let's flourish and be well

Here I am trying to get my thoughts together and wraap up these great ten weeks! I have to say I am very regretfull...These last two classes- stress and this one, had a common bunch of us that really connected, and then met all kinds of new friends. I learned so much from all of you.
But, down to business....
In Unit 3, I have myself a score of 5 physically/biologically, and now I gave myself a 4. Honestly I think I was about a 3 originally, but didn't know it at the time. I have had a week of teaching myself to eat and I have to admit it went pretty well. It is costing me a lot more in groceries, but I am eating lots of fruit and veggies, and my new passion for breakfast is sweet potato and a dish of organic yogurt with fruit on it, and lunch is organic cereal with yogurt instead of some kind of milk and a pilt of fruit. YUM!!.. so, i could be on the way back to a 5 soon. As far as exercise, I have to take one thing at a time. My goal was to eat, and so far so good.
In Unit3, my score for spiritual health was a 7 and I gave myself a 7 this time also. The only reason that I didn't go to an 8 is that I don't feel I am near enough at all to flourishing which is a 10 to do it yet. I went to a really good church service today, pray on the way to work every day, and as GOD's forgiveness when I think evil thoughts about irritating people at the store :) ! I feel a sense of inner peace most of the time, and am able to get it back. One day this week it took all day to do so, but I did it. Just had a really off day, and wasn't happy and couldn't summon it. I got there though, and felt all the better for it.
Psychologically I scored myself an 8 in Unit 3 and a 7 now. I don't believe the 8 was realistic after reading Dacher (and I just loved that book!!!). I think that as I continue on my journey towards health, that I will be able to honestly give myself an 8 after a bit more work.
I had given myself goals for each area, and as one of my well- respected classmates told me, I can't do everything at once, or I will become overwhelmed and get nowhere. I want to meditate more, I want to take more time out for me, but with a 52 hour a week work schedule at a very physical job and trying to complete school work, something had to give. I know it will end soon, and I have to be patient. The most important one for me to work on, is eating.... if I don;t eat, I am not going to be around to work on the others. My thyroid levels are finally where they should be and I lost the 15 pounds I put on, so I have to work on the healthy eating and regular eating. I have been sneaking my apple with me as I work, and that is going well so far.
I do believe that I have made progress.... one thing at a time. I have a workable plan and have started to implement it. If I can make it a couple more weeks, I will be okay. It takes a few weeks of doing something to become a part of my life.
For me, taking Stress, Critical Issues last term and Creating Wellness this term was the best thing I have done since starting at Kaplan almost 2 years ago. These classes have literally changed my life. Stress got me started and Creating Wellness was that push that I needed. I have found it totally amazing the way some people react to me now. Even people that have been around for years and knew me as very mercurial and pretty much avoided me, are talking to me, and not only talking to me, but speaking to me first. That is such a good feeling for me, and I know that it is something inside that is showing through to the outside. If that is the only thing that I have gotten in these courses (and it isn't) it was truly worth all the work and the late seminars. I feel that what I have gone through, opening myself up and looking and examining what is inside will help me reach out to my clients and not just see a health issue but another person, just like me, who needs help.
Thank you, all of you, for you support and assistance this term. I know I can do it now, I am NOT that little girl with " no looks and no personality" I am a strong woman and I will graduate and I will finally do what it is that I was meant to do. s

