Introduction
For most of my life, I have known “health” primarily to mean being free of biological disease and dysfunction (physical health), and to a lesser extent not crazy (mental health.) However, the idea of integral health, and the importance of caring for the body, mind, and spirit, offers a much more comprehensive view of wellness, so as both a health practitioner and an individual who wants a good and full life, I choose to develop myself psychologically and spiritually, in addition to physically. Professionally, this is important because it gives me a broader perspective from which to relate to my clients, and allows me to speak from experience when I try to help them toward their own wellness goals. Plus, the personal benefits such as reduced stress and fatigue allow me to perform better on and off the job.
One of my general goals in life is to become better at setting goals! When I think about what I want, I have a hard time putting together pictures of real, concrete things in my mind: my dreams are more the ideas of feelings I want to either continue to have or have someday in the future. This isn't inherently bad, but it does make writing a business plan difficult. I think that sometimes I'm afraid to reach for specific things because I don't want to have to deal with not getting them. This inability to set real goals has not done me any real harm yet – I really, truly love my life and am satisfied in almost all respects almost all the time – but that it will one day catch up to me (probably with respect to my professional life) is pretty much inevitable. Developing myself spiritually and psychologically, so I grow into someone who does not fear failure because she knows that there can be opportunity and success in everything, will help me reach this goal.
Assessment
To inventory my health in each category – physical, psychological, spiritual – I revisited The Integral Assessment and tried to be objective about all 12 possible lines of development (Dacher, 2006, pp. 105-116). Seeing what facets of my life are strongest was simple, but it was more difficult to judge myself in the areas that I believe need work because I wanted neither to overestimate my development just to go easy on myself, nor overcompensate and not give myself any credit.
Biologically, I'm basically squared away. I love exercise and fitness, and think of myself as an active, energetic person. Likewise, I care a lot about the food I eat and consider my nutritional and culinary preferences an important part of who I am in how my choices impact my health, the welfare of other people and creatures, and the condition of the planet. As for self-regulation, I've always wondered if one reason I don't get sick is that when I start to feel something coming on, I refuse to let it happen, and have a little chat with myself about how it's just not possible that I'm sick. I'm not convinced I have powerful healing abilities, but I do think there's something to it, even if it's just that having a positive attitude boosts the immune system due to decreased stress. (Dacher, 2006, p. 108)
My family line of development – a component of the Interpersonal – is strongest, and I have been improving personally since I started making more of an effort to be social. I would still like to become more involved in my community, but in reasoning through what it means to give to those around me, I see that I do more than I previously thought because for me right now, the distinction between Interpersonal and Worldly is fuzzy: my work and generativity touch the community through improving the health (mainly physically, but I would like to think emotionally and mentally, too) of my clients and literally teaching my students, respectively. For the time being, my social activism is limited to what I do at home (compost, recycle and conserve, adopt shelter animals, etc.) and how I spend my money (shopping at farmers' markets, not eating at fast food restaurants, donating to charitable causes, etc.), although I would love to participate in an outreach vacation someday. (Dacher, 2006, pp. 108-111)
My lines of Psychospiritual development need the most work. I don't mean to imply that I'm a total wreck, because most of the time I just feel happy, even, and stable. Knowing that all my basic survival needs are met leaves me with almost nothing to worry about, even though in times when I've struggled with things like money and time management, the rest of the world has been basically the same as it is now. In hindsight, clearly that stress over how I was going to function on two hours of sleep or pay off accumulating credit card debt spilled over into other, unrelated parts of my life. Now that I don't have those problems, it's as though my stress-fog has lifted and I can see that most things are basically good. I try to send positive energy out into the universe, especially when I'm working with a client who isn't the easiest person to deal with, because I just want the world to be cool (does this qualify as conative development?) That said, I know I need to face my “fear of goal setting,” which seems to be a primarily emotional impediment – possibly with a cognitive solution.
