Meeting Aesclepius

Meeting Aescelpius was an interesting meditative exercise for me.  I was able to capture the image of my grandmother who is my hero and the person I look up to the most.  She is the image of wisdom, strength, and endurance. However, I kept losing focus of her as other thoughts would enter my mind and I had to keep bringing her back into focus over and over.  The one thing that I did find interesting when I did have her in focus, was all the images of her that ran through my mind like a movie from when I was a little girl to the present.  In that sense it was pretty neat. The one thing that I could not do, however, was bring her spirit and light into myself as was suggested in this exercise; at least I don't think I did.

I enjoyed the background music and listening to the ocean.  I was definitely able to find my sense of calm and relaxation.  In a way I felt I was floating.  Towards the end I felt like I was floating out into the sea and for a couple minutes think I fell asleep.  When it was complete, I had a hard time coming out of that place I was in.  I felt weak, disoriented, and I felt like I needed to take a nap!  In fact, as I write this I still fell like my head is in the clouds.  Maybe because I was feeling so relaxed?

Overall, it appears that I have a hard time with some of the imagery that is included with some of the meditation exercises; but I do feel calm and relaxed when it is complete.  In that respect, using the meditation exercises is beneficial for me when I need to relax or to clear my mind, and this will be the reason why I will use these practices from now on.  Additionally, I believe that by my taking the few minutes everyday to do this, can really help my physical and my mental well-being. I haven't tested it yet but I feel like my blood pressure is lower after these meditations.  Which I hope is true because I just learned that my blood pressure is pretty high right now and I need to start watching it. I will be monitoring my blood pressure more frequently from now on before and after meditation to see if there are any significant changes.

"One cannot lead another where one has not gone him or herself"- Ken Wilbur

I believe this means that without myself first experiencing something, how can I teach or help someone else? In other words, I need to walk the walk in order to talk the talk!  This can be applied with anything but for the purpose of a health and wellness professional, a person who has not suffered from a disability will not have a complete or full understanding how the person who is suffering from that disability may feel.   The other side of that would be me, an overweight person, being a nutritionist or a personal trainer.  However, after a lifestyle change where I have lost all my weight, have become nutritionally healthy, and include exercise and gym time into my daily life; I might be the best person for a job like that because I have first been where the people I would be helping don't want to go and because I can truly understand what they are going through to make that lifestyle change themselves.

With all this being said, I would have to say that I do have an obligation to my clients to become whole and well psychologically, physically and spiritually.  How can a broken person help someone else?  I don't think that it is really possible.  That is why it is important for me to continue on the path of integral health and human flourishing.  I have a a lot of work ahead of me to get to where I feel I need to be, but have faith in myself that each step, even baby steps, will get me there as long as I am progressing and not receding.  I have a vision of my future self.  This class has given me knowledge to the changes I need to make as well as the activities I need to incorporate into my life in order for myself to become the me I envision.