Psyche & Soul 25: SPIRITUALITY OF EMBODIMENT

 podcast link

 https://anchor.fm/boscom/episodes/2-25-PSYCHE--SOUL--57-entejd

Hello, this is Jose Parappully, Salesian priest and clinical psychologist at Sumedha Centre for Psychospiritual Wellbeing at Jeolikote, Uttarakhand, with another edition of Psyche & Soul.

The Coming celebration of Christmas – God embodying human flesh as we read in John’s Gospel (1, 14),  is a good occasion for us to reflect on another significant dimension of a Holistic Spirituality, namely, a Spirituality of Embodiment.

God taking on human flesh and blood in Jesus of Nazareth gives a whole new dimension to the understanding of the body -- human, but also all living and non-living bodies.

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE INCARNATION

In the beginning, John tells us, God was Word, but now it’s’ flesh. God as Word was abstract, distant, unfeeling. God as flesh and blood is warm, concrete, earthly. In God embracing our humanity, our bodiliness, our own embodiment is divinized. We become Godlike.

Word becoming flesh has profound consequences for our lives. Incarnation, God taking on human flesh and blood, means that God and the human body are inseparably united. We cannot worship God in the temple, church or mosque, and desecrate, destroy, dishonor or deny our bodies.

When we forget that God is present in our embodiment, we can not only dishonor and ruin our own bodies with drug and alcohol, sexual promiscuity and immorality, and excessive pampering, but we can also destroy and desecrate the bodies of others – the collective Body of God.

When we let children starve, when the so called civilized world stands as mute spectators to sexual exploitation of children, rape and burning of women, when we tolerate crime syndicates driven by greed and profiteering ravaging the bodies (and souls) of our vulnerable young through encouragement of drug and alcohol abuse and pornography, when our vulnerable old and homeless are left forsaken on our city streets, it is the collective body of God that is being desecrated. The body that is tortured and mangled, starved and emaciated, wasting away in overcrowded and inhuman prisons, the body ravaged by a deadly and uncontrollable Corona virus and other contagious diseases, and treated inhumanely and disposed of dishonorably – all these are the body of God that is being dishonoured.

Incarnation – God becoming one like us— becomes meaningful only when we fulfil our social obligations –caring for one another, honoring, respecting and nurturing all bodies. Incarnation calls for profound respect and reverence for every body, living and non-living.

DIVINIZATION OF NATURE

God not only became a human being like us, God also became part of the earth, part of the cosmos. God becomes not only a human being, but also bread and wine, fruits of the earth and products of human labour. In the transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, God has divinized every created reality. The earth is sacred. The planets are sacred. Plants are sacred. Water and soil are sacred. Incarnation calls for the deepest respect and reverence for all created reality.

THE UNIVERSE AS THE BODY OF GOD

The Incarnation makes everything in the Universe itself the body of God.

Feminist theologian Sally McFague in her book “The Body of God” presents the Universe as an embodiment of God: “God is not in the Universe,” she writes, “God is one with the Universe, as a person is one with their body” or like a “Mother who encloses reality in her womb, bodying it forth, generating all life from her being.” God is one with the universe, in the sense it embodies God’s essence, being an emanation from God. The universe is not identical with God, is separate from God, but God’s essence is in every bit of the universe (panentheism), just like the baby is not identical with the mother, is separate from her, but is endowed with her essence, her own flesh and blood.

Spirituality of embodiment invites us to see the unfolding of God’s presence and action in every phenomenon of the Universe. In the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, Yeshuva (Jesus) says: “Split the wood, and I am there. Turn over the stone, and there you will find me.”(#77)

The 12^th century German mystic Saint Hildegaard of Bingen, Benedictine Abbess and Doctor of the Church, hears God saying to her in a vision:  “I am the breeze that nurtures all things green… I am the rain coming from the dew that causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life.” Created realities here not only emanates from God, but God identifies with every created reality.

God’s presence makes every created reality an embodiment of God, so marvelously and uniquely manifest in God becoming a human being like us in Jesus of Nazareth – the event we are preparing to celebrate in a week’s time.

Introspection

What does this presentation of a spirituality of embodiment, the implications of the Incarnation, of God taking on our flesh and blood, the divinization of nature, the universe as the body of God, trigger in us? How does it challenge us?

