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Author: averagestudent

Free Inquiry Post #4 Technology & Wellness

October 9, 2025 / / 0 Comments

For this week, I wanted to focus on finding wellness apps to help me with my inquiry question. Living in a world with technology creates a lot of issues with mental health and physical health. I find myself often comparing myself to influencers, doomscrolling on short videos, and constantly checking my phone almost every minute. But I wanted to look into the positive influence of technology on mental and physical health. There are so many apps out there that focus on daily affirmations, daily tasks, meditation, journaling, and exercise tracking that can aid in reducing anxiety, building confidence, and motivating the user. 

This week, I tested out a few wellness apps for myself to see if these wellness apps are able to help me with my workouts and understand how technology can be used in positive ways.

The first app is called MyFitnessPal which is a physical health app that helps you log your food and water intake, stepcount, sleep, and exercise. I found this app extremely helpful as it logs many factors in my day. After using this app I think I am going to continue it because it helps me track a lot of factors in my life and I could see it being a helpful tool if I continue to workout consistently. 

The next app I tried is called Daylio which is a daily journaling app. This app allows you to log how you’re feeling at the end of the day and create mini reflections with prompts about your day. After using this app at first I felt like it was a bit silly, but I really enjoyed the mini reflections and daily check-ins. It was also interesting to see how I was feeling over the week when looking back at it. I will definitely be using this on a daily basis (see below for image.)

The next app I tried is called Mantra which is a daily affirmation app. This app sends out a new affirmation every morning of your choice. After using this app I really enjoyed waking up to some positive words to start my day. I would even say them aloud when I was reading them. I think I would use this every morning as a little positive affirmation for myself to make me feel better about the day. 

The last app I tried is called Habit which is a check-list style app. This app allows you to create your own habits that have to be completed each day. The habits I set for myself include 3 cups of water each day, 20 minutes of meditation, 7 hours of sleep, 1 hour of a workout/physical activity, and interacting with my other wellness apps daily. After using this app I enjoyed the satisfaction of checking things off as I go on about my day, but I do think that a plain old checklist or the notes app would suffice (see below for image.)

After trying out all these apps it makes me wonder, can an app really create lasting changes for one’s body and mind, or is it more of a quick fix? I think for me if I am consistent with using these apps it would definitely help me both mentally and physically, but I can see how these apps could easily get brushed aside since in the end it is up to the user to decide if they want to hold themselves accountable to do these daily.

Free Inquiry Post #3 Reflection/Personal Practice

October 2, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Workout Log

Sept. 20 Gym back + chest & Yoga

Sept. 21 Gym arms + shoulders & Yoga

Sept. 22 Gym legs + glutes & Yoga

Sept. 25 Gym cardio & Yoga

Sept. 26 Run around lake & Yoga

Sept. 28 Gym arms + shoulders & Yoga

Sept. 29 Gym legs + glutes & Yoga

Sept. 30 Gym back + chest & Yoga

Oct. 2 Gym cardio & Yoga

For the past two weeks I’ve been working out consistently around 3-5 workouts per week and within those two weeks I have split each day up into different workouts to target different body parts. Below I have logged my workout split and the exercises within each day. So far, I really enjoy running around the lake near my house which is around 5 kilometres. I also enjoy doing daily yoga through YouTube which I linked below. I have been incorporating this into my routine in the evening so I can use it as a mechanism to relax my body for bedtime. My least favourite workout day is legs as it’s definitely the hardest of the splits and I find I get the most sore from it the following day.

After staying consistent with this routine for the past two weeks I’ve noticed almost immediately after the workout that I am in a better mood, more positive, and more confident with myself. In the long run, after doing it for two weeks I’ve noticed a slight change in my body which has helped my confidence a lot and made me feel more motivated to continue with this. So far my anxiety still persists and although I don’t expect this to get rid of it, I expect it to help me cope with it. I’ve noticed my anxiety has reduced a little bit and I think it’s because these workouts uplift my mood for a bit which tricks my brain into not needing to feel anxious.

I wonder within the next few weeks if I will notice any more changes in my body and mind and I’m excited to see where this will take me. Next week, I will begin to look at different technology strategies to incorporate into my routine, such as wellness apps and videos. I can try these different strategies for myself and reflect on how they can help me feel more motivated, guide my practice, or force me to take accountability in my workouts.

PSII Visit Reflection

September 26, 2025 / / 0 Comments

After visiting the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry today my outlook on traditional schooling has changed significantly. During the visit, I was fascinated by the layout of the school and the atmosphere. I thought it was interesting how a lot of the light is primarily LED, rather than the harsh school lights that most schools use. I prefer this lighting as it makes the school feel more calm and peaceful.

While Jeff was speaking I thought it was interesting to hear about what a day in the students life looks like and how much freedom they are given compared to traditional schooling. I noticed the students seemed very expressive with themselves and seemed to enjoy being at school. I think if I knew about this opportunity I would’ve preferred this type of learning over my public school learning. For me, I found traditional school quite boring and was frustrated at the fact I wasn’t able to have much personal expression in my assignments or projects. After visiting PSII today my mind was able to open up to other possibilities of learning and got a good idea of what it could look like.

