Miss Health and Wellness Classes

Hi Everyone, we are now 4 weeks into the new term and it is going but not very well. I have two too many classes ending in "ology" (lol). This term I have Histology and Embryology for one class and the other class is Cell and Molecular Biology. Part of me understands why we need these classes but there is a part of me that thinks what am I going to do with this information when I am helping a client. My understanding of their diagnosis is imperative to making sure that the consultation is correct, however I wll have a hard time explaining all of the medical terms. There is very little discussions in the seminars as there is so much information to go over, I really miss the discussions in seminar and sharing the lives of all of my classmates. Just know ladies that I miss you all. I hope this finds everyone doing well in their classes, doing well in their life and doing well in their hearts.

Melody

Reflection

After going back to working midnight shift, I find that as with most anything there is a positive and negative side. The positive side is I now have an hour at lunch to myself, I can enjoy the solace of the summer evening and meditate or spend the time in reflection or study since a new term has started. I find more often than not just enjoying the early morning quiet and breathing. Being thankful for all the blessings that are in my life.
The negative side is that my eating habits are haywire and my sleep patterns are completely out of wack. This leading back to causing my IBS to flare up. But this is ok as I know that with time this will straighten out.

There has been a falling out with my cousin over her care. I have found out that she doesn't want anyone to get too close or know what the doctors are saying. I believe this is so she can tell us (parents and myself and others) anything and we have no way to prove that she isn't as sick as she is letting on. I accidentally found this out. She had been saying for months that she has Lupus and after a few days in the hospital and speaking to the doctors I found out she doesn't have Lupus and this upset her. After finding this out she became very defensive and told me that she did not want to discuss her issues with me. I told her to take me off of her emergency contact list or as her support if I was not going to have the medical information I needed if something happened to her. I believe in my heart she needs help, but you can't help someone who doesn't want to help themself or get better. I hope the best for her and do not want to see her get hurt, but I know I can't do anything except pray.

I have been reflecting on whether not being able to help her is a sign that I am in the wrong profession. I would really love to help people who are on the road to healing and believe that I have the knowledge to do this yet does having the knowledge make me competent enough?

Now, the Ending and the Beginning

With the ending of this term with Kaplan signifies to me the ending of ceaseless thoughts and worries, it is now the beginning of something new. I am now aware of how to take the negative and turn it into a positive, I now know that I can accept myself, the events of my life and the people in it with loving-kindness. Once again I am reminded that the events of life are placed in your life for a reason. I have also came to realize that these events can and do make a person stronger. Over the last two weeks this has hit home more so than ever.

Trying to help someone and being turned against has made me realize that you can't help everyone, some people do not want to be helped. My heart is sad but I know the only thing that I can do is send out prayers and loving kindeness toward this person and hope that one day they will see that even if there isn't a cure for mental illness they can live a better life. At this point I would say that I have slide back a little in spirituality to a 6 due to the sadness in my heart.

Psychologically, I am still at an 8. I realize that because I could not help this one person that it does not mean that I won't be able to help someone else. I still feel in my heart and soul that as long as I can help one person than all of the hours spent losing sleep due to studying, and trying to juggle life will have been worth it, for me the reward is seeing someone's life changing from darkness into a world filled with color.

As of today mentally I am also at an 8, I do not doubt what I am learning or the reason for my learning about health and wellness. The only reason I give myself an 8 is due to realizing that I have so much more to learn that will increase my mental strength and soul.

My goals for each aspect of mental, psychological and spirituality will always be a work in progress. I will always continue to seek knowledge of not only myself but for the benefit of others as well. Exercising needs to be worked on as now I am still trying to adjust to a new work schedule, thankfully I still have my dogs that have to be walked several times a day. Prayer comes everyday even if it is just to look up at the heavens and say "thank you for this life". Mentally, I will and do try to keep my mind sharp not only calm to where I can focus but active as well through my studies and through games that enhance the memory and concentration.

This class has empowered me with a sense of self and reaffirmed that to take care of yourself and love yourself is just as vital for life as taking care of others. To help with others and see their changes to the end one must start at the beginning, within yourself.

Unit 10

Your final blog entry is to summarize your experiences in this course and discuss how it has assisted your well-being and your ability to assist others.

The best way that I can describe my experiences in this class is to send loving-kindness out to all of my classmates and Professor. Learning new exeperiences is what I enjoy about school. This class showed me and taught me how to meditate in order to stop the flood of thoughts I have, which allows me to prioritize and see the events of my life in a different light. These techniques help to stop the sense of being overwhelmed and allows me to focus. I now know that by using the techniques everyday I can and will face any adversity that may come my way and also allow me to enjoy the beauty that is in my life and surrounds me everyday.

