Psychospiritual Development

Dear Professor and Classmates,

Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.

           

 I will start with I enjoyed both the exercises and both helped me to relax and gather my thoughts. The loving-kindness exercise is an approach to loving yourself and allows that love of self to be given to others. This is not a self-love that is boastful but rather a genuine love and caring for self and others. This exercise helped to relax my thoughts but I still found it difficult to keep my mind from wandering. The subtle mind exercise, however, seemed to really help my focus which allowed me more control over my mental movements. I still continued to have thought, feeling and images but these mental movements were more controlled during this exercise; I had mental movements but they did not draw my attention but rather came and went. There were times when my mind was clear and my focus was only on the movements of my chest. Overall, both exercise had a calming benefit, but the subtle mind exercise allows me more control over my mental movements of thought, feelings, and images (Dacher, 2006).

Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.

The evolution toward a higher level of development, complexity, and capacity is essentially a movement from body to mind to spirit; a process of development that applies to each of the four aspects of life. It is a generic pattern for the evolutionary unfolding of our human potential and integral health. This developmental movement from body to mind to spirit is a shift from the realm of physical, with the emphasis on survival, instinct, and self to the more subtle realm of the mental with the focus on ideas, intention, and interconnectedness to the most spiritual realm of awareness, wisdom, and oneness (Dacher, 2006).

I have always been into physical health and taking care of my body. During my teens and twenties this was easily accomplish but once I got married and started a family the process became more difficult to manage. Life got very busy and I began the physical wellness roller coaster. I have never done much with managing the mental side of things because I did not understand how to go about it. I realize the damage that stress can cause but had no real method for controlling it. However, the exercises learned in this class have opened my eyes to what is available and how clear my mind can be if I allow it. Spiritually, I am catholic and have been attending mass all of my life but I have got many things to learn in my psychospiritual development. I have always believed that the body, mind, and spirit are one and work as one, but essentially my journey of mental and spiritual wellness is just beginning. The development has started and it is up to me to keep the process growing and developing.

Ed Busche

References

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Contemplative Practice: The Mental Workout

Dear Professor and Classmates,

Describe your experience. Did you find it beneficial or Difficult? Why or why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or why not?

           My experience with the loving-kindness practice was a feeling of peace and weightlessness. As I listened to the instructions I was very calm, my heart rate was slow, and I was the most relaxed I have been in quite some time. It felt very good to focus on loving-kindness and dedicate some time to begin the steps toward improving integral health. I found the process both beneficial and difficult. It was beneficial because it helped me to relax and begin the process of contemplative practice, taking the steps needed to develop integral health. I found it difficult because the process is something I have never done and I found it hard to stay focused with my mind drifting to other things. I kept needing to bring myself back to focus, but over time, like anything else practice and focus will prevail. I would recommend this process to anyone. Like anything else I would promote the process by telling individuals about my own experiences with the process along with accomplishments in integral health. Then, after hearing my experiences, if they are interested I will tell them more; they need to want improvement for themselves and not someone telling them they need improvement. This has to be there choice.

What is the concept of "mental workout"? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a mental workout? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

            The mental workout is a workout for the mind. The effort consists of one hour a day to conditioning your mind and like physical training when the training stops we see a drop off in ability. So perseverance is necessary. Contemplative practice is the progressive development of an expanded consciousness and its healing capacities (Dacher, 2006).

            Research studies and personal reports have demonstrated that mental training can transform the mind by reducing disturbing emotions that cause anger, hatred, fear, worry, confusion, and doubt while enhancing positive emotions such as patience, loving-kindness, openness, acceptance, and happiness. This mental transformation provides resistance to mental distress and physical disease, expands our healing capacity, and promotes well-being (Dacher, 2006).

            Implementing mental workouts to foster psychological health is like implementing physical exercise to improve physiological health; it requires having the desire to take psychological health to the next level of health, having a dedication to the cause of improving psychological health, and the time commitment necessary for improvements to be accomplished. 

Ed Busche

References

Dacher, E. S. (2006). Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, Inc.

Integral Health: Evaluation and Techniques

Dear Professor and Classmates,

Based on your reflections, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being optimal well-being), where do you rate your A-physical well-being, B-spiritual well-being, C-psychological well-being? Why?

Physical Well-being – I would consider myself to be a 7. I follow a healthy diet (not as consistent as I would like) and my job keeps me physical active. I try to maintain cardiovascular and musculoskeletal health but I have not been a consistent with exercising as I once was. Life has gotten very busy and I find myself skipping these activities more than I should.

Spiritual Well-being – I would consider myself to be a 5. I am catholic and send my children to a catholic school. I have strong catholic beliefs but have slipped in the practice of attending mass ever Sunday and practicing daily prayer. Again, I have let the busyness of life get in the way of my spiritual development.

Psychological Well-being – I would consider myself to be a 3. I give myself this score based on Dacher’s preparation and visualization plan to achieving integral health. I need serious work in all three areas of preparation and once there is improvement in these areas I will begin improving visualization.  

Develop a goal for yourself in each area (physical, spiritual, psychological).

Physical – My goal for physical wellness is to get back on an exercise plan which consists of physical activity 5 -7 days a week. Also to be more consistent with my nutritional development of more whole foods and less processed foods. I need to get back to a calorie deficit so that I can lose some unwanted weight.

Spiritual – My goal spiritually is getting back to attending mass ever Sunday and eventually attending the Catholic daily mass as often as my work schedule will allow.

Psychological – My goal with psychological wellness will be to begin working on developing the program of preparation and visualization.

Loving-Kindness: lessening self-centeredness and getting rid of emotions like anger and jealously.

Skillful Action: calming the mind and slow down the knee-jerk reactive behaviors always remembering that anger breeds and anger and so on.

Silence and Stillness: This means realize what activities matter and those that waste time and hold us back, keeping us from moving forward in the development of integral health, also referred to as renunciation. Start with making a list of the most important responsibilities, then those questionable activities, and finally those things that only serve to entertain. Begin with eliminating useless activities and work your way back.

What activities or exercise can you implement in your life to assist in moving toward each goal?

Physical – I will implement cardiovascular exercises like the recumbent bike, elliptical machine or walking. I also conduct resistance training for all muscle groups.

Spiritual – Developing a daily active prayer life is essential to spiritual development.

Psychological – Activities of psychological development include meditation, yoga, or different types of relaxation techniques. Reducing stress levels is a key element to developing psychological wellness.

Complete the relaxation exercise The Crime of the Century. To hear this exercise, click here. Describe your experience. (What it beneficial, frustrating, etc.)

The relaxation exercise was beneficial in that it helped me to focus on relaxing my mind and enjoy a quiet moment to myself. The man’s voice conducting the exercise is very soothing and provides comfort with the visual color choices along with what is said. This was a great exercise but I did find my thoughts wondering to the many things currently active in my life. But with a continuous effort I would find this exercise more and more beneficial and would also continue to improve focus with less and less wondering thoughts.

Ed Busche