School is Cool

Hey all, I am home early from a fabulous house warming party, however I am feeling a bit tummyache-ish due to overconsumption/indulging. So I decided to come home early, curl up in bed, blog a little and then hit the hay before a beautiful day tomorrow...I hope the forecast is on target, I have so much I want to accomplish.

Today was orientation for first-year grad students, and I have to say that I am incredibly stoked for Holistic Health Studies! I just haven't felt this excited about school for a really long time!!! It's great and that's all there is to it. I have some years of transforming ahead of me, but I am so ready and crazy about what I am about to begin studying! How lucky do I feel to have the opportunity to do this, and how grateful am I, to have taken a leap and to have done something I was unsure about in such an unsure time. Now I am more certain than ever that this path I am taking, is the one for me, and I'm about to set foot on it in a couple short weeks.

Anyway, I am feeling highly ambitious right now so I wanted to write a little bit about what was said today at orientation that inspired me (so I can come back and look at it when I am struggling and need to be reminded why I have chosen an unconventional, challenging, uncertain and transformative path). The women on the panel who came in today and talked about what they are doing with their HHS Masters were inspiring, genuine, and very admirable. The main points of advice they shared that stuck with me were as follows.

1) From a nurse who was fed up with healthcare and its rigid boundaries, who now works with pregnant women who want natural childbirthing experiences: "In nursing, you always learn about how to take care of others, but you never take a class that tells you that you need to take care of yourself. This program keeps you in check and reminds you of this necessity." Pretty dead on, and pretty "ah-ha, yeah duh!" but very good point that needs to be remembered and honored time and time again for all of us. As we all recognize, you cannot be good at what you are doing, in this case, taking care of others, if you do not know how to take care of yourself.

(Which reminds me, I just googled Holistic Health Studies and the link came up with a picture and a blurb on the above nurse, I was speaking about, check it out).

2) From a girl with an undergrad in public health regarding the program, "You think you know you, but then you take a class, and your world changes again." She also mentioned how admirable it is to be involved in a degree that digs so deeply within, and how it is much harder to take time to dig inside and see what we are made of than it is to go into something like dentistry or law, etc. Now don't get me wrong, she did not diminish the power of other occupations or their time consumption/difficulty, I mean, they have there place in society and are necessary, but rather she elevated the power of the self and knowing the self and examining the self, and she spoke to the value of knowing oneself... defining this self-study as a knowledge uncomparable to that of other degrees and a knowledge invaluable to both ourselves and the world because this self-knowing creates enabled and powerful individuals.

3) "Don't plan ahead, and don't worry. As you learn your intuitions, learn to follow them, everything else will also follow and fall into place." I like this one a lot because recently I have a tendency to be a planner. For example, just the other day I called my boy at work and told him of this plan I had that basically mapped out our life until 2012. Despite my weird and sometimes perceived lazy tendencies, I am often two steps ahead of myself which is great, but has its side effects. These words shared by almost all of the panelists reminded me that I need this program to learn how to slow down again and let go of plans and let plans make themselves. It is better for the soul and takes away unnecessary stress. I need to truly listen to what is happening in my mind, body and spirit. I am ready for this challenge, and ready to again fly by the seat of my pants. Despite me being an excellent planner, I can be really good at going with the flow and following my heart and my dreams wherever they may take me.

Now truthfully I could go on and on about the great things these women are doing with their lives, but truthfully this entry is getting rather long and incoherent. I am very sleepy and wouldn't be surprised if there are many typos on this posting. Oh wells. Bare with me :)

I will try to return tomorrow to post what I originally came on here for. Things I want to do in the next five years.

Let's just say the sneak preview of the list looks something like this...

1) Belly-dancing...