March 3rd, 2020

This week’s chapter was a challenging one for me to read and hit a little too close to home. Last year my best friend had passed away from an overdose and has been the most devastating thing I have had to go through and still on an ongoing process of me trying to get grieve. I have grown up having a father as a k9 police officer for a drug search, so I have been very aware of what drugs there are, and I believe to have more knowledge on the topic than most people do growing up. It is terrible how available drugs are and how most everyone you talk to has experienced either a family member or friend that has struggled with drugs or went through a “phase” of trying them. The text had brought up that most people that use or try drugs get used to the high from it and hooks them on to that experience to repeat again, just like how listening to music, sports, meditating, or praying is another personal choice on how they cope when needing an escape or to clear their heads.
This is why I think finding healthy ways such as eating better, exercising, or taking up a sport is crucial for people to have and allows them to have a healthier lifestyle, rather than finding other alternatives where they can pick up dangerous and bad habits or escapes. Learning about psychological dependence was interesting to find out how an individual that continues to engage in a certain behavior or activity with intense feelings in order to do so chemically can control that person to develop a dependence on that activity and how much the biochemical systems in the brain work to form this dependence that they choose to engage in.
I know another part of this chapter that I wanted to touch base on was an addiction to the internet because I believe this to be a huge problem in society and kids growing up with all this access to technology. I was shocked that they stated only 9 percent of college students had reported that their internet use has interfered in their academic performance. This is a number I expected to be much higher and truly believe that it is and most college students are probably not even aware of the toll different platforms on the internet have to their mental health and school performance, I think they consider it as the same as checking an email. Internet addiction is real and affects our health more than we think it does. Finding different ways to limit time on social media, phones, iPad, and computers can be a huge help in helping create a healthier lifestyle. I think this all relates to my topic because it is being aware of things that can contribute to and support having healthier habits in my life. I am aware that eating clean and providing healthy nutrients to my body is harder to do when there are other factors that can upset my mental health and not allow my environment to be as healthy as it can be so I can make these changes to how I decide to incorporate a healthy eating routine.

Chapter 5 introduces the topic of reproductive choices and as a female, I can certainly say this was something I was interested to read on and see what I would learn or discover things that I never knew about. I think this chapter was pretty basic on common sex education topics that most of us have probably learned about growing up. I think certain things like birth control and different contraception’s were things that I knew but never knew about what the typical use failure was and how that is the number of pregnancies that are most likely to occur in the first year of beginning the use of a chosen method of birth control. There was a lot of depth into that and birth control that I never even cared to explore, which is now shocking to say since I knew all about it growing up. Birth control and the different forms are important to learn about especially people who are sexually active, it’s just what should be learned in order to live a healthy lifestyle and being cautious of potential risks for yourself and partner. Another topic that they touched base on was the emotional side of abortions, I think this is something that is so important especially since there are plenty of debates over the female body and abortions that there are not many people chose to learn about and rather would just choose to control over it.
I never knew that there are many different factors that I learned that go into allowing someone to help their emotional well-being when choosing to make that decision and instead of the stigma there is for it there should be more of a conversation on how traumatizing it can be on a woman. There is much to learn about for women and male’s health that has to do with their sex life, and I think there are even more concerns with women because of their reproductive organs and what most women experience in their life that chose to become pregnant. Something that I personally always found scary was infertility and I never wanted to learn about it because of fear. I am the type of person to believe if I read too much on something like that it can happen to me and that personally is just a hard thing for me to read on since I have family friends that have gone through this and was not able to have their own child. I never knew what environmental contaminants were and how things like stress and anxiety can affect infertility. These topics do not have much to do with my topic for eating clean, but I think it is important to be aware of these things to have a healthy lifestyle and incorporate these along with it. There is a lot that clearly goes into reproductive choices and what even reproductive means and I think everyone needs to explore deeper into understanding this in order to incorporate an all-around healthy life and body.

Relationships are so important and for me, they mean everything to me. This goes from the relationship with yourself, with others, and family/friends. I think the relationship with yourself is important for all of your other relationships you experience to have in your life. I know if I am not too confident or happy with myself it can, unfortunately, fall on to the people that I care about and it is hard to fix things that can be done or said. I always make time for myself to make sure that I am happy and the head is in the right place so that I can take care of myself. This needs to come first for me so that I can be my best for the people in my life or at least have a clear head when they need my support or whatever it is that they need from me, even if it is just as simple as having company. Learning about the unhealthy and healthy chart on relationships allowed me to reevaluate myself and relationships, and I think that this important for everyone to do to make a healthier life and lifestyle for themselves.

This can connect to my health topic because I think when it comes to creating healthy lifestyles it is important for your relationship with yourself and around you to be healthy and supportive. It is not only hard to make changes to your life, but it is so much more challenging when you do not have supportive people around to help encourage you on your journey and to the event have positive comments to motivate you. The relationships in your life can make or break you, so learning to have healthy relationships and what that means can help you in so many different ways.

