Hello everyone. Both, the Love-Kindness practice and the Subtle-Mind practice, were a great form of meditation and a great way to begin to learn to clear the mind and take control of thoughts. Both of the practices have breathing as an important part of the practice with the difference being the focal point of the practice. In the Love=Kindness exercise, once the breathing part is established, one focuses on the concept of love, beginning with a loved one and drawing that love in. Afterwards, the focus switches to a loved one’s suffering then to a group of people and even an enemy. The purpose is to begin to show love and kindness to people, and this is done in the form of a mental exercise that trains the mind to do this.

            The Subtle-Mind practice focuses on breathe alone and the mental chatter that comes as one is trying to focus on breathe. The practice helps to witness or acknowledge the mental chatter but then quickly dissolves it in order to clear the mind. When this mental chatter distracts one’s focus from the breathe, one must acknowledge the mental chatter, then focus back on the breathe until the still, clear mind is achieved. This is the frustrating part of these practices. I found that the hardest thing to begin to do is control the mental chatter. Afterwards, gaining a clear mind is peaceful and relaxing.

            The connection between spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness is that all of these are connected.  When an imbalance exists in one of these areas, the others are affected causing an imbalance in all the body. Spiritual wellness deals with our inner life. It deals with all the struggles and turmoil that exists within an individual. This causes great deal of stress mentally and physically, which in turn, affects the body by making it susceptible to illness and disease. Mental and physical illnesses occur, which all mostly begins with an undeveloped or weak spiritual area. This can manifest in personal life by the developing illnesses or stressors one experiences in life, and in the quality of life one lives.