Prayer

We could now take a relaxed body posture, take a few deep breaths, become consciously aware of the God who became human and dwelling with us and in us, and whose essence we are in our embodiment, then hold before us the images of the Christmas story, and spend a few minutes talking to God about all that is being triggered in us, and listening to God to hear what God has to tell us as we get ready to celebrate God’s incarnation at Christmas.

I wish you all a very Happy and gracefilled Christmas.

Thank you for listening.

Pictures: courtesy Google Images

Jose Parappully SDB, PhD

sumedhacentre@gmail.com

 

Psyche & Soul 21 PSYCHOLOGY, SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION

  podcast link:

https://anchor.fm/boscom/episodes/2--21-PSYCHE--SOUL--50-emq4hm  

Hello, this is Jose Parappully, Salesian priest and clinical psychologist at Sumedha Centre for Psychospritual Wellbeing at Jeolikote, Uttarakhand, with another edition of Psyche & Soul.

The title of this podcast “Psyche & Soul” alludes to a profound truth, namely “psyche,” that stands of psychology, and “soul,” standing for spirituality, go together.

We normally assume that the two are very different. Not really. Both have to do with everyday life and behaviour and thus have much in common. Good psychology is good spirituality, and good spirituality is good psychology

For a very long time there was mutual animosity between proponents of religion and spirituality on one hand and psychologists on the other. That has changed. Today three is clear acknowledgment that both psychology and spirituality are integral part of being human and both have a positive impact on health and wellbeing.

GROWING INTEREST IN THE SPIRITUAL

This changed attitude is in keeping with emerging trends in society and culture. Three is today an increased interest in spirituality on the part of people all over. Survey after survey shows that the number of people who say they are now more spiritual than they used to be is considerably larger than those who feel they had become less spiritual.

Sales of books show that there is a thirst among people today for things spiritual. Already a few years earlier Chicken Soup for the Soul had broken new grounds in publishing and become a runaway best seller, and various soups as sequel to the original recipe have been churned out year after year.

A few years ago, a distinguished group of business people representing some of the richest corporations in the world went on a long retreat for the explicit purpose of designating the single overriding need of contemporary society. The conclusion they arrived at, to their own surprise, was this: “the single overriding need of contemporary society is to rediscover, celebrate and incarnate the sacred.”

The rich and famous - business tycoons, media stars, fashion models and sports stars - are leaving lucrative and glittering careers and moving into monasteries, ashrams, Zen Centres, and the wilderness in search of the sacred.

Prayer and meditation groups are in vogue. Quasi-spiritual movements like the Art of Living attract thousands of enthusiasts. Catholic Charismatic Retreat Centres are mushrooming.

Among the new spirituality seekers the vast majority are young people. For example, more than 80 percent of those attending the Art of Living gatherings is said to be young people. The Jesus Youth is another testament to this newfound interest among the young in spirituality.

SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION

While there is growing interest in spirituality, there is also disillusionment with religion. Spirituality and religion are related but they are distinct concepts. Both religion and spirituality are born of the awareness of the transcendent—that which is beyond us. In religion the transcendent is often personified as a Supreme Being or Deity –and finds expression in a shared belief system (Creed), common rituals (Cult), and generally accepted norms of behaviour (Code). These are popularly known as the three C’s of classical religions.

Spirituality, unlike religion, is a personal experience of the transcendent, not necessarily mediated by social or religious institutions – through the 3 C’s. This personal experience can be had within and without religious traditions. Thus, we can have a profound experience of the transcendent when we worship together in church, temple or mosque. However, we can also have a profound experience of the transcendent through music and dance, in the beauty of nature, at the seashore or mountain top, or the intimacy of a love relationship, and in any moment of ordinary life.

Spirituality unlike religion, is a very broad concept. It involves everything that enhances the sense of the sacred. True spirituality enables us to be in touch with and feel connected with the divine that is present in our everyday life, and is not limited just to religious worship or practices. When we are spiritual, this sense of the sacred and of the divine permeates the whole of our life, and manifests in the way we live and relate.

For introspection

·         Do you see both psychology and spirituality having much that is common? Or do you see the two are quite separate?

·         How do you feel about the distinction made between spirituality and religion? Are you more of a spiritual person than a religious person?

