Unit 10: My Reflection

The past ten weeks have been quite an experience for me.  I have grown as a person so much.  I have learned so much.  In unit three I assessed my own wellness in three areas (physical, psychological, and spiritual).  Today I would happily say I have progressed in all three areas.  For the improvement and growth based on the goals I set forth, I would probably score myself at a nine in all aspects.  I say only a nine because it leaves room for even more improvement.  Certainly I would say I am on the right path to optimum health and wellness.

Overall this course has helped me tremendously.  I believe that I am not only a better version of myself, but much better equipped to assist my clients through life-changing practices.  The whole class has been rewarding for me.  To see myself develop and learn more about myself was probably the most rewarding.  My largest obstacle was just simply learning to quiet my mind for meditation.  I still struggle a little with this, but I believe with continued practice I will have it mastered someday.  As time passes I will continue to develop myself into better and better versions because of the practices I have learned in this course.

Unit 9: Putting It All Together

Introduction

            Health care professionals must develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically so they can provide first-hand knowledge to their patients.  One cannot guide another to a place they have never been.  Therefore the professional must understand what the journey entails (through personal application) to successfully assist their clients.

            Of the three areas, I would need to work more diligently on my spiritual development than on the other two.  I have been working tediously on my physical development for about 30 months and my psychological development for nearly 34 months.  My spiritual development is the one area that is neglected more than any other.  To continue my journey to human flourishing (my ultimate goal) I must not neglect any area of my life.

Assessment

            In unit three we were to assess ourselves.  My self-determined scores were as follows: psychological – 8, physical – 8, and spiritual – 8.  Although I am working carefully on two of the three, I feel there is certainly room for improvement.  As for my spiritual wellbeing, I have not been actively working to improve it, but I do consider myself quite spiritual.  To improve all three areas, though, I must apply intentional development and application of various practices.

Goal Development

            I could list a couple dozen physical goals I have because this is something I think about every single day.  As a personal trainer (and formerly morbidly obese woman), physical appearances are in the forefront of my mind constantly.  I will say; however, as a general goal I want my body to be optimally fit and functional (meaning full range of motion of all joints, aligned, and without dysfunction).  This is something I work toward constantly with functional training and specificity in exercise.

            As for a psychological goal, I would probably have to say I would like to continue to improve my stress coping skills to declutter my mind.  I worked with a therapist for about two and a half years to learn many tools to cope successfully with stress.  Although I have improved greatly, I would really love to continue that development and to adapt my initial reactions.  With practice, I will learn to stop reacting and begin being intentional with my actions under stress.

            My spiritual goal would probably be the most difficult for me to define.  I suppose I would say I wish to continue to develop my connection to my fellow humans and to nature.  Fostering growth in this way will allow me to further develop my spirituality.

Practices for Personal Health

            The implementation of physical practices will be quite simple since it is my career.  To foster my above goal, I will increase my flexibility and stability training.  These practices will improve the functionality of my body and reduce risk for future injury (keeping my body at optimal fitness and function).

            To facilitate my psychological change and meet my above goal, I will continue to meditate a minimum of twice weekly.  As a blended method to work toward both my physical and psychological goals (as well as my spiritual goal), I intend to incorporate yoga into my routine.  This will be in addition to guided meditation practices.

            With the intention of improving my spirituality I intend to spend more time outside doing contemplative practices.  Practicing the loving-kindness exercises we covered in class will also help to improve my spirituality and further develop my inner self.

Commitment

            I will use the tools provided to me during this course to continually monitor my own progress throughout this transformation.  Building a network that keeps me accountable will also help me stay on track.  I have been discussing the possibility of beginning a “support group” (of sorts) to clients at the gym who wish to improve their psychological and spiritual health along with their physical health.  This would create an environment in which we can work together to support each other’s journeys.  It would also allow us to learn from others new ways to implement these changes and foster inner growth.

Unit 8: A Review

As we are nearing the end of the course, we are to take a moment to review the practices we have tried so far.  The two practices I have found most beneficial are Unit 3's Rainbow Meditation and Unit 5's Subtle Mind.  I chose these practices because I felt as though they will help me improve some weak areas of mine.  I struggled with both exercises, of course, but with practice I know I can do better.  Unit 5's exercise would probably be even more beneficial than Unit 3's simply because I have a hard time not clinging to thoughts.

My goal is to meditate at least twice weekly (I will increase the number of times as my skills improve and as I have more time).  So, each of these exercises will be completely once weekly.  This should give me enough practice to really start developing the skills needed to find these exercises more beneficial.

Until next time...

Unit 7: Mindfulness

I think I am *finally* starting to relax a little more during these exercises!  The only issue is that now as I am more relaxed, the woman's voice keeps startling me when she begins talking again (I know another of my classmates has experienced that same thing in previous weeks).  At least I feel as though I am making some progress, though.

Practicing being mindful in my daily life has been beneficial.  I feel like I am truly hearing people instead of coloring their words with my perceptions (which often leads to misunderstandings and hurt feelings).  My communication, in general, is improving since the beginning of this course.  Despite my challenges with many (or all) of the meditation exercises we have completed, I am actually enjoying them.  Moving outside of my normal "comfort zone" is invigorating, and I am learning things along the way.  Even after the conclusion of this course, I will continue trying new meditation methods and growing my inner self.  I have tried (a couple times) just playing light, relaxing music and meditating on my own (without voices or guidance) and have had a decent amount of success with that.  It is likely that will become my "go to" method of meditation.

A quote from Conscious & Healing (Schlitz, Amorok, & Micozzi, 2005) says, "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself."  I interpret this saying as "practice what you preach."  You cannot guide someone in a direction that you have not traveled yourself because you do not understand the nature of the journey.  This applies to my life as a personal trainer in many ways.  I cannot give fitness advice without experiencing it for myself.  I must lead by example with all my clients (or even just members of the gym). What would it mean for my credibility if I were never seen exercising in the gym, or if I were eating fast food at the front desk?  I would not be "walking the walk," so to speak and that would make me less successful in guiding someone else in their fitness journey.

Until next time...