UNIT 9: Final Project

Unit 9: Final Assessment

Donna Colello

HW420: Creating Wellness

Kaplan University

Unit 9: Final Assessment

            It is so very important that health professionals develop and experience the same skills to the aspects of human flourishing so they can have a closer bond in the patient caring relationship. Being physically healthy, spiritually sound and psychologically stable are the key elements of the whole healing process within. Seeing all that has been taught in this class about the process of healing within, I find I still have a great deal in each of the subjects to endure.

            From doing an assessment on my health from the inside out, I still have an enormous challenge ahead of me. Early in the class I have rated my physical health as a 5 because of being overweight although I could probably run circles around most, I could still do better. The lifestyle change simply scares me, because it is the biggest change I have to make in order for all the other pieces of integral health to fit. Spiritually I have rated myself a 1, because of thinking that having spiritually meant being religious. Learning that having spirit can mean much more than that so I feel proud to up my score. Psychologically is deemed an 8, which is my best quality because of my life experiences taught who I truly am, and the caring and loving person I now share. How I react to life daily trails have made me process to take calming actions that has resulted in less stressful situations from the silent killer.

            Goals are my worst enemy when it comes to setting for myself. I can become very overwhelmed and give up entirely because I have too many responsibilities on my plate. Prioritizing I may have all wrong, but also understand if I do not put myself first for optimal health I can not pass my goodwill and prosperity on. One goal I have for myself is to physically lose weight. Secondly, my spirituality goal is to become more at peace with true meanings of my path taken and to be more open with my heart to associate with others. Psychologically my goal is not to over process situations with the “what ifs” in life. I tend to always over think and am always prepared for the worst, when I do not spend the quality of the moment to be a positive one.

The strategies of these goals will have to start by baby steps so my overwhelming feelings will not shut down entirely. My plan to start losing weight is to stop drinking so much coffee. I drink coffee to the excess loaded with of course cream and sugar right from the local Dunkin Donuts shop, and I do not realize why because it certainly does not keep me awake. I can surely implement this by drinking more water and flavored decaffeinated teas without any cream and sugar. I can also implement taking a short walk around the neighborhood now that is it almost summer. Spiritually I can implement growth by praying not only when things are bad, but also pray that of the moments I am grateful for. I can apply more meditative states when out in nature or on the water to verify my higher power clarity. Lastly, psychologically is an easy goal to grow upon. My exercises are to focus implementing more time peaceful times to organize my thoughts by mindfulness mediations. The awareness of changing negative emotions with positive ones will be exercised as showing more love and kindness to others.

The personal assessment I will take in the next six months, is to see measure myself for weight loss, rate myself on how many times I pray for the good and how many times I pay it forward with love and kindness to others. Knowing this is certainly not going to be an easy task, I will create a checklist of easy x’s when my positive reinforcements have been completed. I will also combine the effects of my health issues now and look for positive changes in my medical history. The awareness of this class has brought me to understanding there are many different aspects of integral health that need to work together.  The long-term strategies I have set are simple and easy to follow for my optimal health and wellness plan. I will succeed.

Unit 8: Reflections

The reflections of the exercises of the Loving-Kindness, Subtle-Mind, Visualizations and meditations are very hard for me. I can honestly say, I have tried all of them and decided that plain old mindfulness meditation instead of the guided meditations worked best. I can implement mindful mediation while I am walking around, even when I am at work. Mindful meditation is just being aware to live in the moment and an awareness of your thoughts and emotion without passing judgements. This one is for me!

While it has been a tough but also proud week for me because my daughter had her first two awards and graduation ceremonies with yet another set to follow in a couple weeks. At her award ceremony I was also honored for the work I have done with students in her Culinary program. My stress level hit the roof when I was asked up on stage, my blood pressure, temperature,  and pulse skyrocketed, and I immediately felt sick to my stomach. I realized from this class I could control my feelings and instantly became aware of my breathing and started to calm myself. Needless to say, I did not get sick nor did I pass out, but I was sure grateful the honors had ended. I am thankful of what I have learned in all these exercises, although it felt like nothing really worked, but now I know better. Yes, it did work!

I have been extremely proud and overjoyed with emotions and I still have 2 more weeks until she graduates high school for good. On Tuesday of this week, she has her last "Final Word" presentation to share with the entire school body. The last speech she did, I ended up with half of the audience as well balling because it was so-real and heart-felt. I will have to all keep you posted to see what kind of mediation techniques I can pull out of my hat for this one....

Wish me luck--for living in the moment.

Have a sweet week classmates :)

Donna

Unit 7: Meeting Aesclepius

This weeks meditative practice has failed once again. First of all when I look at the 20 minute length of this practice I panic. I have tried these exercises numerous times and just can not image the men of wisdom nor the light. When speaking about the "white" light, I image not calmness, but death. Yes, some may call it weird but I'm really trying to be as honest as I can. The only meditation that has worked for me is my own of being by myself enjoying everything that nature was to offer which brings me back to the love, kindness and calmness.

Describing "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself," is a powerful sentence. If one does not experience certain aspects of life, then how does one understand it to pass it on? With health professionals I believe in order for them to teach wellness, they must experience the findings of their own psychological, physical and spirituality. The understanding process of each will better serve both the patient and the physician and will make the patient feel more comfortable and trust what the healthcare professional are saying.

I implement psychological and spiritual growth by practicing listening, caring, learning and giving to others. If I can learn something everyday, I feel that I have become more of a complete person. If I take just that little time to consider others and learn from them the feeling is immense and gratifying.

UNIT 6

The exercises and the assessment process asked very specific questions which our honesty must take presence. These exercises has shown me that I could do much better in my spiritual presence. The area of psycho-spiritual flourishing I will be focusing on, because without this quality it is hard to complete the processes of integral health. A specific activity that would help me to develop the skills needed is to pray for not only when I am in dire straights but to pray for other and the greater good in people. I feel by practicing everyday will lead me to a better non stressful life and a healthy mind and body. It makes perfect sense to practice, practice, practice-- even though you feel you're not doing it correctly it will end up being right for you!

Have a happy week everyone!

Donna