Analyzing Wellness to Inform Personal Framework of Perception
It should first be clarified that my project is about nutrition and mental health in children and adolescents. More specifically, I explore how the former influences the latter in a one-way relationship. Inside the wellness topic, I critically analyze the devastating impact of ultra-processed foods, almost completely lacking in nutrients and beneficial elements, on the mental well-being of children and teenagers.
I have successfully analyzed the problem of my interest from the angles of brain chemistry and domestic politics, as well as aspects of wellness. It greatly added to my framework of perception of sustenance on the psyche of non-adults. This practice has shown me that the sub-topics that constitute a major one should not be perceived as static and isolated. Instead, one should see these as intersectional, multi-dimensional, and interconnected.
Examining Personal Bias and Its Effect on Worldview
Examining my own bias has become a process of critically questioning my worldview. This practice has taught me to constantly question my perception and use a different viewpoint to understand an idea, process, or fact. Global food production is moving in an unethical and inefficient direction. Moreover, psychology and the food industry are adjacent fields of professional human activity. These two and others are globally interconnected and exist in a network with constantly circulating influences.
I had some biases about the criticality of nutrition to the psychology of non-adults before practicing critical analysis of the topics introduced earlier. I knew malnutrition and overeating negatively affect the mental well-being of individuals, including young people. I am informed that the lack of several nutrients damages the psyche, too, but I doubt that the lack of one or two nutrients or beneficial elements is equally harmful. Having obtained the truth, I see why sustenance is still underestimated in addressing the mental problems of those under 18. Being aware of one’s bias both expands and adds to the perception of oneself.
Influence of Wellness Analysis on Professional Practice
The application of critical analysis has enriched both my scientific vision and personal way of perceiving the near and global worlds. My community is more than just a historically, geographically, and culturally formed yet ever-changing collective of interacting diverse groups of individuals with different backgrounds. I started to perceive it as a multi-level system of various factors, each with several layers, which influence each other bilaterally. In the same manner, I began to look at global humanity.
Using Wellness Studies to Understand Future Topics in the Field
As a medical and health topic and scientific and academic discipline, wellness is broad and multi-dimensional. As experts state, one “focuses on the synergy of multiple elements — such as nutrition, activity, stress management, and social support — in promoting health and wellness” when critically analyzing it (Wellness studies, n.d., para. 1). When I started exploring wellness about my topic, it showed me the interplay of socio-economic, psycho-physiological, and institutional factors. Critical wellness analysis reveals new, previously poorly researched, and highlights under-researched subtopics in nutrition studies and psychology.
As explained above, wellness is a complex subject that requires many analytical lenses. I am interested in the impact of the spiritual aspect of one’s life on one’s nutrition and psyche, and this may be my next big topic. Studying wellness through this perspective will reveal to me, for example, the correlations between religious diets, dietary norms and restrictions, and specific psychological patterns.
Reference
Wellness studies. (n.d.). Mayo Clinic. Web.