Foundations and Analysis of OT Blog

As a person who has struggled with anxiety for a great part of my life, balancing different areas of occupations has been something that I have had to learn over time.  I had to learn that in order to not get overworked or overstressed I would have to prioritize certain things and have the skill of time  management to be successful and at peace.   The end of middle school to the beginning of high school is when my anxiety starting to unfold.  I always made good grades in school and was a well-rounded student, but at this point in my life I was having a hard time balancing my social life with studying.  I was very focused on the occupation of social participation because I was involved in a new friend group that really prioritized this.  I was too focused on this occupation to the point where my occupations of education and ADLs were suffering greatly.  By spending a lot of my time with my friends when I was at home, and then...

One occupation that I do routinely is the occupation of the ADL bathing.  Like most people, I bath or shower once to twice a day.  I value this occupation greatly because I take pride in feeling and looking clean and I also enjoy the relaxation that a shower or bath brings.  While I have always participated in bathing to some degree, this occupation has changed based on differences in the temporal context.   If one was looking into the temporal context of age or development level, the occupation of bathing looks very different at different stages.  Across the lifespan this occupation goes from being totally dependent on someone else to do it for you, like when you are a baby and a toddler, to gaining independence to perform it yourself from childhood through older adulthood, back to often losing independence and needing assistance when you are a senior citizen.  These changes in independence are based on body functions and performance skills at different...

While many people know exact details about their heritage, I am a person who knows very little.  My dad thinks his side of the family is primarily Irish and German, but my mom has no idea besides that we have a tad of Native American.  Despite the lack of information about my cultural heritage, I do still have influences from my religion, my family, and other things that I am involved in.   I have grown up as a christian in a baptist church for as long as I can remember.  When I was little, we went to church every Sunday morning and Wednesday night like clock-work.  I always had a positive connection to church because I had a lot of friends there, the teachers were always nice, and I liked the activities that we would do.  As I got older, my main friend group in school all went to a different church and I decided to check it out.  I fell in love with the atmosphere and ideas that this church had comp...

The most recent job that I have held for a long period of time was my job as the student worker for my university's registrar's office.  I started this job at the beginning of my sophomore year and kept it until I graduated.  This job held many different responsibilities that increased in number and in responsibility over the three year period.  In the beginning I only did office work of minor importance such as filing and scanning documents, assisting with student questions, and keeping everything organized.  As I got more familiar with the surroundings and how things worked in the office, I was able to answer the phone, send emails to schedule appointments and assist with questions, and print transcripts for students and alumni.  At the end of my third year, I was a part of the graduation ceremony by counting the 967 (I still have the number burned into my brain) diploma covers and diplomas of all graduating seniors.  The physica...

One occupation that I do routinely, meaning every single night and  sometimes  in the afternoons, is sleep.  This occupation is something I value greatly because I am a person that needs their 7 to 8 hours in order to function properly.  I also am a naturally early riser, which means that going to sleep early is my preferred way to do this occupation.  While sleep is very important to me, I am not a person that can fall asleep at any time or at any location; I am rather picky about my sleeping conditions and I am a light sleeper.  Because of these variables that impact my occupation of sleep, the environmental context greatly influences my response to this occupation.  The physical environment that I prefer to be in to engage in sleep is a silent, dark room with no distractions or interruptions.  This physical environment is usually only found at my home when I am alone or on vacation when I am relaxed in my own room...

Within the last few weeks I have held the three occupations of work, leisure, and education.  The first of these occupations I will discuss is the occupation of work.  Every summer since I was around the age of 13 I have had a job in babysitting or childcare.  The first three summers in college I nannied for the same family with one girl and one boy.  Unfortunately, this summer the children in this family had outgrown the need for constant supervision so I had to find another family in need.  I ended up nannying an eighteen month old little girl named Cayli and she was the highlight of my summer.  While this occupation is considered work because it was technically my job for nearly fourth months, I highly enjoyed it to the point where it did not always feel like work.  This occupation relates to time in all senses; it brought nostalgia to me and my whole family with memories of myself as a child, it is present in time because Cayli...