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.
-
An Introduction to TOOLBOX™ by Dovetail Learning
This brief film introduces the work of TOOLBOX™ by Dovetail Learning. TOOLBOX honors children’s innate capacity for managing their own emotional, social, and academic success by giving them 12 Tools that empower them. The common language and practices help children quickly adopt the Tools and use them with autonomy, resilience, and self-mastery. Children and adults…
-
Emotional Shock: How to Take the Trip Back to Reality
Most of us, during our lifetimes, will experience a jarring event that sends us reeling. While some of us are fortunate enough to have the shock eventually wear off, for others, traumatic situations leave a significant amount of emotional shock and pain. Emotional shock is a very real response to a very surreal-seeming horrific event.…
-
Diagnosing Dexter Morgan – Entering the Mind of a Psychopath
Dexter Morgan is a fictional antihero in a book series written by Jeff Lindsay and in a famous TV show simply called Dexter. With a total of 8 seasons, Dexter kept us on the edge of our couches all throughout the show. We rooted for him when he was chasing the cruelest serial killers. We…
-
Selfies and Narcissism – The Prefabricated Image We Present to the World
If you are that one person in 20 that does not take selfies, you should know that you are a dying breed. Almost everybody takes selfies nowadays. Sure, the phenomenon started with teenagers and young adults, and it is still predominantly about them. However, even people who are parents of young adults have started taking…
-
How to Stop Being Codependent – A Comprehensive Guide
Relationships are one of the main things that bring joy to our lives, be they of a romantic nature, or strictly focussed on friendship and respect. Unfortunately, relationships are also one of the biggest challenges that we have to face. As human beings, it is easy for us to become attached to another person. Once we…
-
Cognitive Restructuring: What Is the Impact of This Therapy?
Imagine this: You are taking a final exam in school and, afterward, realize that you got an answer to one question wrong. You immediately think, Well, I must have failed the exam based on that one wrong answer. This is not an uncommon response to this type of situation, and it is an example of…
-
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Answer to Depression
Have you ever felt like a therapist has tried to invalidate and/or eliminate your feelings? One of the major deterrents to seeking counseling is the perception that our emotions will be scrutinized. So we feel that we will simply be treated like bugs under microscopes. Unlike other types of such treatment, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy…
-
Sleep Disorders: Self-Standing Disease and Symptoms of the Underlying Condition
Good quality sleep is essential for the human body to function optimally, but some people have never experienced that. You may be one of those that struggle to catch a decent night’s rest. Others sleep well at night but still wake up feeling tired or fall in and out of sleep during the day. All…
-
Can Online Therapy Be Truly Effective? Pros and Cons
Let’s take a close look at online therapy, a rather new form of psychological support. First of all, online therapy is not considered psychotherapy. Also, it will never replace traditional face-to-face therapy. In a few words, it comes down to chatting with your doctor. But is this type of therapy effective or not? In this…
-
Can Light Therapy Really Help in Depression?
It distorts one’s thoughts, makes it difficult to care for others, and causes constant irritability. Also, it can manifest itself in the form of anxiety, can cause one to be easy to upset. Furthermore, it may be accompanied by chronic pain. This is depression. And it can be treated with light therapy. But let’s read…
