Desiree Chavez

Shandon Silva
Health Education 14
25 March 2017

Health Education:
Personal Prescription
As I currently take my health education class this spring, I have come to really understand
the importance in both my personal health and lifestyle, but also the long term effects of my
actions and others as well. For the past 3 weeks now, we have been assigned to research, explore,
and investigate the basic foundations of health and wellness and how all its components make for
an equal balance of what every individual really needs in their personal and social life. As ive
continued with my research, I have come to understand the six dimensions of health and
wellness, what they entail and how they can be can each be utilized throughout each an every
individuals daily lives. The six dimensions of health and wellness include: psychical, social,
intellectual, spiritual, and occupational/financial with each being directly correlated to our
overall wellness as human beings. In learning about each aspect of a persons overall wellness, I
took a self assessment test and was able to pin point exactly what I was lacking and how I might
be able to understand the source of my stress/anxieties. It seemed to be that I had a pretty well
balanced and health leading lifestyle, but unfortunately, I learned that my social life was in a
complete disarray. It turns out that my anxiety was through the roof and I had actually been
more overwhelmed than I had imagined! When taking my self assessment, I realized that I had
checked off the section with stress and anxieties more often than any other section! When one of
the questions asked me about the level of anxiety I get when I take a test, speak publicly, worry
about my intelligence; I definitely panicked. It really took me awhile to reflect on each question
and my response to the question. I then realized that I had, in fact, been a pretty anxious person
with a lot of concern over myself and others, whether they were trivial things to be anxious about
or not. I started to think about my what my life would be like without these anxieties that I
seemed to never really shake, even as an adult. Moreover, I started to think about all of the
current worries and stresses of my life now and realized that it was not the thought process that

HEALTH EDUCATION !1
needed to change in order for my anxieties to diminish, but my actions. I knew that thinking
about how I could worry less would only make do the very thing I trying not to do, is worry. In
stead, I decided to research more effective ways of battling my anxieties and how to ease the
stresses that result form them. Furthermore, I decided that confronting, and engaging myself in
any uncomfortable, anxiety filled, and overwhelming situation, gathering, event, task, would be
the answer to overcoming and reducing my anxieties/anxiety levels. Although I do not want to
put myself in these uncomfortable, overwhelming, and confronting situations, I know that it will
help me to improve my social life and the way that I interact with others and the situation at
hand.
In maintaining my current health, I know that I must continue to keep a strict regiment that
is perfectly aligned with both my school and work schedules. I have discussed in the past class
discussions about my passion for the sport of boxing and everything that it has offered me, both
physically and mentally. As a beginning athlete, I can only state the importance of such physically
and mentally exhausting demands of the sport and what it takes to be successful in and outside
the ring. As discussed before, I have stated the importance of physical health and mental health
(like most sports) within the sport of boxing. In my area of discipline, I know the value of regular
exercise and what that exercise regiment prepares me for, in and outside the ring including: 3-4
mile runs to start, 5-6 rounds of shadowboxing, 15-20 mins of non-stop jump roping, 3-4 rounds
double end bag, 2-3 rounds speed bag, and 5-6 rounds heavy bag. Each action prepares me for
the next step in my physical abilities that will then be carried out into the ring. Without each
action I cannot improve, without each step I cannot move forward . As I have discussed the
importance of my physical health, I know that one of the most both in and outside the ring is my
mental health. The importance of my mental health is really central to everything that I
accomplish, because I am only able to accomplish through the motivation of my mind that is
then carried out through my body, It is what decides my actions and how they will inform me of
my next move. Without my mental health, I would not even be able to continue on in the sport of
boxing and without being able to nourish it through continued learning, challenges, reading, and
critical processing, I would not be here. When think about my physical and mental health, I
realize that you cannot have one without the other and that both are affected by the other.
Moreover, having a healthy lifestyle is just as important as setting up habits for a health
lifestyle as well. In doing so, being able to stick to a regiment is key to maintaining a healthy

HEALTH EDUCATION !2
lifestyle. If there is no plan, then your health will always take a backseat and there will be no
maintaining of any sort, which will almost always affect every part of your life and not just one
aspect. Thus, It is crucial to set a plan for yourself and how you will engage in your lifestyle plans
and how you will make decisions. In addition to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, one must also be
able to examine the goals that will lead you to a healthy lifestyle. The three main goals to
maintaining a healthy lifestyle include: sleep, diet, and exercise. When discussing each of these, I
want to elaborate on the importance of each one and how they will all affect your overall health.
As we all know, sleep is one of the most important aspects of our lives as it is our bodies
natural way of regenerating itself and provides us the much needed energy once we are awake,
then, when discussing diet we need to understand that without a healthy diet, we are not giving
our body its nutrients and we are not allowing for full recovery from any harmful and unhealthy
decisions we make regarding the food that we eat. In addition, as humans we must also learn to
keep up physically with our day to day lives. One thing that I have noticed is that as we get older,
we tend to slow down on our exercising and eat more as time goes on. When you practice bad
eating habits, and do not work yourself physically, you are setting yourself up for failure both
physically and mentally. No exercise and overeating are two of the most deadliest combinations
known to humans; showcasing lack of motivation, carelessness, and even deep rooted
insecurities/issues. With that being said, we must understand the importance of healthy eating
habits, regular exercise, and sufficient amounts of sleep and what they can provide for us as
humans.
In conclusion, I have discussed the many points in which our overall health can affect you
mentally, physically, emotionally, and how you may learn to better your overall health in general.
As I discussed in the beginning, the main focus for me was being able to further develop my
health both physically and mentally. My focus has now included me working on the social aspect
of my life and how to improve and cope with my anxieties. As I have learned to understand what
I lack and how I can develop in certain aspects of my life, I have also learned the main
importance of overall health and wellness and how they can affect every aspect of a persons life
as well. When we lose focus on one aspect of our lives, we tend to create the domino effect and
have everything else crumble down with it too. As human beings, we are imperfect and we do not
always worry about what we should and rather what we want, however, as humans we also have
the ability to change, progress, and redeem ourselves from any folly. Fortunately, we have our

HEALTH EDUCATION !3
bodies to thank for telling us when we get sick, when we feel sad, when we feel scared, etc.
Without our bodies responses, we would never know when we would be at risk for various health
problems and how to take care of them; our overall health should be our overall concern.

HEALTH EDUCATION !4