 

Prayer

Spirituality is best expressed in relationships. The sacred takes on flesh and blood in communion, both with the divine, with one another. We know that God wants to have a personal relationship with each of us. Jesus, for example, invites us to abide in him. In Chapter 15, 1-15 of John’s Gospel, Jesus uses the metaphor of the wine and the branches, inviting us to deep union with him, and to love one another just as he loves us. We could read this beautiful passage, stay with whatever it evokes in us and express our desire to abide deeply in him and grow in love of him and one another.

Have a pleasant weekend. Be well. Be safe. Blessed.

Thank you for listening.

Pictures: Courtesy Google Images

 Jose Parappully SDB, PhD

sumedhacentre@gmail.com

Psyche & Soul 19 COVID – 19: A TIME OF MASSIVE DISRUPTION

 Podcast link:

https://anchor.fm/boscom/episodes/2-19-Psyche--Soul--45-em422p

 Hello, this is Jose Parappully, Salesian priest and clinical psychologist at Sumedha Centre for Psychospritual Wellbeing at Jeolikote, Uttarakhand, with another edition of Psyche & Soul.

This weekend we shall reflect on the Covid-1- disruptions and their impact on health and happiness…

 We are currently living through perhaps the worst crisis the global community has faced in the last 100 years, since the Spanish flu of 1918. Covid-19 has disrupted life on a massive scale.

 I characterize this time with three phrases: a time of unsettling disruption, a transformative time and a time for community and compassion.

 A TIME OF UNSETTLING DISRUPTION

The world as we knew it has disappeared. Established order has been replaced by unpredictability. Securities by uncertainty. Faith by doubt. These lead to a number of debilitating emotions – anxiety, fear, hopelessness. Covid-19 has exposed our vulnerabilities and revealed the fragility of life. We have witnessed the death of dear ones and colleagues. We ourselves live in dread of falling a prey to it. The pandemic has stripped away our illusions of safety and control.  We are living in a time of unsettling disruption of life.

 Unsettling Health Crisis

The disease itself has been very unsettling, not only for infected persons, but for most people. We are only gradually discovering the extent of harm the disease causes. And the scenario is alarming.

Covid-19 has transformed itself from a respiratory illness to a multi-systemic disease. It has caused cardiovascular and neurological problems and these are predicted to remain long after the supposed recovery. About one fifth of hospitalized Covid-19 patients have damage to their hearts, even if they never had cardiac issues before.

Neurological complications range from inflammation of the central nervous system, brain disease with delirium or psychosis, strokes and peripheral nerve problems.

The virus could leave a minority of the population with subtle brain damage that only becomes apparent in years to come.

There is also evidence that patients who recover from coronavirus infections may lose their immunity to reinfection within months. In one study, ninety days after treatment no detectable antibodies were in the bloodstream of most of the recovered patients.

Self-isolation, quarantine, lockdown, and loss of livelihoods have led to an increase in mental illness. Loneliness, anxiety, depression, insomnia, alcohol and drug abuse, and suicidal behavior, as also domestic violence, have increased.

 Unsettling Economic Crisis

Covid-19 has had a devastating impact on the global economy that is predicted to continue for years. The UN Trade and Development Report 2020 has forecast that 90 to 120 million people will be pushed into extreme poverty in the developing world, with close to 300 million facing food insecurity. In India, crores of people, especially daily wagers lost their jobs and many are still unemployed. Many small businesses have closed down. The World Bank and rating agencies have have forecast a deep recession, predicted to be India's worst since independence.

 Unsettling Ethical Crisis

The lack of medical equipment to treat the infected threw up unsettling ethical and moral challenges. We heard disturbing reports about medical professionals and families having to make difficult and painful decisions as to who gets to be saved, who was dispensable and could be left to die. We have seen images of total disregard for the dignity of people in death, the callous manner in which dead bodies have been disposed of.

 While we hear of inspiring stories of courage and generosity we also hear disturbing stories of exploitation and callousness – unscrupulous and greedy people placing profit before public health, hoarding precious medical equipment and supplies or inflating prices making them unaffordable, leading to loss of lives.

 We saw the height of selfishness - panic buying in which those who could afford emptied the store shelves of essential commodities to stock their kitchen cupboards with months of supplies depriving others of daily necessities.

 Medical personnel who place their life on line daily at great sacrifice, have been ostracized and forced to stay away from their families and communities for fear they would be the carriers of the virus, and even harassed and attacked. Stigmatization, exclusion and harassment have also been experienced by people infected or suspected of having the virus.

