I don’t know about you guys, but this chapter made me feel like I was back in middle school sitting through an uncomfortable health class. This chapter tackled some tough and awkward topics. However hard to talk about they may be, they are super important! A lot of us are blossoming into young adults, meaning we are thinking about the future. This future may include children and it may not. Some of you may already have children which would make you an expert on this week’s reading! Most females in our class are probably currently on some sort of contraception, or at least have discussed it with their doctors. And to the boys out there, this is just as important for you. Although it may seem like much of it has more to do with females than males, you do still play a huge part in the process, and this is what your girlfriends, sisters, mothers, daughters, etc go through.

I’m going to be 23 and I have been on hormonal birth control (the pill) for about 5 years now, so I know a lot about it. I have also thought a lot about what my future will look like in regards to having children. My boyfriend and I have both expressed wanting children so I know this is something I need to consider heavily. This chapter was so informative. I learned a lot of new things, and also was able to expand my knowledge on a lot of things I was already familiar with.

From the moment you become sexually active, to the moment you decide to have kids, and then the moment you decide you no longer want to reproduce, there is A LOT that goes on. You have to decide which contraception method works best for both you and your partner, as far as protecting against not only pregnancy but STDs as well. Then, if you and your partner decide you want children, you should talk to your doctor about stopping your contraception methods, and things you can do to help support your body in the pursuit of conceiving. This could be a simple process, or a hard one. Many people struggle with infertility or other issues getting pregnant. Miscarriages and stillbirths are a risk one faces when trying to have a child. For a pregnancy to be successful, prenatal and postpartum care are incredibly important.

On the darker side of things, someone may get pregnant who cannot keep the child for a various number of reasons. Abortions options are available in those instances. Also, for someone who has unprotected sex and doesn’t wish to get pregnant, emergency contraception pills are available without a prescription. Pregnancy is very emotionally and physically taxing on a woman’s body. Suffering a miscarriage can be traumatizing. However, even with a successful birth, the postpartum stage can be very scary. In this stage it is important to seek help and take care of your body and mind. When someone decides they no longer want to be able to reproduce, there are also surgical options for both men and women. So, thankfully, in this process there are many options. Under most health care, all the things discussed are actually quite affordable. I personally do not pay a dime for my birth control. There are many options for help and assistance, and if you have a doctor you like and trust, and also a partner you trust, that’s half the battle.

Having children, or even thinking about having children, is a scary yet wonderful thing. I personally think it’s amazing what our bodies are capable of and what resources are available to us out there. As a young women, I personally can’t wait to start trying to have children and one day become a mother.

This week’s chapter reading was very informative and easy to relate to my life. We all have relationships, whether it be with our family members, friends, or significant other. There are several elements to a relationship. There is also unhealthy relationships. There are many different ways to love, and many different people to love. That love can change, and it can also end. This chapter opened my eyes to all of those different aspects.

On a personal note, I have been in a relationship for almost 3 years. During the school year, my relationship becomes long distance as my boyfriend goes to school in New Hampshire. We met when I was 19 and began dating when I was 20. I am now going to be 23 later this month, and in those few years of life people grow and change a lot. It has been nothing short of challenging adapting to these changes and growing together, but we have chose to always work through it because thankfully we love each other and have a healthy relationship.

Don’t get me wrong, we have had our fair share of conflict, as most relationships do. I have lost many friends throughout the years, either because I felt betrayed by them or we simply outgrew each other in life. I have gone days without talking to my sister even though she is my best friend, and I have “moved out” of my house (by that I mean go to my friends house for a few nights) when I’ve been mad at my parents. Now that I’m older and more mature, I deal with relationship conflict much better. I don’t shut down and stop communicating, or run away from the problem. I always knew how important communication was in having successful relationships, but this chapter really validated that for me.

I can also say I have been in an unhealthy relationship and that was a really hard time in my life. Toxic relationships can be very damaging to both people, and they can sometimes be really hard to get out of. It is important to identify when a relationships becomes unhealthy and to seek the support to end that relationship.

