Unit 5: The Key Role of Thought in Wellness and Healing

Hello class,

            The Key Role of Thought in Wellness and Healing

Upon reading Dacher p. 75, which was on mental fitness practice, and listening to The Subtle Mind practice mp3 I’m able to describe my experience as follows:

1.     Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise. Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.  Upon participating in The Subtle Mind practice I was able to find some similarities and differences from the Loving Kindness exercise.  For example, both the Loving Kindness and The Subtle Mind practice use the deep breathing exercise and have a time frame of 15 to 30 min.  In addition, they both hint at focusing on the inner part of ourselves and to stay there, if for any reason the mind drifts we are to come back to the focal point.  However, the differences between the two are the following:

·        The Loving Kindness focuses on the hurt of others and to give others love, kindness, and care.  Also, it teaches us to turn our inner mine, in order to embrace all living beings, including those who we consider enemies.  On the other hand, The Subtle Mind practice teaches us to spend more time on witnessing our mental activity, in order to observe how our mind is working.  In addition, The Subtle Mind practice allows the person to separate, isolate, and doubt by healing our inner most source.

My experience with The Subtle Mind practice was very good and beneficial.  The reason for this is because I was able to naturally ease into my mind and body and control my breathing while maintaining firm concentration on my focal point.

2.     Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness. Explain how the connection is manifested in your personal life.  The way that the spiritual wellness is connected to the mental and physical wellness is the following:

·      The mind, body, and spirit are all connected in order to bring wholeness to the individual.  The more we begin to find peace in our spirit the more our mental and physical wellness begins to flourish and manifests itself to others.  Are anger, sadness, distrust, and weakness begins to fade as we being to connect the spirit to the mental and physical aspect of our lives.

The way that I have connected the spiritual connection to manifest itself to the mental and physical wellness is by doing the simple but rewarding mind, body, and spirit exercises.  These simple exercise have allowed me to become more calm in heated situation, I’ve learned to let certain situation go (instead of making it into a bit deal), and I’ve allowed my spirit to take some control of my being in order to have a more happier and healthy life.  In addition, I’ve noticed when my spirit is calm my body and mind are also calm and somehow the people around me can also see that and are affected by it too. However, there is still a lot of learning and growing to do.