HW420: Final Project

This Spirituality and Psychological inventory covers a set of questions to ask oneself
on how they view their current health and wellness, and if there are any areas that need to
be improved. Spirituality and psychological factors plays a big part in the mental and
physical health of an individual. By understanding yourself and being willing to change
can help in improving your overall quality of life and happiness.

HW420: Final Project

Final Project Assignment

Chelsea Long
Kaplan University
HW420: Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

HW420: Final Project

Many Americans have issues with achieving optimal health of there human
spirituality. They have been mislead from what is important in life by seeking the
common obsession with having power and materialistic processions. Often times there
priorities may get distracted from learning unhealthy values. Many factors can cause a
disturbance of there mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Holistic wellness
includes the integration, balance, and harmony of the mind, body, spirit, and emotion that
leads to optimal well-being. (Seaward, 2013)
People think that finding true happiness is through external means such as new cars,
clothes, or food. The main problem is that they dont fully fulfill the inner peace and
mental happiness that they personally need. Instead they just want something in the spur
of the moment resulting in instant gratification. This can cause a person to suffer with
cravings, attachment, feeling of depression, and self loathing.
With knowing everyone has there downfalls there are ways to improve there current
state of wellness. By looking within yourself, silencing the mind and avoiding outside
influences, one can become in control of how there thoughts, emotions and feeling and
understand how they can affect there life. With doing that they can become closer to
reaching there higher self and living an ethical life. I have came up with ten questions to
further help someone understand their spectrum of spirituality and psychological self
including:
1.What do you do to clear your mind and gives you peace?
2.What are some obstacles that you feel keep you from accomplishing your dreams
and goals?
3.How do you handle your feelings?
4. How often do you pray or mediate? Explain
5. Do you believe that everything serves a purpose in life? Explain whether yes or

HW420: Final Project

no.
6.How do react to negative situations or events and how can you view those as
positive feedback?
7.. Do you have any problems with attachments? If so, how do you handle them?
8. What motivates you and where is your dedication most committed to?

9.What does spirituality mean to you?

10. What do you do when you need help?
For the first question, What do you do to clear your mind and gives you peace?
This falls under the category of present- centeredness. It is important to live in the present
moment and not live in the past. If you live in the past it can cause a lot of feeling of
regret, resentment, depression, and worry. A common problem caused by living in the
past events or certain situations is rumination. This can also cause learned helplessness
through a way of pessimistic way of thinking. Pessimistic explanatory style, you will
recall, consists of certain kinds of explanations for bad events: personal (Its my fault),
permanent (Its always going to be like this), and pervasive (Its going to undermine
every aspect of my life) (Seligman, 1991).
Ways that can help you change bad thinking habits is through cognitive therapy. You
can start by changing your explanatory style of pessimistic to optimistic. Optimistic
thinking is an expanded view of the self, by the main focus of that self could improve
itself as known as, self improvement. The more cognitive therapy you do the better
chance you have in relieving any unwanted feeling of depression. Cognitive therapy
works by two ways, changing the way you think of pessimistic to optimistic, and by
giving the self a new set of techniques for changing itself. This change help with inner
peacefulness by quieting the mind.
The next set of questions are , What are some obstacles that you feel keep you from
accomplishing your dreams and goals?and What motivates you and where is your dedication
most committed to? When I think of life obstacles I think being hopeful and optimistic is

