Meeting Aesclepius (Unit 7 Blog)

This week's mediation was the Meeting Aesclepius mediation.  At the beginning, you are supposed to picture a wise person in your mind, either someone you know, or someone who you have just made up in your mind.  I chose to focus on my grandmother on my mother's side.  She passed away almost 13 years ago, (less than 24 hours before my niece was born).  She was very religious, but did not use religion to discriminate like some do.  I remember her as a kind, compassionate, and wise women, who was not afraid to tell it like it is, or defend her children and grandchildren if necessary.  This week, much of my mediation has focused on stress relief and sending a loving kindness to those around me.  It has been a very stressful week at work; very busy with much to accomplish.  Being the manager, it has been my job to get my associates to work as fast as they can on getting all the new merchandise set out on the floor for the customers.  Unfortunately, they do not have the work ethic I do, and I have had to set aside my nice, easy going managerial style for one much more harsh and pushy than I would like.  At the end of the day, I am so stressed out from having to hound them to get work done, and also stressed because I have to act like someone I am not to get them to work, that I need to remind myself of loving-kindness, and send good vibes back out into the world, and out to them.  The job of retail manager is not very conducive to human flourishing, and as soon as I can after graduation, I am leaving that job and starting my career.

One theme that has been common throughout this process is that you cannot lead others to where you have not been, meaning you cannot help others achieve peace, flourishing, and integral health if you yourself have not done it.  This applies to every aspect of life.  You simply cannot teach something to someone if you do not know how to do it yourself.  This even applied to my future profession.  This week in my ABAII class, we discussed behavior chaining, (the act of breaking down a complex behavior like shoe tying into step by step components, to teach those with disabilities how to complete these tasks in a simple and non-overwhelming manner).  Before you can go through your chain, you must complete a task analysis, which is the part where you breakdown the complex task into smaller more manageable steps.  The most recommended method of performing a task analysis, is to perform the task yourself, and to take note of the steps needed to accomplish the end result.  Again, you cannot lead others where you yourself have not gone; teaching anyone how to tie a shoe if you do not know how to tie a shoe would be a very difficult task indeed.  So is guiding someone to integral health, and human flourishing. 

Photo I took of a peacock at the Brookfeild Zoo in Chicago