Transforming Wellness: The Garden

Hey there. Welcome back. This will be the third video in this video series so far discussing wellness and what it means to be well, apart from maybe some of the ideas that have been given to us throughout our time on this earth so far. And if you've been following along the first video, we just kind of with introduced the idea of changing or coming to an idea of wellness that is practical, achievable things we can take actual steps towards to make changes in their lives and feel a sense of fullness or wellness.

Truly, the second video, I laid out five reasons why this medical model, this medical idea of what it means to be well, doesn't quite translate to our mental and emotional health in a very effective or practical way. And so here today, I want to lay this foundation building off what we already have talked about to identify if we're not going off of these other ideas of wellness, what idea of wellness will we be pursuing? What idea of wellness is worth our time, energy, focus and effort? Once again, my name is Eric, clinical counselor, passionate, motivated to provide mental health resources, information, advice, fill in the blank at an affordable and accessible way.

So part of the journey in my passion for that is being here with Cadre. And today I offer you a depiction, a story that highlights what wellness and finding wellness looks like. I want to preface this story by saying the story does come from a religious background. And I want to be very clear that my intention in bringing this story here today is not religious. In fact, it's maybe far removed from that. And so whichever way you relate to religion, just know that this is not an attempt to provide some sort of religious aspect into your life.

Rather to paint a picture that we can maybe play around with, explore and relate on to see what wellness may look like. For me. I grew up in a very christian household. And so as I've grown out of that and in my own way, in my own experience, there's a part of me that still wants to find value in the story of human experience found in those religious places. And so the story here is a common one, and one you've likely heard before, whether or not you're religious in any capacity. And it's the story of Adam and Eve.

And I think a lot of times, myself included, when we have a distancing from religious practices, we, so to say, throw the baby out with the bag, bath water. How does this relate to being? Well, explore with me for a minute and maybe even close your eyes. As I tell this story. Light is brought into the world, the Garden, Eden is brought into existence. And within Eden are man and woman. And Eden is the representation of wellness, fullness, the symbol of the pinnacle of human experience. And it's important to frame EdeN this way, because if we look around here in this Garden, what we find is that the humans, Adam and Eve, have a purpose, fully present, naming animals, experiencing, living in the presence of God, the symbol of the one who is in control and understands.

Now, there's one thing that's very crucial to the story, and it's the idea that in the center of this garden is a place that has been forbidden from humans. And this place is a tree. And often we remember that this tree has an apple. But what we don't remember is that this tree is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And as you know, the story goes, or maybe you don't. Eve, although resisting eating from this tree for many days, I assume, eventually falls to the temptations that a serpent brings to her.

And the temptation is, God told you not to eat from this tree because it would surely bring you death. But I tell you, he lied, and it will make you, like God, fascinating. We often associate understanding and holding the knowledge of what is good and what is evil as the key, the pathway to being. Well, if only I can understand and I can get the right formula here and I can compute it in my mind, then. Then I'll have a sense of freedom. Then I can make sure my pain goes away. So the story goes, where Eve takes a bite of the apple and shares it with Adam.

In this pursuit of being like God, remember, God represents control, understanding, certainty, things in which humans cannot hold about the future. They take the bite of the apple, and the first thing that happens, as you may remember, is they become aware of their nakedness and hide our nakedness, our vulnerability, our tool for connection with others. Our authenticity is exchanged for the ideas of what it means to be good or evil. We lose trust in what is not ours to hold. And it's not that because of this, we should be ashamed and therefore kicked out of this place that we really want to live.

Rather, we physically cannot exist in wellness when our pursuit is to be in control of what is not ours to control. Wellness looks like accepting what is out of our control, coming back to the present and making choices, action towards what is our mind likes to be a serpent at times, and give us this idea that we have the capacity to know and predict more than we do. And we start to label and categorize what is and isn't allowed to be in our life. Reality is often unpredictable, includes struggle, includes the things our mind tells us as an indication that we're not surviving.

But what is also found in reality is growth, change, curiosity, surprise. I heard a quote this week from Charlie Chaplin that goes, our lives up close are a tragedy, but when you pull the camera back and I'm paraphrasing and we see the life in its entirety, it becomes a comedy. That's where I'm going to end things today. And hopefully there's something here that sparks interest in your mind about what this different idea of wellness can look like and can mean to the particular circumstances you find yourself in in your life.

Tune in next week as we continue to explore wellness, and not just the idea of it, but also the action. And once again, I want to say join me for my live videos Friday afternoons where we take some practical steps as well. Those videos are a little bit more intentional on finding ways to immediately make some changes. It's good to see you all again. Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to connecting again next week.