Week 9: My Plan

1. Introduction:
   I believe it is very important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically, especially if they want to be taken seriously in their careers and serve as a trusted and credible source of support for their patients.  I believe that in this line of work, we need to be able to practice what we preach. 

We are dealing with patients who are struggling with wellness in one of more of these areas.  I feel that patients should be able to trust that the advice we are giving is tried and true.  If we were able to do these things, they can do it, too.  Not everything will work for every individual, but at least we can tell our patients in an honest manner how various techniques worked for us, and if not, what we tried to overcome our roadblocks. 

I do not think that patients expect their health and wellness professionals to be perfect or flawless, but I think they need to see us progressing on the journey to total wellness, instead of feeling like what we are advising is unattainable.  In regards to this, I believe that I need to develop my physical well-being. I am a very healthy person; however I want to be in better shape.  I know I feel better about myself, and my body feels better when I am involved in regular physical activity.  I feel that my patients would benefit from seeing my journey to better physical wellness as well.

2.  Assessment:
   In terms of my physical wellness, I have done fitness tests like BMI, as well as the PQRI to determine that my health will allow me to safely exercise to lower my BMI.  In terms of my spiritual and psychological health, I have found reading the Integral Health text to be very helpful in reflecting on my own wellness.  I also feel that the blog exercises were very helpful in assessing my wellness in these areas. 

I feel that my spiritual and psychological wellness is good, but not optimal.  There are things in both areas that I would like to improve.  My physical wellness is lacking a regular exercise program that would allow me to reach and maintain my goal weight. I have made so much progress in this area over the years that sometimes the last 20 pounds seems like a drop in the bucket. At the same time, to come this far and not be in a state of physical wellness that I am proud of, seems a waste of effort. 

3. Goal development:
   My goal for psychological wellness is to learn to take a break and think about a situation before I react.  I tend to react to a situation first, sometimes complicating it further than if I would have taken the time to think things through initially.  This would save me a great deal of stress and heartache.

My goal for spiritual wellness is to fit time into my schedule to meditate and pray daily.  I always feel better when I do this, however it is challenging to always find time to do it without waiting until I am too exhausted from the day to really focus.

My goal for my physical health is to find an exercise program I enjoy and have fun with,  I want to participate in regular exercise 30 minutes at least three times a week.  I feel that I am doing well with my nutrition, but I need physical activity.

I feel that no one achieves or maintains optimal wellness without constantly making and analyzing goals.  Wellness is not a state you reach and then your work is done.  I feel that the goals I have set are manageable and achievable at this stage in my life.  Once I am free of school commitments, I would like to tweak my physical goals to target some specific areas of my body that would make me feel better about myself.

4. Practices for personal health:
   Meditating and prayer are both strategies I can implement to foster growth in my psychological and spiritual domains.  I also believe that yoga would be a strategy to help encourage growth in all three domains, as it is a physical activity that calls on breathing and meditation techniques.  I have been looking into a zumba fitness program that I think would not only benefit me physically as it is a great exercise, but psychologically as well because it is so upbeat and fast that it would really help alleviate stress and aggression. 
5. Commitment:
   It is always easy to make plans, but carrying them out on a daily basis is another story.  I will assess my progress with a pocket calendar I can keep on my nightstand.  I will indicate nightly on the calendar if I have done my meditation exercises as well as my physical exercise program.  This will give me a visual of how well I have been honoring my commitment to myself. 

Tracking my progress in terms of my exercise program will not be difficult.  Since I am pregnant, I visit my doctor monthly and am weighed.  If I am able to manage my pregnancy weight gain goal of only 20 pounds, I will know I am on the right track.  In terms of spiritual and psychological progress, my family is always very good at telling me how I am doing. When I am stressed out and moody, it sets the tone for my entire family.  When I am more relaxed, they always comment on how nice things are around the house.  This is always good to hear.  As the saying goes “If mama’s not happy, NOBODY’S happy!”

I think the calendar will really help me keep myself accountable.  I would like to give myself some reward if I stick with my commitments to myself for a certain period of time.  I considered tracking my progress in terms of commitment pay period to pay period: if I have done my meditation exercises and work outs as planned the entire pay period, on pay day I will treat myself to a pedicure, a movie, or something to pat myself on the back.