Category: Psychology and Relationships
These are very personal questions: What is spiritual to you? When and where do you feel spiritual? How do these spiritual feelings get blocked or expanded?
We can carry these questions throughout our lives. Spiritual practice aims to refine and deepen our understanding of them.
I will focus on three specific spiritual practices: psychological relationships, meditation, and psychedelic plant medicines, including cannabis.
Spiritual practice is about psychological relationships because if our spiritual practice doesn’t improve our relationships with others, what’s the point?
The practice of psychological relationships with others and with one’s inner life is a personal experience with spiritual meaning. This involves experiences of vulnerability, hurt, and confusion that teach us the depth of human love and kindness.
Spiritual practice is not only personal but also universal and objective. We need to look at our minds as they are, our human instincts as they are, and our relationship with the natural world. We are born, go through all the developmental stages, and then die. Life is both precious and painful. We cannot change most of life, but we can learn to connect with it gracefully, little by little.
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Borderline Personality Disorder – Causes, Symptoms, Treatments
While it remains one of the lesser-known personality disorders, Borderline Personality Disorder affects many children and adults. Chances are that you probably already know someone who is borderline. This person cycles through moods that lead to impulsive behaviors, especially when it comes to interpersonal relationships. Many with borderline personality are known to be “bridge burners”…
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Chronic Anger – Causes, Symptoms, Treatment
Think about the last time something or someone made you angry. How intense was the anger, and how long did it take for the anger to subside? For most of us, anger is a quick burst of emotion that fizzles fairly quickly as we realize its irrationality or irrelevance. However, that isn’t always the case.…
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Narcissistic Personality Disorder – Causes, Symptoms, Treatment
The term “narcissist” tends to get thrown into the everyday conversation. You might even recall a discussion you had with a friend or relative over how self-absorbed and narcissistic someone else seemed. But did you know that this can be a personality disorder? Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a diagnosable form of mental illness that is…
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Cyber Addiction – How It Happens and How to Treat It
When you think of addiction, your thoughts might not immediately gravitate toward cyber addiction. While most of us are avid users of cyber technology, many of us are also easily able to disengage from the web and lead functional lives in the outside world. However, that is not the case for everyone. Cyber addiction is…
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Idiopathic Hypersomnia: The Illusion of Being Sleepy
While most people get tired over the course of a day, it is rare that they will consistently feel the need to take naps during the daytime or sleep for extended hours at night. Those with idiopathic hypersomnia, however, experience an almost insatiable need to sleep during the day regardless of how much rest they…
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Selective Mutism in Adults: When Silence Is Sometimes Comforting
When you think of selective mutism, one of the first associations that comes to mind is likely that this is something that happens in children. While it seems to manifest most common in children, selective mutism does occur in adults. For those of us who don’t have it, it often begs the question, “Why is…
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Self Therapy: The Guide to Healing Ourselves the Right Way
Suffering is part of the human condition. Each one of us encounters something in our daily lives that can cause us to feel sorrow, anger, despair, resentment, or any other negative emotion you can think of. Even religious and spiritual belief systems incorporate the idea of suffering into their tenets. While suffering exists and is…
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Schizoaffective Disorder: When Mood Becomes a Problem
Most people experience intrusive thoughts throughout their lives. Those with schizoaffective disorder, however, experience such thoughts, impulses, and moods in a much more profound and often volatile and violent way. While schizoaffective disorder is indeed difficult to cope with, there is hope for those with schizoaffective disorder, as there are multiple types of treatment that…
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What Is EMDR Therapy and How Does It Work?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy has been around for the past 30 years. Yet, it is only now becoming a widely-used psychotherapy model for treating a multitude of issues, including post-traumatic stress. EMDR is a fascinating and ultimately beneficial type of therapy that shines light into dark periods of our lives. But what…
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How to Deal with a Controlling Person with Peace
At some point during someone’s life, they have probably found themselves dealing with a controlling person. Sometimes, these people exist in the professional realm. Others exist much closer to home. It might seem like no matter what one does, they can’t get out of this person’s controlling clutches unscathed. It’s difficult to know how to…
