Unit 10-Professional Application of the Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

At the beginning of our course within Unit 3, I performed a personal assessment and gave myself the following evaluation on the scale of 1-10 (1 being the worst and 10 being the most optimal):

Psychological---9
Physical---6
Spiritual well-being---9

Now some 6 weeks later at the end of our course I have the opportunity to evaluate myself once more and to note my progress.  I give myself the following evaluation:

Psychological--9.5
Physical--6.5
Spiritual well-being---9

I have only increased slightly in the physical score because I have a long road ahead of me to rebuild the strength in my lower extremities due to cartilage degradation in both of my knees.  I began a physical therapy program to strengthen my legs to relieve the stress on my knees, however after starting the program I got laid off of my job/demoted to PRN work which relieved me of my health insurance (wonderful world of hotel work).  I had to go out on my own with my therapy.  I plan to concentrate during my break to regain the lost ground by implementing my own physical therapy program to regain the strength in my lower extremities.

I have improved my psychological scores slightly by implementing my own regiment of meditation and relaxation techniques.  I plan to utilize  the break between terms to get in touch with my FSM with the volunteer minister's program where I work as a volunteer to implement more auditing and assists to increase my scores in this area.

My spiritual well-being has always remained strong due to my faith in God, our creator and the concept of there being a higher-being in life.  I will continue my studies into this part of my well-being and continue to offer as much assistance in improving my surrounding environment to create my own personal Haven to which to retreat in my own personal periods of need.

I have not progressed as effectively as I had anticipated because I experienced a major set back in my finances due to being put on lay off from my job.  That caused an upset of which I intend to recover from during our break.  I intend to do this my securing more stable employment within the health care field and leaving the field of hospitality (hotel industry).

I have implemented the Loving-Kindness Practice and the practise of meditation on a regular basis.  I intend to utilize our break as a time to progressively develop a personalized physical fitness program concentrating on low impact exercises to strengthen my lower extremities.  I also will empower some assistance from some of my friends who also are in need of this same encouragement.  We will incorporate the "Buddy" system to encourage and maintain our commitment to ourselves and each other with these shared needs.

I have really enjoyed this course as it has really impacted some of the aspects of what I wish to accomplish with my clients when I become a health care professional.  It has given me to basis needed to embark upon my own personal quest for a better, healthier well-being.  The difficult part was maintaining consistency with classwork, work from my job and my commitments to improving my own diet and physical fitness activities.  By facing my own challenges that I have encountered, it has enabled me to see how my clients may also embark similar challenges and I can therefore empathize and sympathize with their positions because I have been down a similar path this term myself.  I can now offer foreseen, first-hand found and tried solutions to their possible challenges because of the challenges I have faced this past term with my job, classes and my personal life.

Unit 9--Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

                                                                                             Unit 9 project 1

Running Head:  UNIT9PROJECT










                                      Creating Wellness:  Psychological
                                      and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

                                                     Lisa Sisk

                                         HW 420-03-Unit 9-Project









                                                                                             Unit 9 project 2

  I.  Introduction
            It is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically because in order for us to lead our patients and clients down the pathway to reach optimum health and wellness, we must use pathways and roads we have also well travelled.  In order for us to have empathy and understanding, we must also know and understand the current struggles of our clients so we can offer to them the best advice, care, service and support and have them feel that we are with them on their sometimes long, forbidding journey to health and wellness.
          I need to overcome my present set of barriers, severely arthritic knees and develop my own exercise program, adopt better eating habits and better sleep patterns so I can be at my optimum best physical, mental and spiritual awareness to lead my clients down the pathway to health and wellness.  I need to be aware of all their challenges, temptations, barriers and obscurities that they may encounter so I can give them the assurance that I have the knowledge of the journey they are about to embark.  My clients will be able to surely say that I am on their side and am in complete understanding of their position and will be able to support them in all ways necessary to ensure their ultimate success to better enriched lifestyles and better health.