Unsettling Social Crisis

Social distancing, a misnomer, has changed the way we relate to one another. Our social ties are fragmented. Social connections and gatherings that used to provide comfort, e and stress release and rejuvenation, have been severely restricted. Number of people permitted at common worship, which provides us solace, comfort and support, is also severely limited.

 Marriages are under severe strain.  The lack of private time, time outside the home, and inability to see friends have caused tension in many marriages, driving people to seek extramarital affairs.  It is predicted that as the pandemic abates, rate of divorce as well as extramarital affairs is going to rise further.

 Children are deprived of in-person schooling. This will have a very negative impact not only on their intellectual development, but also on their social and emotional growth.

 Covid-19 also laid bare the depth of structural iniquity that characterises our society. The lockdown enabled one class of people to luxuriate in the comfort of their home, passing time in superficial ways of entertaining themselves, their shelves overflowing with comfort foods, while another was trudging along the highways, feet bleeding, bundles on their heads, babies at their hips, facing police harassment to boot, seeking food and shelter – struggling to survive. Haunting pictures of deprivation and death on the road have seared into our collective memory.

 Unsettling Spiritual Crisis

The pandemic has thrown many of us in to a spiritual crisis. Our faith is shaken.  We are forced to ask some very fundamental existential questions. Is there a God? What kind of a God would permit this catastrophe? Does God really care? Do our prayers have any value? The dogmas and doctrines of institutional religion are failing and our own prayers and devotion don’t seem to offer comfort or consolation.

 A Bleak Future?

What is further disconcerting and disorienting is the news that the researchers have predicted that every three years we are going to face a new pandemic, worse than the present one – all related to climate change -- which is going to create a permanent state of disruption and uncertainty. Worst of times is going to be prolonged, may be permanent.

 For Introspection

·         As you look back over the period of Covid-19, what are the disruptions you have personally experienced and are continuing to experience?

·         What has been the impact of these on you? How are you coping with these?

·         Do any of the disruptions described in this column particularly unsettle you, disturb you? Which? Why and How?

 Prayer

There is story in the biblical Book of Genesis where the patriarch Jacob wrestles with God all through the night. May be you are also wrestling with God about the Covid-disruptions. You could read the passage (Genesis Chapter 32, 24-32) and stay with whatever the story evokes in you in the context of Covid 19 disruptions and spend some time in prayer, talking to God and listening to God..

Pictures: courtesy Google Images

FR JOSE PARAPPULLY SDB

sumedhaccentre@gmail.com

 

Psyche & Soul 9 - LIVING WITH MEANING AND PURPOSE

 Podcast Link:

https://anchor.fm/boscom/episodes/2-9-Psyche--Soul---LIVING-WITH-MEANING-AND-PURPOSE-25-eip7u8

“I don’t find any meaning in my life. I wonder why I am living like this. Just dragging myself on from day to day. Sometime I wish I were dead” so said the 28-year old Sunita during a personal meeting with me at a seminar.

Sunita is not the only one who feels this way. There are many like her who find it difficult to experience a sense of meaning and purpose in life. Quite a few of these persons gradually sink into clinical depression and sometimes think of ending their life and even attempt to do so. This is very much true during these days of the Covid-19 lockdown, when things that gave meaning to one’s life may no longer be available.

 

Recent research on health and happiness show that a sense of meaning in life is one of the major contributors to emotional and physical wellbeing. Emotionally healthy persons find life a meaningful adventure. They have something that gives meaning and significance to their life, such as an ideology, a dream, a commitment. According to the pioneering personality psychologist, Gordon Allport, “one of the key challenges to maturity is to invest daily life with meaning—to find or create opportunities to make our lives matter”

Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychologist who has researched happiness and wellbeing for over 25 years observes in her book “The How of Happiness” that having goals in and of themselves is strongly associated with health and happiness. Persons working toward a personally significant goal are far happier than those who do not have such dreams or aspirations. Having goals gives us a feeling of control over our lives and bolsters our self-esteem. It directly influences our physical and mental health. 

