Essay Question for Reflective Essay on “Wellness”
PDP 150 Section 02, Professor Frueh
What is the relationship between wellness and adulthood? How mature is your approach to your own health? What
should be included in the concept of “wellness”? Use the authors’ ideas and your reactions to them to analyze what
it means to be fully healthy. What does it mean to take responsibility for your own wellness? How can you improve
your overall wellness as you set up the patterns of life that will guide you through the next four years of your life
here at Bridgewater?
That is a mouthful. Let’s break it down a little. You might find it useful to label the paragraph or paragraphs in
which you focus on the 5 stages. Each part of the question is designed to help you complete a step in the process of
reflection. Remember that you don’t have to come to any final conclusions, but you do need to demonstrate
that you put some effort into thinking this through. This is to be approximately three pages in length.
Part 1: Explanation – What is the relationship between wellness and adulthood?
In this section you provide an introduction to the main theme of the essay and discuss briefly how the
authors we have read for class thought about wellness, even if they didn’t use that precise term. Maturity
implies more wisdom and responsibility. Do the authors think some actions show more maturity than
others?
Part 2: Exploration – How mature is your approach to your own health?
In this section you should honestly evaluate your ideas about physical, mental and emotional health. Are
these ideas that you actually put into practice in your life? From where did your previous ideas about
healthy behavior come? Lay out your assumptions and thinking about health before you did these readings.
Has you previous behavior been consciously chosen or have you been just coasting along without thinking
much about your health?
Part 3: Conjecture – What should be included in the concept of “wellness”?
Here you are formulating your own definition of wellness. None of the readings address this fully, but all
address some aspect of wellness. Make an assertion here about what wellness should include and what
practices demonstrate a healthy approach to life.
Part 4: Analysis – Use the authors’ ideas and your reactions to them to analyze what it means to be fully healthy.
What does it mean to take responsibility for your own wellness?
Now take your assertion and explain what the authors would have to say about it. How was your definition
influenced by what the authors had to say, and how does it differ from what they might say if they had to
answer this essay question? Break apart their arguments and pick out what is useful to you. Use at least
three quotations. Be careful to be accurate and to represent their ideas to the best of your ability. How well
you do this demonstrates how much effort you gave in understanding what you read.
Part 5: Synthesis/Re-examination - How can you improve your overall wellness as you set up the patterns of life that
will guide you through the next four years of your life here at Bridgewater?
Here is your opportunity to make all this even more personal. What are the implications of all the thought
and energy that went into constructing this essay? What do you now think is true and what are you going to
do about it? This should not be a rehashing of what you already said, but your chance to tell us how you are
going to put into practice the ideas that you encountered in this experience.