Everson, S. HW420-02 Unit 9 Final Project

I.Introduction

I believe that it is important for the Health and Wellness professional to develop psychologically, mentally and spiritually for a number of reasons, both in the personal and professional life. While any of these beliefs are subject to debate, this is how I personally feel, and this paper is from my point of view. On a personal level, by looking inward, we can become a more whole (while progressing step by step towards integral health and flourishing) complete person as we look into ourselves and find that which is truly important to us, unburden ourselves of that which is not, and move forward on our journey. To develop any of these aspects will cause a chain reaction in the rest of them as no aspect is complete unto itself. To be able to everyday do the job of a Health and Wellness professional, there needs to be a strong base to draw from so as not to deplete ourselves and have nothing left to offer. We need to be able to go from having life revolve around me to looking outside of ourselves and bringing into our lives our family, friends, and those we know, and don’t know because as H and W professionals we will be knowing more people each and every day. For me, this means to find the real me, reach a state of peace and calmness, achieve the ability to center myself in stressful situations, commune with my Creator and use the practices of mediation, calm abiding and peaceful mind to foster a greater calmness yet awareness to be able to not only help myself, but help the client to find that which he/she is searching for.

It means that I have the confidence in my beliefs to listen, really listen to what my client is saying so that I can help them ascertain what it is that they want and need to relieve the pain they are going through and to help them on their way towards health in whatever capacity they are able to accept.

To Be Able to Achieve My Goals

At this point in time, I feel so new to this practice, that I cannot yet know what and where I want to be in my quest for integral health. This tiny light has been ignited, and I know there is more to who I am than I can see now. I want to find out who is really inside of me, and

Everson S. HW420-02 Unit 9 Final Project

why I feel compelled to start over again in my sixties. What is the driving force, and why now, when most of my high school classmates have retired or are contemplating doing so shortly, have I decided that it is somehow my mission to help others and give-back some of what I have been given in my life? To do so, I need to maintain and strengthen my spiritual convictions, with GOD my creator, and also with Mother Earth. To have healthy families, communities and environment, it is necessary to become responsible for one’s actions. It is only through a cumulative effort that true health and flourishing of the world’s population can be achieved. For me to help even one person, would make me feel like I have accomplished something great. I also need to stay mentally and emotionally fit, to have the reserves to do what I need to do, and to keep going in my advancing age. No matter whether I feel sixty two or not, I am, and it will take an effort to maintain and keep the aging process moving as slowly as possible. The biggest area for me, aside from obvious physical needs, is to keep myself balanced, to think outside of me and focus on the larger picture. In doing so, I will have the courage to take the huge and scary step out of my comfort zone, leave behind my job of 23 years, and take on a new position and career of service. To stay balanced psychologically and mentally the practices I have learned in this class, calm-abiding, loving-kindness and the subtle mind will need to stay a part of my life. Asclepius has taught me much, and I can return to him as needed. It is a non-ending journey that is not stagnant, never boring, and always enlightening if I can keep an open mind to allow it to show me the way.

II.Assessment

While working on my own personal assessment, I have tried to take into account not only relieving stress and pain right now, but to work toward the release of it totally and permanently from my life. To do that, I need to continue following the steps toward integral healing and human flourishing. I need to identify not only my weaknesses but my strengths where I am in life right now, at this time with a clear and open mind. I have found my assessment to show that I am very uneven at this time in the areas of body, mind and spirit. As far as physical health, I am not exercising at all at this time, we don’t know what is wrong with my foot and I don’t eat right. This puts me at a distinct disadvantage in this area

Everson, S. HW420-02 Unit 9 Final Project

compared to where I really want to be. I still have a tendency to want sweets when I am stressed, but have started to really work on my eating despite the difficulty of having no “hunger urges”. I know my body needs to thrive in order to have the best in other aspects.

At work, I am noticing that since I have become more aware and taken ownership of my actions that most people are responding to me in a much more positive way. I am trying to engage a “filter” that allows me to think things but not necessarily allow them to come out of my mouth. While this is a positive change, I still am not able to maintain a rewarding relationship with a man. I am not positive that I even want to, but I want to be able to.

My spiritual life has taken on a new path thanks mainly to what I have learned in this class. I have become much more open to what SPIRIT wants and is telling me to do, and stopped “arguing” or resisting. I know that I have been guided from being a florist to the Lead Natural and Organic to a full time college student in Health and Wellness… I know that there is a purpose I have been led here. I pray more, and am more at peace with who and what I am. I have tried to open myself to not only my needs but those of others around me and even those I don’t know (knitting scarves for Operation Gratitude and filling shoe boxes for Samaritans’ Purse for Christmas, for example) to relieve their sadness, grief and pain.

