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Wellness Paper

Wellness Paper
Vivian Shakir
NUR 1022L
March 15, 2007

1. Living a purposeful life is what being healthy means to me. When I reflect upon my life, I realized that I did not always live my life with purpose. I was so overwhelmed with trials and tribulations that I failed to nourish my mind, body and spirit with purpose. Purpose is reaching out to family, friends and even strangers who have been there for me. I have found that much of the adversities I faced were created by me. I decided that in order for me to have some clarity in my life, I have to live it righteously. My life is enriched every time I do something that impacts someone else life in a positive way. My plight in life is to live the life God desires me to live and I plan to do just that with Purpose.
2. I am a forty-two year old African American female, one of three of my thirteen siblings, to be born inside of a hospital. My mother had always relied on the services of the local midwife, who just happen to be her maternal great aunt. I was raised in a small southern town in Georgia. My mother and father grew up in large families. She had sixteen siblings (three are deceased) and he had eleven siblings (eight now deceased including my father). Both of my parent's extended families have had to endure the typical diseases that so often affect African Americans. These would include Hypertension, Diabetes and Heart Disease. My family members have never shown any motivation to stay fit. Many are very obese. My father's seven siblings who preceded him in death all died of heart disease. Nearly all of my first cousins are living with heart disease. My father was sixty-five years old when he was killed in a motor vehicle accident. He had never experienced any cardiovascular illness. Within the past ten to fifteen years we have seen the emergence of Cancer affecting young and older family members. Growing up in the rural south gave our families the opportunity to "live off the land". With so many children...