Complete the Meeting Aesclepius mp3 (located
in the Doc Sharing area). Describe your meditative practices for the week and
discuss the experience. Explain how mindfulness or meditation has fostered an
increase in your psychological or spiritual wellness. How can you continue to
apply these practices in your life to foster greater health and wellness?
The Meeting Aesclepius exercise was very interesting and while it was a
little difficult to focus at first on my person of choice, it gave me a very
comforted feeling to visualize the sharing of wisdom, eloquence of words, love,
and compassion of this person being shared with me. Visualizing the aspects of
the person that I admire most being washed over me and cleansing my mind,
words, and heart was a unique experience, which I feel will provide me with the
ability to implement these aspects in my life. After reflecting on this
visualization I was reminded of a saying, the body can achieve what the mind
believes. So, to me this means that because of this experience where I accepted
the traits of the person I visualized I will be able to act, think, and feel in
a similar manner. I hope this all makes sense J I think to
some extent I have used meditation for a long time, maybe not in a timed format
or with a recorded exercise, but I know and have known that quiet time and
clearing your mind has many benefits to my health. Learning these exercises has
increased my psychological and spiritual wellness because I have practiced them
more frequently and have gained a greater understanding of what they mean,
specific outcomes that can result from continued implementation, and ways to
use meditation to not only calm my mind, but increase my loving-kindness for
others.
Describe the saying: "One cannot lead another
where one has not gone himself" (p.477). How does this apply to the health
and wellness professional? Do you have an obligation to your clients to be
developing your health psychologically, physically, and spiritually? Why or why
not? How can you implement psychological and spiritual growth in your personal
life?
This saying to
me means that if we have not been down a path, then we will not be able to lead
another down that path successfully. For example, if we as health and wellness
professionals do not practice what we preach we will not be able to adequately
assist our clients in achieving integral health or optimal wellness. I
personally believe that if you are promoting health and wellness you should be
practicing it as well. Not to say that you have to be the poster child for
health and wellness, but it should be evident that you have implemented and
practice health enhancing activities and choices in your life. On the flip side
of that it doesn’t mean that you can never indulge yourself just because of
your profession. I think we do have an obligation to develop psychologically,
physically, and spiritually as these aspects of wellness give us experience and
credibility for our clients, but we also owe it to ourselves to develop in
these aspects as well in order to achieve lasting health, happiness, and
wholeness.
I really enjoyed reading your blog. You made sense of the saying 'you cannot lead another'..., I too think it is necassary to practice what you preach in order to have credability but more so to enhance your own understanding and experience. I had a little difficulty with this exercise at first and did not really know how to discribe it but I did feel overwhelmed at first and struggled with visioning someone. I finally did but I needed to repeat the exercise several times to really expereience what you described perfectly. You do have a sense of becoming one wiht the person you visualize and feeling the warmth and wisdom within your heart. Great post.
ReplyDeleteMary
Hi there, good post. I enjoyed your definition of the quote you were asked to interpret. It makes sense and it is oh so true. Whatever a persons profession is, they definitely should have the experience. It helps relate to a client or friend, and helps the client relate to you. I'm a fan of fitness,so, not only do I practice healthier living and exercise, I like to read about and watch shows. One of the biggest complaints from overweight people when dealing with a trainer, is that they do not feel connected to the trainer. In particularly the trainers who have never been overweight themselves. Although, the trainer may be incredibly knowledgeable, it is just a difference connection the client has with a trainer who has actually shed the same amount of pounds the client is trying to lose.
ReplyDeleteI too enjoyed the meditation exercise this week. I chose to focus on my grandfather who is now deceased. I could see him just as vividly as if he were standing in front of me. I enjoyed all of the emotion that I experienced during the exercise as well. In my opinion, meditation is certainly an area of untapped growth potential for many people. I thought the exercise was amazing and I had a phenomenal experience. As it relates to Dacher's statement, I find that it is very true. I do not find it possible to effectively lead someone somewhere if you have never been there yourself. That's like a woman who is not a mother trying to teach a woman how to be a mother or a person giving a couple marital advice and is not currently or has never been married.
ReplyDeleteI share your belief about needing to go down a path before you possess the ability to lead others through a similar process. It's the only way we can know how to maneuver around the obstacles that pop up during a process to get to a desired goal. I also like that you said how "it doesn't mean we never indulge" because I think clients will respect someone who shows their human side of being imperfect. This will create a comfort that they feel towards us and have them let their guard down and release some of the internal pressure they put on themselves to perform perfectly as if they were being watched 24/7 by an army drill sergeant! I love the idea of quite time and getting still because I genuinely believe this is the "root" for the majority of chronic diseases in America. Yes, nutrition plays a giant role, but living busy, as people often put it, is the leading contributor of illness. Illness to me is just not allowing the homeostatic atmosphere to be created which our spirit/mind/body has the innate capability to produce if we allow it to do so. We cause ourselves to get sick. The human mind and body is amazingly capable of optimal wellness. How anyone could possibly believe for a second that God doesn't exist or that we arrived out of an ape or from a theory of Darwinism is beyond me. The next time I meet an agnostic or atheist, I think I'll recommend they take an anatomy/physiology course and then re-assess their belief. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. Did your person come straight to mind or did it take a minute to think about it? Did the person that came to mind surprise you at all? I was kind of surprised at the person who came to my mind, but not for long. After I thought more about it, this person has kind of become my zen/mind calming mentor in the past few years. And like you, I thought this was a really unique, enjoyable experience.
ReplyDelete~Jackie