Running Head: UNIT 9 FINAL PROJECT

Unit 9 Final Project

Kaplan University
Randi Dunda

Running Head: UNIT 9 FINAL PROJECT

A spiritual inventory is a tool that can be used to measure both ones

strengths as well as weaknesses, when it comes to their spiritual health
(Spiritual Health, 2015). Our spirit shows us who we are, why we are here,
and what the purpose of life is; it is the deepest part of ourselves that
provides us with strength and hope for the journey we call life (Spiritual
Health, 2015). The psychological inventory is a tool that measures ones
mental and emotional health, showing how effective one is at making this
apart of their lives.
Questions:
1. Do you consider yourself a more optimistic or pessimistic person?
Why?
2. If you fail at a task, do you feel you doomed to repeat it or do you thing
you are just having a bad day?
3. Do you believe you can find positive in any situation? Why or why not?
4. How do you deal with adversity in your life?
5. What do you do on a daily basis for self-renewal, to calm your mind
and recharge?
6. What do you do on a daily basis for self-renewal, to calm your body and
recharge?
7. What activity or practice do you do on a daily basis to build your
spirituality?
8. What thing or activity do you need to at least once a year for selfrenewal, to recharge?
9. What boundaries do you have for yourself and/or others to maintain
balance in your life?
10.
When you are embarking on a task, who or what do you think
you are doing it to benefit? What task is it?
11.
How do you view solitude?
12.
What are at least five important attributes to you?
13.
What does medicine for your soul mean to you?

Running Head: UNIT 9 FINAL PROJECT

Why is each question pertinent?

1. This question will give a good picture of how this person views the world
and their place in it. In recent years, laboratories from around the world
have conducted tests and have determined that psychological traits, in
particular optimism, can cause one to have better overall health
(Seligman, 2006). On the flip side of that, a study done by a professor at
Virginia Tech in the mid 1980s showed that someone who is pessimistic in
nature tends to become ill more often, and visits the doctors twice as
much as those with an optimistic nature do (Seligman, 2006). This goes
hand in hand with the mind-body-spirit connection. If we have a
pessimistic mind, then our body will not be well, and our spirit cannot
be either.
2. This question gives us a picture of the permanence characteristic in our
explanatory style. This means that good or bad, events that happen to
them are believed to be permanent and unchangeable. If a person thinks
this way, and are on the pessimistic end of the scale, they become
helpless, and will wallow in their pain for days or even months (Seligman,
2006). These people are those that hold a lot of resentment and grudges.
3. This is another question that allows us to measure if the person is more of
a pessimist or an optimist. It is important because being optimistic has
been proven to be more beneficial to our health, and gives us a good
picture ones psychological health.
4. This question shows what one leans on in a time of turmoil. If one has a
specific method that they lean on, they will be able to navigate the
mountains of our lives more effectively. Mountain is a universal

Running Head: UNIT 9 FINAL PROJECT

metaphor that describes difficult times in our lives, and those that may
distract us from our spiritual journeys (Seaward, 2012).
5. This question is important because it indicates if the individual takes time
to reboot their mind on a regular basis. Now, more than ever, we are
bombarded with a multitude of information. Everyday, are minds are
faced with being blasted with information from technology such as: cell
phones, computers, television, the internet, Facebook, etc. (Seaward,
2012). Our minds, like computers, need to be rebooted on a regular basis
to work properly. This allows us to empty the clutter and allow for down
time.
6. This question is important to see what the individual does to work on the
physical aspect of ourselves. Like the wellness paradigm indicates,
wellness is the integration, balance, and harmony of the mind, body,
spirit and emotions that lead to optimal well- being, where the whole is
greater than the sum of its parts. (Seaward, 2012) Simply stated, we
need all parts to be healthy in order to have overall well being.
7. This question gives a snapshot of the importance the individual puts on
the spiritual aspect of their well being. Spirituality is the aspect of your
wellness and being that, through certain practices, will allow you to
become more acquainted with, and have a direct connection and
experience with the sacred. The sacred refers to the thing that centers
you, and brings you to a point of balance and harmony in your life.
(Walsh, 1999) This is a very personal and individual thing, and is different
for everyone.

