How I Rate My Health...

                This week my blog is going to focus on my questions from my Health and Wellness class.

Based on your reflections, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being optimal wellbeing), where do you rate your A-physical wellbeing, B-spiritual well-being, C-psychological well-being? Why?

                I believe that your physical wellbeing as well as your spiritual and psychological well-being can change from week to week and maybe even day to day depending on what is occurring in your life at that time. Currently I am sick and for the last week I have missed my fitness class so this week I would say that my physical well-being is struggling and I would rate it at a 6. I went from going to 5 workout classes a week and feeling overall very well to none and that is a really big decline in my life. This affects how I feel, and even how I start my days off.

 Spiritually I feel that I am at a 7. Psychologically I currently feel like I am at an 8. With being sick there is a decrease in concentration as well as a need for extra sleep that is not always possible with a busy life that doesn’t have time for illness to happen. This not only puts a strain on my body physically, but also emotionally and psychologically. I am a person that truly enjoys my profession and what I do, and I take pride in my career so when I become ill and I am not feeling 100% it really affects all aspect of my life.

Develop a goal for yourself in each area (physical, spiritual, psychological).

                Currently my physical goal is to become healthy. When I am healthy I focus on weight loss as well as becoming physically fit. In order to become healthy I am trying to go to bed earlier in order to get adequate rest, I am drinking lots of water as well as washing my hands frequently and disinfecting surfaces that I come into contact with. When I am healthy and focused on weight loss and becoming physically fit I attend fitness class 5 times weekly as well as monitoring caloric consumption.

                Spiritually I keep myself healthy by embracing my religion as well as beliefs and by living by those beliefs. My current goal for my spirituality is to find a church to attend. My daughter  and I had been going to a church that we really enjoyed and then ended up in a place where we need to find a new church. It is really hard to find a new church to attend when you were happy at the church that you had just been going to.

 Psychologically I really feel like I am at a good place when I am able to keep myself free from physical illness. My goal psychologically is to work towards a better focus while I am ill. I have a very good network of friends and family who love me tremendously and give me love and support. I am able to express myself freely and seek encouragement from them. I have a career that I thoroughly enjoy and work for a clinic I truly enjoy. The doctor I work for is phenomenal and I learn so much from him I truly feel that I am in a great place and am thankful for that feeling every day.

What activities or exercise can you implement in your life to assist in moving toward each goal?

                In order to reach the goals I have developed in my life I plan on continuing on the path of growth and development that I am on. I plan on approaching my life in a holistic manor and to learn to truly take care of myself in all areas of my life. 

A fresh start

     My name is Audra and I live in the center of Iowa. I am 28-years-old and I work as a full-time Endocrinology nurse and a part-time medical/surgical nurse. My most important job however is being the mother of a very beautiful 8-year-old daughter. My life is currently filled with work, school, third grade basketball games and school events as well as as much of a social life as I am able to make happen with whatever time left I have at the end of the day, which isn't usually very much.

     This week my life has taken a twist as I have lost a friend of mine. I have never truly understood the act of suicide, but in the end no matter how he died he's gone. I seem to be able to better justify a loss of life when a person passes away in their 80's or even 90's with the simple sentence of, "oh, they lived a good life", but when they pass away at the age of 27 I can't even begin to try to find reasoning of why they had to go or if there was something just anything that could have changed the outcome. My friend, his name is Ryan, is gone now, and his pain that he must have been suffering has passed now, but now his friends and family are left with unsettled questions and a void in our hearts that will never be filled. I wonder how I am going to teach my niece and nephews about the uncle they never got to know. The pictures, the stories, the passing of the memories on will never be enough. I go to sleep at night with tears in my eyes and the prayer that tomorrow I will wake up and it will all have been a horrible dream, but then the new day begins and a fresh start. Each day we are given on this earth is a gift for us to live to the best of our abilities, to treat one another kindly, to bring joy to our own lives as well as our own lives. After I woke up this morning I hugged my daughter a little tighter and held her a little longer.

  As we enter each day it's sometimes important to focus on the fact that each day we wake up we have a fresh start to what the day may bring. As we push forward we should try to remain encouraging and uplifting to the ones around us. Today I am celebrating the life of a lost one and even though he no longer lives on earth with us he lives in our hearts.