                                                                                             Unit 9 Project 3

  II.  Assessment         (Scale of 1-bad-----10-best)
       Biological

•    Fitness (I have a lot of work to do in this area)----6
•    Nutrition (Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables)----6
•    Self-regulation (I am stable but need to work on the process to become Clear and to finally reach OT 8 Level)----6

        Psychospiritual

•    Conative (Driven to help others)----9
•    Cognitive (Above average)----9
•    Emotional (Stable)----9

         Interpersonal

•    Personal (Personal development--want to increase)----7
•    Family (Increase family--getting married and have children/adopt)----5
•    Community (Increase Volunteer Ministry work)----6

          Worldly

•    Generality (Become an educator to teach what I have learned to others--I LOVE TO TEACH)----6
•    Social Activism (Continue being involved with VM tutoring)----6
•    Work (Change career fields to healthcare from hospitality and become an Educator to teach others)----6

                                                                                             Unit 9 Project 4

III. Goal Development

        Physical

•     Increase wellness by eating more balanced/scheduled diet.
•     Completing the "Purification Rundown" to purge toxins from my body.
•     Developing more stable daily (weekly) exercise program.

        Psychospiritual

•     Reduce reactive mind with more Dianetics Book 1 Auditing

        Spiritual 

•     Increase to Conscious Unity

 IV.    Practices for Personal Health

         Physical

•     Begin Physical Therapy to strengthen my right ankle, calves, thighs, knees and hips to relieve stress on arthritic knees to reduce pain to enable participation to physical fitness for myself.
•     Develop my own low impact workout routine-eat more balanced diet, improve sleep patterns, improve physical activity to improve overall health.
•     Complete "Purification Rundown" program

                                                                                             Unit 9 Project 5

         Psychospiritual

•     Complete Personal Efficiency Program
•     Complete Auditing to Clear and to OT 8
•     Reduce reactive mind with more Dianetics Book 1 Auditing

         Spiritual

•     Increase Meditation
•     Increase Loving-Kindness Practices
•     Take up a Tai Chi Class

   V.  Commitment

•     I will do a basic assessment at the end of every 6 month period and adjust my physical exercise program to increase the challenge to increase my physical abilities.
•     I have to get a program set up with goals and challenges and stick with the program--maintain my work schedule to allow for my adherence to my physical fitness program.

                                                                                             Unit 9 Project 6

                                                 References

Dacher, Elliott S., (2006), Integral Health:  The Path to Human Flourishing, Basic Health Publications, Laguna Beach, CA.

Unit 8--Optimal Well-being: Psychological, Spiritual and Physical Keys to Health and Thriving

     Within the practices we studied:  Loving-Kindness, Subtle Mind, Visualization, Meditation, etc., I found the Loving-Kindness and Meditation Practice sessions, the most beneficial at the time I practiced them.
     I found them to be the easiest to get into without a lot of practice.  The Subtle Mind and the Visualization Practices I feel will be beneficial also, however I think that I will have to work at them by getting a lot of practice before I actually get beneficial effects from them.
     With the Loving-Kindness practice all I had to do was smile at people as I passed on the street and in the hallways I travelled and I immediately got a smile back and a comment to have a nice day on occasion.  Just this small gesture made me feel better and by the looks on the faces of the passersby, their moods improved also.  I could turn and watch after they passed and a few could be observed with an improvement in their gait or the pace in their steps.
     While in direct contact with people, I would actually engage in conversations, the attitude and facial expressions would lighten up whenever I would speak cheerfully and friendly to them.  Showing Loving-Kindness with kind words, smiles and a friendly voice made my attitude improve and it was like pouring sunshine on the person I was engaging in conversation with.  It is amazing when you see someone and evaluate how they are on the "Tone Scale of attitude" and step up your expression of attitude, you can actually pull this person's attitude up with yours.  You can also have the inverse affect on someone if you have a horrible attitude by pulling this person's attitude down to your level; with this you do not generally get positive results having negative encounters.  By showing Loving-Kindness you can improve your day and everyone you come in contact with and assist with the improvement of the environment for the time being.
     I have found that by implementing the Loving-Kindness and Meditation practices within my day on a regular basis, I find my attitude for each day to have me looking forward to the day's challenges and I actually look forward to having the challenges of difficult people and making it into a game.  I get up each day and say "I wonder how many grumpy people I can make smile today?"

