Occupational Therapy: Impact of Life Circumstances on Well-being

This essay delves into the core concepts of occupational therapy—doing, being, becoming, and belonging—and their relationship to an individual's occupational identity and overall well-being. It uses the framework of doing, being, becoming to understand how individuals interact with others, develop their identities, and shape society. The essay also explores how life circumstances, both positive and negative, can significantly impact occupational performance and, consequently, health and well-being. Examples such as overcrowding and educational attainment are used to illustrate these impacts. Furthermore, the essay includes a personal reflection on the author's own experiences as an occupational being, highlighting how their occupations have influenced their health and well-being, with a specific focus on maintaining occupational balance and the challenges faced during a significant life event. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding these concepts for promoting quality of life.

Running head: OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Part A:
The process of doing, being, becoming and belonging of an individual within the
community is not only considered as an important part of the identity but also governs the
success of an occupation in the life of the individuals (Ennals et al. 2016). Life circumstances
also impact occupational performance both in positive ways and negative ways that in turn can
affect the health and well being of the individuals. This assignment will discuss these concepts in
details along with explanatory examples that will impart more light on these concepts
The framework of Doing, Being, Becoming can be seen to describe the themes like
“doing”, “being”, and “becoming” in the occupational therapy practices. In this framework, the
doing part can be seen to refer to occupation as well as the occupational performance of a person.
This aspect is found to be important for the individual in interacting with that of the others and
also developing own identity. This ultimately helps in creating as well as shaping the society.
The next component is called being (Fortune et al. 2016). This aspect mainly refers to being true
to self. Individuals do need time for them to think and accordingly reflect themselves. This
actually helps individuals in nit only describing their roles but also help in sustaining them.
Becoming is another component of occupation. This aspect means the ways by which individuals
redefine their values and also rethink their priorities so that they can prepare transformation of
their new roles (Morris et al. 2017). Studies are of the opinion that the concept of becoming
changes continuously over time and can also reflect clearly about how an individual wants to
portray himself in the future. On further analysis, the concept of becoming can be seen to be
further classified into three stages which are becoming followed by becoming competent as well
as becoming a social being (Hooper et al. 2016). Studies have revealed that all these three
components of becoming do hold the potential for growth as well as self-actualization of the

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individuals (Kay et al. 2017). It has been also stated that the synthesis of doing, being and
becoming is significant for health and well being of the individuals who can achieve health
through effective engagements in meaningful occupations. Belonging can be referred to join
others in the same task or to share the same values that can help in fostering a sense of belonging
to a group (Doroud et al. 2018). This step helps in making an individual feel that he is a part of
the community and that he is accepted and cared for by the group. It also means that the
individuals feel that he belongs to a community and can thereby share emotions and also feel
confident about their identity (Russell et al. 2016).
The above framework can be applied to an example in order to have a better and clearer
explanation for the readers. Occupation can be defined as the everyday activities that people can
perform as individuals, in families as well as with communities for not only occupying time but
also to bring out meaning and purpose to the lives (Malley et al. 2016). Occupations are seen to
include things that people need to want to and are also expected to do. Let an individual is
considered who maintains the occupation of teaching. In order to explain the stage of “do”, the
teacher is seen to educate her students on a daily basis helping them to develop knowledge as
well as skills required by students to excel in life. The next component called being mainly
describes about the ways, the teacher is in reality and her tasks and actions are the reflection of
this. “being” a teacher, makes her participate in tasks that give her the chance to be who she
really and express her values and beliefs and principles through her tasks like teaching students
with care, affection, dedication and commitment. The next step “becoming” mainly includes the
teacher to participate in tasks and undertake reflective studies to develop ideas about the values
and characters that she needs to inculcate in her principles in order to “become” a better human
being or a better teacher in the future. Experiences in her everyday life can also help her to gain

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new insights to become a better person in the future. The stage of belonging can be explained by
the ways about how she is loved as well as respected by her students as well as the guardians of
the students that make her feel that she belongs to the community and that she is loved and
wanted by her community. In this way, the concept of her Doing, Being, Becoming and
Belonging can be well associated with the concept of occupation and how through effective
completion and achievement of any occupation, a person can feel satisfied and loved by the
society.
Different forms of life circumstances can have humungous impact on occupations that
can in turn affect the health and well being of the individuals. This can be explained with the
help of different life circumstances. Life circumstances can be explained as the circumstances in
which individuals live which can have various types of impacts on the occupation of human
beings that can affect the health of people both mentally as well as physically (Chsiman et al.
2018). Often living conditions form the best examples of life circumstances that can have both
positive and negative impact on everyday occupations which are otherwise called occupational
performance. These living conditions are secure housing, locality, overcrowding, green space as
well as traffics. Studies have linked overcrowded housing to have huge impact on occupational
performance of children where children are found to have slower growth with compromised
immunity, poor education achievement, loss of sleep, missing of schools as well as restricted
physical activities (Pizzaro et al. 2018). Therefore, the life circumstances of overcrowding have
negative impact on the occupation of children resulting in compromised childhood. Health and
well being of the children are also affected by this form of disrupted occupations like obesity,
meningitis, respiratory problems like coughing and asthmatic problems, wheezing, tuberculosis,
and even impacts their future aspects making them prone to develop coronary heart disorders,

