Unit 9

Stuart Baxter

HW420-02

Unit 9 Project

Kaplan University

1 October 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                      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 because they are working in a critical career field. Not having a strong mind could lead to mistakes and poor decision which in the worst case scenario could lead to death. Being spiritually developed can help with a strong mind, when a person is at peace with themselves they can better focus on helping others. Lastly being physically healthy can help a health professional focus on their patients’ health. The combination of these three aspects will allow health professionals to do their jobs to the best of their ability and show they practice what they teach. The areas that I need to work on are my psychological, spiritual, and physical.

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

I assessed my psychological aspect of my life through going to a therapist regularly. I have PTSD symptoms still and they are anxiety, poor stress management, night mares, and several other issues. So I would score this portion as low.  Spiritually is the area that I need the most improvement. I assessed myself throughout reading our reading requirements every week. I would score this aspect as low as well, meaning I need to work on it more. Physically I assessed myself through my cardio, muscular, and overall health of my body. Figuring out my BMI, going to the doctor for checkups, and taking physical tests through the gym. I would score my physical domain as medium.

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

The first goals that I have are psychological. I would like to someday be able to handle stress and anxiety at a manageable level. My goals with my spirituality is to learn my mind better through meditation. My physical goals are to make my health more of a priority in all aspects.  

 

                 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.

Psychological practice that I am using to reach my goal is counting down from ten slowly while taking a deep breaths when stress becomes overwhelming. Another technique I use is stopping my worries and asking myself if I am ok? This allows me to look at reality and not focus on all the worries running through my mind. Spiritually I want to begin to bring meditation into my daily routine to help provide a better understanding of my mind and to find inner peace. Physically I would like to begin a physical workout called Insanity. Also physically I would like to decrease the amount of sodium I am consuming to help lower my blood pressure.

                   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?

Psychologically I can start out with a beginning assessment using a scale of 1-10 on how stressed I am before the exercise and 1-10 on how stressed I am after completions of the exercises. 1 would be lowest amount of stress and 10 would be the highest amount of stress. Spiritually I would use a journal to document how I felt after each week and compare the journals as I go to see what areas I am progressing at. Physically there is a test at the end of each week while doing the Insanity workout, this will be a guide as to how I am improving. Also working on my sodium intake I will create a diet plan to document what I am consuming and measure my progress through my blood pressure dropping to a safer level. 

Reference:

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