Not to be mushy, but I am a firm believer that having a good relationship with yourself is the first step in having a good relationship with anyone else. If you are happy with yourself and hold yourself to a high respect, it it less likely you will allow someone else to mistreat or disrespect you. Likewise, you will most likely treat other people better as well. Overall, your relationships in life will be more fulfilling and successful.

In relation to my journey, my relationships are very important to me. Making sure those relationships remain healthy can sometimes be an exhausting effort, but I personally prioritize my loved ones over everything else. When these relationships have ups and downs, it contributes to my stress, eating habits, etc. For me, it is essential to nurture my relationships in order to stay healthy. But like I said earlier, it all starts with taking care of myself first. I think we can all agree that these things are true. Tying last week into this week, I have been experiencing extra stress and some relationship struggles, and both have played off of each other. So my goal to lose weight and exercise more took the back burner while I have put extra time into taking care of myself. I included one of my favorite quotes that I heard DVF (a true fashion icon) say on television years back, and I hope you all can appreciate the importance of it!

This week’s reading was all about the different types of stress and how it affects our bodies. We’re all college students here, so I think we can all say we are very familiar with stress. It is an unfortunate but inevitable part of life. It can also be very dangerous if you do not take the time to identify and control it.

Stress in any stimuli that challenges your bodies coping abilities. Things such as homework, lack of sleep, relationship problems, money, etc can all cause stress. That’s why as college students we all relate to the struggles of stress very well. Most of us are trying to pay for school and find jobs, we have hours of homework, and we may have extra family obligations as well. Stress can wear you down physically and mentally, and even cause serious health problems. It is important to monitor your stress by identifying stressors and reducing them. Whether it be time managing better, or not taking on as many obligations there are steps that can be taken to avoid the serious consequences of stress.

Sleeping well, eating well, and exercising are also good ways to avoid stress because you will feel at your best. I am relating this new knowledge of stress to my journey this semester. I have learned how to identify my stress and try to control it better. Considering my goal is to eat better and exercise more, I think both issues can benefit each other, as far as reaching my goal and reducing my stress. I would also like to reduce my stress because it can cause weight gain and my goal is to lose it.

On a positive note, I have lost 2.4 lbs, which to me doesn’t sound like a lot but my schedule has not allowed me to go to the gym as often as I would like. So, I would have to credit this to the significant change in my diet, which has included cutting down on sweets, coffee, and unnecessary snacking.

Greetings to whoever stumbles upon this post! I’ve got a lot to say this week, so get comfy. I would like to discuss many different topics including overall psychological health, mental and emotional health, strategies and outlets that can be used to increase psychological health, and the benefits of being psychologically healthy. Mental health and well being is a topic that is near and dear to my heart, so I apologize, as this will get very deep and personal.

First off, I’d like to start by being incredibly vulnerable in sharing my mental health struggles. I have suffered from anxiety and depression for as long as I can remember. I never felt like I fully had a grip on my everyday emotions and reactions to certain situations. For a while, almost every single day of my life I experienced a complete roller coaster of emotions. It was much harder to manage when I was younger. When I was in middle school, and going through that graceful period in life called puberty, I was mentally a mess. I don’t know how to describe it besides the fact that even at a young age I knew I was not mentally well. My emotions and thought processes were much different than my friends, and not necessarily in a good way. My friends and family members constantly worried about me and checked in on me, and I realize now that it is because not only did I not feel okay, it showed on the outside as well. A middle schooler should not have nearly as many struggles as I was having, so I knew what I was feeling wasn’t “normal” (I don’t like that word, but it fits okay here).

As a young teenager life is confusing enough. I didn’t give credit to my anxiety and depression. I claimed it was normal stress, sadness, being a dramatic teenager, etc. I didn’t want help and I didn’t know how to talk about it. At the time the only person I could be somewhat open with is my mom. She is a great listener and supporter, and for that I am grateful.

