You can help yourself make healthy life choices by examining your own basic needs and comparing them with the main activities in your life. First think about your personal needs and your social needs. Make a list of some of the needs you have because of your personality. For example, if you are competitive, you may know that you have a need to keep testing yourself against others to try to be the best. Or if you are content to be in the middle of a group, you may have a need to avoid very competitive situations. Next write down some of your social needs. Are you outgoing and need to have lots of people around you? Or are you basically happy doing things by yourself? Now make a list of the activities you spend most of your time doing. These activities form your most basic, personal and social needs? Analyse both lists and see where they fit and where they don’t. You need to make any life style changes to lead to a healthier and happier life. Let us create and recreate ourselves, let’s build, improve and contribute to our communities. Explore your talents, engage your friends, be happy, be healthy, but most of all do what makes you feel alive, whether it is writing, playing music, singing, drawing, solving mathematical problems, leading discussion groups in your school, anything. Just go for it and give it your very best shot. The writer is a Senior Five student at Riviera High School
