Shelley Cheney
HW 420-03
Creating Wellness
Unit 9 Final Project
May 25, 2010














I Introduction: There are many professions where you do not necessarily need to practice what you preach. A tattoo artist for example does not HAVE to have tattoos in order to be a talented artist with needle and ink. A health and wellness professional on the other hand will have a hard time convincing patients and clients to avoid dangerous habits and lifestyles and to adopt practices that will increase their health if the practioner is not practicing them also. My mother is a confectionary cook and she has a sign in her kitchen that says “never trust a skinny cook!” though comical the sentiment is fitting. Skinny (though stereotypical) implies that they do not eat or possibly do not like to eat, and why would you ever trust a person who does not like to eat to prepare your food? In like sense, if you go to the doctor and he tells you that smoking is hazardous to your health and warns you that you could die of serious lung diseases if you do not kick the habit, then as you are leaving the office with you nicotine patches you spy him on the back patio puffing away with the other office staff, your chances of sticking to the regimen will be out the window. You cannot expect to foster trust and rapport with patients and clients if you are asking them to change in ways that you are not willing to change yourself. You cannot instill in them the benefits of prayer if you do not pray, you cannot inspire them to increase their exercise regimen if you are a couch potato....you cannot teach them meditation and visualization if you cannot see yourself meditating for peace and wholeness.
I have learned that to truly be of benefit to those whom I have the potential to help, I must myself learn of, study and practice the modalities that I encourage in others. I have a need to increase my physical health with an upgraded exercise regimen and attention to wholeness activities. I have a goal to find and develop hobbies and talents that incorporate physical and mental health while incorporating psycho spiritual rejuvenation as well.
II Assessment:I have grown and changed so much since beginning my classes at Kaplan. I have changed proportionally more in this particular class. Spiritually I have always felt very strong. I am not good at meditation but I have always been good at visualization and faithful beliefs. I know that I am a child of God and that spirituality has helped me to weather many illnesses and given me a drive to improve and maintain my health. I have a strong conviction that the peace that spiritual routines bring in to my life allow me to function at a much higher level. Physically I have struggled with heart problems for the majority of my life. As a result I have often used them as a crutch. “I don’t have to get a gym membership because I have a bad heart.” Or “I would exercise more often but I don’t want to over- do- it and have another episode”. I am now faced with the hard truth that I cannot push off any longer. There are things that I can do to gradually build up my strength and endurance. I need to strengthen my heart, slowly so that I can increase my overall wellness, and I need to blend my exercise regimen with proper diet and nutrition so that my body’s cells and tissues will have what they need to function properly and not break down prematurely. Psychologically I have teetered back and forth between health and wellness. At times I am infused with a wonderfully positive mental attitude and able to handle any stressors that life may throw my way. At other times I am overcome by the pressures and fall into the clutches of self doubt and mental persecution. I have seen in my fiancé, a very quick downward spiral that takes him from a stressful day to a weekend in a sick bed. Though I have not noticed serious physical illness as a result of stress, as I have seen these in him I have realized the ramifications of stress on health and psychological health on over all wellness. At the beginning of class I would have rated myself much differently that I do now:

Beginning of class
End of class
Physical health
8
6
Spiritual Health
7
9
Psychological Health
4
7


III Goal development:As I realize my needs to increase my physical, spiritual, and psychological health I have set many goals for myself, some of which I feel will be easy to complete with focus and restructuring of time and other which I know will be truly taxing and arduous to complete, yet worth it.
Spiritually I have set a goal to begin a prayer roll. To keep a list of people that I know are in need of special help from the heavens. As I learned from the Byrd study, third party prayer, or intercessory prayer on behalf of others has a great effect on progress of recovery and I wish to further this effort in my own life. I also have set a goal to find time (more arduous) to focus on 20 principles of spirituality each day, among these principles are the focus or study of Faith, courage, comfort, hope, patience, love, endurance, tolerance etc.
Psychologically I have set a goal to continue the practice of the loving kindness exercise. As I continue this I have hopes to increase tolerance for myself and my shortcomings as well as the shortcomings of others…it is so much easier to forgive others that it is to accept yourself and I am going to do better with this.
Physically I have determined to begin a moderately light exercise routine. I moved just last week to a neighborhood that I found has a high school track and a park only a couple blocks away. ( A rarity in Las Vegas). It is my goal to walk nightly. I am however going to start out walking every other day so that my mind and muscles can get used to the idea a little better. My doctor has me on a very strict maximum heart rate of 125 which is not much when I live on a mountain slope, but he has said that as I consistently work and sustain at that rate without complications the rate can be incrementally increased.IV Practices for personal health:Spiritually I can implement the practices of prayer, and visualization, as well as reflective peaceful meditation. I am still not good at meditation, but I can visualize myself getting better so there is hope.
Physically I can plan and prepare properly nutritious meals for my family, and increase my personal exercise routine
Psychologically I can manage time better to reduce last minute stressors, and practice the concepts of loving kindness.V Commitment:I have developed a simple calendar chart with multicolored stickers which will be used to track my consistency in sticking with the goals to pray daily, practice loving kindness and walk three times a week. I have also set a goal to lose 15 pounds this summer with my walking. It is a very moderate goal and sometimes it seems as if it is too low, at other times though, it seems like I am asking the world of myself, so I will stick to it and leave myself leeway to modify it as needed. Long term my physical goal is to decrease my weight to a normal healthy weight (140 pounds) and to increase my hearts strength and capacity to a rate of 150.