Unit 9 Project

Introduction

The importance of psychological, spiritual, and physical development for health and wellness professionals is paramount in their being able to convenience other that this is important to their lives. Being able to get a person to understand this importance has to begin with them seeing the results of that action. If the professional is not adhering to their own advice the results can be a loss of interest by the patient due to their belief that “if it was so beneficial, why are you doing it?” People generally don’t accept change and can be severely biased against making major changes without seeing firsthand the results. By providing an example of what you can be inspiration and realism can project the patient to following this advice. I myself need to gain a better working knowledge of meditation. As a Soldier and growing up in the church the spiritual and physical parts are ingrained in my way of life. Mediation on the other hand is challenging to me. Learning to effectively calm my mind can have tremendous results on the psychological aspects of my being.

Assessment

For me, the assessment of my health in psychological, spiritual, and physical development starts with a baseline of where I am now. The Spiritual aspect in my being is feed by regularly attending church and praying with my wife and family. In this area I would have to say I score pretty high. For the physical development, the Army provides me with excellent tools to maintain a certain level of health and strength. This translates to a clear understanding with what is effective in maintaining and improving me in this area. Yet there is always room for improvement. My psychological fitness is the most complex for me because I have developed coping mechanism that masks my true psychological status. Therefore, I would have to score this area in the low to moderate. Due to this I believe constant reassessment over time is needed. In all areas improvement would have to be gauged by the effect that the area has on your life.

Goal Development

The main goal that I have for myself is to improve my psychological development through the use of many of the techniques I learned during this course. Mediation is the most effective tool that I have found in this evolution. Having done many of the exercises I have noticed an almost immediate change in the way I react and do things in my life. The most profound of this is the love and kindness exercise. Naturally I am an extremely abrasive person that looks a result first and feeling last. Being that way has created a kind of barrier between me and the people that associate with me. I now show more love (I’m not completely there yet) than I did previously and hope that I will increase in this way of thinking.

Practices for Personal Health

I have two primary strategies to assist in my development in what I believe are my weakest areas.

1.      Psychological growth: Because my duty description places me in some significantly stressful situations almost daily I have to prepare for each day prior to and during peak stress situations. Exercising mediation 10-15 minutes prior to the start of each day a minimum of 6 days a week will provide an excellent way to pre-stage my mentality before I am engaged in the various situations I come across. In addition the use of the love and patients exercise during lunch at least 3-4 times a week should remind me of the importance of showing constraint.

2.      Physical growth: Although I exercise regularly my diet clearly can be improved. It is my intent to actually stop working to make sure I eat 3 well balanced meals each day. This along with increased cardio exercise should reduce my body fat composition. This can be easily monitored weekly for progression and updates.

Commitment

I will be able to assess my progress or lack thereof by using bench markers to reassess my progress. I like seasonal reviews such as the first day of summer, spring, autumn, and fall. This way I will have a record over an extended time of how I am doing. With that in place I will be able to see my long term effects in real time. Fortunately for me those benchmarks are also associated with major events in my life so I will be able to maintain this for as long as I am alive.