Introduction:
One of the main reasons I feel its important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually, and physically is because of credibility. We as health and wellness professionals are to promote and inspire good, healthy behavioral ha do this if we are not practicing what we preach. In other words, the saying “ one can not lead where one has not gone’, is a very true statement. For example, in my profession as a personal trainer, I encourage people to live a lifestyle that encounters daily exercising and good nutritional habits in order to maintain a healthy weight. If I were obese, a smoker, and in very bad health, how could I inspire people to exercise and eat healthy when I clearly look like I did either. It would be quite hard to promote exercising and good eating to others, if I didn’t do it myself. How would I even now the formula works?
Assessment:
When it comes to assessing my health in each of the areas of spirituality, physically, and psychologically, the following ways are how I assess myself; in the area of spirituality, I would score myself an eight. Although I am a very spiritual person, I feel there’s room for improvement in this area of my life. Spirituality is what keeps me grounded and focused on what things are really important. I feel that my prayer and meditation life in this area could use more attention. Sometimes these two things get neglected because of so many things going on in my life and before I know it, I am consumed by the cares of the world. Constant prayer and meditation would allow me to strengthen this area in my life before I become overwhelmed with worry and frustration of life’s problems.
When it comes to physical growth, I would score myself a ten. If there’s an area in my life that I feel is complete, this would be the area. I am very big on nutrition and exercise, and have been for a very long time. In fact, some people would say I am a little on the obsessed side, but if I had to be obsessed in anything, this would be a good one to choose. My exercise program consist of six to seven days a week of some type of cardiovascular exercising such as running, walking, cycling, aerobic classes, elliptical machines, and stairclimbers. I weight train at least 5 days a week, making sure I hit each muscle group at least twice a week. My nutritional plan has a variety of carbohydrates, good fats (nuts, avocado’s, etc.), protein and fruits. This is definitely an area in my life that is pretty clean.
Psychologically, I would score myself a six or seven. This is one area I could use the most help in. I seem to get stressed and overwhelmed very quickly when things get overwhelming to me. This is definitely an area I need to focus more attention on. If I could become better psychologically when it comes to handling different situations, my stress level would be very low. Of course I do exercise when I am stressed, but I could definitely use more work in this area.
Goals:
My goals in each of these areas would include the following; spiritually I would love to incorporate more prayer times in my life. Although I try to start my day off with prayer, I sometimes allow other things and circumstances to get in my way of doing this. Also adding prayer in some other ties during the day would help me stay more focused on what really is important in my life, and that is spreading loving/kindness, no matter how hard it may be sometimes. Physically, I think my one goal in this area would be to run a marathon. If there’s one thing in this area I haven’t achieved, it would be running a marathon. I have competed at the highest level when it comes to fitness competitions, and have been pretty successful, but I always find myself saying now what? I am always looking for new and exciting fitness goals to challenge my level of fitness and keep me not getting bored with my current fitness program. Running a marathon would totally change my fitness program up and keep me challenged. Although I have running in my exercise program, I have never challenged exactly how far I can run.
When it comes to my psychological goals, adding meditation techniques would be at the top of the list. With the demands of a highly stressful job, family, competition, school, and just the cares of every-day life, my stress level has become a little higher than I would like it to be. One thing I found very helpful from this class were the cd’s on meditation. I found that after doing a meditation exercise, my entire mind and body became totally relaxed. It was a feeling of calmness all over me, and I loved it. If I could make time to meditate at least 10 to 15 minutes out of my day, it would do tremendous things for my stress and tension levels bought on by every-day cares of the world.
Practices for personal development:

Meditation is another practice I would like to implement to help foster growth in my spiritual development. I noticed this semester, the meditations we practiced bought about a very calm mental state in myself. I will try to do some type of meditating at least twice a week. I will start out with implementing it before bed and after a 10 minute prayer cycle. Visual imagery meditation will be my focus. I love this type of meditation because it allows my mind and body to go to a place of happiness. Doing this practice just before bed will allow peaceful thoughts to enter into my mind when I sleep so that I can get a restful sleep, this is key to a successful next day. When it comes to physical development, he two practices that I would like to implement in my life to foster growth in this area would be, training for a marathon and adding more flexibility training (yoga).When it comes to marathon training, I will try to get on a schedule of running about 30 miles a week first, then gradually building up to running long distances twice a week. Not only will my program consist of distance running, but pace running, hill climbs, and short distance running. I will plan at least two rest days a week in this program. If I keep this program up, hopefully I will be ready for a marathon in one year. I will first do a half marathon to prepare me. When it comes to flexibility training, adding more yoga classes would be the key. Although I do have some yoga in my routine, it’s not regular. I will plan to take at least two yoga classes a week regularly as well as add longer periods of stretch segments after my workouts. Done on a regular basis, I should start to notice more flexibility in my muscles in at least six to eight months or sooner. This is my first flexibility goal.
Finally, in my psychological development, I will adopt more loving/kindness practices along with more visualization imagery techniques to help foster growth in this area. Loving/kindness techniques will help me develop a more nurturing positive attitude towards people in general. I will practice this technique by smiling more and trying to say more kinder things to everyone I come across in a day, even when I don’t feel like it. Sometimes practicing Loving/Kindness techniques puts you in a more pleasant mood because you have said or done something that has brightened someone else’s day. I will implement more visual imagery techniques of meditation by allowing myself quiet time alone in a dark place or at least a quite room free from people and noise. During this time, I will put in some quite soft music, lye down on a floor or just allow myself to sit quietly in a comfortable chair and began some deep breathing techniques to put my mind in a more peaceful and relaxed state. This technique will allow me to fill my thoughts with happy thoughts and remove any negative ones. Concentrating on happy and positive thoughts calms my mind, body, and soul. For me, this is the key to psychological growth. It is like a cleansing of the mind and soul, which in turn takes a lot of stress off the body.
Commitment:
In the next six months I plan on assessing my progress in my new integral health and wellness plans in the following ways; 1) Keeping a journal of how often I practice the new implementations in my spiritual, physical, and psychological growth. 2) Taking a personal inventory of myself. Noting how these changes in each domain has contributed to a healthier mind, body, and soul. 3) Continuing to set new goals in each of the three areas. These are also strategies that I will use to assist me in maintaining long-term practices in my own health and wellness. In one year, I will re- evaluate these changes and see what changes in my personality these new health practices has bought to my life.