Unit 3 Reflection

As I reflect on my life and where I am with regard to human flourishing, I feel like I’m headed in the right direction. Its seems as though my life is coming full circle and I am finding my way back to a world that I either forgotten or even known for that matter. I have been able to recall specific events that caused my psychological health to spiral out of control at which time my physical health slowly followed. As an adolescent I felt as though I couldn’t speak of the emotional pain I was enduring daily yet I had no idea what was causing me to physically ache to the point of being bed ridden. It wasn’t long before I started to lose faith in God and question why this was happening. It was during my employment at a substance abuse facility that I many of my “ah-ha” moments. As a director for the female unit I sat in on many counseling sessions and group therapies in which young women shared their life struggles with family dysfunction, sexual/physical/emotional abuse all of which seemed to lead up to their drug use. As I got older, I realized that my old wounds could not merely be bandaged and forgotten. I made the decision that I was not going to play victim to my emotions any longer. John Vance Cheney once wrote, “The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.”After many years of crying I am starting to see my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I was reminded this week as I sat in church that when we are not hungry, often times it means we are sick. The same should be thought about our health. If we do not feed our body, mind, and spirit we begin to starve ourselves of the life that we so desperately seek.  

For this week’s assignment I was asked to rate my physical, spiritual, and psychological well being as well as making a plan of action on how to meet one goal of each. Today, on a scale of 1-10 I feel….

Physical (5)- After two neck surgeries in two years my body is still having difficulty healing. Although my activity level has increased since surgery (I’m running againJ), I still suffer moderate/severe pain that slows me down at times. It would be foolish of me to believe that I will ever reach a 10 on this scale, but I do see a 7.5 or 8 in my future. Goal and plan of action: At the present time, I have come to somewhat of a plateau in my physical health. With some restrictions set in place by my surgeon I have managed to reach my physical goal of running 3 miles at least 3 times weeks to keep my body conditioned. I have a great passion for fitness so learning that weight lifting was out of the question for a while I have scaled back by using resistance bands. I’m awaiting my next appointment at which time I’m sure these goals will change again.

Spiritual ( 6)- It wasn’t until I was face with a rocky marriage that I realized my spiritual needs. My husband and I came from different religious backgrounds, which until I was married didn’t think it mattered much. I found out very quickly that it makes all the difference in the world. He was raised Catholic and I Church of Christ (non-denominational); two very different approaches. Once we decided to live by God’s word and not man’s, our marriage has flourished immensely. Goal and plan of action: “Let go and Let God”. It seemed so simple, but it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Once I learned to put all of my trust in him, my worries seemed to work themselves out. My goal is to be all that God wants and needs me to be. In order to complete this goal I plan to spend more time studying the Bible. If God gave his only Son to die on the cross for my sins… surely I can find 15-20 min a day to read his word.   

Psychological (5)- I feel like this aspect of my health is a little lower than normal. I have found myself getting somewhat overwhelmed the last few weeks. With school, kids, extra-curricular activities, Dr visits, and everything else that seems to be piling up on my plate; I am literally suffering from mental fatigue. I am the type of person who likes to spend quality time in my own mind, but here lately I seem to be sharing that time with others. Goal and plan of action: My goal is to get back on a schedule that gave me time to focus on myself. My goal is to get back into a meditation routine in which I can clear my mind of the day to day crap that is starting to build up. I’m starting to see that my “daily routine” is not a very good one and needs to be updated. CHANGE-CHANGE-CHANGE…. It never stops.

I f was unable to open the initial audio file so I used Rainbow meditation that was provided by the professor. After participating in the audio file I felt more relaxed than when I started. I felt as though I had had time to refocus my energy for that day; I was able to see all of my colors shine and it felt great. I have forgotten the sense of peace that get from doing such exercises. I tend to find more guided relaxation/meditations that I can download for personal use.

Rainbow meditation

http://health.jbpub.com/managingstress/6e/audio.cfm