"Meeting Asciepius" Exercise

For this exercise the person I chose to visualize was my father. I love my father dearly, probably more than anyone in the world, besides my mother. My father has made me the person I am today and therefore I thought I owed him the delight of being the point of my exercise. I focused on the things my father has always told me, "be brave", "the only person who can decide anything for you, is you", "if someone treats you badly, then they gotta go", "you are your own problem because everywhere you go, you'll always be there, so if you are trying to find a place to get away, you never will". Those were my favorite things said by him and so I focused on that, as well as focused on the love and commitment he has always made to me. Throughout the exercise I tried to see the white light and by the end of it, I did and felt like I was living through my father which in reality, I am. I felt overwhelmed with compassion and love, because I know that no matter what my father will always love me.

"One cannot lead another where one has not gone himself"

This quote speaks so dear to me, because I have been through so many obstacles already and am only in my early twenties, but with that said, I realized I really have learned from my mistakes. An embarassing but true example has stumbled upon me that I wish to share:

Being that I am 21, I recently have started going out with my friends. I tend to have an aggressive personality and will never take anything from anyone, another great asset given to me by my father, or at least up until this point. I was out with my friends and this girl who did not like me, who had a problem with me because of a past boyfriend had confronted me and followed me out of the bar. She insisted on yelling at me, and I did not speak to her, I ignored her and walked away many times and she even shoved me but I did not respond, and finally I went to really walk away and she punched me in the face. Instead of fighting with her and arguing with her like the "old Sarah" would have done, I went straight to the police department and pressed charges and now she might be removed from school, but she deserves to be reprimanded and nobody should put their hands on another. I was injured but am very proud of how I responded as I used to be very violent when someone acted violently towards me, but all I could think about while she was yelling at me was my job and my future and how I really do not want to end up where she was going. It is all because of past experiences that I was able to lead myself to a better path and because of that, my job is going better and so am I. I have begun learning Italian and playing the guitar and have been avoiding the bars at all cost.

I think that by leading myself in a better healthier direction, I am now confident enough to lead someone else, and how can you not lead yourself in a direction without going through the experiences? Anyone can learn from their mistakes and either make the decision to change or not, it is entirely up to them!