HW420-Unit 10-Reflections

1. Review your unit 3 personal assessment of your psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being. Reflect on these areas. How did you score yourself on a scale from 1 to 10 in unit 3? How do you score yourself now? Has the score changed? Why or why not?

Week 3 Assessment

I would rate my physical wellbeing at an 8 of 10, with 10 being ideal.  The reason I choose an 8 is because I am just getting back on track with my physical fitness goals.  I found the first of the year quite a challenge because I was dealing with an increase in clientele in my yoga classes, my children’s schedules as well as a demanding workload in school and work.   In my yoga practice, I set a monthly goal to work on a pose until I am able to really feel balanced in that pose.  I also run a few times a week and am working on my next 10k.  To prepare, I am running 3 times a week and will increase my miles and frequency as I get closer to the race.  Since, I am only taking one class this term, I am back on track with my fitness goals. 

I would rate my spiritual wellbeing at an 8 as well.  During the first quarter of the year, when it seemed my schedule was bursting at the seams, my meditative practice is what helped me through.  I would take few minutes to breath and align myself before I proceeded with my daily demands.  I would like to improve my meditative practice, however, by increasing the amount of time I can sit in silence. 

I like to think that my psychological well-being is quite good.  I am not ready yet to say it is a 10 but I will give myself a 9.  The reason, I choose 9 is because there are not a lot of situations that take me out of my optimistic and positive view.  Typically, if my mental state is low its because I am tired.  I try to approach everything even obstacles with positivity.  I believe you get what you give so I want to make sure that I am always giving the goodness that I would like to see.  I think the reason I have a healthy mental state is because I do the work to maintain it.  I try to stay physically well and spiritual well so that translates to my mental health as well.  I surround myself with good people and have a great connection with my children and my family.  I also keep a journal, which helps me pour out anything that hinders my mental flow. 

Week 10 Assessment

Well, on week three I thought I was going to get back on track with my physical wellbeing.    However, I know that life happens.  I did start back running but so far am only halfway to my goal.  I am still only getting to run 3 days per week.  As for yoga, I have managed to get work on two new poses, one per month as planned.  However, I did make sure that I have increased my practice of each pose and have almost perfected one of the two I was working on.  And since I did meet my yoga goal and am still trying to carve out more time for my running goal, I would still rate myself at an 8. 

However, when it came to my spiritual goal, I will increase my score to a 9.  The reason I upped my spiritual wellness is because of my consistent practice and reading of the Dacher text.  I have so many corner pages folded down in the book and I consistently practice the meditations in the morning and at night.  I think this book and this course have both come into my life at the right time because this has been such a challenging time for me.  I am thankful that making more time to sit in silence has kept me still in the midst of the storm. 

My psychological wellbeing has been tested as well.  I think it is because I almost gave myself a 10.  I am still a 9.  Life decided to send some things my way to see if I could hold onto my sanity.  I am happy to say I did but I feel it is mainly do to my spiritual practices that I was able to work through all that has happened.  I will admit I did feel really emotional quite a few days.  But when it seemed I couldn’t carry on I relied mostly on the loving-kindness practice. 

2. Review the goals and activities you set for yourself in each area. Have you made progress toward the goals? Explain.

Week 3 Goals

                                 I.         My physical goal is to be able to run my 10k in less time than last year.  I would like to complete the race in 72 minutes this year. 

                               II.         My spiritual goal is to more time for my meditative practice.  I currently meditate 30 minutes per day.  I would like to meditate one hour daily. 

                             III.         My psychological goal is to make sure that I maintain my positive outlook at work.  I currently work in an environment with quite a few unhealthy people who keep a lot of negativity going. 

Week 10 Goals

                                 I.         My physical goal is being met due to my running every evening.  I am now up to 3.5 miles.  My timing is still off but I will work on increase my pace when I get to 4 miles by May 31^st.  I did say that I would be running 6.2 miles in 72 minutes, which is a big goal but I know that at my current pace I will improve my time this year. (The Peachtree Road Race is July 4^th)

                               II.         My spiritual goal at week three was 1 hour per day. I am currently meditating over 40 minutes per day.  I foresee that by the end of June I will be there. 

                III.  My psychological wellness was centered on maintaining a positive outlook throughout the day in my work environment.  Since setting this goal all hell has broken loose at work.  I have come home a quite a few days feeling overwhelmed but each day I rise with Dacher’s meditation exercise and yoga.  I go to work with the faith that I will be of service and I will not stop doing what I am here to do because there are some who crave drama.  I have been in positive work environments before and I know there is not anything that will not stop me from experiencing that again. 

3. Have you implemented the activities you chose for your well-being in each of the three areas? Explain.

I have implemented my physical goal activities.  I am practicing yoga 7 days per week and running 3 days per week. 

My spiritual goal is met by using the Dacher meditations in the morning and at night.  I also practice yoga daily. 

My psychological goal is met by practicing my deep breathing when things happen at work.   Lately it feels like I have been breathing quite a bit at work.  However,  it helps to practice when you I feel stressed so that I can stay centered through the chaos.  Instructions are below. 

Breathing Exercise- Ujjayi Breathing – Conquering Breath

(oo-jy [rhymes with "pie"]-ee) 
ujjayi = to conquer, to be victorious

 1.     Sit comfortably and allow the breath to flow at its pace. 

 2.     Then take a slow deep inhale in through the nose and exhale through your wide- open mouth. 

 3.     Take another deep inhale and exhaling through an open mouth drawing out the exhale and making the HA sound

 4.     Repeat this several times

 5.     Taking another slow deep inhale and then close your mouth still making the HA sound. 

 6.     Repeat this several time inhaling and exhaling through the nose directing your breathing through the back of the throat.  You should hear your breath making a soft hissing sound. 

 7.     Continue this breath practice for 5-8 minutes, increasing time of practice as you feel more comfortable allowing the breath to be slow and purposeful allowing keeping the mind focus on the movement of the breath.

 8.     When you are finished allow the breathing to return to normal and then lie down in a supine pose.

4. Summarize your personal experience throughout this course. Have you developed improved well-being? What has been rewarding? What has been difficult? How will this experience improve your ability to assist others?

I have thoroughly enjoyed this course.  It let me know that I am doing quite well in taking care of my own health and wellness.  It also let me know that it is important for me to have consistent practice with my own wellness techniques in order to share wellness with my clients.  We have to be consistent with our practice in order to affect the health and wellness of the people we serve.  I have started back looking at my weekly, monthly and yearly wellness goals to make sure that I stay on track.  I want to continue to embody the brand of wellness that I teach.  My reward has come from the amount of time I can now spend without my mind running all over the place.  The improvement in my meditative practice has been so needed at this time and I have set my goals to ensure that I continue. 

I haven’t had a lot of difficulty with this course other than when we began with the loving-kindness practice.  Initially, I found it difficult to send loving-kindness to those who do bad things but after continue practice the idea really grew on me and now it flows from an authentic place. 

I feel more excited about how I serve my clients and extremely excited about moving more into integrative medicine program design and implementation now.  I have tools that I know work outside of yoga and feel more knowledgeable about how I want to offer more comprehensive wellness programming.