Unit 9

Unit 9 Project: Final

 

 

Health and wellness professionals lead others to live healthy lifestyle choices.  As a professional, individuals seek you out to be their guides in whatever area you specialize and focus in. Therefore, it is important as a professional in this area, to develop yourself psychologically, spiritually and physically. Continued development in these areas, give you the edge as a professional to guide others with knowledge and experience. In addition to being a midwife, I also hold a vision for myself to be a holistic, intuitive life coach empowering women across the globe to develop their own inner awareness and higher self, because when you are really in tune with yourself, you find the answers. To see my vision to fruition, I have to be developed as much as possible in these three areas. I would say right now that changes in the physical area of my life are the most pressing for me, followed by psychological and then spiritual.

Assessment of Health

In 2012, when I finished midwifery training, I had a series of events that led me to put off my midwifery practice and truly develop my spiritual life. It was a calling that was so strong, I couldn’t resist the path. So, I left midwifery and truly developed my spiritual life and practice. This is when I discovered meditation practices which helped me connect to myself, my higher conscious and my guides. It helped me to make huge changes in my life and allowed me to start getting some clients to practice with. So, I feel like my spiritual wellness is really developed. My score in this area would be a nine because there is always room for improvement.  I currently feel like my physical body is where I need to most work and support right now. In 2013, I got a job at a pharmacy because I had some health issues that had to be addressed and I needed health insurance. Although it was nothing serious the health issues resulted from living in an emotionally and mentally toxic environment and then manifested physically. When we don’t take care of our spiritual and psychological lives, our issues will eventually manifest physically.  I’ve been working at the pharmacy for over a year now, but have been growing more dis-heartened and disconnected to my bliss due to lack of time. So, just yesterday, I gave my two week notice and I already feel completely relieved. The two things I need to work on in the physical area of my life is exercising and making more health conscious decisions.  I was always too tired to exercise and had to grab meals on the go at work. This resulted in me becoming very unhealthy. Now that I will have time to exercise and won’t have to grab fast food, I will be able to dedicate my time to this area of my life. So, I give myself a score of about four in this area.

Psychologically, I score my wellness based on the psycho-spiritual levels of development because it is a mental state of mind.  Just like in the sensorimotor consciousness phase, infants are just primal beings. There is no distinction, no mental processing, just their instinctual response. Psychologically, I find myself in the calm-abiding stage consciousness state of development. Dacher (2006) explains this stage as, “an unusual and remarkable accomplishment. The mind is undisturbed by the thoughts, feelings, and images that usually occupy our awareness. We abide in the stillness rather than in the turmoil of the mind’s movements. It is like a great ocean unaffected by the rising and falling of waves.” (p. 73). Psychologically, I still have a lot of work to do, but I am much better than where I use to be. I would give myself a score of seven in this area.

 Goal Development

Goal setting is important because if we have nothing to motivate us, it’s harder to do the work. For instance, if I say I want to lose weight, that’s not setting a specific goal. That is general, but setting a specific goal means to develop a program step by step to get there. Goal setting is important for any area of our life where we need to get something accomplished, either personal or professional. I have identified one goal in each area of development for myself. Physically, my goal is to increase my exercise to three times per week, and to begin making conscious choices about food. I do need to lose weight, but that will be a result of my goal to increase exercise and become conscious about eating. Spiritually, the one goal I have for myself is to begin using my spiritual gifts to assist my clients. I have a few clients, but I plan to increase them over the next year. Also, spiritually, I want to continue taking development courses to expand my spiritual development so I can help my clients expand their level of awareness. Psychologically, my goal is to just keep progressing where I can stay in a calm and centered space when things happen which would cause an emotional reaction. One of the specific ways that I can do this is to keep a journal. Every night, I will write an overview of my day so that I can see what happened and how I responded.