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poor educational achievements, poor employment and others. Hence, one life circumstance like
overcrowding not only impacts the occupational performance of children but also impact their
health and well-being.
The next example of life circumstances that can be considered is gathering of right
education and completing higher level of education with support from parents. An achievement
of higher degree of education is a positive life circumstances that can have positive impacts on
the occupational performance of the individual in the employment fields. This will in turn have
positive impacts on the health and well being of the individuals. A good education will help the
individual to achieve one of the best jobs in the state that will yield her good salary and
comfortable living (Gallagher et al. 2015). She would be able to perform the daily tasks that
would be assigned to her with zeal and expertise. She would be able to overcome all sorts of
barriers that come in her way through the education she has achieved over the period. Not only
she would be able to “do” tasks”, but she would also be able to “be” herself where she can
exhibit her values, principles and beliefs in order to manage any conflicts, for effective
negotiation, for achieving goals and many others. She would be able to exhibit all her skills and
knowledge in order to work beyond her potential to reach targets. She would also be able to
“become” the best employee by trying to reflect on her negative aspects, taking feedbacks from
her colleagues and seniors and then working on them. These would help her to become an expert
professional with excellent occupational performance (Fortune et al. 2016). These would also
make her feel that she “belongs” to the organization where she is loved and respected. In this
way, the positive life circumstances of proper educational attainments and qualification had
helped in shaping up her occupational performance successfully. Again, this is found to be
positively associated with mental health and well being as well in the said individuals. Since, she

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has good educational attainment, she has proper health literacy for which she has undertaken
correct lifestyle choices like regular physical exercises and consuming of quality diet that
comprises more of fruits and vegetables and less on calorie-dense foods. These are actually
examples of positive occupational performances. Due to the positive life circumstances and
conducting of appropriate occupations, the individual is also seen to high quality physical health.
She is lean and fit with a BMI of 22 and enjoys healthy lives with no lifestyle disorders. She is
mentally well as also as she maintains perfect work-life balance and goes out with friends and
families, enjoys good times with them free from anxiety and depression. In this way, life
circumstances might impact on occupations and in turn affect health and well-beings of
individuals. Here, the individual was seen to have the right amount of occupational balance
(Malley et al. 2016). Occupational balance can be explained as the perception of an individual in
having the right amount of occupations as well as the right variations between the occupations.
The individual could manage each of the occupation with expertise and dedication and also
enjoyed right variations within the occupations.
From this entire discussion, it can be seen that the conceptual framework of doing, being,
becoming as well as belonging can successfully help in explaining how an individual can carry
of their occupations successfully and become an important contributor of the society. It was also
understood that life circumstances can play a humungous role in enabling as well as impacting
occupation. This in turn is found to be intricately associated with health and well-being of
individuals thus becoming a decisive factor for their quality of lives

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Part B:
From the very childhood, my parents have put much significance on our holistic
development. They have instilled the values in us of not only being a good heated and kind
human being but also to maintain our duties and responsibilities appropriately. I grew up with
my big brother and both of us tried to focus on our education which was an important occupation
in our daily lives. We loved the occupation more than we considered it necessary for us. Just
because, we loved this occupation of being a good student, our parents never had to force us to
sit to study. However, our parents believed in occupational balance and tried to ensure that we
have the right number of occupations as well as the right variations within them. Therefore, there
were many other activities that we also participated like swimming, paint classes, cycling. We
tried to manage a correct balance of all the occupations. Therefore, from the very childhood, both
me and my brother have put much significance on our fitness as that we have done on our
academics. These occupations had positive health impacts on us as we grew up. Where, I
witnessed most of the friends to put on weight coming under the pressure of academic life and
not being able to know the importance of physical fitness, both me and my brother continued to
take our time for jogging, cycling, swimming and even gymnasiums. Therefore, we were not
only physically fit but also mentally and emotionally stable. The stages of doing, being,
becoming as well belonging were correctly maintained by us that resulted in achievement of
peace and better quality lives.
However, one life event resulted in complete shattering of the disciplined lifestyle
affecting the smooth flow of the everyday occupations that I conducted. I lost my big brother
when he was only 36 years old in tragic car accident in the year 2007. I lost my biggest support
and every time companion in every aspect of life. I went into the phase of bereavement which

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acted a s life circumstance that had negative impact on my occupations and in turn affected my
health. I stopped performing my occupations where I enclosed myself within my room, did not
take my meals regularly, skipped them and even missed them a lot of times. Moreover, I stopped
going to work and missed many of my important projects and deadlines which I had to complete
as part of my responsibilities. I stopped taking part in any physical activities months after
months. These conditions in turn impacted my mental as well as physical health. I was
emotionally devastated where I went into depression and suffered from anxiety and loneliness. I
also suffered from sleep problems and always used to remain much stressed. I also withdrew
myself from friends, family and society and suffered from social exclusion. Apart from these
effects on mental health due to bereavement, I also suffered from physical health issues like
increased blood pressure, gaining of weight, loss of appetite, los of sleep, indigestion, and
headache. Even my immune system was also compromised. It was alter after many months,
where with the help my family and health professional, I overcame bereavement and gradually
entered into my normal lifestyle and started performing occupations.

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