Last time I wrote about putting a plan together for changes in the new year and included thinking about what do if it didn’t go “as planned.”  This is about one suggestion to help with that plan – a daily check-in. We did this at Timberline every morning and evening.  It helped us with mindfulness and being aware of how we were doing at the moment. It helped us make the most of the time we had there.  It also helped to treat the whole person – emotionally, physically, relationally, and spiritually –  which is one of the goals at Timberline.

No one had just sessions for the reason they were there, but also groups like art therapy, movement therapy, family dynamics, etc. We met with therapists, psychiatrist, doctors, dietitians, and had the opportunity to go to church. There were many ways, besides our morning and evening groups, that they checked in with us to monitor how we were doing or had us check-in with ourselves. One that speaks to the whole person came from the Native American Medicine Wheel…

The one we used changed Mental to Intellectual and rearranged the sections, such that it was a PIES check-in – physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. In each section of the circle we completed a sentence. “Physically I feel…” and so on. I thought it was interesting how closely this mirrors the greatest commandment. Here’s Mark 12:

²⁸…and asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? ²⁹And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: ³⁰And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

At the bottom of our check-in sheet was the statement, “Today I need…” Once we had
assessed how we felt in each section, we could decide our need – prayer, sleep, quiet,
interaction, learning, etc.