Health & Wellness Review

• Physical: Was a rating of 4 now it is at 6 because I have been running more and doing Insanity workouts but there is always room for improvement. 

• Mental: Was a 6 and now is a about 6.5/7, I have been focusing so much on my other two areas that I have been not as connected with my mental workouts. School still does help a lot with this though. 

• Spiritual: Was a 6 and is now at a rating of about a 8 that is because I have been doing yoga, mediating and also going for hikes that bring me closer to nature and my spirituality.  

• My physical goal was to prepare to run a 5K I am still preparing for this goal but I have pushed it back a couple weeks and I am doing another one because I just did not feel quite ready for it yet. My mental and spiritual goals were to go on more nature hikes and and do more yoga I have done good at these goals so far I plan to keep them going. 
• My personal experience in this course has been an awesome one I feel like I have learned a lot of information to help me in my future professional and personal goals. I have developed an improved well being, and it is getting better and better with each day, this is a lifestyle not just a goal. Learning how to implement the teachings into my personal life is what has been most rewarding for me. The only thing that was difficult was realizing how out of shape my wellness was and that I needed to recognize I to need help in improving my health and wellness. This experience will help me help others because I will be able to practice what I preach. One of the most rewarding things is to be able to get my husband on this health and wellness band wagon with me and were both improving our lives so our son can grown up with healthy parents and role models. 

Final Project

                      I.                      Introduction:
Why is it important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically? What areas do you need to develop to achieve the goals you have for yourself?

-       It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically because you need to strive to be great in every aspect of yourself not just certain parts in order to be and feel whole, each part works together to make each other better within yourself. I still need to work on all my areas since it is always an on going process to make yourself the best you.

                    II.                      Assessment:
How have you assessed your health in each domain? How do you score your wellness spiritually, physically, and psychologically?

-       My wellness in all domains are much better than when I started this process but it is still an on going thing in life to make every part of you better. In spiritually I would rate myself an 7.5/8 because I look at this domain in a new light not just in the form of religion but in the form of being out within nature and becoming one with the world that surrounds me. In the domain of physically I would rate myself a 7 because it still needs work I am doing Yoga every day but I get off track when it comes to intense cardio or anything repetitive I am still on the search for something meshes well with me. Psychologically I think I rate pretty okay in since I am in school and I am always trying to use my brain power and the yoga helps.  

                 III.                      Goal development:
List at least one goal you have for yourself in each area, Physical, Psychological (mental health) and Spiritual.

-       Physical goal: To loose the last little bit of baby weight and ultimately run a 5K without stopping.

-       Spiritual goal: To find a religion that speaks to me and allows me to be me and to allow me to get closer to nature.

-       Psychological goal: To get better at Sudoku puzzles and stay taking classes here and there to keep myself always thinking and learning. I would love to learn how to paint as well keep my mind creative.

                 IV.                      Practices for personal health:
What strategies can you 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.

-       Physical: To find a class or program that keeps me interested and is fun and does not feel like a chore or work.

-       Spiritual: I started looking into Buddhism and also hiking more would bring me closer to nature.

-       Psychological: I will buy a paint book and some paints and brushes and set some time aside to be alone to be creative.

                   V.                      Commitment:
How will you assess your progress or lack of progress in the next six months? What strategies can you use to assist in maintaining your long-term practices for health and wellness?

-       I think I will keep my blog going and write daily entries to track my performance and see what I need to improve in my life and keeping my self happy and whole!

Mediation I like best!

Review the exercises and practice sessions you have completed in this course. (Loving Kindness, Subtle mind, Visualization, meditation etc.) Choose two practices that you have determined to be most beneficial. How can you implement these practices in your personal life to foster “mental fitness”? 

- Unit 2 Journey to Relaxation & Unit 3 Relaxation Meditations the best and most beneficial out of all the ones we have done throughout this semester.  I can implement these two practices into my personal life by taking time out and doing these mediations before and after work to make my day stress free and have less anxiety due to work related stress. These two mediations I think benefit me the most out of all of them because they are easier for me to follow because of the visualization cues. Being stress free because of mediation will open more space in my mind to be able to fill with positive things thus this mental workout will be very beneficial!

Meeting Aesclepius

I did the meditations this week and they helped very much with anexity of starting my new job and also stress with my little one not wanting to take his bottle anymore and me having to take him to daycare! I imagined my grandparents who passed a couple years ago in this mediation they were both very insightful people so full of knowledge, life and of course so much love!  I see them as my angels watching over me and my family =) "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself". I think this is very important to health and wellness professionals because I would not want a doctor telling me what is best and I should try this or that when he has no idea how it works from experience because they have not tried it their selves. I can implement more spiritual growth in my personal by mediating more out in nature, by taking a minute to sit in silence and enjoy my surrounds.