Running Head: UNIT 9 FINAL PROJECT

8. This question, again, will show the importance and priority the individual
places on their own self-renewal, or the recharging and rejuvenating of
their mind-body-spirit to maintain balance and harmony in their lives.
This can be described as the stepping stone to the centering process.
(Seaward, 2012)
9. This question indicates what the individual does to circumvent
distractions from throwing them off track from building and maintaining
overall wellness. These distractions, also called outside noise, can be
people in our lives (Seaward, 2012).
10.
This question serves as a good indication of where the individual lies
when it comes to certain muscles of the soul, such as: compassion,
humbleness, and unconditional love (Seaward, 2012). It also explains
where our motives lie when we are doing things in our lives. If we
transform our motives to those that are beneficial to others, we also will
transform our actions and then ourselves (Walsh, 1999). Many times,
when we see a purpose in what we do other than what we ourselves will
get out of it, we will be much more at peace within ourselves.
11.
This question determines if the individual views solitude on negative
or positive lines. If one sees solitude as a necessity and a very positive
one, they will likely get many benefits from it, and seek it out. Solitude is
vital for self-renewal and rejuvenation (Seaward, 2012).
12.
This question will show where the individual places importance when
it comes to necessary aspects of themselves. By necessary, this means
what they must have in their lives to be able to reach balance and

Running Head: UNIT 9 FINAL PROJECT

harmony in their lives. It also will show what they are striving to achieve
in their practices and actions.
13.
This question will show what defines their own personal journey
towards both spiritual and psychological health. Medicine for the soul is a
common phrase used by many healthcare professionals including
counselors, therapists, life coaches, and healers. It is used to describe the
many ways an individual can and might use in order to nurture their souls
growth process toward the direction of the divine (Seaward, 2012). It is
also the culmination of their view of what is needed to have an optimum
mind-body-spirit connection within their lives.
Interviewee Responses/Development:
The person that I chose to interview was my neighbor, Abbey. Here are
the answers to her questions:
1. Do you consider yourself a more optimistic or pessimistic person? Why?
I consider myself to be more optimistic because I like to see the brighter
side of things. I prefer to look at the brighter side of life.
2. If you fail at a task, do you feel you doomed to repeat it or do you thing
you are just having a bad day?
I have definitely failed at some very important tests in my life, and I
completely think that it was not my day that day, there was something
distracting my concentration. It was not that I did not know what I was
doing; maybe it was just presented in a way that was distorted for me
that day. I dont look at failure as long term, but something that is short
lived and ultimately something that I can overcome. Otherwise, why
would I continue to go back and try again?
3. Do you believe you can find positive in any situation? Why or why not?

Running Head: UNIT 9 FINAL PROJECT

Absolutely because as with any situation, there is a positive and a

negative. Regardless of what you think it is, even if it as horrible as
death, you can look at the good in that persons life and be blessed that
you were apart of it. Im sure there were days in that persons life that
there was happiness, and Id rather focus on that.
4. How do you deal with adversity in your life?
I actually use prayer. Anytime in my life when Ive had issues or I was
facing the unknown, things that I felt I was up against, I always use
prayer. I have a lot of faith, and I know that there are situations that I am
not in control of and I leave that up to God and use my faith. For me, the
power of prayer is pretty much everything.
5. What do you do on a daily basis for self-renewal, to calm your mind and
recharge?
I actually do an exercise of qi gong. What it does is allow you to breathe,
slows your breath down and allows you to have an inner peace.
6. What do you do on a daily basis for self-renewal, to calm your body and
recharge?
For the most part to calm my body, I found that walking is the best, but I
dont do it every single day lately. That recharges my body and calms it
down.
7. What activity or practice do you do on a daily basis to build your
spirituality?
Yes, I engage in prayer. It balances me.
8. What thing or activity do you need to at least once a year for selfrenewal, to recharge?
I take a vacation from my job, my responsibilities and just going out and
enjoying myself. Id really like to do that more than once a year.
9. What boundaries do you have for yourself and/or others to maintain
balance in your life?