I am so thankful that I was able to take this class as it has come in very handy everyday dealing with the illnesses of my mom and my cousin. Using the deep breathing techniques has helped my mom through her anxiety attacks and the subtle mind has helped my cousin with her claustraphobia. These two practices will be very beneficial to my clients and seem to be the easiest two to use no matter where they may be.

Unit 9 Project

Unit 9 Project Personal Application of the Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing
Melody Carroll
HW420-03AU
Introduction to Creating Wellness:
Psychological & Spiritual Aspects of Healing
Kaplan University
August 10, 2009




Introduction
Through life’s journey I was made aware that there comes a time when being psychologically, spiritually and physically sound plays an integral part in a person’s quality of life. I found this to be even truer when I chose to follow on a path to becoming a health and wellness professional. I have come to realize that having a sound foundation in each of these aspects will only lend to the care that I will be able to give my future patients. By developing psychologically, spiritually and physically I will be able to open my heart, mind and spirit to those I will be helping. If as a professional I am not able or willing to open myself up to the client and listen to them with an open heart, mind or spirit I will not truly understand what may be creating an illness or causing them stress or be able to guide them on a path to healing.

By a professional developing spiritually, psychologically and physically allows them to keep from becoming stagnant in their thought processes, feelings and in body. As Elliot Dacher said “If one’s beliefs are so fixed that they are not open to alternative views, then one is similarly not ready to evolve to a higher level of knowledge or capacity”, (Dacher, 2006), in essence we as professionals become stagnant. For me, seeking knowledge through continuing my education, practicing different techniques for enlightenment and relieving stress , eating correctly and exercising regularly, will help keep me from becoming stagnant in my spirit, mind and in body. We, as professionals should strive to continually seek to increase our knowledge and understanding not only of the body’s health but also how the environment, our beliefs and our clients’ beliefs have a direct impact on integral health.

Assessment
Before beginning my journey in health and wellness I believed that health was only related to feeling well in my body and free of any suffering only in my body. I never really thought about the health or wellness of my mind or spirit. Now I have learned and come to realize that health encompasses all of these areas, the spirit, mind, and body. When one area is under continual stress than each area can and will be affected.

I have always had a strong spiritual faith in a higher power watching over me and knew that I cannot control everything or that life did not always go the way I wanted. I learned to accept early on that many things happen for a reason. I know that people are brought into your life for a reason also and that they can teach something that can be both positive and negative. I have come to realize that even the most difficult situation can be turned into a positive thought if the time is taken to really review the events. Right now in my life I am at an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 in seeking a higher spiritual plain. I know that I have many years left to live and a higher spiritual plain is waiting. There will be many people come into my life who will have a lot to teach.

I view my mind as a sponge continually soaking up my environment and on a constant search for knowledge, learning always how to deal with daily life and the events that make up living. On a scale from 1 low to 10 high my mind is an 8. I know that there are times that I am overwhelmed and want to run and hide. At these times my mind does not process well and I know that I need to stop doing things or thinking and give my mind a rest. Just as the body needs to sleep so does my mind.

Having several health issues, on a scale of 1 low to 10 high, my body is at a 6. Over the last several months I have gone from being hospitalized with breathing problems and gastric problems to walking two hours a day with an increase in my lung capacity and success in finding foods that I can eat without becoming sick. I know that I will have to be on a constant vigilance on eating healthier and staying active especially in the years ahead as I am getting older. Also keeping my physical body in good shape will help in my endeavors of starting my own health and wellness consulting firm.

Goal Development
With the choice of starting my own business in health and wellness it is extremely important that I continually develop my mind, spirit and body in order to not only take care of myself but to be able to attend to my future clients as well. I seek to learn new techniques like Tai Chi or other meditative practices in order to help keep my mind focused and free of turmoil. Spiritually, I need to continue to pray and seek guidance on enlightenment and wisdom. Physically, I walk but I also know that I need to add strength training as well as flexibility exercises to my daily routine. For these will help me as I get older and battle the many different health issues related to growing older.

