DETERMINING A CURRENT STATE OF WELLNESS 1

Determining a Current
State of Wellness
ALYSSA MCKAY
HW420: CREATING WELLNESS: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND
SPIRITUAL ASPECTS OF HEALING
DETERMINING A CURRENT STATE OF WELLNESS 2

Determining a Current State of Wellness

Questionnaire

1. What does spirituality mean to you?

a. I believe that it isn’t necessarily religious, or religion-based but the belief in

something bigger than yourself.

2. Would you describe yourself as spiritual? Why or why not?

a. Somewhat. I am not religious in anyway, but I do believe in the idea of something

bigger than myself. I wouldn’t say I practice it regularly though.

3. What do you do to promote your spirituality?

a. I believe in karma, so I try to practice spirituality by doing things for others.

4. Do you consider yourself a pessimist or optimist? Why?

a. Pessimistic unfortunately, just because I tend to look at the negatives in a situation

rather than the potential positive outcomes.

5. What do you think are some of the contributing factors to your current optimism level,

both positive and negative?

a. I think positively my relationships with others in my life contribute to my level of

optimism, and stress from work, and everyday events contribute negatively.

6. How do you think optimistic statements directly relate to the development of the mind,

body, and spirit?

a. I believe being positive is contagious so thinking optimistic thoughts can only

spread more optimism.

7. Do you have distractors that you believe interfere with your human spirit? Why are they

considered to be interferences?
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a. Yes. I tend to put others before myself at all times. So, it interferes with any sort

of attention on just myself and what stressors I deal with constantly. I don’t have

time to put myself first.

8. Can “embracing the shadow”, or darkness of the soul, (i.e. Greed, Jealousy, etc.) be

effective in understanding your own mind-body-spirit connection? Why?

a. Yes, because it is beneficial to know what makes you tick.

9. What are some specific examples of how you can improve your spirituality?

a. Allowing more time for myself to de-stress and allow some focus on myself

instead of completely on others.

10. In what ways does your spirituality impact your ability to complete your daily tasks?

a. If I find myself too stressed, I am unable to focus and a lot of times I get

migraines or feel physically ill.

Health and Wellness Interview

I chose to interview someone close to me with the questionnaire listed above. I chose

someone close to my heart so I feel I have a good understanding of their personality, which I

believe can be useful when designing a program for improvement for their particular health and

wellness due to being aware of what works for them and their schedule and what would not.

During the interview, I found that the interviewee did not consider themselves to be very

spiritual, but felt that spirituality was what they believed to be the belief in something bigger

than themselves but that did not necessarily need to be based off of a religion. Based off of the

definition they were not too far off the mark as according to Seaward, spirituality includes the

belief systems that we have and how we use them to benefit ourselves and others as well as that

religion and spirituality are not one in the same, (Seaward, 2013). They also mentioned that they
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try to practice spirituality nonetheless through the actions of karma, or doing well onto others.

The importance or value of asking the first three questions in the questionnaire is to see if the

individual recognizes spirituality for what it is, if they recognize it as important to their well-

being at all, and what steps, if any, that they pursue spirituality for themselves. After all, the

pillars of Spirituality are relationships, personal value systems, and a meaningful purpose in life,

(Seaward, 2013). The next three questions touch on optimism and pessimism, and contributing

factors towards what they consider to be their levels of optimism, as well as their view of how

much optimism can contribute to their own levels of spirituality. The value behind these

questions is to see where the individual stands on their own self view of positivity, and negativity

in their lives. Based on their answer you can see if they are more likely to be consumed with

stress, and negativity, and how they are most likely to approach a stressful situation. As for my

interviewee, they considered themself to be more of a pessimist, and likely to approach stressful

situations with a stressed and negative reaction. As described in Learned Optimism, attitudes are

learned from your parents, (Seligman, 2006), and a difficult past/childhood could be reasoning

behind such pessimistic attitudes. However, they do recognize that optimistic views can have a

positive effect on thier level of spirituality and that pessimism can be countered with a more

optimistic view. The next two questions touch on distractors, and their opinion on embracing

their own “shadow,” and the value of asking those questions are so that you can see what catches

their attention or distracts them from pursuing the growth of their own spiritual well-being, and if

they are able to overcome barriers from their own “shadow.” As for the interviewee, they admit

that they are distracted by constantly pursuing assisting the well-being of others before

themselves, but believe that it is important to acknowledge the shadows of the soul to be aware

of what makes them “tick.” Asking their opinion on examples of improving their own spirituality
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is important to see if they are knowledgeable of ways they can boost their spirituality. Asking if

they are aware of the impact of spirituality on their everyday daily tasks can be to open their eyes

in a sense on how their level of spirituality can impact even the smallest of tasks. The answers I

received for the remaining questions are that allowing themselves the time to de-stress or

meditate can boost their levels of spirituality and that they feel low levels of spirituality when

they are overstressed and unable to focus on the tasks at hand reacting with migraines and/or

feelings of illness. There are physical benefits to spiritual practices but not limited to alleviating

insomnia, muscle spasms, and diseases ranging from migraine to chronic pain, (Walsh, 1999).

Based on the answers I was able to obtain from the inventory of questions above, I

wouldn’t say that I needed to add or subtract anything from the inventory. Also, based on the

information I could use this information obtained to help my interviewee find a route that works

best for them to boost their level of optimism versus pessimism, for it would allow them to better

tackle each of their stressors, barriers or distractors in a much more positive manner. By doing

so, they would be able to hopefully find more opportunities to focus on their own spiritual well-

being versus only the well-being of others.

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References

 Seaward, B., 2013. Health of the Human Spirit: Spiritual Dimensions for Personal

Health, 2nd Edition. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

 Seligman, M., 2006. Learned Optimism. New York, NY. Random House Publishing.

 Walsh, R., 1999. Essential Spirituality. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.