Free Inquiry Post #2 Research

September 25, 2025 / / 0 Comments

After researching scholarly articles through the UVIC library, I found some interesting points on the link between exercise and mental health, its benefits, and its psychological effects. 

The first peer-reviewed source I examined was an article titled Physical Activity as a Protective Factor Against Depression Incidence and as a Treatment for Depression . This article looks at the role of depression in one’s life by presenting statistics on depression, diagnoses, and symptoms, as well as studies on the role of physical activity for those living with depression. Throughout the article, the authors discuss studies conducted across many countries. Each of these studies all had the same underlying factor: low levels of physical activity were associated with increased rates of depression. 

The second peer-reviewed source I examined was an article titled Psychological Benefits Of Excercise And Physical Activity This article examines the psychological benefits of consistent exercise in day-to-day life. The author discusses depression and anxiety and the effects of exercise on these conditions. He also notes that consistent exercise can help boost low self-esteem issues in children. Finally, he suggests that although studies have shown exercise can reduce mental health issues, there are still two areas for intervention: further research on the link between the two and public health planning to sustain physical activity. 

After reading these two articles, it helped me understand more on the topic and the psychological effects and chemicals the brain releases during exercise. Over the past week of maintaining a consistent exercise routine, I’ve noticed myself feeling more motivated after my workouts, which has in turn increased my motivation to complete school work, spend time with friends, and feel more confident about my body.

This week’s post helped me understand the scientific benefits of exercise and mental health by engaging with research on studies and biochemical effects on the human brain. Next week, I will log all of my workouts and provide detailed information of what I did each day, then reflect on my first couple weeks of having a consistent workout routine.

Free Inquiry Post #1: Introduction

September 20, 2025 / / 0 Comments

My free inquiry topic question is: How can balancing physical health practices improve mental health? I chose this topic as my free inquiry because I want to see for myself how physical activity, such as going on walks, working out at the gym, and doing yoga can improve my mind, body, and spirit.

I have struggled with anxiety my whole life, and at one point I was experiencing panic attacks almost weekly. These panic attacks were scary and often happened without warning. My body would shake, my heart would race, my hearing would start ringing, and eventually I would begin to black out if I couldn’t calm myself down. I have taken medications to manage this, but now that school has started back up, I’ve noticed my anxiety has started to come back. 

I want to be able to seek other ways to improve my mental health through physical activity to see if it can help me. Looking ahead, I also hope to bring what I learn into my future classroom. If I can enforce, teach, and use these techniques with my future students, I might be able to support them as they deal with stress and anxiety. 

Right now, I only know a little bit about the link between exercise and mental health. For example, how being active releases endorphins that can boost your mood. I’ve experienced this feeling a bit myself, but I don’t fully understand the science behind it or the long-term impact of building a healthy and consistent routine. I also know a few people who use technology to support their wellness, but I haven’t gone much further than occasionally trying meditation videos. I’m curious to see if fitness and wellness apps can help with motivation as well. 

Through this free inquiry project, I hope to learn not only why physical activity helps mental health, but also how technology can make these practices more accessible. On a personal level, I want to see if being more intentional about physical activity throughout this project has an effect on my mood, focus, and anxiety.  

This week’s first post sets the stage for my free inquiry topic, and within the next couple weeks I’ll begin the research on how movement and wellness are connected, the benefits of it, and the physiological/psychological effects of things. I will also start to do exercises daily for the duration of the project and reflect on my results in the coming weeks.

Most Likely to Succeed: Review and Reflection

September 14, 2025 /

The 2015 film “Most Likely To Succeed” is about how the traditional schooling method doesn’t work for every student and alternative schooling methods can provide a better learning environment for students. After watching the film, I was a bit skeptical at first but then after seeing the students creations on their exibition night my thought process changed. I think for some learners, this way of schooling could be beneficial and help prepare students for the world in ways that a traditional school may not. I found it interesting how students spent most of their year working on a long term project, rather than a final exam or test. Looking back on my schooling experience, I feel like traditional schooling did limit my ability to be creative. I think if I was given the choice I would have prefered a project based learning environment where I could show my strengths and skills rather than multiple tests, quizzes, and essays. As a future teacher, the film helped me realize that traditional ways of teaching and assessing don’t fit all learning types and that this kind of final assessment allows for students to show their creativity and personality through their projects. Although I don’t believe that this kind of change would be easy, as standardized testing and strict curriculum rules make it hard for schools to completely change their approach. But even allowing for small efforts, such as group projects and collaboration time like those shown in the film could help make a difference in the education system.

Starting My Learning Journey Reflection

September 5, 2025 /

Setting up my blog was a super nerve racking experience at first and took a lot of patience. I followed the step-by-step tutorial closely and it started to become more exciting to me that this blog will act as a journal for my 2nd year of BEd at UVIC! For this class, my main aspiration is to push myself out of my tech comfort zone and to understand a bit more about the world of blogging. Although i’m not completely sure of what I want my inquiry topic to be I have an idea about doing it on the importance/benefits of staying active, both physically and mentally, while balancing university, work, friends and family. From my first class I learned that a lot of people were just as anxious as me to jump into the tech world.

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