Then came high school, and if anyone reading this post had a good high school experience I am sincerely jealous. High school was by far the most trying time in my life. School became more stressful, girls were mean, kids were bullies, and I felt so uncomfortable in my skin. As senior year drew closer, the stress of what college I could afford and get into began to set in as well.

Then, the unthinkable happened. One of my best friends killed himself in January of 2014, just five short months before we were supposed to be graduating high school together. The worst part about all of it was he was the funniest, sweetest kid, and I didn’t know anything was wrong. I wish he had come to me, or any of our friends for help. I had felt guilty and somewhat responsible for quite some time after that, and it took me a long time to come to grips with it. It forced me to reflect on my own mental health issues. As a girl, it is much more acceptable to be emotional and seek help. Young boys feel pressured to show masculinity and emotional strength, and I’m afraid this is why my friend didn’t seek or want help. I felt guilty that I had so many outlets, such a good support system to lean on, and the social acceptance of being open about my struggles. Suicide is most common among young men, and I blame social stigma partially for that. If my situation had been any different and I wasn’t so lucky, who’s to say I wouldn’t have succumbed to my struggles as well?

I took this tragedy and turned into the most important life lesson I’ve ever experienced, and motivation to become mentally healthy. When I realized how many people were affected by my friend’s passing, and the mark he left, it saddened me even more that he maybe didn’t think his physical presence mattered to anyone. It made me want to become better, because I knew I had friends and family who needed me and who deserved to have the best version of me. Not only that, but I knew I deserved to be happy as well.

I have come a long way in my mental health journey. I still struggle with my anxiety from time to time, but have acquired effective outlets that help me to cope with it. I have come into my own much more, and overall feel like I have more control over my life and emotions.

Now that I have shared my personal experience, I want to talk about topics discussed in the chapter that are relevant to my own journey, and psychological health in general. The book describes being mentally healthy as perceiving life in realistic ways, being able to adapt to change, solve problems, and fulfill responsibilities. Being emotionally healthy is described as responding to emotion provoking events appropriately.

Signs of being psychologically healthy include having high energy, taking on challenges, having healthy relationships, and good coping skills. Signs of being psychologically unhealthy include being mostly negative, socially isolated, and often being tired or sick. There are also some signs that fall in between being both healthy and unhealthy, which is what creates the gray area between someone who is struggling and someone who is just having a bad day. That’s why it is important to check on the people around you and make sure they know they are not alone. One of my favorite quotes is “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle”.

The good news is there are many strategies and outlets for help that can improve your psychological health if you are ever struggling. Some strategies include looking to your support system, getting good sleep, focusing on yourself, remaining physically healthy, and forming realistic expectations. I think that support systems are the most important outlet. There is nothing worse than struggling alone. Talk to your friends, lean on your parents, confide in a therapist… just talk and be open and that alone is usually a weight lifted from your shoulders. As I mentioned earlier, I have always been able to go to my mom for help and it has been one of the greatest comforts in my journey. There are also certain medications and mental health professionals who can aid ones journey toward good mental health.

Being mentally healthy is beneficial to all other aspects of your health. Mental health and physical health go hand in hand. As my goal this semester is to eat better and exercise more, I know this can also benefit me mentally, not just physically. Exercising releases endorphins that are proven to heighten positive emotions. Sometimes simple exercise can even help reduce stress and anxiety. A better diet allows you to feel energized throughout the day, and to get a good nights sleep. Reducing my coffee intake has also been helping my anxiety improve, as caffeine can cause anxious feelings to persist.

I have included a picture of my tattoo with the words “Let it be”. I’m a Beatles fan and this is one of my favorite songs. It has also become an important message to me. I got this tattoo after I came to grips with my friend’s death, and the reality of my own struggle. It has served as a positive reminder that I don’t have complete control of what goes on around me, but I can work to control how I react to it. The “B” is blue, as a nod to my friend’s first initial and favorite color.

