Student SPHere 2008-09

When my alarm went off on Sunday morning and I peeked out the blinds to rain, I have to admit I did not want to get up and spend the day in a folding chair listening to people talk at me. But as soon as I walked into the Aveda Institute building for the holistic healing event, Restore, I got over it.

The all-day event brought together practitioners, educators and others to learn about and experience alternative, complementary and integrative therapies for health and wellness. Awesome.

Of course I had trouble choosing sessions because I wanted to go to everything at the same time (surprise). First, I ended up hearing about the integration of physical, mental and spiritual health from a clinical psychologist and faculty member at the U's Center for Spirituality and Healing--a good way to start the day.

Unfortunately the next session I circled in the program, about nutrition and food choices, was canceled, so I randomly went to a hypotherapy session, which was surprisingly interesting. The field just has that unfortunate connotation with people being dragged up on stage, hypnotized and forced to play air guitar (then forget it all), but hearing about the process and other applications was great.

Next, I went to a mindfulness meditation workshop. Now meditation has always been something I've been interested in getting into, so I really wanted to like this. And I did...but maybe not in the correct way. The presenter was great, and I was perfectly relaxed, listening to and thinking about everything she said, when all of a sudden, my muscles felt all warm and tingly, her voice turned into a low murmur, then she hit her little gong and it was over. Time had passed. I had no idea what happened. And no idea what people were talking about when referencing the meditation because I didn't hear 90 percent of it. I guess I a) fell asleep, b) totally zoned out or c) am such a good meditator that I went far, far away. Oops.

Needless to say, I left that session a little groggy and wandered through the exhibits--so interesting!--before heading to my last presentation, from the director of the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program at the Mayo Clinic. He talked about modalities that have shown promise in stress reduction and encourage patient healing. It was very interesting and nice to see that, though small, there have been some solid studies done that at least suggest, if not prove, that alternative therapies have merit and should get some more attention.

Oh, and I almost forgot: I won a door prize! I was crossing my fingers for, like, a $500 Aveda gift basket, but I ended up with a children's book. The Spanish version. Good thing I remember enough college Spanish to know that Paz y Panqueques is Peace and Pancakes. And adorable.

I left the event with a nice warm-and-fuzzy feeling. It was a good combination of information relevant to my studies and future career in public health (I think complementary therapies are way underused) and my personal journey in wellness--which, unfortunately, is often the first thing to get lost in the shuffle when things get crazy. Here's to hoping it gives me a nice little kick in the butt on that front.