Good Morning (or evening) my
star shines! The Earth says hello! (yes, it’s been a Johnny Depp night) Welcome
again to another week in the adventures of psychological and spiritual healing!
We have only a couple more weeks to go on this adventure and while it is not
exactly impossible to achieve complete human flourishing in a ten week period,
we should be well on our way to doing so.
And so my darling lions,
tigers, and bears (oh my!), let’s see what this week’s exercise holds for us.
This week we listen to the exercise called Meeting Asclepius.
1. 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?
First, I would like to say
that the past couple of days have been very trying for me and I have had to
rely greatly on meditation to get me through it. I found out at my place of
employment that the people that are being hired in or that have not been there
as long as I have are being paid more than I am for the same amount of work
that I do. (If any of you heard an explosion the other day, that was temper blowing up. I admit it, I take the blame. What could I do? The voices in my head took a vote and I was outvoted on this one.) Needless to say, I am now looking for another job and can’t wait for
the day that I can turn in my two week notice and tell this company where to go
(and let me tell you, I was close to getting out the Voodoo dolls and the
sharpest pins I could find and also sending the flying monkeys, cats, dogs, and
squirrels out on this one, jacked on so much coffee and Mountain Dew. I took a
lot to hold back on this one.). I have felt a lot of anger and betrayal, and I
still do, but thanks to my meditation exercises, it’s helped me greatly.
The exercise
from last week was easier to follow and not as distracting. Unfortunately, I can’t
say the same about this exercise. The instructor again talked way too much and
it was hard to concentrate on what I was supposed to be visualizing. The
background music was fine and pleasant, but the voice of this instructor is
just annoying (nails on a chalkboard, seriously could anything be worse? Note
to Dacher on these exercises: choose another instructor!!). Right away I had a
problem visualizing someone older that I admire and respect. I had to resort to
characters from movies and I finally ended up going with Mr. Miyagi from the
Karate Kid (the original one). I simply did not get much from this exercise
since it was way too hard to concentrate on. However, I won’t give up and will
continue to work on meeting Aesclepius.
2. 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?
I
think this saying speaks for itself. How can a client believe what I tell them
that they should do if I don’t do it myself? Will a client believe the benefits
of meditation if I don’t practice it myself? Will the client believe that I
tell them about eating right and exercising if I don’t do that myself? Clients
are more likely to believe us a health and wellness professionals if we have
experienced a lot of what we want them to do. Many times a personal experience
will engage the client more and make them feel that we truly understand their
fears and concerns and make them feel that we do care about how they feel and
what happens to them. It’s the same as when we go to the doctor. We want them
to understand our concerns and listen to us and we are more likely to follow
instructions and believe what they are saying if we know that they have gone
through, or know someone who has gone through the same things. I think that if
we can show our clients that these techniques work, and each one will be
different for each client, and they head our own stories of success, then we
will be able to help them achieve human flourishing as well.
Well,
my little star shines, we have come to the end of another week. It’s hard to
believe that we only have a couple of more weeks to go in this class. But, the
journey is not over just yet.
And
so, my dear children (I really gotta stop watching Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory), I leave you with these words: Life may give you reasons to
bring you down, but show life you have a thousand reasons to smile and stay
strong.
Hello Lindsey,
ReplyDeleteMy, oh my, how very distressing your week must have been. I can relate to what you are feeling as I found out sort of the same thing in the fact that the RN’s at my facility that already had their BSN were being paid almost two dollars more an hour than I am being paid. I currently have my associate’s degree, but we all took the same national test to become RN’s. I think America is broken when it comes to how and when it is decided how workers are paid. Now with all of that aside, (Let’s suffer silently for a moment) and talk about the exercise.
I agree that this week was probably not a week for this exercise. This was more of a Subtle Mind (Dacher, 2006) exercise week. In meeting Asclepius (Dacher, 2006) the visualization was probably difficult for you not only because of the “nails on the chalkboard” narrator but your faith in humanity has been shaken because of the unfair treatment you are receiving at work. Love was probably not the emotion that was first and foremost in your heart at the moment, but forgiveness is a step in Flourishing, do you think it would be possible to forgive these people and not burn your bridges when you finally get your degree?
I am not surprised you chose Mr. Miyagi as your visualization. I actually tried to visualize him as well before finally settling on the ball of mist that was my Asclepius. He was a TV character that I always respected because of his gentle nature and his peace and calm. He probably met his Asclepius many years ago.
I hope since blogging about your incident, you have started healing. Do not let other people ruin your day, your week or your spiritual flourishing.
Talk Soon!
Rufus J.
Reference
Dacher, E.S., (2006). Integral health: the path to human flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA. Basic Health Publications, Inc.
I can relate, all my weeks seem to be getting stressful, but this was a vacation week for me, so surprisingly I got something out of this assignment for the first time. I was able to understand your frustration with the speakers voice, but all of them annoy me, i was just able to focus past that this time and take my mind where she was leading me. I was able to feel the emotion of love and everything that it entailed in meditating. Understand your frustration with the pay, that can cause an uproar for anyone, but now the power of the meditation can be used and see if it helps in coping with the current situation.
ReplyDeleteI had a very difficult time finding someone to focus on as well. I searched through my mind of old men that would seem loving and compassionate but none of them seemed fitting. I finally did settle on a Buddhist monk type of a man who worked well. I probably had seen him on t.v. somewhere however I am unsure where.
ReplyDeleteHope all goes well with your work quest!