psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal and worldly. Psychospiritual- this is an area that seems to be lacking in my life. I think there are a few reasons (excuses) are time, it seems during the week everything is so busy with work and family and school that by the weekend, I just want to relax. Usually I try to relax which doesn't include focusing on my psychospiritual being either by praying, going to church, etc. Biological- I have not focused on my biological aspects of my being like I should. Again some of the reasons (excuses) are the tempo of the normal week, relaxing on the weekend and getting older (yes I am 45 and things start to creep up on you physically, especially after 20 years in the military). Again these are excuses, I know what I need to do, I just need to start doing them. I need to get my old body out of bed earlier in the morning and start working out. I need to develop a routing to improve my fitness on a daily basis. Interpersonal is an area that I could work on as well. It seems that the older I get, I want to interact with others less and less. I am not sure why, maybe because I interact with people all day at my job being in charge of a Physical Therapy clinic that I just need a little down time from interaction. I need to set my goals as interaction with others to enjoy who they are not just because its part of my job but because to enjoy who they are and enjoy the act of interaction specifically. Finally, worldly is a an area where I need help with if not the most help with. As a Soldier, we are forced to see things that happen in the world everyday as it may very well impact what we do as Soldiers, i.e. deploy, humanitarian missions, etc. I think because it is part of my job, when I am not working I tend to want a little down time from that too. I think if I refocus my energies when I am not at work on the positive sides of the world, beautiful art, images, stories, places, etc that my outlook on the world would change, I just need to do it.


Scott Cranfill

Loving Kindness vs. Subtle Mind

These two different exercises were challenging in different ways. With the loving kindness exercise, it prompted you to consider the ones that you love and the ones that hurt you. This brought about memories that aren't always present in my mind everyday. With the subtle mind exercise, it was a little different challenge as it prompted you to really focus on your inner thoughts and mind and to do this required a place, for me, that was free of sound and distraction. Both were good, I thought, and both focused on different things. I plan on using both of these in my daily life.

The spiritual mind is something that I can always improve on. Often time I think that just by praying, and not always at the same time, that this is enough. This is true either because of normal day to day time conditions or just perhaps my own second self denying the fact that I should do more. I believe the spiritual mind should be as important, if not more important than our mental and physical aspects on one's self. To me, the spiritual mind should be the third piece of the trio of total fitness, the mind, the body and the spirit.

Assignment 4 HW420 Loving Kindness and Mental Workout

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

 

This exercises was beneficial for me. I found the imagery that the voice gave out was very relaxing and it provided me with inner peace for a while. I did not find it difficult as I set time aside and found a place where there were no distractions. I started a week ago and have been using it everyday. I would recommend this to others to use for the benefits of relaxation.

1. 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?

This is a concept that one can evolve in their mental status by practicing exercises such as this everyday. I believe if we practice workouts such as this exercise everyday, we can progress to true human flourishing and enhance our quality of life. I can implement this everyday into my routing. I would recommend before work and late at night before going to bed.