Personal Health Practices
To meet my goals and grow older with a good quality of life I will have to continue on my path of enlightenment by continually developing myself spiritually, physically, and psychologically. Spiritually, I like to commune with nature. The feel of the wind blowing across the body and through the hair allows one to feel that there is a sweet breath blowing away the days stresses. Feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin allows my aches to be eased and my body to become warm. By sitting outside I can close my eyes and use mental imagery to take myself to another place and time. When I am outside in the wind and sun my spirit can soar. I can feel a higher power at work cleansing me and opening my inner senses to the world around me. Some clients are afraid to go outside due to all of the negativity of getting skin diseases and possibly an interaction with the medications they are on. Helping to alleviate some of these fears by using the right skin products and taking the necessary precautions for outdoors an individual
can enjoy the wind blowing and the warmth of the sun. By using mental imagery in my profession can help teach my clients that they can travel anywhere in their mind that they would like to go. That mental imagery can also be used to improve their health when focusing on themselves and picturing a path to healing.

Being physically sound will be imperative to maintain as I get older to help with balance and being able to perform my daily chores dealing with home and work. Two ways to do this is eating healthier and incorporating different physical activities, like cardiovascular and strength training. By eating the right foods I will be providing my body with the right nutrients and vitamins it needs to function and help build my immune system. Adding physical activities will help strengthen my muscles and bones which in turn will help my maintain balance and help keep from losing anymore bone density. I can incorporate each of these into my consulting practice by working with my clients on eating healthier, showing them that they have choices in the foods that they eat and purchase can be healthier while still living on a budget. I can also show them that there are low impact exercises that can be performed and practices such as, Tai Chi, which can be used to strengthen their muscles and bones.

The last strategy that I can implement is psychological. By striving to increase my knowledge through education and meditation practices I will be able to help educate my clients and help them to focus their energies on healing. By learning the subtle mind and breathing techniques will help not only myself but my clients as well deal with life’s daily stressors. Teaching them how to stop the flow of random thoughts and stresses that usually fly through someone’s mind will allow for a time of peace and enable the ability focus on the aspects of most importance in theirs and my life.


Commitment
With life having a way of interfering with the processes that we want to do to better ourselves and our life we have to make a personal commitment to ourselves and to our clients to continue developing our spiritual selves, our psychological aspects and our physical being. To do this spiritually I can keep communing with nature, listen and learn about the many different cultures so I can communicate with my clients that may be of many cultures, I can also join a church and become one of many that seek knowledge of life. Psychologically I will have to continue learning and practicing the different meditation techniques that I have learned and continually look for ways to alleviate the stress that I go through each day. I will be able to measure this in the form of the different illnesses that I have that are aggravated by too much stress. Physically I can measure my progress through maintaining a healthy weight, through keeping a journal and by the way I feel. I know when I feel overweight and am physically run down; this is part of the motivation to keep me active.

Conclusion
As a health and wellness professional the continual growth in spirituality, psychology and physical aspects will only help me to interact with my clients on a more personal level and help them. Elliot Dacher points out in is book, Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing that the Eastern philosophy believes that the healer has one thousand hands which “signifies the need for every integral healer to have many different ways in which to reach out to meet the unique needs of an individual” (Dacher, 2006). If as a healer I close off my heart, mind and body to all of the ways to heal than I will close myself off to helping others.


References
Dacher, E.S. (2006) Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing, Basic Health Publications, Inc., Laguana Beach, CA

Two Exercises

The two exercises that I found to be most beneficial are the subtle mind practice and the breathing exercises. Both of these practices have helped me to remain calm when I was having to be at the hospital with my cousin last weekend and while I was at work dealing with angry customers. Both of these can be practiced anytime and anywhere. They both help to focus on stopping the continual flow of thoughts and shallow breathing that comes from an agitated state. I know when I use these two techniques I can feel the anger or agitation slipping away and my body seems to return to being in balance. When I complete the exercise I am able to return to work or handle a situation with better clarity.

Meeting Aesclepius

Hello All,
Once again I am late in getting my postings in. I do apologize for this. It is not that the practices are not important it is my life at the moment working against time. I have changed shifts from 8:00 a.m. thru 4:30 p.m. to working from midnight to 8:30 a.m., unfortunately this has thrown not only my body ryhthms off but my daily schedule as well. I have also taken on the role of caregiver to my cousin who suffers from many different mental illnesses. I do not mind as I care and love her very deeply, I just can't seem to work everything in daily and always seem to be playing "catch up".

