unit 9- 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?

Overall health and wellness professional are under a lot of stress and thus need to know themselves in order to be able to deal with the stress. Having a developed psychologically, spiritually and physically wellbeing can lead to increased happiness and better productivity at work as well as at home. If a health and wellness provider is lacking on one or more of these areas, this can lead to confusing and lack of preparation for events of the day and leading to mistakes that could be avoided.

I feel that everyone including myself needs to continuously work on their psychologically, spiritually and physically wellbeing, there are new ways to deal with stress as well as new physical activates that could be tried. For me spiritual wellbeing is the focus and what I need to work on the most. I have felt disconnected from “church” for a while and I would love to find a church that feels like home, or at least somewhere I do not feel like an outsider. 

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

I have accessed my health and overall wellness in spiritually, physically, and psychologically aspects and understand there is some room for improvement in all areas. Spiritually I feel I am very low, this is because of my lack of church where I feel at home and a part of. For me this is very important, my husband and I were part of a church and we really loved it but when we stated to receive bills from the church saying what we gave was not enough, we had to look at the situation and step back from that church. This was a damaging time for me because I was not sure if this meant we did not belong to a church at all or if we needed to look back at the Catholic Church for guides. We do not have a church yet to call home; it is still a stress for me. When it comes to the physical aspect of wellness I am doing well there, I am training for a ½ marathon, yet I know that I could eat better. I love desserts and other things that are not that great for me, I think this is balanced by eating fruit and vegetables as well as whole grains. I try to only have one dessert a day but some days that is not the case; it all depends on my mood and events of the day.  Psychologically I am doing okay, most days. I worry about getting in to a Master program yet understand it is very competitive and I need to do my best to have a chance. I know that I have a lot going on; being a wife, mother, aunt, student, personal trainer and t-ball coach to just name a few all take time but I have managed to do well and hold it all together somehow. My family gives me a lot of support and I know that is very important and helpful to me and my ability.

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

One goal I have for myself physically is to a half marathon in less than 2 hours. I have come close to this in the past one time being 2 hours and 3 minutes and the other being 2 hours and 5 minutes. I am hoping this year due to the face I will not be in school full time as well as coaching t-ball like last year, I will be able to train more consistently thus reaching my goal.

Psychological a goal for me to keep an open mind about other forms of treatment when it comes not only to myself but for others as well. As I am very medical when it comes to thinking about ways to treat people. I understand people have different beliefs about treatment options and I need to be more open minded about them as well as the idea they could work. This is going to be difficult for me but I know if I am able to become a PA than I will be faced with several different situations that I need to be ready for, this is something I can practice now.

A spiritual goal that I have for myself is to find a church where I feel at home and want to be. I am Catholic yet I do not go to church each week, I try to go once a month but that does not happen all the time either. I seem able to find an excuse for not going to service each week, and I feel bad about it but I still do it over and over. I wish that I had more discipline with myself to make this a priority. I do think some of the issues is with my husband not being on board with going back to Catholic service, he would like to find a Christian church not necessarily one religion over another. Although my husband was raised Catholic he is not a practicing Catholic, never really wanted to be which makes it more difficult. Having a son is another issue, I do not necessarily want him to be raised a Catholic but I want him to have something, and that is where stress comes from. My goal is to find something the we can both live with and be happy about, I do not want my husband to be left in the dust when we go to a church service, I want it to be a family event. 

              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.

A tactic that I am going to use to promote growth in the physical domain is make a training schedule and stick to it! I have made several in the past and I have fallen short on them, for several reasons but none of the reasons were all that good. It is hard for me to make plans to far out but this is important and I really would like to reach my goal for the ½ marathon, I know that I can do it. Another method I am doing to use is music; I plan to have music that will go with the training session. I think this will help to keep me on track as well as not have the same music over and over when I am training. When thinking about what I am able to do psychological it is hard for me, I think I will make it a point to research one alternative treatment method each month, this way I will be up on the new research and what might be coming down the pipeline. I will also continue my subscription to JAAPA, this is a journal for PA’s yet I will not be skipping over the alternative treatment articles and information. I will read it objectively as I read everything and try not to judge people for their actions without having more information. Again spiritually is going to be the hard one, I am going to start with a long overdue conversation with my husband about church and what he would like out of a church, having this information will help me to narrow down churches we might want to go to.  I will also do web searches and talk to others about church, this is a topic that is not talked about a lot and I think I need to get some help, realizing that is the first step. I will also keep the lines of communication open between my husband and myself as well as our son, this is so we do not have these un-talked about items that are hindering our overall happiness.

               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?

Do to my goals I would like to evaluate myself for psychologically, spiritually and physically using different strategies. For physical I would like to run the ½ marathon in less than two hours, this would be a PR for me as well as my mother who is running with me. For both of us this would be a wonderful goal to obtain. I know I disappointed my mother last year with my lack of preparation overall for the ½ marathon, I do not want to do that again this year. Are for psychological I would like to find a class or at least keep up on research dealing with different ways to treat illness, I find that knowing about different treatment options helps me to make better choices as well as offer incite to others about treatments. There are several web pages that have been talked about in this class and I would like to keep them in my bookmarks so I am able to reference them when needed. I also think these web sites are nice to give to others when they ask questions about alternative treatment options. Spiritually I will evaluate myself by looking at the excuses I have come up with to not go to a church or find a church that is fitting for my whole family.  This is something that is very important to me and I do not want to let my son get tangled up in religion that he knows nothing about because my husband and I did not want to make a choice or try anything different. I will be happy if within 6 months I have gone to at least two new churches and have been opened minded about them. Finding something we are both able to be happy with is what I want and this will help with my son finding a religion that we are all okay with.