Peter Krumb

Wellness 1891
6/5/14
Community Wellness Final

This year in the Wellness LLC, I definitely learned what it means to expand the scope of
wellness across many different borders, including social, community, environmental, mental,
physical, and spiritual. The way I did this was through many hands-on activities and in-class
discussions which allowed me to gain a wider viewpoint on what wellness really is. John Bruhn
describes wellness as an ever-changing and evolving process that is not static like, say, health; he
further describes it as an integration of all aspects of [peoples] physical, mental, social, and
environmental wellbeing (Bruhn, 209). This quarter in particular, we have looked at community
wellness and how serving others is a form of wellness that is less about what a person can do for
him or herself, and rather shifts the focus onto what we as individuals may do to serve others.
This quarter was enlightening to me as we tended to do less activities that focused on myself and
my classmates, but instead shifted the focus onto serving others. Personally I believe that this
was a very smart decision as we can never be well as individuals without the support and love
from those around us. We need to serve others in order to complete the entire gamut of wellness
ourselves and really come full circle in the arena of wellness. For my project, me and Maddy
worked hand-in-hand with Mandy Sigmund, director of the well@du program here at University
of Denver. She is already miles ahead in planning out service-oriented tasks and projects for the
entire campus, so for Maddy and I, our role was to further what Mandy has done by adding our

own flavor to it and creating basically a running map around campus that adults could use to
track their run as well as how far they have run. The project was interesting; it was not the most
challenging task for either of us to do in that the steps were very basic since all we had to do was
put together a map which would be added to Mandys well@du website. However I noticed
personally that although the task was small, what we were doing has great implications and could
cause a great impact on many adults and staff members here at DU, seeing as we are now giving
them a running route already tracked out, then being up to them to actually do the hard part and
get out there and run or walk. Maddy was really a hard worker for our duo; she assembled the
PowerPoint from scratch and was always on top of communicating with Mandy on what had to
be done and how we were to go about doing it. I can sense that Maddy really enjoyed the
opportunity to achieve this goal and assist in this project for us and she was quite restless in
making sure everything was in order for presentation day and for the due dates. I helped Maddy
make the PowerPoint as well ans communicated with Mandy about significant things that we
would have to do to make sure our project was in order. Maddy and I went in one day to meet up
with her to discuss future plans and how we would organize the entire project. Mandy was very
helpful in assisting us achieve our goals for this quarter in wellness. In reflection, our trio worked
very hard in many angles to make sure that our endeavour came to fruition. I am thankful for the
opportunity to work with Maddy and experience firsthand what it really is like to make an impact
on campus.
Losing Davis this quarter was definitely something that stung, but I was really glad to
have known him and am positive that he changed me for the better and definitely impacted my
life. Davis was part of our wellness community, and losing him was like losing a brother, maybe
not to some of us who were not as close to him but those on our floor who were well acquainted

with him could tell you that losing him definitely sucks. However, it is certainly in times of crisis
or loss that communities really learn to come together. The American Journal of Public Health
defines community as a group of people with diverse characteristics who are linked by social
ties, share common perspectives, and engage in joint action in geographical locations or
settings. I am stricken immediately upon reading that in realizing that that explains exactly what
our wellness floor has been this year. I also realize that wellness is not the only community I
have largely been engaged in this year, but also the community at DU. This service project, I am
realizing, has helped me contribute to the overall health of my DU community, which is
definitely a good feeling. I have done large community service projects before in West Virginia
and Kentucky and can say with unshaken certainty that contributing to the betterment of any
community is an absolutely amazing feeling. It is like a natural high that I actually get from even
writing about it right now. What the projects were in the Appalachian region of the country were
helping to construct houses or repair any damages that our host houses may have had done to
them. A crew of about 55 people ranging from high school freshmen to adults all travelled there
in vans and slept over in a middle school, working tirelessly during the day. Comparing this
experience with the wellness project, I see two very different initiatives connected by
communities. There is no doubt that greater communities have been affected by my and my
friends actions, helping make us, in theory, agents of change. I may have changed the lives of
others, but I know that I myself was definitely changed to a very high degree. My mom
especially has always encouraged me to give back and instilled in me from a young age that
giving back to your community and helping people has always been the most important thing.
Community service does not always have to be boring and sometimes doesnt really even feel
like work especially when you are with friends. Community service instead becomes something

that is natural and a part of everyday life. 2 of my best friends have gone with me to the
Appalachian region to work alongside me and having them there was one of the best experiences
of my life, showing that work and service is something highly rewarding and not laborious like
work tends to feel like. Indeed there is something magical about these trips, especially
considering that the project is through my community church, adding a spiritual aspect to the
trips.
I am thankful for everyone who helped me get to this point, including my parents,
teachers, mentors, friends, and guides along the path. I would not be who I am without the
support and service of others to my cause and what I want my life story to be about, or my
archetype, per se. I found it pretty intriguing that everyone was saying yeah, Peters the
mystic, and saying my archetype is the poet, I sometimes do not necessarily see those aspects
within myself and it is quite fascinating to see others reveal what they see in you. As far as
archetypes, I sort of realized Rachel in our group is most like a mother archetype, I feel like all
the girls kind of look to her in that sort of fashion. I read some very interesting information in a
book called Biology of Kundalini by Jana Dixon about archetypes and how they effect our inner
psyche and propel us into greater spiritual expansion and self-realization. She reveals that the
entire template for the panoply of human archetypes resides in us as "potential"--as finite beings
however we normally stay within a limited range of thought and behavior which constitutes our
personality. Jana states that somebody with kundalini, or the immense fire and spark of life
itself becomes more elemental and archetypal (Dixon, Shadow, Sabotage, and Sacrifice),
because of the complexity, interrrelatedness, exquisite beauty, portent and love of the
archetypal realm of the Gods (Dixon, 269). Archetypes are so important for us to pay attention
to because, as Jana states, For if we were not affected by the symbols, myths, and archetypes

that we use to give story to our lives, no psychic tension would arise to propel us out of the
vice of normal consciousness (Dixon, 264). This book has been powerful for me, it reveals so
much about this immense force that any one of us are capable of harnessing called kundalini,
which is also prana, chi, life force, and energy. Basically what kundalini is about is handling
your meditation, antioxidants, positive life influences and surrending your sense of self to
become and even greater and expanded version of what you thought you were before. It is the
coming undone of years of neglect, dissociation, and pain within the body to not necessarily
surrender, because that feels like you are losing some of your power, but rather grow into the
most expanded version of yourself.
This is all fun to write about, but really what needs to happen for me and everyone is
experience, which is key. No amount of books, studying or research really has any weight
against experience, the great teacher. I hope to take all that I have gained this year not only in
wellness but throughout the year in my other endeavours and really learn and grow from it and
go to Hawaii or whatever I do, and maybe return to college later in a few years. It has been fun
getting to know everyone and Im going to keep doing what I do. Thank you for this awesome of
experience in wellness and giving me a chance to vent and kind of release a lot of what I am
thinking or feeling in these papers and in class discussion. It really has helped me and meant a lot
to me. I hope next years group brings something new and exciting to the table.