HW420: Final Project

important in being successful. If you are having a hard time getting through something
you must believe in yourself and know everything will turn out the way you want it to.
Reducing negative thinking and thoughts of being fearful can help with transforming
emotional responses. A great way to look at life obstacles is by using them a motivation.
By becoming aware of these obstacles and changing your views on them.
Question four and five are, How do you handle your feelings? and What do you
do when you need help? The way you handle your feelings and emotions plays a big
part in forgiveness. Forgiveness is a way to carry the pain of the past away. It can heal the
heart and also take away feelings of guilt. A great method for reducing fault- finding and
anger is through recalling and learning about the good people have done, which fosters
gratitude. If you hold on to feeling of anger or sadness it can cause a lot of problems later
in life, by having a bad view on yourself and causes a sense of unworthiness. (Walsh,
1999)
Next questions are How often do you pray or mediate? and What does spirituality
mean to you? Meditation or prayer are practices that help the aspects of coping and
healing. It is a great way to help with present-centeredness, reconnecting with others or
the divine and forge meaning in relation to life circumstances. It also helps with human
consciousness, the level of awareness, and developing a peaceful mind. (Ingersoll, 2016)
Do you believe that everything serves a purpose in life? I think people should look
at events or situations they have experienced in life whether it be negative or positive and
know that it does serves a higher purpose. Everything can teach us to grow, mature, and
to gain wisdom to help form the person we are suppose to be in life. The important part is
to be aware enough and learn from each experience. This also has to do with question

HW420: Final Project

nine as well How do react to negative situations or events and how can you view those
as positive feedback.
Next question is, Do you have any problems with attachments? If so, how do you
handle them? The difference between desire and attachment is desires are necessary and natural
part of life and attachments are unnecessary source of suffering. (Walsh,1999) Many people tend to
have more attachments than desires. Attachments can cause a lot of problems in the future such as loss
of values, helplessness and addiction. If people dont start to realize how bad attachments can affect a
person they can be become obsessed with instant gratification and will eventually always suffer by the
cravings and pleasures that they need to feel happy for that exact moment in time.
Some unwanted attachments people may have is with food or buying things at the spur of the
moment. These cravings can causes problems in the future if they dont let go of there mental
weaknesses. Feelings of wanting rather than really needing play a big part in these cravings. If people
would just let go of these attachment problems and started to pay more attention in looking into my
desires and higher motives, I believe it could really help them let go of my problems. Beginning to
focus on maturing the mind and becoming more aware of the importance in life, instead of seeking for
satisfying pleasures that could lead to disappointment and suffering they could look into a more
mature motives that can cause spiritual growth.

For my interview I decided to interview my friend. I was able to figure out some of
her weaknesses as well as some of there strengths. She is a very hard working woman
who loves working with animals and water. Some downfalls that she has are she has a
hard time with dealing with her feeling, emotions, and attitude during certain situations.
By not having control of them can cause her a lot of unwanted stress, which can result in
an unbalanced of her mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
I have found that she is missing a connection within herself to help calm and relax
her mind, body, and spirit. She tends to bottle all of her worries and fears up, then when

HW420: Final Project

she gets overwhelmed she explodes. Her main attachments are spending too much
money, which causing a deal of stress and friction between her and her parents. Her
parents control her bank account and her finances so she doesnt get more into money
problems.
With knowing some issues she has there are many ways to help. She can start by
letting go of her attachments problems and focus on the important things in life. This can
help her decrease the added stress and relationship problems that she has with her parents.
Also she could start using mind-body practices or techniques daily. She would be more
mindfully aware of the present moment and gain control of her mind, body, and thoughts
by being in a calm and relaxed state of mind.
I think the ten questions I came up with were great in determining her state of
wellness. It has also helped my friend understand her issues and possible ways that she
could benefit the most from. She understands that she is missing the relationship within
herself to reach the optimal harmonious life that is the best for her health. With that being
said I dont think I would make any changes in my inventory.

References:
Seaward, Brian L. (2013). Health of the Human Spirit, 2nd Edition. [VitalSource
Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from
https://kaplan.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781284090444/

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Seligman, Martin E. P. Learned Optimism. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1991. Print.
"Spiritual Wellness Test." Elliottingersoll. Elliott Ingersoll, 2016. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.elliottingersoll.com/Spiritual_Wellness_Test.html>.
Walsh, Roger N. Essential Spirituality: The 7 Central Practices to Awaken Heart and
Mind. New York: J. Wiley, 1999. Print.