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.