Psychologically I believe I have been working in the right direction. I have tried to become more open to thinking about action and not re-acting as much, letting stresses go and not taking things so personally. Even my “shrink” has noticed a positive difference in even the way I carry myself. The guided lessons have helped me to turn the world off for a time and renew and revitalize so that I have the energy and resources to do what it is I feel I need to do. I know that as time goes on; my needs will change as will those of my clients. this is good, this is okay. Life is not stagnant and is ever evolving.

Out of a score of 1-10, 1 being the lowest 5 about so-so and 10 being somewhere that I may reach some day, but it’s okay if I don’t, I rate my spiritual health as about a 7 today, my psychological health about a 7 today also and my physical health about a 4.

IIIrson, S. HW420-02 Unit 9 Final Project

Goals that I can set, that are attainable are listed here. I am focusing on goals right now that I know I can reach, and will also keep me on the path that I am now trying to follow.

Spiritual- continue to develop my “filter” and practice it with all that I meet. Reach out to people with an open heart as all are children of the SPIRIT and as such as unique and precious creatures

Psychological (Mental Health)- take the time each day (usually after I come home from work) to practice one of the lessons I am starting to learn- subtle mind, loving-kindness, meeting Asclepius, witnessing mind or a Buddhist lesson I have discovered.

Physical- for one week, I will eat. That’s it. I will enjoy the fruits of the season on top of my cereal with yogurt, I will eat protein (tuna) and veggies and all the foods I like.

IVPractices for Personal Health

Two or more examples of ways that I can improve in each of those areas follow:

Psychological- 1. Start with practicing my lessons three days a week in the beginning.

2. Have the lessons I want to use readily available so that I can get into

a positive habit and create an area that is conducive to my practicing-

calm, uncluttered, add fresh flowers and quiet as possible with no

phones.

Spiritual- 1. Go to church on Sundays that I get out of work on time to get there.

It may not be a need for a lot of people, but the connection I feel there is

important to me. While there, I knit the scarves or prayer shawls I make.

2. Look at people as children of the SPIRIT. Remember that every one of them

is just as important as I am- see that when I smile and say hello, instead of

Everson, S. HW420-02 Unit 9 Final Project

seeing a rude obnoxious person, see someone who has the same stresses

and suffering as we do. Become certified in Healing Touch to further be able

to alleviate distress and suffering.

Physical- 1. Have good healthy foods readily available to grab and snack on. I love the

Blueberries and strawberries that are so abundant right now- I will enjoy them.

2. Prepare snacks the night before, and a cold water thermos. Make sure I TAKE

THEM.

V.Assess My Progress

The best way to assess my progress or lack of it in the next six months is to compare where I am then with my goals of today. How am I doing? Have I travelled further on the path to human flourishing or have I stagnated or even worse slipped back down the path? How do I feel? Am I peaceful and calm? Do I put myself out there to serve others? In six months I will have graduated- am I on the road to the me that I have always wanted to be? Sincerely, I hope so.

One of the ways that I am using to remind myself to maintain and move forward is to make copies of quotes and small things that inspire me and hang them where I can see them. I am in the process of re-furbishing my den from the walls out to create a space where I can be and breathe and grow. I am envisioning a peaceful place that is earthy and serene where I can go to work on the lessons that I am learning. I want to hang some of the most inspiring words on the walls in frames the way I create.

Simply taking the time out to breathe and recognizing this need is a way to maintain the practices that we are learning in this course to progress towards Health and Wellness. Previously I could not identify this need to take a step back and re-group. Now, I notice it readily. To me, this tells me that I am already changing. Physically I feel so much better, and I don’t want to lose this feeling- instead I want to progress further along.