Unit 9 Final project

My wellness goals

By Chelsea Barry

HW420: Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

It is important for health and wellness professional to develop psychologically because if they have a client/patient that is coming to them for psychological help or advice the professional will not be able to truly help their client/patient if they them self are not psychologically developed. No one including professionals can help a person with anything if they cannot even help themselves.  A professional needs to be spiritually developed (even if they are not religious) for a few reasons; first, the professional is going to have client/patients that are spiritual and the professional is going to need to understand how the client/patient feels so they can do what is right for that client/patient and their beliefs. Second, the professional is going to be able to better help their client/patients if they are calm, focused and more patient which comes from being spiritually developed.  Finally a professional needs to be physically developed because it is hard to take someone seriously about how to live a healthy life when the person is not healthy. It is like going to a personal trainer that is overweight; you do not really trust their judgment about what to do to be fit. In general professionals need to be sure to “practice what they preach” because they are professionals. They are not going to have much success in their career if they are advising people to do things they are not doing or not to do things that they do.

Spiritually I would say I am fairly strong, I know how I feel about things and I feel strongly in what I believe. I feel connected to those around me and the world in general and confident in my presence in the world. Psychologically I am fairly strong (although I do need to work on stress management) I am focused in my goals, I know what is important to me in my life and feel fairly good about where my life is going. Psychically I need to do a little work; I am a little overweight and need to work at getting in shape. I do eat well and work out every day but there is defiantly room for improvement.

Spiritually my goal is goal is being more at peace, I have a tendency to worry about what is going on and I need to work on just being more accepting and more at peace. My goal for psychological wellbeing is pretty much the same thing; I need to work on my stress management and just relaxing more. Physically I need to lose some weight and be more in shape. Although I do eat well and work out every morning I need to do more strength exercises for overall fitness.

Spiritually I can make sure to do the relaxation exercises we have learned in this class and taking time every day (or at least as much as possible) where I sit quietly and take time for me to just be. Psychological I can keep a journal; I have done this in the past and really help to put things in perspective. Writing down my thoughts and feelings is kind of like a release and then rereading it later can sometimes make me realize how silly I am being. Another thing I can do is take walks every night, walking at night is a great way to clear my head and enjoy the outside when it is cool, not as bright and not as many people around. Physically I can do more weight exercises and since I have quit smoking I have picked up a habit of eating candy when I am stressed so by cutting back or eliminating candy from my diet I would be healthier.

For my spiritual and psychological wellbeing I will judge my progress by how stressed I am or how overwhelmed I become by situations. I will review my journal entries to see how I report feeling to see if there is a decrease in me feeling stressed. For my physical wellbeing I will judge how well I am doing by my weight (wither or not I am meeting my goal weight) as well as how I feel overall, if I am winded running around with my kids, how much energy I have throughout the day etc. Reminders  always help me in maintaining long term goals, when I become overwhelmed reminding myself that I do not want to be a person that is always stressed out, my husband also is really helpful in reminding me of my goals and helping me stay focused.