Doing the meditative practice on "Meeting Aesclepius" I was able to visualize and see my friend Jacqueline, who passed away 5 years ago from lung cancer. She was my mentor and started me on the path I am now. I was able to hear her in my thoughts and see her beautiful smile. Seeing her helped me to realize that even in the most adverse of times there are blessings and life brings many joys to your life. During this I was able to open my mind and heart to the need of support and love that my cousin needs, just as Jacque supported me.

By using the meditative practices I am able to make peace with issues that may be bothering me, such as agreeing to be the caregiver to my cousin. I fought with myself on this for several weeks now and through meditation I know that I will become a better person for opening my heart in loving-kindness by being there for her.

I can use the different meditations in my life to bring peace and increase my faith. I can also share these practices with others, and hope that they find their inner consciousness and open their mind to this and open their hearts as well.

The saying "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself", (George, 2005), means to me that as a practitioner I can not fully understand or help someone if I do not practice the techniques that I may suggest. As a health and wellness consultant if I do not believe and lead by example than I should not be practicing. I have used different techniques from exercise to prayer to help with the conditions that I have. I have also personally seen how the power of spirituality can help someone get better even if for a short time.

Loving Kindness and Integral Assessment

I do practice the Loving Kindness exercises everyday through prayer by giving thanks for the many blessings that I have, not only in my life but in the lives of friends, family and those individuals I work with. I have found that a person cannot be helped from being touched by even a stranger. When you go out you see many different situations like a mother struggling with her children, or a car accident and you may send up a silent prayer to give the mother patience and hope for the person or family that the individual in the accident will be okay. This is sending out good feelings through Loving Kindness.

As health and wellness professionals we try to practice and pass on the knowledge we gain to not only to ourselves but to those our life touches. By doing this we are able to open our mind and heart to the endless possibilities of healing. When I open my mind and heart to helping and sharing with others and myself my life becomes brighter the days are no longer there to dread but to look forward to and enjoy.

Subtle Mind Exercise

The subtle mind exercise would be excellent for me when I am trying to go to sleep after getting off at 8:30 in the morning and driving an hour from work. I would be afraid to do this any other time as just breathing in and out caused me to relax enough to start yawning and the muscles in my body started to relax with each breath I took. I really enjoyed this exercise.

Compared to the Loving kindness exercise I found this one more relaxing. I tried the loving kindness again and aimed it toward myself and was still frustrated as I began feeling guilty and selfish for I live with two other loved ones that really need the benefits of the loving kindness more than I do. Yet, even knowing this I still had a hard time concentrating on one person.

For me spiritual wellness is having faith in the unknown, turning over my frustrations, heartaches and trails along with my thanks to a higher power. Being able to walk outside and pray or just give thanks allows me to become focused on the things in my life taking away the sense of being overwhelmed. I have found that on the days I do not do this mentally and physically I feel drained. By taking a few minutes out of my day to turn my face toward the warmth of the sun or to gaze at the stars overhead in wonder allows me to feel regenerated and renewed. If I am mentally and physically drained I cannot focus on what needs to be taken care of or what needs to be accomplished daily.

Without a sense of spiritual wellness I believe that the mental and physical aspects of a person are thrown out of balance. In order to reap the benefits of mind, body and soul all the aspects of spirituality, mental and physical need to be in harmony with one another. A person can be mentally fit and physically fit but if they are lacking in spirituality they will feel that there is something missing in their life.

Mental Workout

The concept of "Mental Workout" is to train the mind to think differently, change the perception of situations to help benefit the body and spirit. By practicing different forms of mediatition and relaxation or other centering techniques on a regular basis we can effect our state of health and wellness. Much like an athlete has to focus their whole being and train regularly, we as individuals need to learn to focus and practice these techniques daily to help relieve the harm that we experience through daily stressors.

Studies as to the benefits of a mental workout have shown that by performing a mental workout allows for changes to the physiology of the inner workings of the body, better control of emotions, offers more mental clarity, helps to allow the mind/body to cope better with daily distress, helps the body to become more resistant to illness, aids in resisitng illness, and also helps to acheive higher states of well-being.

With the many benefits that a mental workout offers, I need to start practicing the exercises that we have done on a daily basis and learn more. As I get older, my body and mind are going through chemical and hormonal changes. These mental techniques will help me psychologically deal with my daily stressors and possibly keep me from going done the route of so many other individuals that have to depend on medications to help them make it through the day.

