Meditation Practice

 
 I found this weeks exercise to be very interesting. From the beginning I appreciated the analogy of  the mind growing from a waterfall all the way to becoming similar to the river. It helped me understand the growing process of ignoring the daily "noise" that comes into our lives and being able to focus on calm, still, and deep thoughts. In this exercise, the person I visualized is my mother. To me, she is one of the smartest people I know, and I always ask for her advice and for answers whenever a problem arises. She's a very calm, logical, and rational person and always thinks about her actions beforehand, instead of just reacting. What I found difficult with this exercise is once again the long pauses in between the suggested imagery practices. I found myself drifting off and not really able to keep focused. Despite the difficulties, I was able to relax and think of how I would like to be more like my mother, and the steps I will need to take in order to make that happen. This class has really helped foster my spiritual and psychological growth and development. Before this class, I had not included my mind with my overall "health", and often neglected to focus on building my mind. I think the mind plays a huge role on our physical health, but also our happiness and wholeness. In order for me to be happy, I have to train my mind to think positively, be more open, feel loving and kindness towards others around me, and to rid myself of unnecessary burdens and stress.

The saying "One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself" is quite a perplexing statement to me. On one hand I do agree, that for some aspects, a person has to follow, or practice what they preach. A physician cannot be lecturing a patient about the dangers of smoking and urging someone to quit when they themselves are smoking. It would damage their credibility, and make the doctor less trustworthy and make the patients less likely to take their advice seriously. On the other side of this, there are a lot of instances that not everyone can experience the same events, diseases, or health problems, and just because a physician cannot experience the same events, doesn't mean that they can't educate and care for patients. A personal trainer working with morbidly obese patients does not need to have experienced being obese in their life for them to be an amazing mentor. I think physicians, therapists, and anyone in the health area need to focus on their own personal health in order to grow on a professional level. Again, physicians, therapists, and trainers who aren't practicing what they are lecturing about to patients won't be taken seriously and can lose their patients trust and respect.