1. Review your unit 3 personal assessment of your psychological, physical, and spiritual well-being. Reflect on these areas . How did you score yourself on a scale from 1 to 10 in unit 3? How do you score yourself now? Has the score changed? Why or why not? I think in the beginning it was really hard for me to concentrate, and I was frustrated with my class. Now that it's over, I can look back and see where I can improve and also realize what I cannot change. Realizing that I can only control myself and not others was a big lesson for me. The various meditations we did certainly helped me to see that, and also to make peace with it. 
2. Review the goals and activities you set for yourself in each area. Have you made progress toward the goals? Explain. I have made more progress with my physical goals, and my spiritual goals as well. I now meditate at night, and it's becoming my favorite thing to do. I play the meditation from class, it's in my itunes now. I put on my headphones, get in bed, and lay there in the dark. It's the best thing and it's how I recuperate each day.
3. Have you implemented the activities you chose for your well-being in each of the three areas? Explain. As I mentioned, I now meditate at the end of the day, and I think spring slowly coming has helped me in my physical goals. I also make sure to connect with close friends several times a week. I think that has helped my psychological self for sure.
4. Summarize your personal experience throughout this course. Have you developed improved well-being? What has been rewarding? What has been difficult? How will this experience improve your ability to assist others? If anything I have learned new skills for getting in tough with my spirit. It was clumsy at first, but I was so interested in the whole process, I just went with it. Probably like anyone trying to meditate for the first time it was strange, and I couldn't focus or keep my thoughts in one place. I kept thinking about all the laundry I had to do, maybe I don't really need this, etc. But it really has become a regular part of my day, and I feel like I have the basics to continue, and I feel I am healthier mentally than I was before this class started. And I also feel like I have the tools to show other people how beneficial meditating can be. 
5. Katie

Final Project

Introduction
I think it is important for health and wellness professionals to develop psychologically, spiritually and physically because because we need to be leaders in our profession. We need to show our clients the way to optimum health, and that achieved by always trying to better ourselves in all three of the areas mentioned. There is no end to that, as we are always changing and can certainly always learning more. Yet we need to walk in the path that we are counseling to truly help others. It doesn't mean we have to be perfect, yet it means we need to understand how important they all are and to practice the mindfulness exercises we have learned as well as the other lessons we have learned so far.
I need to develop the spiritual aspect of my life more. I feel solid with the physical and the psychological aspects. The more I work on my spirit the easier it becomes, and also it is easier to maintain my physical and mental strength. I truly have applied what I have learned in this class and it has been eye opening for me.

Assessment
I have assessed my health in each domain by paying close attention to how I feel; mentally, physically and spiritually. Do I feel worn out emotionally? Am I run-down, even after a good night's sleep? When I give enough attention to myself I feel balanced. When I can go running, biking or swimming regularly it makes my spirit and my body happy. It lifts my spirit and mood, and everything and anything seems possible. When I miss workouts it has a cyclical effect. I feel poorly, I get irritated, I feel bloated and I feel like eating junk food. Also, when I have set aside time to meditate it has the same effect. I feel better, calm, able to tackle whatever lies ahead. On a scale from 1-10 I would score my spirituality 5, physical 7 and psychological 7. However, some days those numbers are higher or lower depending on how much time I had to dedicate to each one.

Goal Development
My goal for each area is as follows:
Physical- I would like to incorporate more yoga into my weekly routine. As much as I love running etc I would love to do something physical that has nothing to do with training. Psychologically I would like to read more as it has always been something I love to do. Spiritually I will keep up with my meditations because it truly has helped me in so many ways.

Practices for Personal Health
The strategies I can implement to foster growth in each domain are:
physical-set aside enough time to do the exercises, incorporate new exercises instead of sticking with the same old ones
spiritual- vary the meditations, using only one will not allow me to grow spiritually. Never skip a meditation, just because I think I feel "okay". I always need it in my life
psychological- setting aside time that is just for me-whether that is for knitting or reading, it is important to do things that feed me personally. Keeping in contact with very close friends has become another way I can help my psychological self. I have noticed that if I don't keep in touch with my close friends, I feel isolated. Especially this winter if I didn't talk to my best friend at least once a week it made it seem colder and harder to bear.

Commitment
I can assess my progress or lack of progress in the next three months by keeping a journal. It is easy to assume that you are on target with something-but if you log your activity then you can really track how you're doing. It also might clue you in if you were having a hard day or week; you can flip back in your journal and see if it had anything to do with not going to yoga, or maybe you didn't meditate at all that week. It would be an easy way to trace your progress. Then hopefully it could just be a quick thing, and the more you notice how helpful it is, the more it becomes a part of your life, a part of who you are without trying.

Katie Lay

In reviewing all the exercises I have done thus far, my favorite was the Loving-Kindness and the the meditation from Unit 7, meeting Aesclepius. They were both good for me because it was more guided than some of the other ones. The more I do the loving-kindness the easier it is. Also, it isn't just about me thinking about me; I like that I have to imagine other people who may be suffering.

I have already implemented these meditations in my life. I do the loving-kindess once a week now. I started teaching my new class at the new campus last week. I ended the class with them doing the loving-kindness meditation. I had music in the background and just read it from the textbook instead of playing it from the download. All but one really liked it. It makes me feel good to introduce other people to meditation and to kind of spread the word about how beneficial it is to our bodies and minds.

