Nichols 1

Jay Nichols
Professor Vilvens
Personal Health
19 January 2018
Behavioral Change Project
I have never put much thought into my health growing up considering being young and in

shape. It never occurred to me that health opens up to many other varieties other than physical

health. There are various dimensions of health, which caused me to carefully analyze and

evaluate the steps I do daily. While taking the survey, I found out that my strongest section was

my social and personal health. I was surprised and slightly ashamed to say that my focus has not

been on my environmental health.

I believe that I scored very highly on the social health dimension is because I love being

involved with others. Throughout high school, I was a Varsity cheerleader and gymnast. I want

to dedicate my life to helping others see success in themselves and grow. I was not surprised that

this was my highest rank. It is very important to my health that I am kind to others. It not only

helps them, but myself as well.

My personal health and disease prevention dimension was very great as well. I am

precautious about my body and I wouldn’t do anything to damage it. The effects on alcohol is

poisonous and can be very addicting. Sexual activity should be something couples take with

extreme precaution. Wearing condoms and practicing safe sex will always be a great importance

to me. I enjoy taking care of my body and having the satisfaction of knowing I am healthy.

Emotional health would be the next dimension I did well in. Once I entered my senior

year in high school, I started to gain a lot of stress through an unhealthy balance of school,
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college work, and personal problems. I started to have panic attacks in the middle of work when

I was overwhelmed and even at the dentist. Knowing now that I have anxiety disorder, I have

made plans to better myself and my emotions. I do not push my stress on other people and I

never bottle my emotions inside. I do many exercises and even began to practice yoga to relieve

my stress. I do nothing but encourage others when they need it help people through their needs

and troubles.

My intellectual health is something in my life that I should work on. I believe that I need

to work on managing my time when it comes to work and school. It is hard being a freshman in

college and work at the same time. I work at least 24 hours a week to pay rent at my own

apartment. I can say that I learned from my mistakes and I am working on ways to do better and

focus on school. I am setting a great example in my family and 9 younger siblings by being in

college fulfilling my dream. There have been sometimes where I thought about giving up, but I

never lost hope. Time management I believe will ease my stress and put me on a better path. This

dimension is in the middle because I have many decisions to make that can and will change my

college life.

Unfortunately, my physical health is not where it should be right now. I have taken

advantage of my healthy body with poor diet choices, lack of exercise, and self-doubt. I do not

take into importance of watching what I eat. Because of this I have stomach pains and other

health issues. After cheerleading in high school, the thought of working out never even slipped

my mind. When I look at my body, shame sometimes enters my thoughts, but I am too lazy to do

anything about it. I am aware that I should exercise, but committing to it is a completely different

story. It will be my goal throughout this course and new year to make sure I increase my score in

this dimension.
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Spiritual health is one thing that never occurred to me until recently. However, it is

important for me to be involved in certain things such as church and volunteering. Giving back

to the community and reaching out to those in need should be a constant reminder to me. This

dimension is ranked very low on my scale because I haven’t had the chance to give it much

thought or have opportunities. Working on this dimension will help my health and encourage me

to be a better person.

The least important dimension of health to me was environmental. This fact is neither

good nor bad. However, it did cause me to think about recycling and taking care of my

environment in a better way. It is sad how much I use to liter and not even give it a second

thought. I have always been an energy and water saver, but it was very rare when I put a piece of

paper or plastic in a recycle bin. I do believe that I should work on this dimension of health in

my life. I say this because it is important to not only me, but the planet that I take care of it.

The opportunity to self-assess myself in this way was unexpectedly helpful. I have had

much thought to which dimension of my life I would like to work on, and that would be all of

them. Focusing on my main point will occur, but at the same time I am going to better myself in

each section in the best ways I can. I would like to mostly change my physical health. I came to

this conclusion by realizing how poorly I am treating myself both physically, mentally, and even

emotionally. In order to make this change happen, I will begin to exercise at least once a week

for 2 hours a day and do yoga every morning. Yoga has been a new feature in my life which

takes away many stresses. I will also work on getting on a sleep schedule so that my performance

rate in school will be to great standards. I believe that by increasing and working on my physical

health, my other dimensions will increase as well. To boost my emotional and personal health, I

need to physically take care of myself. Once I gain confidence and get on a healthy food diet,
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this will put my mind at ease. That will cause my intellectual and spiritual health to increase

since I will be prioritizing better. My personal health will be benefitted because I will not put

toxins in my body and engage in sports more by exercising. Once I have focused and made my

dimension better physically, I can begin to work on helping the environment. Exercise and

fitness planning, I believe, is the best option for me into boosting my physical health dimension.