Practices for Personal Health

In addition to setting goals, putting practices in place to foster the fruition of them are equally important. In the physical realm, the strategy is to implement exercise and make more conscious choices about food. Exercising, specifically doing cardio exercise will help me burn calories and promote heart health. Secondly, cutting back on fast food, and buying more healthy foods will help me attain my overall goal of losing weight.  Exercising every week will also help raise my awareness to my physical body because as I commit the time and energy it takes to exercise, it will deter me from wanting to eat foods that are not healthy. Growing psychologically or improving mental health is very important for me. I found that before I started working and being around people, I was much more centered and focused. One way I plan to foster my mental health is by journaling. By journaling the day’s events, I can truly begin to make the connections between where my emotions rise and what influenced them. Then, I can come up with a plan to react differently the next time the situation presents itself. Another way to foster psychological development is to associate with positive people. Negative people have a tendency to weigh you down and bring you to their level of thinking and vibration. Being with others that have a positive mental attitude and positive focus can be great for fostering mental health. Spiritually, two exercises that I will continue to do to foster growth in spiritual awareness is mediation and prayer. The more that I purposely connect to my higher consciousness and God, the more I’m able to connect with others. I call prayer and meditation the spiritual communication dance. Prayer is speaking to God and meditation is listening.  Both of them foster spiritual growth.

Commitment

Physically, it is easy to assess progress. When it comes to losing weight, I have to see if  the pounds are going down? Am I feeling better? I will also be able to tell if I am doing enough when it comes to my energy levels because right now, they are pretty low. It will also be easy to assess physical health when I ask myself the question, how am I feeling about myself?  One strategy I can use to keep myself on track is a rewards system. I can buy myself something or treat myself to a restaurant dinner every month if I’ve hit my target goals. Honestly though, as I begin to lose weight, and feel better about myself, that alone will be my motivation to keep going. I believe psychologically and spiritually, it will also be easy to assess my progress because I feel the difference in myself when I am not where I need to be. It’s one of the very reasons I’ve decided to leave the pharmacy I work for. I’m surrounded my negativity, I feel as though I’ve learned the lessons I went there to learn and it’s prohibiting my own mental and spiritual growth right now. I also believe journaling will help me assess my progress as I begin to make connections on paper. In addition to using the reward system I can also use positive strategies like allowing myself to take an additional client or teaching a class when I’ve hit my own personal goals in this area. I also believe that teaching other women to increase their own awareness will also motive me to continue my path.  

 

Becoming a health and wellness professional is a goal that is not for everyone. It takes honesty, integrity, drive and passion to do this as a career. I look forward to incorporating all of these personal growth aspects into my life as well as helping others find their bliss by developing awareness.



Unit 8

Exercises and Practices

 

 

I believe in all of the exercises that we have done, I like the visualization exercises and also the Meeting Aesclepius exercise. Like I mentioned before in my previous post, I felt like I could connect one to one with my guide in the Aesclepius exercise. It was very interesting to be able to do that. Secondly, I really like visualization exercises. I feel like in connecting visually to wherever I am going, it opens my mind up for more expansion. As far as exercises, I really love meditation and yoga.

 

Ironically, another activity or exercise that I do that fosters mental fitness is through walking with music on. I get so many good ideas when I am walking with music on. Music motivates me and when I feel good, it opens the channels for creativity and love to flow. I usually carry a notebook with me, in the car, so that when I get finished walking, I can just write down the ideas I had. There are so many ways to foster mental fitness and as we grow, I believe this ways also change. As we mature, we take on new activities and drop other ones. We find growth and development in many things not just specific ones as we grow and develop. Matter of fact, the world becomes a gigantic playground and learning environment. At least that is how I see it.

 

I believe the next challenge in life, for me, to help me truly foster growth and awareness is going to be through teaching others. I have started doing intuitive counseling sessions for others and I will soon be holding seminars for others on how to tap in and connect to their woman within. A good friend of mine and I are going to start teaching these seminars in the New Orleans area and plan to hold classes online too for women. As I teach childbirth education class, I try to incorporate wellness within those moments going beyond what happens "in labor," to teaching women, overall, how to listen to their bodies and their babies needs during labor. So, I feel like my next path is teaching and expanding the awareness of women within my community. I also teach CPR and I am trying to find a way to teaching CPR and incorporate what else happens during a rescue and how to process the experience. I have a lot of expansion coming up. ((Smiles)).

 

Expand, Expand, Expand,

Heidi

Unit 7

Meditative Practices and Meeting Aesclepius

 

 

My meditative practices every week are pretty much the same since I've found a routine I like and I enjoy the results. This week, I did the meeting Aesclepius meditation and I seemed to enjoy it. As always, I connect with my guides in meditation and what I liked more about this particular meditation is that it gave me more of a focal point with my guide. For instance, generally, she is there in spirit. I can feel her, visualize her as a greatness of energy and all encompassing, but in this particular meditation, it was as if we were actually sitting face to face. I have to say, honestly, I was a bit intimidated in the beginning. I felt like I had actually invited my guide to be in my space, not the other way around. It was a very interesting experience for me.

