A Self-Reflection In All Aspects Of The Medicine Wheel

To be able to know one's self, a person must understand their strengths and weaknesses. The medicine wheel is a tool to assess one's self in each of its four significant aspects known as the physical, spiritual, emotional and intellectual. I have conducted a self-reflection, and I am aware of where I would score myself in all of the four aspects of the medicine wheel. I have discovered that I was lacking in some of the elements but as I develop to a more mature person, I will eventually learn to build the insufficiencies I have on the four aspects to make me a better person than I am today.

The emotional aspect of the medicine wheel, according to Mussell is defined as "a sense of physiological arousal, an impulse or urge toward action, along with a degree of discernable feeling". With emotional ability, one can connect to others. I believe that my emotional capability can be scored 8/10 with ten being the highest. When I was younger, I tend to create awkward atmospheres when I am around other people because of my shyness. I was often perceived as unfriendly due to my reserved personality. As I grew older, I changed my attitude in connecting with other people. The person I am today approaches others first in a friendly manner and try to express my feelings in order to avoid the awkwardness that I used to experience. As what Mussell says, I had “an impulse or urge toward action”, and that act was to start connecting to the people. I think being emotional is all about being able to feel the positive and negative energies around you while being aware of what energy you are transmitting to others. Thus, I consider myself as an emotional person because I was able to distinguish myself as someone who was transmitting negative energy to others by being quiet to becoming a person who now prefers to ask questions and viewed as friendly.

The physical feature on the medicine wheel outlines a person's access or satisfaction to the basic needs of humans like oxygen, shelter, food, water, exercise, security and safety. I am grateful to have enough of these basic needs. Regarding safety and security, I feel most safe and secured around my family and just knowing that I have my family members around me, it will always be 9/10 score for me on the physical feature of the medicine wheel. The shortage of the score signifies my fears or worries as a human being. For example, fear of danger or getting sick. I believe that no one can ever perfect the score 10/10 on the physical feature of the medicine wheel because after all, humans are hardwired to feel fear and danger.

The intellectual aspect of the medicine wheel describes the person's will to think critically, create change and form ideas. Being intellectual does not mean achieving higher mental capacity or receiving recognition from an institution due to effort in learning but more of the ability to think and understand information around one's self. According to Mussel, intellectual development happens in two ways: through direct exposure to encounters and through a mediator in which the mediator will create stimuli for the learner to acquire information on that matter. The person will gain new knowledge from own life experiences and not from books. I would score myself 8/10 with 10 being a perfect score on the intellectual aspect because I genuinely believe that I have had many life experiences in which I have learned new information. A good example is how I learned to do various house chores from my parents; doing the laundry, cleaning, and cooking. These chores are just some of the skills that you learn better hands-on, not by reading books. Although, I believe that acquiring knowledge is a never-ending process for humans because we always experience new things in life as we go on thus the lack of score.

Lastly, the spiritual part of the medicine wheel relates to the person's inner peace, personal harmony and, balance. I trust in my self-reflection that I am about 8/10 on this aspect of the wheel. To speculate my assumption, I have been a medical receptionist at a walk-in clinic for four years. In my field of work, we always get patients who are angry about wait times (that I have no complete control of). I have heard countless times from other patients who does not get irritated that I have such a great control over myself and few of them asks how I can keep calm amidst all the anger I get. I was not sure how to answer, but I do know that being calm is something that you learn within yourself. I believe being calm is part of a person’s inner peace. Thus, the spiritual part of the medicine wheel is surely an 8/10 score for me.

To extrapolate my thoughts, as I was learning to know myself, I am able to see my strengths and my weaknesses that requires improvement. I was once shy but now prefer to be approachable. I am lucky enough to be achieving the basic needs of human life, but I still get worrisome and fearful sometimes. I believe I am intellectual due to acquired knowledge from my countless life experiences. Also, I believe I am spiritual because I have inner peace within me that I can balance chaos and serenity. As what BJ Neblett says “We are the sum total of our experiences. Those experiences; be they positive or negative-make us the person we are, at any given point in our lives”. I may be lacking in some of the features of the wheel at the moment but I believe that I will keep on learning as life goes on and these experiences will make me a better person than I am today. The term ‘lacking’ may not be the best word to describe me for now but more of a ‘work-in-progress’.