The meditative practice this week was transforming. It was the first time that I focused through
the entire meditative practice without getting distracted. I could actually visualize the light emanating
from the person who I see as wise onto myself.
When asked to transfer his wisdom onto me, we both turned into monks and
bowed are heads. At that moment, I felt
a since of completion and that I was ready to begin the journey on my own.
Practicing these contemplative practices each week towards
integral health has helped me to foster a sense of awareness, developed my
attention, and has reshaped my perceptions on the world around me. I feel more at peace and relaxed on a daily
basis – even at times when I should not.
I will continue to do these meditative practices each night before going
to bed. I find this to be the best time
for me to practice meditation because it relaxes me enough that I fall right
asleep when finished.
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The saying “one cannot lead another where one has not gone
himself” (p. 477) means to me that if a person has not experienced what they
are teaching, then they don’t know all the intricacies about that experience to
help someone else out through the process. For example, if I
were a smoker trying to quit, I would want someone who has successfully quit to
coach me through the process versus someone who has never smoked before. The person who has never smoked before does
not know the difficulties of the addition and how hard it is to quit – only the
person who has experienced this process would.
So, if we are going to help people develop their integral health and
work towards human flourishing, we have to go through the process of developing
our own integral health first. When we
do, we can assist them when they are struggling to focus during the
contemplative practices by giving them the information and tools that helped us
through that same problem.
Kristen,
ReplyDeleteI am so glad I ran across your comment on Drea's blog and I felt led to your blog (= I think that you are going to make a wonderful health professional. You seem to be really immersing yourself in the contemplative exercises and becoming subject to and exploring human flourishing. I look forward to your next blog.
Brandy
I see that we both almost said exactly the same thing about the saying we were giving. The saying is basically about practicing what you preach. You need to lead by example. I talked about the smoking thing also. Who wants a anyone let alone a doctor telling them that they need to stop smoking but they are doing the same thing. I want a doctor that can tell me well I did this and it helped me with this so maybe you should try doing the same thing. Other than that I will be looking at them like you want me to do this but you are not doing this or you haven’t even tried it.
ReplyDeleteHello Kristen,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you finally found a meditation exercise that made you feel relaxed. It is so true how these exercises give you a better perspective on things around you. There is no better feeling than the feeling of true peace and relaxation during meditation. I can't help someone with smoking because I have never smoked, I can help others to loose weight. I know what it's like and I have struggled at times to fight my own demons. Does the saying,"you can't talk the talk, if you can't walk the walk" come to mind?