Meeting Aesclepius

So this is my second attempt at my initial post for this unit.  Last Saturday, the 21st, I was working on my school work, trying to complete as much as I could before Christmas.  Well, as I was working, I decided that it was time for a break.  During my break, I found it very hard to breathe, and I was extremely nauseous.  And the nausea increased and I had a very deep pain right under my sternum and above where I could feel my baby.  I even called the doctor and told him what I was feeling.  He said it sounded like heartburn.  (I have never had heartburn, so I don't know what it feels like.)  I wound up going to the hospital a few minutes after I hung up the phone anyway.  I just knew that something was wrong--and it wasn't heartburn.  My husband drove me to the hospital.  They took me right back.  The nurses took some blood and hooked up some monitors.  The doctor decided to perform an emergency C-section, and within a half hour of being in the hospital, our daughter was born!  From the time I started to feel sick, to the time she was born, it was less than three hours.  Talk about a crazy evening!  She wasn't due until February, so this was quite a surprise for us!  She is beautiful!  Her name is Melina.  Since she was born seven weeks premature, she is and will be in the NICU for several weeks.  Her improvement has been phenomenal!  Hopefully she will be able to come home sooner than they estimate.  :)  Ok, so that is my super exciting news for the week!  I just had to share with everyone!  :)  (I can't believe I am a mom!)

I chose to visualize my husband's Pap for this exercise.  He was a wonderful man, and the world needs more people like him.  Unfortunately, he passed away last August.  I liked that the "beam of light" that the author was referring to had special meaning for each placement of the light.  To purify my thoughts, speech, and heart to be more like this wise person I was visualizing.  And the author instructed me to "become this person," and take on the qualities of this person, which I found interesting, because I just said "the world needs more people like him."  When I tried to visualize what it felt like to "become" him, I was temporarily stumped.  What would it be like to be him?  What went on inside his head?  How did he get to be so kind and caring?  Was he like that by nature, or was he a product of his environment?  Are his parents and siblings the same way?  And then I found myself distracted trying to find the root of his kindness.  And then I started to look at myself, and thought, how could I be more like him, really?  And then the author said that his essence is now my inner essence.  And that made me think as well.  Hmm...

Since the start of this term, we have done several meditative practices.  And I have found that I actually look forward to each one in each unit.  It allows me to take some time for myself.  And in a sense, take care of myself.  These practices may only take a few minutes, but the effects and the thought processes that are stimulated lead to a sort of peace that lasts all day.  I could certainly make an effort to try to complete a meditative practice every couple days, or at least once a week to continue to feel that sort of peace that I was referring to.  I could look up meditative practices on YouTube or Google and listen to those.  Especially with the new baby coming home in a few weeks, I must take this time to heal physically, prepare myself mentally, and open myself spiritually for the journey ahead.  What better way to do that than to set aside some personal reflection time?

My interpretation of the saying "one cannot lead another where one has not gone himself," simply means that before you can help someone else, you must first be able to help yourself.  How can you offer advice to a situation if you have never been in a similar one?  And how can they trust you?  This concept is important for a health and wellness professional, because it allows me to show my clients that I am human, just like them.  That I too, am on the same journey through life that they are, and there are many avenues to be explored that can lead to greater health and wellness.  Why not try them all?  If I try different ways to develop my health (physical, mental, and spiritual), I can share  my thoughts and experiences with my clients and we can compare once the client tries a similar modality.  As a health and wellness professional, it is my obligation and personal responsibility to encourage my clients to take charge of their overall wellbeing and experience as many options as they are willing to achieve the goal of ultimate health. 

Mariah  :)