Unit 9 - Holistic Integral Health Plan

Unit 9 Project – A Plan for Holistic/Integral Health – Healing for Mind, Body and Spirit

Teresa Cooper

Kaplan University

HW420-01

Professor Maule

January 31, 2012

A Plan for Holistic/Integral Health – Healing for Mind, Body and Spirit

I.                   Introduction - Why is it important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically?  Each of these areas is affected by the others.  Mental wellness promotes spiritual wellness and physical, too.  Physical illness affects the other areas, as well.  Spiritual health promotes physical and mental health.  If I am to have the trust and respect of my clients, I need to live the wholeness way and envelope health in all aspects of wellness – mind, body and spirit.  This will ensure my effectual abilities in helping my clients to achieve health goals in these areas, also.  What areas do I need to develop to achieve the goals I have for myself?  I believe we all have room to grow.  I am not where I could be a week, month or year from now but continue to grow during each of these time frames in all three areas.  I need to grow in every level, spiritually by a closer walk with God, physically by healthful practices in eating, exercising, water therapy inside and out, and the other aspects of the eight laws of health and mentally by meditation and visualization exercises.  The way to grow specifically is assessed below.

II.                Assessment – How have I assessed my health in each domain?  How do I score my wellness spiritually, physically and mentally?  Using a scale of 1 – 10 with one equaling the lowest and 10 the highest score available, I rate myself an eight spiritually, a seven physically and seven mentally.  This shows my growth pattern from years gone by, while leaving room for continued growth in each area.  Many of the practices to enhance the well-being in each of these areas, I have continued in, because of the great need to do so. 

III.             Goal Development – List at least one goal I have for myself in each area – Spiritually - I plan to study the bible every morning and evening, go to prayer meeting once a week on Tuesdays and help and encourage others, as needed daily.  Physically - I will take mountain hikes, walking uphill and down does wonders for the body, mind and soul!  Do more yoga and Pilates with stretch exercises some daily and strength exercises every other day, as I was doing before school, and swim periodically in summer.  I will walk 30 – 45 minutes daily six – seven days weekly, warm-up before and cool-down afterwards with yoga, Pilates, or strength exercises, every other  day yoga alternating with resistance band and Pilates exercises.  I am looking forward to getting back into a routine instead of the hit and miss exercising lifestyle I now practice.  Mentally – I will memorize scripture, use visualization, keep exercising my mind with Journey On and Subtle Mind techniques, continue to practice stress releasing activities as proactive behavior.  These activities I plan to practice on a daily basis.

IV.             Practices for Personal Health – What strategies can I implement to foster growth in each of the following domains; physical, psychological and spiritual?  Provide at least two examples of exercises or practices in each domain.  Explain how you will implement each example. Practices implemented for spiritual activity include:  pray with and for others, study the bible, share my faith, and learn lessons from nature and life experiences.  I pray for my mom on the phone over her medical condition!  I pray for others in my daily devotional prayer time as intercessory prayer for needs and spiritual enlightenment.  I compare scripture with scripture to see, and understand who God is.  As I understand deeper who the great I Am of the Word of God is, I can treat others the way He desires me to do so.  I daily ask Him into my heart before I get out of bed in the morning.  Trust in my divine Savior keeps my mind at peace, when trials plague me.  I pray for His intervention and wisdom, and He delivers every time!  These life experiences help me to trust more and more in a closer walk with Christ.  When I smile and help others with their needs, this is sharing my faith with

others.  One of my favorite lessons from nature is the creation of the new creature from caterpillar to butterfly through metamorphosis.  This illustrates so beautifully the new birth experience, when we accept Christ as our Savior!  Another illustration from the catepillar change to butterfly symbolizes a new start, in this case, from a student to a career move!  I am excited over the anticipation of beginning again!  I enjoy watching the butterfly give to the needs around it.  In comparison, the caterpillar eats to sustain itself for its metamorphic change, symbolic of student life and the life before new birth!  What a great illustration!

                 For physical health practices I will walk 30-40 minutes daily outside in the fresh air and sunshine.  I will use this time for prayer and reflection or family fun time with children or grandchildren.  Sometimes I will walk with friends, who would like to walk, too.  Walking up a mountain trail every other month during the warm weather with church family is a practice I plan on implementing for physical enhancement of all those in the church.  Yoga and Pilates exercises will be implemented during cool down phase of walking.  Yoga with stretch and meditation will be on opposite days of Pilates and resistance band exercises for full overall physical strength and health.  I meditate on Christ and His life during yoga meditation!  This enhances both spiritual and physical health. 

            Then, mental health is enhanced through memorizing scripture and wise sayings!  Other measures to enhance my mental health include prayer meditation as related above.  Listen to Journey On and practice Subtle Mind exercises to free the mind and create peace.  Visualize during stressful events to get my mind off the circumstances causing distress.  Also using proactive behaviors as, asking others to help, when I am too busy to accomplish everything and treat myself having dinner with a friend in celebration for a job well done.  I could get a haircut or buy a new outfit as treats, too.  Since I cannot have pets where I live, I enjoy the pets of my friends.  I pet and talk to them and let them out to relieve themselves.  This works for me!  Each of these practices enhance my mental cleansing towards witnessing – creating stillness of mind, calm-abiding – strength of mind where those things that once made us frustrated do not affect us anymore (Dacher, 2006, calls this a “Tephlon” mind, p. 73) and unity conscious – seeing life experiences as they actually happen with wisdom and insight of a free and clear mind that has been enhanced fully by the previous two mind clearing activities.

V.                Commitment -  How will I assess my progress or lack of progress in the next six months?  What strategies can I use to assist in maintaining my long-term practices for health and wellness?  When school is finished in two weeks, time will be freed to put these goals into practice!  I will find the time of day that best fits applying these practices, so that I can continue to make the goals reality.  This will ensure that I will make progress towards achieving integral health fulfilling joy, health and wholeness to the commitment of these practices mentioned above.  (A testimony of how I have started this practice begins with prayer.  I was talking to God as to a friend.  I told Him about my pains of arthritis in my back and shared that I would like to start stretch and strength exercises again.  He woke me up an hour and a half before my alarm went off.  When I could not go back to sleep, I got up, performed resistance band exercises for strength, three Pilates exercises and three yoga exercises with other stretches.  The next morning I did three different yoga exercises, the three Pilates and took a break from strength exercises.  These I will do every other day.  I was able to get some of the assignment finished this morning as well after getting ready for work.)  Strategies I can use to maintain these practices for the future is to not commit myself to overloading my schedule, remember, when I practiced them in the past and the fulfillment obtained then, include friends and family to practice with and keep the flame of excitement for health and wellness burning within and without!

Reference:

Dacher, Elliott, S. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna

       Beach, CA. Basic Health, Publishers.