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