Loving Kindness

Hi All,
I tried the relaxation practice this morning and was a little frustrated with myself and the exercise. The frustration at myself came from selecting one person that I wanted to "take their pain in", as the reading material suggested, yet as I proceeded on with the exercise when asked to think about that person, other people came to mind and I had a hard time isolating that one individual. The frustration with the exercise came from feeling like I had to jump directly into the exercise without any preparation. The other exercises that we have done the first part seems to help with centering prior to actually beginning the exercise. I will definetly have to try this again.
One thing I have learned about myself over the last several years is I have the ability to pick-up on the vibrations from individuals who are in turmoil and can sometimes calm them with direct contact. This is to some a type of healing by laying on of hands. Yet to me it is more of absorbing some of their pain and trying to give them loving-kindness back. Maybe for this exercise I need direct contact with the individual, what do you think?

Unit 3 Mind Body Connection

I know it is hard for me to be honest with myself as to my own state of health and well-being. I want to think that I am doing fine in physically, emotionally and spiritually, yet if I take the time to do a self-evaluation I listen to what my body, mind and soul is telling me I will hear that I need to work on improving these aspects.

Rating
My rating for each of the following aspects of my health and well-being is as follows:
A.) Physical well-being is 6. I need to include different physical activities other than walking the dogs to my daily routine.
B.) Spiritual well-being is 6. I have true faith that there are higher powers that help govern our lives, yet I do not always take time out of my day to recognize the beauty that is around me or the many blessings that I have in my life.
C.) Psychological well-being is 6. I handle my daily stressors on a pretty even keel, however I need to work on not allowing myself to become frustrated or stressed out when I feel overwhelmed.

Goals and Activities
Setting goals even small goals can help me with a sense of accomplishment and make me feel good that I am trying to do something to help myself.
A.) Physical well-being goals and activities are to try and incorporate different physical activities into my life. These activities can be as simple as doing gardening.
B.) Spiritual well-being goals and activities need to try and practice some form of mediatation. Make sure that I add a few minutes each day to thank the higher powers for the life I have and learn to appreciate the positive aspects in my life.
C.) Psychological well-being goals and activities need to learn to let go of the things that frustrate me and realize that some of these things are far beyond my control. Learning to recognize these things will help relieve some of the daily stressors. The activities for this can be using stress releases such as averting the frustration into positive aspects. I can start jewelry making again to help avert some of these frustrations.

The Crime of the Century
I found that this relaxation exercise did help to relax my muscles and relieve some of the tension. I wasn't expecting to see any of the colors even though I believe that every living thing has an aura. I was surprised to see the different colors of red, blue and green. One other experience I had was a line of warmth that seemed to connect each of the chakra points. This line just increased in length from point to point and faded toward the end of the exercise. I wonder if anyone else felt this line of warmth?

Stressed Out

It is has been a really stressful week. I have had my granddaughter, Kylianna, all week and she has been ill, so my main focus has been on her. Received bad news about my mom's health, the doctor's have told her there isn't anything else they can do except keep her comfortable, her heart is contracting but not expanding back out as it needs to. I noticed yesterday that her mind is starting to slip, she is repeating the same questions over and over again. I understand that we are only here on this earth for a short while, yet it still is upsetting, hurts, causes anger and a range of other emotions to have to watch someone suffer and know that there isn't anything you can do.

It is Sunday morning and all I want to do is hide away in my room, Kylianna is with her mom for the next two days and I have to go back to work this week after being off for a month for my own illness. Yet, hiding away is not an option. So today I am going to be working on playing catch up in my housework and school work. My clean laundry is piling up at the end of the bed. I am behind in class and I am starting to really stress out about it. I know that if I set my mind to just doing things they will get done, yet right now I feel overwhelmed. I need to try to relax and focus my mind. I will try our exercises and see if they will help center me. Wish me luck!

Life

As we go forth in this life trying to stay connected to God, Great Spirit, Buddha or if you just believe in a higher power can be really difficult. Yet, I believe that each of these dieties wants for each of us to not only turn to them but turn in to ourself. We have to also look within in ourself to find inner peace. We can do this by taking time to meditate, watch a bee in flight or sitting in an open field with the face turned toward the sun, taking a few moments out to pray or stand in a doorway watching a family member and giving thanks that they are still alive are all paths to inner peace. Each person will have their own way to find their own journey to finding inner peace and whatever way is chosen I wish everyone peace, love, and faith. Know that you do not journey alone for the angels and spirit guides will be with you.

Meditation Reflection

Well, I tried again this morning to do the relaxation and meditation exercise and was able to acheive once again to stop my neck and shoulder from hurting but could never fully get my arms and hands to feel heavy. I don't know what I may be doing wrong other than I am not use to relaxing or meditating in this way. This is a whole new concept for me. I have read several post on the class discussion boards and realize that meditation and relaxation has to be worked at so I will keep trying.

