"Teach only Love,
 For that is what you are."
       from A Course In Miracles

 More To Life training site
Rocky Mountain region site

Helping others realize their vision.

    

Background

One of the more treacherous aspects of having a care-taker personality (also referred to as care-giver or enabler), is the lack of care given to oneself.

Take CARE OF THE EMT

As part of my wish to take all precautions possible on my youth group Vision Quest trips in the 1990's, I decided to take a 6-month course to become certified as an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician. This training  is one step below that for  paramedics, the people who provide medical rescue assistance at fire departments and in emergency ambulance services).

The first day of class, the instructor asked a seemingly innocuous question with a pretty obvious answer:

What is the most important duty of an EMT ?

The class answered in consort:

"To save the patient, of course".

WRONG!

Correct answer:

"To take care of the EMT."

And this is what the instructor meant by "taking care of the EMT": first and foremost,  you need to keep yourself safe and ensure that you are able to perform your EMT duties. This includes not trying to play the hero and save the patient by putting your own life in peril.

Let's assume you do try to save the patient first, by jumping in a cold lake or entering an unsafe situation. If you end up needing to be rescued yourself, you just compounded the problem. Not only is the patient not being saved, we now need two more EMTs to rescue the patient, AND you.

Much as this seems to be a pedantic piece of advice,  it had a lot of applicability to what rescuers tried to do in the Twin Towers in New York on Sept 11, 2001. A lot of fire fighters and rescue personnel did not follow their own safety protocols: do not enter an unsecured or unsafe situation. They may be labeled heroes for their good intentions, but they also violated a cardinal rule that caused their loved ones to loose a loved one. Please don't get me wrong, I have a lot of admiration for firefighters, paramedics, police and soldiers that put their lives on the line for the rest of us.

So where does "Take Care of the EMT (first)" come into play ? It comes into play with mothers who drain themselves of all energy by being their for everyone else. It comes to play with workaholics who burn themselves out without realizing that taking care of yourself first allows you to continue working. It comes into play with people in all service professions. Our empathy and desire to help does not mean putting ourselves last. Quite the opposite: if you are gifted in helping many others, it's all the more reason to take good care of such a precious resource: your SELF.
The Moral of the Story
All desire leads to suffering.
           - Buddha

We live in a world that seems to be filled with people who pursue their desires whether they be material, experiential or spiritual. The basic assumption is that attaining what we desire will make us happy. The fact is that we spend most of our time in a state of non-attainment, of suffering.

Ultimately, the core belief that something will make us happy, is an acknowledgement that we are not happy with the way things are, the way our life is, or Life is period. By constant acknowledgment of our unfulfilled desires, we create our own hells.

Let us return the world to love, one person at a time, beginning with me.           - Marrrek
 
My Vision
To be a force for good,
to leave this world better than I found it,
to do all that I can,
with what I have,
in the time I have,
in the place I am.
         - Marrrek

I want to inspire and motivate others to do the same, to create heaven on earth, together.