Unit 9

Health Plan

            I think Elliot Dacher states it best when he says that when professionals implement integral health in their lives, they will come to know the suffering and ascent to human flourishing are not just ideas (2006, p.167).  The more we as professional develop our psychological, spiritual and physical lives the more in tune we will be with both our physical being and more importantly our inner selves.  When it comes to me I need to work all of these areas more to become that well rounded professional.  However I feel that the most benefical to my success right now is going to be more work on my physical wellness as I work to get back into shape, so that I can successfully lead those who look towards me for guidance and support in their own life.

            When it comes to breaking down my own health in each of these three areas there are several things I feel I need to look at in order gain a greater understanding of where I am in each category.  On a scale of 1-10 for each area I would rate myself spiritually at a 7, physically a 5 and psychological I would score myself a 6. 

            As we can see each of the three areas listed there is plenty of room for improvement in my life.  For my physical wellbeing some of the goals I have for myself are to get back into the gym and out running on a regular basis.  This alone though will not fully get me to where I feel I need to be.  I also need to work on what I am eating and cut out on the fast foods and work to cook more whole and healthy food at home. When it comes to my spirituality I feel for me this is one of my stronger areas.  This has been something I have been working on for well over a year now going back to anger management classes where we would focus on learning meditation techniques and ways to bring myself back to inner peace.  What I would really like to focus on the most though is bringing more meditation time into my days.  Finally my psychological well-being is another area for great improvement.  Some goals I have for myself is to work on taking things as they come and not allowing myself to get agitated with others and when I feel myself doing so just walk away so things do not escalate and my anger tendency show.

            Now that I know what my weakness are and how I feel I stack up in each area one important thing for everyone to have to help them achieve success is goals.  When it comes to my physical well-being my goals are to start out small by working to exercise three days a week for at least an hour at a time. After about a month or so of this slowing increase the amount of workouts to five days a week then move my workouts up to an hour and half to two hours at a time.  Next would be to start bringing my own lunches to work to help me from going through a drive thru for my meals.  For my psychological/spiritual well-being my goals are to start out each day with at least 10 minutes of meditation time to get myself ready for the busy day ahead. Next would be each day take even if for five minutes time for myself to decompress and get myself back into family mode.

            Now that I have goals put down on paper, I need to be able to track these goals to see how I am applying and improving upon them.  One thing that I have done for this to purchase a exercise journal that has areas for keep track of the exercises I do and the days I have exercised and allows for food entries.  Another thing I have done to help with this is signed up on different sites that help with food planning and tracking.  For my psychological and spiritual goals the biggest thing I feel I can is to like my physical well-being is to keep a journal of the times that I am to meditate and have “me” time.  Also doing this will allow for me to keep track of times of day that work best for accomplishing these goals.

References

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach: Basic Health Publications.