Medicine Wheel Analysis

In many ways, the medicine wheel is similar to a personal growth map. To have balance in life is certainly one of the most important overall goals to reach, but at the same time, it can be difficult to achieve. Personally, I find that an increased degree of focus and effort in one area commonly results in a decreased degree of focus in one or more areas. Several areas of my life come to mind when I think about personal development, among which include my emotional, physical, mental and spiritual growth. In this assignment, I will reflect on the situations that I need help with as well as those that have helped me develop.

Emotional

The first area of the medicine wheel that I want to write about is the emotional aspect. “Emotional wellness

The second part of the wheel I will consider is my physical well being. I personally believe that each individual has the responsibility to take the needed steps to improve their physical health, including the “ability to carry out daily tasks, achieve fitness, [and] maintain adequate proper nutrition” (Kozier et al., 2009). As a teenager, I often starved myself to lose weight, especially when I was in high school. Most of the time, I felt weak and my stomach pained me greatly. After some time, I decided to change my lifestyle and I knew the changes needed to go beyond my eating habits. Mussel (2005) states, “needs that must be met for the healthy maturation of the physical body include: oxygen, food, water, rest, exercise, sensory stimulation, safety and security” (p.116). I quit starving myself and started to eat

The third part is my mental health. In the past, my academic struggles were strongly affected by my inability to cope with multiple unfortunate life events that occurred over the past couple of years. Indeed, I am well aware that personal hardships do not justify my poor academic performance, but during this period, I found it difficult to focus on my school work because I was so overwhelmed with the person problems I was facing. However, I eventually found a way to turn my problems into my motivation. Specifically, during the final days of my grandmother’s life, I saw how a bad nurse would treat her. Since then, I realized that I would never allow any family member to go through that kind of treatment. That was my key motivation for continuing my education. Also, I worked hard to get a seat in the College of Nursing. I also made sacrifices in my family and social life to study, which included missing social events and hardly going home to Saskatoon to see my family because I chose to study on the weekends instead. Ultimately, my dedication and commitment paid off since I got a