In keeping with my recent post about personal leadership, I share the following: Im fortunate to work in the front-line trenches of mental health. The need is great, and though the system is thoroughly broken, I know that I can and do help many of those in need. As a Music Therapist, my job is to help patients express their pent up feelings in positive ways, develop alternative leisure skills, and articulate a discharge plan that incorporates new musical experiences as part of a healthy change in lifestyle. While planning a session recently, I created an approach that has proven to be very helpful to me. Its based on the well-known Joseph Campbell quote, The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek. The Treasure Map process Im about to share is a bit too abstract and sophisticated for most psychiatric inpatients, but pretty awesome to anyone sincerely interested in self awareness and actualization. Ill share the steps of the process below, and tag those I think might be interested in participating. If you find your resultant Treasure Map to be useful, please share your discoveries in the comments below - and share the process with people you think would dig it. Personally, I like to draw pictures and overlay text. Feel free to modify the Treasure Map in any way you need to. Make it your own. STEP 1: What is the treasure you seek? Draw the mouth of a cave, and write the words inside. STEP 2: What are the qualities of character you will need to enter the cave and collect the treasure? For example, Courage, by definition, would have to be one of them. Write those qualities on the stones surrounding the mouth of the cave. STEP 3: What are the pathways that lead from where you are today to the mouth of the cave? Express them in terms of the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and social aspects of being. In other words, what do you need to do and be in each of those categories to get from where you currently are to the mouth of the cave? Position that data appropriately in your drawing. STEP 4: What is the negative self-talk you engage in to excuse yourself from moving toward the cave? i.e. Its too hard, or I hate routine. Be as accurate and specific as you can about your negative self-talk, and write it on your drawing in such a way that it blocks the pathways to the entrance of the cave. STEP 5: What indulgences and distractions cause you to turn completely away from the cave? Be painfully honest, and write them all around the perimeter of your drawing. STEP 6: What do you see? Enjoy the process, be open to discovery, and please share what you learned. Yours truly, Randy
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 03:29:11 +0000