A Tool for Examining the Whole Self

It is important to exam and listen to your “whole self” when making life decisions, focusing on goals or trying to improve a problem/situation. This means understanding your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual selves in the particular situation or problem. With this, you become aware of your personal strengths for tackling the situation or goal. And, you can likely uncover possible pitfalls for success. Awareness of pitfalls helps you make plans for tackling your obstacles in healthy ways. Become aware of areas in which you have to work from within yourself, be also aware and act when you need outside help.

Look at the diagram below. Here you see representation of your four selves, the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Pick a Topic/Situation you’d like to examine in your life, and then answer the questions in each section. Areas people often examine are career/work, finances, relationships, goals, education, health, life decisions, mental heath, a specific problem/situation, etc. These are example. You can look at virtually any situation in this fashion:

TOPIC/SITUATION: ________________________________________________________

My PHYSICAL SELF

How does the above topic/situation affect my Physical self; my:

Health
Body
Money
Family
Home
Relationships
Time
Environment
Travel/Recreation
Sex Life
Responsibility to earth and animals

Where are your strengths in this situation?

What are the pitfalls?

Where might you need to reach out for help?

My MENTAL SELF

How does the above topic/situation affect my Mental self:

What do I think about this?
What ideas do I have about working on this?
What reason and logic am I applying to this situation?
Do I actually think I can do this?
What steps should I think about taking to reach this goal?

Where are your strengths in this situation?

What are the pitfalls?

Where might you need to reach out for help?

My EMOTIONAL SELF

How does the above topic/situation affect my Emotional self:

How do I feel about this situation and what I think I want?
What are my fears about this situation?
What makes me happy; feel excited; feel good about this situation?
Do I feel that this is what I really need and want?
In what way am I communicating what I feel/need/want in this situation, and is my communication clear?
Am I using confidence and faith to overcome fear?
Do I feel I deserve what I want?

Where are your strengths in this situation?

What are the pitfalls?

Where might you need to reach out for help?

My SPIRITUAL SELF

How does the above topic/situation affect my Spiritual self:

Is this part of my spiritual path?
Is this part of my life purpose, or how does it affect my life purpose?
How does this affect my connection to God/Spirit?
How does my energy feel when I think about my desired outcome for this situation?
What answers do I get when I pray and meditate upon this topic?
How confident do I feel in my spirit that this situation is meant to be?
Am I acting and talking in confidence about this situation?

Where are your strengths in this situation?

What are the pitfalls?

Where might you need to reach out for help?

As you review the information you have discovered about yourself in this situation, make a plan of action for working on your topic. Be patient and flexible with yourself and be mindful that all that we do also affects others, so be patient and flexible with them too!

I would love to hear your comments and reactions to this exercise! Leave a comment below.