Unit 7--Current Trends and Research Supporting the Mind-Body-Spirit Paradigm

     Over the Past week, I made a conscious effort to provide myself with at least one hour/day for meditation-me time.  I also made a point to speak to everyone I encountered on the bus, subway or int he corridors at my apartment complex.  I started a conversation today, Christmas Eve afternoon, with a lady from by building who was also waiting at the bus stop.  We had an enjoyable conversation waiting on the bus.  After we were there for an unusually longtime she hailed a taxicab and invited me to share the ride since we were going in the same direction.  She wouldn't even allow me to contribute to the fare, said it was her treat, I could get it the next time.
     I will continue to apply these meditation practices and the mindfulness practices to assist with the improvement of my neighborly hospitality to my neighbors.  I live in a particularly and fairly bad area of town and it always pays to have friends who will be vigilant for your welfare as well as their own.
     The saying, "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" (p. 477 of Consciousness and Healing:  Integral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine).  This statement suggests that one cannot give advice for someone to go down a road you have not travelled yourself.  This applies especially for a healthcare professional because a client is not going to follow the instructions from someone who is not eating a healthy diet, staying physically fit or staying psychologically fit.  You cannot expect a client to loose weight if you are gaining weight and staying physically unfit yourself, eating junk food and drinking sodas instead of the healthy fruits and vegetables the client is advised to eat.
     I have an obligation to my clients to be developing myself to better health, better psychological health and overall better physical status and spirituality for myself.  I cannot expect my clients to "do as I say do, not as I do."  it would be like "the pot calling the kettle black" in trying to get my clients to live healthy lives if I cannot "practice what I preach".
     I can implement psychological, spiritual and physical well-being for myself by implementing and following my own fitness and well-being program alongside my clients.

Unit 5--The Key Role of Thought in Wellness and Healing

1.  Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness Exercise and the Subtle Mind Exercise.  Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations, etc.

     I listened to both tracks of The Path to Human Flourishing, Contemplative Practices:  An Audio Companion to  Integral Health by Elliott S. Dacher, M. D. Track 2: Loving Kindness Practice and Track 3:  Subtle Mind Practice on my DVD/CD player and my TV.  I discovered that Track 3 was messed up so I downloaded the Track on the Doc Sharing onto my laptop.  I discovered that the Track had a visual display which I found to be very distracting while I was following the exercise.  I then placed the CD into my laptop and discovered that all the tracks had similar visual displays on each Track which I again found to be very distracting and in conflict with the audio tracks for each practice.  I found the visual displays of each track to be stimulating and the audio tracks to be very calming which created a mental confusion.  In order to get this procedure to work as intended one would have to listen via audio only devices to prevent the visual stimulation from creating this conflict,

2.  Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness.  Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.

     In order to get spiritual wellness or to even get close to spiritual wellness, you must first get the mind calmed and cleared of all reactivity to reduce the stimulation of psychosomatic illnesses and their effects upon the mind, body and spirit.  Once the mind is calmed and cleared of reactivity, the mind can then be expanded into a deeper sense of intelligence and intellect.  The body can then follow a healthy regiment to maintain higher levels of fitness which helps to keep the mental fitness stimulated and in line with a balance to create health, wellness and happiness.
     I have been attempting to create this within my own life to keep my health issues in check and manageable.  I first began to get my reactive mind into control and reducing its effects upon me with Dianetics Auditing.  By reducing the reactive mind, I reduced the stimulation of old engrams (and moments of greater or lesser "unconsciousness" on the part of the analytical mind which permits the reactive mind to record; the total content of that moment with all percepts) contained within the engram bank (the storage place in the body where engrams with all their percepts, are recorded and retained and from which engrams act upon the analytical mind and the body creating psychosomatic ills (any physical disorders/ills which are generated by the body itself or made worse by the body itself).  After the start of my Deactivation of engrams I was able to reduce the affects of asthma which I was diagnosed with in 2002.  I even had a physician attempt to induce an asthma attack chemically in the pulmonary lab and was unsuccessful.  I also had been inflicted with migraines that were so bad I had to give myself injections of Imitrex injections (3 or more a week where I was so sound sensitive I could not stand for someone to walk on the carpet in the same room with me/the static electricity the feet create on the carpet would be too intense).  I had a Dianetics Auditor to put me in session and contacted a near death experience at birth where the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck 3 times and my mother struggled for 16 1/2 hours of hard labor to have me vaginally.  They did not have ultrasound or fetal monitors back then.  Whenever a similar set of circumstances occurred in the present time which were similar to the circumstances that occurred at the time of my birth, a migraine would happen.  Once I contacted the engram initiated at my birthing and reduced its effects upon me, reducing the reactive mind, I then have not had anymore migraines, not even one.  I have been asthma-free for 5 years and migraine-free for 2 years now.
     My primary care physician who was convinced that I still needed to continue with my asthma medications said that asthma was a condition which could never be cured and wanted to know how I did it.  I mentioned that I was a Scientologist, had gotten my reactive mind reduced and that was what was causing the asthma.  He asked me if that stuff worked and I gave him my copy of Dianetics:  The Modern Science of Mental Health by L. Ron Hubbard and gave it to him to read.  I told him that he was now a witness to someone who was "cured" of asthma.
     I am not quite at the place I want to be but I am on my way to reaching my own level of health, wellness and happiness.  One day I will be there and enjoy every moment of life there after.