If I had to score my health in each of the three levels of development, I would give myself: Physical A-, Emotional B-, and Spiritual B.
Goals
- Physical – complete a triathlon before I turn 31 (April 2014.)
- Psychological – (other than learning how to set goals) don't allow weird behavior from my pets to take me out of my reasoning self and into my emotional self; remind of what I know about what motivates animals and think about how I can improve a situation instead of reacting crazily to it.
- Spiritual – expand the focus of my yoga practice from the body and mind to put more emphasis on the soul; use my practice as a jumping-off point for better integrating all three components in other aspects of my life.
Practices
- Physical – incorporate regular running into my workout regime (I only do so sporadically now), and find an affordable way to gain year-round access to a pool. Truthfully, I've always fluctuated between “tolerate” and “loathe” on the Running Enjoyment scale. But you have to run to do a triathlon. Improving myself enough physically to meet this goal will actually probably be a question of mind over matter, as I will probably do best if I can learn to love running. One technique I can try is to treat physical training as mental training, to clear my mind of the, “Why am I running? I hate running,” thoughts that are usually there. I will also use visualization – picturing the physical changes exercise creates – to make my runs more effective. (Dacher, 2006, p. 82)
- Psychological – the Loving Kindness exercise could help me start each day on an even keel, and put me in a generally compassionate mood (Dacher, 2006, pp. 68-69). When I feel the kind of peace that this exercise leaves me with, I don't get annoyed as easily. So, why not do it every morning? Another technique I can use is to create a mantra that I can repeat when a potentially stressful pet situation starts to brew. Combined with breath control, I think this will help me stay rational. It might also be helpful to further educate myself on animal behavior, or at least to periodically reread books like Animals in Translation (Temple Grandin, the “cow chute” lady) so the ideas are fresh in my mind.
- Spiritual – yoga citta vritti nirodhah: “Yoga is the quieting of the wandering of the mind,” is just one translation of the words of Patanjali, credited with writing the Yoga-Sutra. I've gotten away from this idea, the intended essence of yogic practice, since I stopped teaching, probably because I don't bother to talk myself through the breathing and the thought-calming like I used to do in class. There are many easy, obvious solutions to help me re-grow my practice: take classes from other teachers, begin and end each session with meditation, listen to appropriate music when I do yoga, and give more time to savasana (corpse/absorption pose.) I found a neat-looking website called Omstream that I think will be a good audio resource for my purposes: http://omstream.com/
Commitment
- Physical – log my workouts in an online or paper journal to stay accountable and keep track of distance/time. Seeing the numbers move will be a sign of progress. In general, this is a good strategy for making fitness and nutrition changes, so I can use it in the long-term, even when my goals are different. I will also know I've improved when my inner running-hating monologue is gone.
- Psychological – the best measure of my success is how the pets look, feel, and act. If they get sick a lot, hide or run away, or skip meals, I'll know I'm not making progress. If they stay healthy, want to be around me, and congregate for feeding, the opposite will be true. The frequency of strange events will also be a sign of whether I'm doing a good job: the less the dog freaks out for no apparent reason, the less emotionally disturbed she is, which probably means I'm creating an environment where she feels happy and safe. In strengthening my mental focus during pet incidents, I will be improving their lives; that should be all the reason I need to continue the habit long-term.
- Spiritual – notice how much time I spend in practice; pay attention to how long I can hold asanas; get the opinion of another yogi or yogini. In the past, when I have put more into the spiritual aspect of yoga, I have also been more physically successful: when my heart and mind are calm, I have more strength and endurance in my poses, and I'm able to stretch out the length of each session. An instructor will also be able to tell me whether he or she has seen improvement in my practice. To help me maintain this aspect of my wellness long-term, I can buy multi-class passes or sign up for full sessions instead of paying drop-in fees. Pay in advance will help motivate me to show up and do my best because I like to get the most for my money!
Reference
Dacher, E. (2006). Integral Health: the Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.