Running Head: UNIT 9 FINAL PROJECT

I dont have a whole lot of them because I think the biggest influence I
want to have is on people who are negative to me. I come into situations,
especially at work, where I have a real hostile person right off the bat in
the morning, theyll just interrupt my day. I think its my responsibility to
act appropriately because they are not doing that. Essentially, what
happens is that actually helps me because if I can get through situations
that are uncomfortable and unhealthy, I feel like that was not me, it was
them. They had something going on with them when they entered the
space with me, and if I can walk away from that feeling like I did not lose
anything like my respect or my anger, anything that maintains the rest of
me, my positive attitude that I have all of the time, then it helped
maintain the structure I have around me. I dont want anyone to have
that kind of power over me. I take these as just tests.
10. When you are embarking on a task, who or what do you think you are
doing it to benefit?
I do that all of the time, especially when I am cooking. I dont like to be
distracted during that time because it is not only a creative process for
me, but I always think about the people who are going to be eating it. So,
I always put positive energy into it. I think it the whole preparation
process that needs my positive energy into to it so that it nourishes those
who are eating it, including myself.
11. How do you view solitude?

Running Head: UNIT 9 FINAL PROJECT

I think we all need a little bit of solitude because it is kind of getting in

touch with

yourself. Its being able to be comfortable with the fact

that you are just kind of alone in your own thoughts. I think we all need
that because it brings us back to the fact that we all make choices on our
own and our interaction with other people is because of the choices we
make by ourselves. I think that it is a good thing and we all need it. It
allows us to be us without anybody else seeing us.
12. What are at least five important attributes to you?
I guess that would be pretty easy. They would be honesty and integrity;
I think they

would be my most important ones. Being responsible

and having responsibility, being creative and having some self-awareness.

I also would like courage to overcome setbacks.
13. What does medicine for your soul mean to you?
Its something you need to have in order for you to feel like yourself, to
feel whole. Because if you dont have it, you are not happy, you are not
happy without it.

This person seems to have a very good idea of what she wants in her life.
She also engages in some very helpful activities to help her maintain that
balance that she values in her life. Using this inventory, she can identify the
areas to build on, as well as those areas in which she might be able to
improve. One of the areas that she could probable improve on would be the
area of daily self-renewal. She indicated that to calm and recharge her body,

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she likes to walk, but is not doing this everyday. An area where she could
build on what she is already doing is the self-renewal for her mind and
spirituality. She indicated that she engages in qi gong exercises for calming
and recharging her mind, as well as prayer for building her spirituality.
Additions and subtractions:
I do not think that I would subtract anything from my inventory. I think
all of the questions give me a good baseline for where to start with a client.
There are, however, some additions that I would make to the inventory. With
this individual, it seems by some of her answers that she does not have a
clear picture of the difference between being religion and spirituality. For this
reason, I would add:
1. What is the difference between religion and spirituality?
2. What does spirituality mean to you?
After some thought, I also think that it would benefit me to ask the person
what they think that their shadow is. This would pinpoint if the person is
aware of it, and that would go along way toward being successful in
achieving a better mind-body-spirit connection, bringing a greater sense of
balance and harmony to their lives.

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Works Cited
Seaward, B. L. (2012). Health of the Human Spirit: Spiritual Dimensions for
Personal Health (2nd Ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Seligman, M. E. (2006). Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and
Your Life. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
Spiritual Health. (2015). Retrieved 2015, from Community of Christ Health
Ministries Association Web Site:
http://www.hmacofchrist.org/CongregationaHealthMinistry/BulletinInserts/Topi
cs/Bulletin_Insert-Spiritual-Inventory.pdf
Walsh, R. (1999). Essential Spirituality. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.