Unit 6 Exercise

1. Practice the universal Loving Kindness (meditation) exercise on p. 93.
2. Complete the Integral Assessment discussed in chapter 11 (p.115).
3. Describe the exercise and assessment process. What did you discover about yourself? What area have you chosen to be a focus of growth and development? Why? What are some specific exercises or activities that you can implement to foster greater wellness in this area?

• I liked this Universal Loving Kindness mediation exercise this week, I liked it so much because it made you think about others and how to want to help others not just yourself. I liked the second assessment as well because like the Universal Loving Kindness mediation exercise it was easy to follow because I did not have to listen to anyone else I could say the phrases to myself at my own pace and take the amount of pauses I wanted to! The area of myself I choose that needed growth at this time is my body in the sense of health getting back into shape now that it has been 3 months since my sons birth and staying on track with my exercise and eating right. It is not only good for me but also my son that I nurse and I want to be a great example of health when he is older and will take into account for his own healthy ways.

The Subtle Mind practice

1. Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.

- If I had to choose on which exercise I liked more I would have to say it would be the Loving Kindness one only because the amount of paused silence used for breathing and thinking almost made me feel uneasy. I guess I need more practice with meditating because my low patience tolerance is frustrating. Those blocks of silence make mind wander to what all else I have to get done in my world outside of mediation. Hence why meditation would be actually good for me it would help with my patience and my stressful daily life but I need to find one I actually can do and enjoy.

     2. Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how  the connection is manifested in your personal life.

- Spiritual wellness is a little different from mental and physical wellness but they all work hand in hand to achieve the ultimate goal of full happiness of Mind, Body & Soul. My physical and spiritual wellness are great I workout, I do a lot of it in nature like hikes and yoga and such but my mental is a little off still. I can not seem to clear my mind through mediation, its like everything in my outside world clouds my clear mediation mind.  

Mental Workout

I found this mediation exercise "Love & Kindness" a little tricky compare to the last two because there were no visual cues (like the colors, beams of light etc. in the last one) to work from to create an image in my mind, it was hard for me to concentrate. I do like the concept of the Love and Kindness idea though that was very good, you have to love yourself before others but loving others can bring great happiness to you. Even though I was not a fan of it I would recommend it because it had a good message and someone else might like it even though I could not get into it. Mental workouts is something that help you mind and body become one to help you achieve a level of happiness in yourself.

My Personal Wellbeing

My physical well-being I would have to say I rate it at 4 because I just had my baby boy 2 months ago and I am getting back into working out but I am starting off slow and I know I could be trying a lot harder. My physical wellbeing goal is to run a 5k Color run in the middle of August so I need to be up to at least a 7 or 8 by the end of July, so I am kick starting my work outs to two 30 minutes a day at home and I am hiking and doing outdoor fun on weekends with family and friends. I am actually off to Mt. Philip in Rome ME in a few hours with some friends!

My spiritual well-being I am not sure where to rate this one because I believe it goes hand and hand with psychological well-being, if one is off the other tends to be a little off balanced. I say I could be a little better in both topics so I give each a rating of 6. I give them 6's because I do my meditations and yoga in the AM to start my days off great with happy thoughts, but sometimes unhappy person will put me in a blah mood and I need to work on not letting other peoples unhappy mood frustrate me. My goal is to do yoga twice a day and maybe meditate during lunch break halfway through my day. Also to not let ungrateful people ruin my way of thinking.

I liked the relaxation exercise this week, I thought it would be hard to be creative and imagine colors and what not but it was quite easy and very helpful. I loved being able to see the colors so vividly in my mind. I did it with my son hanging out on my shoulder and he liked it so much it put him to sleep haha.

My Journey To My Happy Place!

Today was my first day back to work since I have had my son, so it has been about 2 months. I work at a school with children with behavioral issues and/or mental disabilities. I love my job but it was defiantly overwhelming coming back and leaving my son. With all that being said this journey to relaxation was very much needed today. It made me feel as if nothing could bring me down, I felt as if I was in another place and not in my living room. All I kept picturing was me swaying back and forth on a hammock in the summer breeze by a lake over looking the mountains. It was so serene and magical I did not want to open my eyes and have it end.

Hey Everyone!

 Hi everyone, welcome to my blog! I am new to this so bare with me as I learn. My name is Sasha Avila, I am 23 years young, I originally from South FL and moved up to central Maine for school 5 years ago. I like it so much I left the school I was in, stayed in Maine met the love of my life, bought a house and we just had our first son 2 months ago! This blog will be a little about me and the things I love and also about Health and Wellness! Enjoy, and Thank you for visiting!