HW420: Final Unit 9 1

Creating Wellness


Jessica Friend
Kaplan University
HW420
Professor Hart

July 15, 2014
HW420: Final Unit 9 2
The absolute worst experience is walking into a medical or healthcare practice and
feeling uncared for only later to meet your physician and either feel as if your words are going in
one of his ears and out the other or to see your physician practice medicine as if he or she were
going through the movements waiting to clock out for the day. This is why Georges words one
cannot lead another where one has not gone himself (p. 477) and the relationship of Doctor-
patient transforming into Person-Person beings with the personal development in the integral
practice of mind-body-spirit (Schlitz, Amorok, Micozzi, 2005). How can anyone expect to teach
another through blind leadership? Within my mind-body-spiritual practice I need more
development psychologically, physically, and spiritually if I intend to reach my current goals.
With that said, there will always be room for growth and improvement in all areas if I aim to
reach my desired level of flourishing. Within my mind-body-spiritual journey I will be assessing
my health in three domains and how I score myself spiritually, physically, and psychologically.
Next, I will list one or more goals for each of the three areas that I have graded and two or more
exercises or methods I can use to develop growth in each area. I will conclude by discussing
ways to assess my future growth and development over the next six months and how I will be
able to maintain my journey in the long-term.
To begin, after completing my integral assessment I gave myself the following grades in
the areas of spirituality, psychological, and physical development. My physical assessment was
graded as a C based on three areas. The first area is my physical health, I am currently
overweight which creates added pressure on my body aiding in the symptoms of certain chronic
diseases. The second area is nutrition, I overall have many healthy habits but could improve by
decreasing processed foods. The third area is my transition from allopathic medicine to a more
integral approach. My spirituality assessment was graded as a C-for the reason I am including
HW420: Final Unit 9 3
interpersonal and worldly aspects as part of the larger picture of the world or universe. On the
interpersonal scale, I am transitioning back and forth between the you and us aspects and I
am also firmly planted in the creative expression portion of worldly development for the reason I
have not found an area where I can put myself into my work for fulfillment and service. My
psychologically assessment was graded as a C for the reason I am currently at the beginning of
my journey developing my witnessing mind. I feel that having an overall C is an improvement
from eight weeks ago and a stepping stone into further development.
Next, after my integral assessment I created goals in the three areas of physical,
psychological, and spiritual wellness. My two goals pertaining to the physical wellness category
is to maintain an open mind on my journey from allopathic medicine to my version on integral
health and to incorporate a regular fitness program that will also decrease my level of tension and
stress produced by daily events. Within the spiritual category I also have two goals the first deals
with my interpersonal relationship with others which relies on the development of my emotional
intelligence to remove the self-indulging barriers to grow an awareness of others feeling and
concerns. The second goal is to keep the mindset while working that my occupation is a service
to others, no matter how small the job I am making a difference in the world. The last area
psychological wellness has one goal to move from a witnessing consciousness into a calm-
abiding consciousness removing unwanted suffering.
Following my goals I will be providing at least two exercises for each area of
development, physical, spiritual, and psychological, to help achieve the current goals along my
path to human flourishing. Within the physical area, I will be planning my weekly dinners out on
Sundays to reduce the amount of processed food in my life. As for developing my physical
fitness to incorporate stress relievers, I am going to incorporate two exercises jogging/running
HW420: Final Unit 9 4
transition from walking/jogging to improve my active meditation and yoga. Practicing yoga
twice a week will improve my posture, diaphragmatic breathing, as well as decrease my stress
and anxiety levels. Within the spiritual area of my life the exercise that I am going to use to help
improve my awareness of the feelings of those around me is the loving-kindness meditation. This
is one of the most difficult exercises for me and I think it will improve my transition from self-
involving to a caring awareness of others. To improve my attitude or perception of work I am
going to incorporate two of the small steps Dacher recommends to transform work. They
include taking a work task and putting my kindness and care into it and the second is to take time
at lunch to re-find my inner calmness releasing any stress that may be building up. My last area
of development, psychological, will include three different meditations each practiced twice a
week. The first meditation is the Rainbow Meditation which helps to keep me grounded,
centered, and confident in my daily life. The second meditation, Subtle Mind, will help my
growth from a witnessing mind to a calm-abiding mind. The third meditation is mentioned in
Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing under the taste of human flourishing section
(Dacher, 2006, p. 144). This exercise brought so much energy, calmness, and happiness into my
body after competing. I loved this feeling and would like to maintain it each and every day.
To conclude, each health plan needs to be reassessed on a regular basis to ensure that
goals are being met and that the exercises and methods implemented are still practical to the end
goal or stage of life I am in. For myself, it is harder to break a habit when exchanging it with a
healthier habit so for the first seven weeks I will be assessing my goals at the end of the week to
see if I am on schedule to reaching my goal or if I need to reassess to make my goal more
realistic. Similarly, depending on the week I may need to switch practices to accommodate stress
levels. After the seven weeks, if I am applying the exercise into my life I will extend out my
HW420: Final Unit 9 5
reassessments to the end of each month up until the six month mark. At that point, if I am
pleased with my progress and still working toward my goals I will reassess my progress and
future goals at the end of every other month. I do not think that I would ever wait longer than
two months to reassess my progress and goals due to the fact that I feel my life and environment
are constantly changing whether it be from the seasons, family, friends, or occupation and I may
need to change exercises to reach my end goal of human flourishing.
HW420: Final Unit 9 6
References
Dacher, E.S. (2006). Integral health: The path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic
Health Publications
Schlitz, M., Amorok, T., & Micozzi, M.S. (2005). Consciousness & healing: Integral
approaches to mind-body medicine. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Churchill Livingston
Publications