Reflection

Boy, do I have a lot of work to do on learning how to relax. When I started the relaxtion exercise I was laying on my bed with the door shut, lights out and the room was dark. Instead of just turning the computer on and letting the journey begin, I used my earplugs to help block out any noises (I have a baby monitor in my room so I can hear my mom if she needs me). I became comfortable and started the audio, I was able to visualize the blood moving from my stomach to my arms and hands, but I could not fully relax or stop the thoughts from flowing in my head. I was able to relax my neck and shoulder muscles but never completely relaxed my arms or hands. My worries of not hearing mom and the dog coming in my room interrupted the ability to truly relax. I will try again tomorrow even if I have to take my laptop into the woods and ask Dad to stay with Mom to give me enough time to devote to trying the Journey again.

I spent a portion of this Father's Day with my Dad in the emergency room waiting for the test results to come back on my mom who may have suffered a mild heart attack. When my brother and his family arrived Dad and I went out to my car so he could eat. When I handed him his hamburger I kissed his check and told him "Happy Father's Day", he laughed and said "it was better than a card as at least he could eat the burger" and I laughed and said "I got you one of those too". And then we both laughed together. I told him that this was not the dinner we were suppose to have and he, like always, said "it was just fine." We started reminiscing about the many holidays and special days that were spent in the hospital due to all of Mom's illnesses and the things we had done together to pass the time while we waited and all of the untraditional dinners that were ate. He made this day seem like any other day and both of us were able to place our worries and stress aside for a little while. I am truly blessed to have this man as my father for he has been the one to teach me that sometimes you can laugh in the the most trying of times.

How do you help someone who has been traumatized and become lost? Suffering from insomnia, obesity, other illnesses, and has lost all hope. She does not see that her life can become better or that she will ever heal. Where do you start? This is what has happened to my cousin.

As her cousin all I can do is offer my support, listen, love her and let her know that she is wanted, that her life does have meaning and purpose. As a health and wellness student the only thing I know to do is to try to talk to her, cry with her, lend a shoulder and try to share the information I have gained with her. Trying to motivate her doesn't seem to work as she is not ready in her heart or soul to move forward. I really believe that until a person is ready to move forward or change nothing that is said or done will help.

She has made me question whether I am truly able to connect or help others if I have not experienced the things they have. My answer is yes, I can. My life experiences may not be the same but there may be similarities for I have experienced being lost, sick in the the body, mind and spirit. It is one of life's paths that is hard to move out of but can be done.

I heard someone say something during an interview the other day on Sirius Doctor Radio that has stuck with me, the geist of the conversation was; When someone has been traumatized and has suffered they are changed. When they can accept those changes the progress to heal starts. The past can not be changed and you can't worry about the future, all we can do is live in the here and now. The here and now will help take care of the future. This came from a woman who had been raped and left to die. This to me made alot of sense.

Welcome

Welcome, I would like to thank everyone who has taken a few moments out of their hectic life to read and post a response to any of my blogs. I am Melody Carroll and my journey to learn what I could on my psychospritual journey began 10 years ago. I hope that you will read my blog postings and respond, for me the insights of others can be enlightening and helpful, providing insights to aspects that I might not see or perceive. We all have had experiences in life and have gained knowledge and wisdom from those experiences that can help others.

Future

Before becoming a student at Kaplan University, I felt that there was a need to assist individuals with health and wellness issues. This feeling was inspired by my Mom, Sue. Mom has chronic health problems and was always told to eat right, to exercise, to take this or that medication, yet was never really shown how to eat and prepare her foods correctly, was never shown what exercises would benefit her the most, was never given counseling to help her adjust to her illness. Many times she was prescribed medicines that she was allergic to or was already taken in other medicines and was over-medicated. I can't count the times that she has been overmedicated. From living through this with her made me realize that individuals need help. They can not always afford to go to a nutritionist, hire a personal trainer or have access to check their medications to ensure they are not over-medicated or consuming foods, or items that may interact with their medicines. I feel that by starting my business Your Home, Your Health will allow those individuals the opportunity to learn how to begin taking better care of themselves and become proactive in their health care by visiting them in their homes and allowing them access to a staff of knowledgable professionals that can assist with not only contemporary protocols of handling the symptoms, but also allow them the opportunity to heal their mind and spirit.