References

Dasher, Elliott S, The Path to Human Flourishing, Contemplative Practices:  An Audio Companion to "Integral Health" [CD](2006), Basic Health Publications, Inc., Laguna Beach, CA.

Hubbard, L. Ron, Dianetics:  The Modern Science of Mental Health, (1950, 2007),Bridge Publications, Inc., Los Angeles, CA.

Unit 4---Loving Kindness Exercise

My Experience after listening to the Loving Kindness CD was an experience and practice that I had first experienced while I was a resident at a homeless shelter after first moving to Washington, DC.  Throughout my life I have experienced different aspects of the human experience.  While at the shelter I had to get some way of relaxing and some way of escaping the the chaos and negativity of my surroundings.  I was working as a private duty nurse caring for a patient who was a former internal medicine physician who was suffering from advanced stages of Parkinson's disease.  After ending my shift I would return to the shelter and immediately get bombarded by the reactivity, negativity and other crap from the other residents of the shelter.  I was in sore need of a means to relax and clear my mind to prevent my absorption of their expereinces.  I purchased a relaxation CD and a CD player and began my journey into Lisa's world of relaxation and the Human Loving Kindness experience.
     I would lay on my bunk bed, put on my headphones, start my CD and enter into my own world.  I would follow the CD instructions and slowly feel the tension and worries of the day vanish from my awareness.
     The Dacher CD is just another approach to the same outcome of finding inner loving kindness and training yourself to administer loving kindness to those epople in your direct contact.  I found this tract to be beneficial, however somewhat difficult to accomplish with my roommate around.  He tends to be the needy type and my direct attention needs to directed towards him and what he is doing at the time.  If one can shut yourself off from the outside world for a few moments, it is reather helpful.
     I would definitely recommend it to others, mainlky me clients because it provides the user with a guide to direct the user to the realm or relaxation by giving them a focal point and a path to reach relaxation.

     The concept of "Mental Workout" is comprised of the aspects of clearing the mind of the "clutter", reducing stress, develop better sleep patterns, overcoming fears and phobias and increasing overall happiness.  Reaseach indictes that by giving yourself a menatal workout helps to keep the brain stimulated and active.  By implementing a regular mental finess workout program it can help to clear the negativity to make more room for positive aspacts and allows for more intellectual development.

References

Dacher, Elliott S., M. D., (CD) The Path to Human Flourishing, Contemplative Practices:  An Audio Companion to Integral Health

Maximize the Cognative Value of Your Mental Workout/Sharpbrains, retrieved December 5, 2010 from http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/02/21/maximize-the...

Brain Exercises-Mental Exercises-Mental Exercise, retrieved December 5, 2010 from http://www.mental-workout.com/legal.php

Mental Workout--Anytime, Anywhere,retrieved December 5, 2010 from http://www.mentalworkout.com/

Time Puzzles:  Brain Calisthenics,retrieved December 5, 2010 from http://www.time.com/time/covers/20060116/puzzles

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