Wheel of Life

Many times during my groups through out the month, I will commence with drawing the customary circle, which is called the, "Wheel of Life".  I break it down into quadrants, labeling each section with life's components in which we all need to balance! Many of you are familiar with this exercise. For the one's that are not it is important to be honest with self's level of satisfaction. The wheel of life is something that we all can use to address where are energy is going, and what we value our current level of strength. The key is to understand that life is about putting positive energy into the things that give us balance, and in return we stay in the moment.  In this exercise, I use the following topics as are dividers: Health, Family and Friends, Career, Physical Environment, Money, Fun and Recreation, Significant Other, and Spirituality/Personal Growth. We go around the room and define each heading. Then I ask each person on a scale of 1-10, (for those who know me and get the opportunity to work with me, that 1-10 scale is evident in a array of things we do here at addiction services) to place their level of satisfaction on each of the topics. Remember after the circle is drawn, it is divided into 8 sections, like a pie! After each person ranks their levels of satisfaction, we then go around the room and have that person explain their wheel of life. Yesterday, during group, we had 14 people, complete this exercise. The last person, did something that I have never seen in all the years that I have been facilitating groups. This person, put all their numbers, (8 of them- 8 topics) into one piece of the pie! Any ideas of what that heading was? She put her numbers into the section called, Fun and Recreation. The class automatically said, "Tod, she can't do that, she is not following directions in the wheel of life". All of sudden, she walked up to the chalk board, and drew lines from all of the categories to the Fun and Recreation piece. She looked at the group and replied that her wheel of life is all about fun, and that when she stopped using drugs, her health, family and friends, career, physical environment, money, significant other, and spirituality with personal growth became fun again! We all clapped our hands, she has been clean for two years now, she is 38. Stay in your health, stay in the moment.