Instructions:
- Teacher displays a blank medicine wheel to talk with students about how the sections are connected ie: mental, physical, spiritual, emotional.
- Teacher can encourage students to think of each quadrant as a wheel of a car. If even one wheel is flat the car isn’t going anywhere. This is an analogy of how students/young people cannot thrive without all four aspects of the self being in balance.
- Students look at the four quadrants of the medicine wheel and how they relate to the four areas of the self.
- Teacher talks to students about how the holism between the mental, physical, spiritual and emotional quadrants is influenced by and in turn influences one’s family, community, nation, land-base etc.
- Students set goals regarding how each area of themselves can be strengthened ie: mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical.
Optional Extension Activity: Holistic Goal Setting
- Students reflect and set new goals at the end of each week related to how they are growing in each area. Students’ goals should reflect an understanding that their holistic well-being is connected to their family, community and the natural world.