Katie

I really liked this week's meditation. I chose to picture my father, who passed away in 2004. I felt very close to him through the whole process. It made me happy and I am glad I am in a place in my life that I can recall his wisdom and advice. There was a time when I would roll my eyes at him-I feel terrible about that, but we made it to a place where our relationship matured before he died. The exercise made me grateful for the time I had with him and that he got to experience being "Papa" to my son. It also made me remember that I have that wisdom inside of me, passed on through him. I have all the tools I need already to be kind, forgiving, accepting. I just need to be quiet and allow myself to remember it all. This is my favorite meditation as of yet. It was the most powerful for me. I can carry on this feeling by doing this meditation any time I need a boost or time to reflect.

The saying "one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" to me means that it is difficult to dispense advice on something you yourself have not experienced. It would be like taking a group on a tour but you don't know where to go because you have never traveled there. How will you teach them about this place? What do you have to offer others? This ties into the health profession because if you want people to believe in what you are saying and to trust you, you actually have to live that kind of life. Especially in this type of field, we need to practice what we preach. How can we help our clients if we think meditation is stupid, or if we are angry at everyone who has ever wronged us? It is true in any profession that you should have a passion for it-people will see that light inside of you bursting out and it will be easy to help people. However, if this is isn't really what you want to do, you may have a hard time getting clients because they will see right through you.

I think keeping my mind open, and continuing the meditation exercises will be so helpful for me as I continue on here. The point isn't to know it all, but to really try and embrace the lessons I have learned in a way that I might be able to help others. I will never stop trying to learn and better myself.
Katie

So as luck (or fate) would have it, I began the Universal Loving-Kindness meditation when I was really frazzled. I suppose the universe is really trying to teach me many lessons during this class. i had a very difficult time really believing what I was saying, no matter how many times I repeated it. I myself felt stressed, worn thin, and tired. Honestly, I felt irritated that I had to take what little energy I had leftover and try to direct it outward. The book says to let it be an antidote to anger, but the more I focused my energy on helping others the more angry I got. So I just stayed there, feeling mad. Then I tried again. I tried thinking of people who were suffering, and who would give anything to be in my situation. I am not suffering, I am feeling overwhelmed. But I am healthy and so is my family. I began to feel grateful for my health and my kids health. I felt humbled by the exercise.

When I did the assessment I found that the area I need to develop is the psycho-spiritual aspect of myself. Im sure that I need improvements everywhere, but that is a good place to start. I like the meditations we have been doing, they seem to really work for me. Even though they were difficult and strange to me, I think the more I do them the more effective they are.
Katie

I just finished doing the Subtle Mind exercise. It was different from the Loving-Kindness in that it was guided, but there was no direction that she gave-you had to clear your mind instead of visualize something; all the while focusing on your breath. The benefits to this is that our breath is always with us, so we can work with it anywhere; it helps us react less; creates an inner calm; and we create a more stable mind.

I experienced some frustrations at first. Without being told what to visualize I found it hard to concentrate at first. The Loving-Kindness was easier for me because I was being told what to picture. When left to my own thoughts, things started to creep in.
As I continued it became a little easier each time to release thoughts and focus on just my breathing. I can see why it takes practice, thought With continues practice I think it will be easer to let thoughts go and focus on breathing.

The connection between spiritual wellness and mental and physical wellness is that I think by making space in your life for health, wellness and quiet you are giving yourself space to be calm and reflective. When you do that you restore what your body needs and this flows over into all aspects of your life. When you take the time to nourish your mind you will have so much more patience and calm; you will be able to handle things from the right perspective. Everything else around you will get the best of you because your mind is operating at it's best.
Katie

My experience with this week's meditation was pretty cool. I liked how she had me visualize someone that I hold dear, then I had to turn all those loving kindness feelings on myself. It is always more difficult for me to accept fully and love myself like I do children (who I was picturing).

Then the thoughts and feelings and images that are unpleasant and letting them go felt like I was "washing" clean negative thoughts and emotions or ideas I have about myself. It was like I brought them to the surface, gave them awareness for what they were, then rinsed it clean.

But best of all is giving the best part of me recognition and reverence. By focusing on that, I feel that best part of me will grow.

The last part was picturing strangers and those who I feel are my enemies. It made me feel connected to those around me, even though I don't know who they are. It reminds me that I can be compassionate to those that I don't know. Additionally, by thinking of enemies as real people, it can explain why they are your enemies to begin with. People who are hurt on the inside tend to hurt those around us. By breathing compassion and healing into them we can let go and forgive them.

I found the whole meditation healing, and actually my 8 year old daughter did her own journaling alongside me. She had some very wise and insightful thoughts about protecting and healing our enemies. I think anyone could benefit from this kind of thinking. Being kind and loving to ourselves is the first step to being kind and loving to others. It is so hard to do sometimes but this kind of exercise can help us on the path to self loving and acceptance.

The concept of a mental workout is how we can train our minds to positively effect our bodies. The research indicates that we actually make neuropeptides that positively effect our bodies. I can implement a mental workout like this meditation to positively effect my psychological health, and my physical health. I personally believe that forgiving is one huge piece of being healthy. Forgiving others, but most importantly forgiving ourselves. We can become trapped in a cycle of bad thoughts and emotions toward ourselves or others that can lead to a chronic illness.