Blog Post 6: Wellness

When I first heard about the wellness project, I thought it was a great idea. I've done a lot of these types of wellness plans in the past. I had to do one at the beginning of the semester for one of my classes. The idea was the same, but it was kind of different. For my other wellness plans/charts, I would check off an area if I had done the act. For example, say I wanted to wake up early and I did it, I would check off that area. What Franklin did was check it off if he violated that virtue. One of his virtues was silence, so if he violated that, he checked it off on his chart. 

I think his idea was good, a lot of people in today's society do something similar. I just think he was a little hardcore. I feel like he took it a little too seriously. What Lawrence said about his virtues makes sense. No one is perfect and I think trying to perfect yourself will only end up hurting you. It's good to have disciplines that you put on yourself, but not with the intention of being perfect. The quote from Lawrence talks about perfection being a dreary thing, which I believe to be true. I think it would be boring if everyone was "perfect". I feel that it could be very taxing on the mind to strive to be perfect. At the same time, Franklin had specific virtues that he held himself to, which can be a good thing if it isn't taken too seriously. Holding yourself to impossible standards can be taxing. We're all human and we make mistakes.

The main categories that I focused on were social, occupational, and emotional; socializing, doing schoolwork, and taking time to understand my emotions. There have been times when I went a couple of days without talking to anyone, so it's important to me that I try to talk with at least one person per day. If I talked to someone, I checked off the area. For occupational, I related it to school since I'm currently unemployed. If I went to class or did some homework, I'd mark the area. For emotional, I think understanding why I'm feeling a certain way is important. If I took the time to analyze my feelings, I marked off that area. It's hard to keep up with wellness when I'm worried about other things and that's okay. I'm not perfect, and I'm going to mess up sometimes. I'll still go days without speaking to anyone from time to time, but I'll reorient myself later that week and get back on track. The wellness journey isn't linear, it will have its ups and downs.