Chapter three explores stress, what it is, how it comes on, what triggers it, how to manage it, etc. Everyone can say that they have experienced stress and depending on that person they chose to either let it run its course or choose ways to learn how to manage it or reduce stress in their life. As a college student in their last semester with a full-time job, and babysitting I can say confidently that I am at a point where I am likely to get easily stressed out. I had also had to learn how to manage stress and I was lucky enough to find out works best for me when I was in high school. Staying active and organizing time to work, do school work, babysit, exercise, and allow time just for me is what is crucial for me. I also had started taking yoga classes and that has been a huge help for limiting the stress in my life and my body.

For my health aspect so far eliminating stress and finding ways to deal with stress healthily as been a great tool for me. I have been good with foods I have been eating, but when it comes to snacking that’s where I challenge more and I think it can be out of boredom or even just stress eating, Instead I allow myself to go for runs or just a walk, luckily I live right next to a pond where it is a great place to get fresh air whether its just for a walk or run, but this has helped me a lot. If i feel stress come on Ill just grab my shoes and headphones and go for a run. By the time I come back I feel so much better and stronger and do not even look to snack on unhealthy things because I feel so good about myself and that my body can do that.

I had always known stress and understood it because I felt it and was a normal experience I would have here and there. The thing I never knew about was the different types of stress there is; such as distress, eustress, acute stress, episodic acute, stress, traumatic stress, and chronic stress. This is difficult to follow especially when applying to yourself. I usually just say I’m stressed but did not know how much goes into it and what it means to have a certain type of stress and how that type may need a certain treatment or release compared to the others. I also learned more about how damaging stress can be on your health that I never knew the depth of. I remember learning awhile ago how stress that goes untreated can lead to memory loss and that just was shocking since I never before would think that much about helping myself when it comes to stress and just letting it be.

Overall, I know stress is something that I will always have to deal with here and there but it feels so much better knowing that I have more control and freedom from it by learning about it more along with learning about myself. I know what my body needs when stress is coming on or I’m going into the week and most likely going to encounter stressors. Even when I am unaware of a long week and I am out with friends and something just sets me off I now am so much more aware and comfortable approaching it and knowing how to breathe or communicate with my thoughts and body. I’m still so surprised to find out that there are different types of stress, stress can affect your health, and the stress can affect your internal health. I think everyone needs to take the time to become aware of themselves, their bodies, their stressors, their type of stress, and how to manage it best for them to be as healthy as they can be.

Chapter 2 had been interesting looking into applying psychology to health and wellness since I am a psychology major and have a great understanding and insight into this and love learning about with as much depth as I can. I can say that learning from the psychology courses I have been able to be more aware of myself and others but also learned about myself more than I ever imagined and how to understand and cope with emotions and stressful situations, which has helped me tremendously be more successful socially, mentally, and physically.

Although, most of this chapter I have learned about and was able to follow along I did come across one thing that I did not know too much about. Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is something that I was not too sure of but found out that it is how the individual’s brain and behavior affect the body’s immune system and how this is important for the mind-body connection. I think this is something I can say I can relate to it. When I have been sad or struggled with personal problems from my past that was hard for me to overcome it always affected my behavior to withdraw and not do much but sleep. This was something that occurred enough during a time in my life where I was often always getting sick during this and can see how my brain and behavior when I was feeling poorly had made an impact on my immune system. This was something that I was, fortunately, able to work through and feel better.

I can also attest to how wonderful yoga is and how it had a huge impact on my life and this chapter expands on the relationship spirituality and yoga have on health and mindfulness. I never knew much about yoga that this chapter had shown me, I more so just showed up to the class and fell in love. As for my health aspect, this has a huge part while also trying to incorporate a clean diet and becoming healthier I owe a lot to yoga. I have been doing yoga for almost a year and can say that this has been a powerful tool for me to use. I have been also making a point while sticking to my health aspect to use yoga as a tool for me to achieve these goals and find peace and happiness from it. When I have a rough day at work, a lot of homework, a presentation, or just want to take time for myself, yoga has helped me through this. I take classes that work with posture, breathing, and meditating that keeps me centered and calm. I can deal with stressful situations confidently because of this and believe that taking just even 5 minutes out of your day to just breathe and regroup can benefit every individual.

I would also like to touch on that also learning about grief was something personal for me and I had focused a little more on what this chapter had to say about it. I had lost my best friend last year and it was unexpected and the hardest thing I had ever had to go through. I did not know too much about grief other than a textbook definition until I went through it myself and I am still going through it. There is so much more to grief than people think and it does factor in mental, psychical, social, and emotional reactions.

I had felt every emotion and felt it hard, which was such an unusual experience for me. I felt complete deep sadness that was just an empty heartache, and then an unusual burst of tears of joy thinking of how lucky I was to have a person like that in my life. It does feel like the longest rollercoaster that I am still on. I do have to say that learning more about grief and others’ experiences does help and understanding allows me to feel and go about each feeling healthily with the right support. These chapters take on psychological well being was personal for me, but also so crucial for people to learn about and develop an understanding for all that goes into it.