 

Mindfulness, or meditation has changed my life in numerous ways. It has definitely humbled me and made me aware of a greater energy, a greater presence in this life than how I was currently living. I've always believed in God and was brought up in a Christian home, however, I had never truly connected to God in ways that other people describe. In my meditation, I can sit still, get silent and connect in true wholeness to the greater being who is I, but also more than I. I always know, too, when I've had a great meditative session because when I finish, I feel an abundance of love and gratitude not just for myself, but the world as well. I literally feel and see things differently after meditation. It is absolutely essential for my healthy state of mind and being, and I would never live again without a meditation practice. It also helps me as an intuitive practitioner, be able to tap in very quickly when I am working with a client to see what is going on behind the curtains. I've always been intuitive; however, developing a meditative practice as allowed me to become even better at what I do. I am ever so grateful to have been put on this path to higher consciousness and learning.

 

In the statement, "one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" is very true. I believe that we can learn about different paths, but if you haven't necessarily walked the path, you can offer practical guidance, but not always realistic guidance. For instance, I was a single mom with my first child. I worked, took care of him, did it all. Now, I teach childbirth education to young moms. I can truly understand that single mom that comes to class - I understand the struggles financially and emotionally, and the physical demand. If I would have had a partner to share the duties with me, I could have sympathized with her, but because I walked the path, I can truly empathize and I can share what really works. Additionally, as a health and wellness provider, I do believe that you have an obligation to your clients to keep developing as a professional and to keep honing your craft. If I am a life coach or counselor, it is my responsibility to continue learning about things that may help my client get through her day, or techniques that may be useful in her breakthrough. As a midwife, I am responsible for learning about disease processes and focusing on the least harmful treatments for my two patients as well as learning about birthing options so I can educate them and help them make the best choices possible.

 

I believe I will always implement spiritual growth in my personal life. It is something I crave and wish to know all about. One of the ways I continue to implement this growth is through meditative practice because it is there, in those still moments that I can truly connect with my higher being and God. In those moments, all the growth that I want is available and I'm learning day by day. I also learn by teaching others. I am about to start holding women's wellness empowerment seminars here in Louisiana, and through helping others to connect with love and that divine space, I will also learn and grow. It's a never ending cycle, thankfully!

 

 

Growing and loving,

 

Heidi

Unit Six

Integral Assessment

 

 

This practice exercise definitely has the ability to shift from oneness to universal. What I found in this exercise was a clear, large opening to universal awareness. I found myself envisioning Africa, in particular, when I repeated "may all individuals gain freedom from suffering." In the other sentence, "may all individuals find sustained health, happiness and wholeness," I just envision the globe and mother earth wrapping her arms around it. Next, I focused on how I could assist individuals in gaining freedom and finding happiness, health and wholeness, and the answer for me, is through midwifery and holistic counseling. When I opened my eyes, I found myself with more gratitude.

In the integral assessment, we had to basically find ourselves in a meditative state, and see which area out of the four quadrants came up for us to assess and work on. In my integral assessment, I feel like I am at most distress with my biological quadrant. Particularly, I feel nutrition and exercise is way out of alignment. The fix to this is to initiate a smarter, more physical approach to life. I have prior knowledge of nutrition and exercise as I use to be a very fit individual. Over the years, I've gotten very comfortable and have really allowed myself to become unhealthy. Secondly, on a more introspected view, I know that when I am lean and muscular, I draw attention. I've had both women and men asking for my number and I hated it, so building a layer of fat was protective for me. However, as I've gotten older and matured a lot, I've learned to set boundaries and say no, so I don't have to stay in protection mode any longer. Additionally, as I begin to look and feel better physically, it will motivate me with other projects I want to complete like teaching, and holistic counseling, but am afraid to do it now because of my physical appearance.

The way that I can integrate this into my life is my exercising more and being more selective with my foods. I understand that the only person who can change me is me, and it is my choice when to actually begin. Every exercise that we do that makes us take an integral or holistic approach to our own lives truly gets me one step closer to realizing what I need to change and implementing the change.

In love and light,
Heidi