 

This week officially starts my journey towards a healthier lifestyle. As you’ll recall, my goal on this journey is to lose 10 pounds. I am hoping this weight loss will come gracefully and (somewhat) effortlessly by eating better and exercising more. Those two components are huge for me because over the last couple of years I have let them lose their importance in my life completely. My starting weight (from this morning) is 149.7lbs. So ultimately, my goal weight is about 140. I am not opposed to losing more as the least amount I remember weighing is 135lbs and that was when I was in high school. I have included a picture of myself on the scale, and I am sorry to those who do not like feet.

My plan for eating healthier basically revolves around simply grocery shopping and food planning. I plan just about every aspect of my life out. I plan out each day, each month, each year, and almost every hour of my life. I currently own three planners and use all three of them. Need I go on? So, it does surprise me that I have never attempted meal prepping. As I mentioned in my first post, I am so busy, and this has been my excuse for eating so sporadically and opting for unhealthy food options (a random snack, fast food, etc). But, if I simply take the time to do a grocery shopping trip each week I can anticipate what I will be eating and what I can take with me on the road, depending if I will have access to a microwave, fridge, etc. I absolutely love sweets, chocolate, and coffee. These are my biggest downfalls. I need to cut down on sweets A LOT, and also on coffee, as this also causes my anxiety to persist. When I’m so busy and tired, a coffee is the most tempting thing to grab. But, I would like to look into healthier options such as tea or protein shakes/drinks (open to suggestions). It would be helpful to monitor my calorie intake when it comes to those tempting, yet dangerous sweets. I have started on monitoring my food intake and avoiding sweets, and I am going to start my grocery shopping this week.

My schedule varies day to day and week to week. It is hard to make a set schedule for going to the gym. However, my goal is to go 2-3 times a week. I think this is more than fair considering my work load. If I have a slow week, I will definitely try to motivate myself to go an extra time. Even if I do not have time to make a trip to the gym, I will try to at least walk my dogs. I will aim to go in the morning, as going after a long day of school and work is much more challenging. Based on my schedule, my goal this week is to go to the gym twice and walk my dogs everyday.

Chapter one opened my eyes to many important concepts to consider on my journey. There are six different types of health: intellectual, emotional, physical, social, spiritual, and environmental. Our health and wellness is based on how successfully we reach our full potential in all six of these areas. This made me consider where I stand with these six areas of health. I know where I stand as far as my physical health, because that is what my goal is aiming to improve. Physically, I am out of shape and could definitely afford to lose a few pounds. Otherwise, I normally feel good, rarely get sick, and always pass my check ups with flying colors. I believe that improving my physical health will positively impact my emotional health. I think it will definitely help my self-esteem and anxiety issues, which is an added bonus.

I also found the idea of a SMART goal incredibly genius and helpful. SMART stands for specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic, and time-oriented. The book discusses how setting a goal that is far fetched, unreasonable, or hard to keep track of is most likely a goal that is never going to get achieved, which makes complete sense. You can lose track of a goal very easily when it is not specific or realistically achievable. This is not to say you should set an easy goal for yourself. But, if you need to create a set of smaller goals rather than one big goal in order to stay focused, than that is what is best. After reading about SMART goals, I feel reassured I have picked an achievable goal for myself.

My name is Kayla Chernecky and I am a senior at Bridgewater studying Strategic Communications. When I am not at school or doing homework, I have a part time job working in the event industry, and working retail at American Eagle. I enjoy spending time with my dog, Bella, as I am a huge dog lover. My passion is clothing and fashion, so I also spend a lot of time shopping and in my closet! I hope to one day start a fashion blog.

I am excited to begin this course and learn more about what I can do to benefit my health and well-being. The health aspect I chose to change is my weight. I would like to lose 10 pounds, as this has been a goal of mine for a while. I am looking forward to the journey this course will entail, because it will help to give me the motivation and knowledge that I need.

I have a very busy schedule, and have not taken the time to work out and plan out what I am eating in a very long time. I often skip the gym, and choose convenient yet unhealthy food options. My plan to lose weight will include making a gym schedule and monitoring my food/calorie intake. I am excited to take on this challenge as we all follow our own goals. Here’s to a great semester!

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton