Introduction: As a health and wellness practitioner it is
important to develop in all three major aspects of integral healing. Those
aspects are physical, spiritual and psychological. It is important to develop
these aspects because all three pieces are connected to the entire puzzle that
is our life and our healing process. If one piece is not being developed or
attuned the rest of the puzzle continues to shift around that piece knocking
everything else lose and out of sync. the mind, body, spirit connection is
where it all starts and to know that those pieces are all connected allows us a
deeper insight to not only ourselves but to those we plan to help along this
integral health path. As practitioners we must know how our own mind, body, and
spirit are connected before we can help others find their path. Right now in my
own personal life I am having to work on the physical aspects of healing. I
have had skin spots since December and I have no idea what is causing them. I
have been to a regular doctor and a naturopath, the naturopath said it was from
food allergies and has put me on a very strict very rigid diet. Well because of
this diet I have started to lose a lot of weight very quickly, which is not
healthy especially when I am not very big to begin with. So now I need to
figure out how to get rid of these spots but, now I also have to work on
building up my muscle mass to balance out the loss of the weight. I am going to
go see an acupuncturist to see if herbs and TCM can help me with the food
allergies and the skin condition. This morning I started a new fitness program
that centers on strength training and cardio so that I can build myself back up
in a safe way. This is a process and I can already feel this affecting my
psychological wellbeing. I am working really hard to eliminate any extra or
unneeded stress so that my mind doesn't suffer. I am keeping my faith high and
remembering to pray and offer my gratitude for I really am blessed.
Assessment: It is
important that I constantly assess my overall health in mind, body, and spirit.
If I am not assessing these pieces frequently how will I know what needs to be
worked on or adjusted. Currently my assessment range is probably a 7 for all three
pieces. There have been a lot of life altering changes to occur in my life
since the beginning of April. if I being totally honest my life has been kind
of in disarray for the last year and it has really been since March that I have
been more attentive to this disarray and making changes and adjustments in
order to really begin to heal. I need to work on all three aspects this means
finding the right foods and exercises to fit my physical needs, I need to spend
more time in meditation and relaxing exercises such as the loving kindness
exercise or the focused mind exercise to build up my mental health, and I need
to spend more time connecting to likeminded people, praying, and allowing more
time to help with my spiritual needs. I had always considered myself pretty
grounded and balanced in all of these areas and going through this class has
really helped me discover how out of sync I really have been and how I have
been hiding behind my fears and stresses and it has finally caught up with me
and now I have to make changes before I wind up really sick with something far
worse than itchy skin spots. The changes that have occurred in my life since
the beginning of April is the universes way of telling me things need to change
and change drastically or the outcome won't be pleasant. I have really been
able to take the time to assess my health and wellbeing over the last two
weeks, and I was not in a good place. Things are getting better and each day
has offered a new and unexpected sort of surprise. I am happy that I have been
given the tools through this class to recognize that things were not right and
that it’s all part of the overall integral healing path.
Goal: The goals that I
have right now are to eliminate as much of my stress as I can, I know that
there will always be stress in my life as stress is a driving force in all of
our lives, it's what allows us to get jobs done, and move through the day to
day routine. I don't need extra stress and so I am working on keeping my stress
level down. Another goal I have to begin to truly heal. As I mentioned the last
year of my life has been pretty hard for me and I know I need to recover from
all of that. I need to become the healthiest person I can for myself and for my
little boys. I have been given a gift of a month long sabbatical and other
than making sure my boys are where they
need to be and the normal tasks of being a mom I have nothing else that
actually has to be done. I have decided to take a term off at Kaplan to regroup
and so I am going to focus on getting my skin cleared up, putting muscle weight
back on my body, and allowing time for myself to bring all three aspects of my
life back into some semblance order. I plan on reading the game of thrones book
series as it is something I have wanted to do for some time and I plan on
lounging by the pool and relaxing, I plan on starting a daily meditation
practice and just finding a little room to breathe. Life is too short to be
overwhelmed and have constant chaos surrounding you. I am grateful for this
time and am looking forward to healing this particular chapter of my life.
Practices:
There are many practices I can do to achieve my goals, I have mentioned several
of them throughout this paper but, a few more examples would be yoga to
strengthen all three aspects of mind, body and spirit, I love yoga and now that
I am not teaching I plan to actually take a couple classes so that I can
actually reap the benefits of yoga, I can also do a dance class or two as that
truly is my ultimate stress reliever and one of my favorite forms of meditation
and a great form of physical activity. I can do things like visualization for
all aspects as well, visualizing being healthy will allow me to see myself
healing. My mantra for this time is " I am happy, healthy, and
healed." I started repeating this silently before bed last night and it
will get repeated throughout my day, week, and life. I am going to continue my
evening bubble bath to relax for my mental wellbeing. The nice thing about this
journey is it too is a practice. Every day is something new and the practices
shift and adjust as needed from moment to moment. I am excited to have time for
these practices and to add them more frequently into my life. I just to need to
make sure that when my month is up and I get back into a new routine that these
all stay with me and part of a regular practice.
Commitment: Making the
decision to change your life is never easy, and as I said I have had a months’
worth of life altering changes but, I am ready for the change and I am ready
for something new, with that I know I need to be held accountable for my own healing
journey and path. I need to stay on top of the mind, body, spirit connection
and make sure that each piece is continuing to heal and grow. In order to do
this I must assess my wellbeing frequently and make sure everything is still
working properly. I need to watch the movie that is mind, body, spirit and see
where things need to be changed and where there is growth and make notes of
these things. I need to maintain a sense of healing at all times so that I
don't wait until the imbalance appears in my skin to fix it. I need to be aware
of how I am feeling physically, mentally and spiritually at all times and if
something is off I need to increase my practices in that area so that I don't
unravel at the seams as I have done for the last year or more of my life. I
need to keep those seams together. Now that I am more attune to the integral
healing process I vow to to myself and to my loved ones to be the driver of my
own course and path, I want and need to heal now and always. This has been a
journey for me to realize that I am in need of a new path and a new way to
achieve that path on a more complete and total level. I need to make these changes now so that I
can be more prepared for whatever lies ahead and make the best out of my life
ahead. I am 32 years old and really starting my healing journey here and now.
I close by saying- The
journey comes to a written end but, continues.
Hi! I enjoyed reading your post. Integral health sure can be tough in this fast paced world we live in! How awesome that you got a month long sabbatical! Sweet! I'm glad to hear you are planning on taking time out for yourself during that time and relaxing. Why don't people think they deserve that anymore? We feel guilty if we aren't working non stop. In reference to your skin condition, have you tried adding juicing to your diet? Organic fresh vegetable/fruit juice is excellent for healing stuff like that. I don't do it all of the time. But when I first started juicing I had a bump on my face that looked like a pimple, but it wasn't acting like one. It had been on my face for about a year. But after a few days of juicing in disappeared! I was shocked! It definitely convinced me that juicing has healing effects. There are two excellent documentaries about juicing for healing, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead and The Gerson Miracle. I highly recommend them both and they should both be on Netflix if you have that. Anyway, enjoy your Sabbatical and I hope you find healing and are able to reduce your stress and relax. : )
ReplyDelete~ Jen V