When we do not find purpose and meaningfulness, we become vulnerable to the onslaughts of ill-health, both physical and mental. However, when we have these, we can triumph over any tragedy. Viktor Frankl, a survivor of the horrors of the concentration camp at Auschwitz, has built up a whole philosophy around meaningfulness. What helped him to escape alive from Auschwitz, while almost all of his fellow inmates perished, was a dream he cherished: his determination to be with his wife again. While the others lost hope, his dream sustained him and enabled him to survive. A central message in his later writings is a quote from Nietzsche” “If you have a WHY to live for, you can live any HOW.” In other words, if we have meaning and purpose, something to live for, then we will face and triumph over any adversity. As the popular song “The Impossible Dream” from the musical “Man of La Mancha” says it: we can “march through hell for a heavenly cause.”  

Trauma and tragedy are part of the human condition. Those who have something to live for will find it much easier to triumph over these. They will be able not only to makes sense of these, but also create something beautiful out of them. Great artists were able to triumph over the tragedies that befell them, because their passion for their art sustained them. These artists have created some of their most appreciated masterpieces in the midst of great suffering. There is, for example, great poignancy and sensitivity in Beethoven’s String Quartets composed during the years of intense pain and anguish.

One research on bereaved parents found that one of the processes that helped parents whose children were murdered to heal from their trauma was making sense of the tragedy that had befallen them. Creating meaning out of the tragedy was for them a transformational experience. Many of these parents would go on to set up foundations in memory of their loved ones that would benefit a large number of parents who have lost a son or daughter, as well as society at large. This reaching out was one way they were able restore meaning and purpose that had been destroyed by the tragic event.

According to personality psychologist Dan McAdams, two dynamics contribute significantly to finding meaning and purpose, especially after misfortune: a) transform or redeem bad events into good outcomes, and (b) set goals for the future that benefit society.

Reaching out to others, making others’ lives significant is one of the major ways that we can bring meaningfulness into our own lives. This is something that we can do even during these days of the Covid lockdown.

We could now take a few moments to ask ourselves: What gives meaning and purpose to my life? ….. If I am experiencing meaninglessness at this time, what is it I can do to create meaning and purpose?

There is a scene in the Gospel of John at the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry where two disciples of John the Baptist are walking behind Jesus. After a while, Jesus turns back toward them and asks them: “What do you want?” That is a question that each of us needs to answer from time to time. We could now imagine that scene, place ourselves in the place of the disciples and tell Jesus what we are looking for. We could listen to what he tells us in response and spend a few minutes in his company.

 …… Have a pleasant weekend. Be well. Be safe. Be blessed.

Jose Parappully PhD

Pictures: Courtesy Google Images

Psyche & Soul 8-NEED FULFILMENT AND EMOTIONAL MATURATION

 Podcast link:

https://anchor.fm/boscom/episodes/2-8-Psyche--Soul---NEED-FULFILLMENT-AND-EMOTIONAL-MATURATION-23-eievct

 Hello, this is Jose Parappully, Salesian priest and clinical psychologist at Sumedha centre, Jeolikote, with another edition of Psyche & Soul.

This weekend we shall look at some basic needs that have to be satisfied for us to experience emotional maturation and wellbeing.

We Are All Needy!

All of us – infants, children, adolescents and adults - are needy! Needy for food, needy for rest, needy for attention, needy for appreciation, needy for love … and so on.

When our need is fulfilled, we feel happy and we spread happiness around. Just think of an infant that has been breastfed – and the blissful face of satisfaction and contentment that results. And how that bliss becomes infectious, bringing happiness to the mother and the others around.

Our happiness depends, among other important contributors, to need fulfilment. A fundamental principle in psychology is that “All behaviour is need-driven!” In other words, we behave in a particular way - whether that behaviour is good, bad, beautiful or ugly - because we have a need that we want to satisfy.

The various theories of development that we have explored in the previous columns – Eriksonian, Self Psychology, and Attachment -- describe the healthy ways to fulfil these needs and what happens when we are able or not able to fulfil them.

Basic Emotional Needs

Many of us would be familiar with Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs – represented by the famous triangle, at the wide base of which is survival needs for food, shelter and clothing and at the narrow top the self-actualization needs. Maslow refers to all human needs.

In this podcast we shall focus only on our emotional or psychological needs. Psychologists have been trying to short list the basic psychological needs. One such short list is the one proposed by Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, who formulated what is known as “Self-Determination Theory.”

According the Ryan and Deci there are three basic emotional needs. When these are satisfied we grow up healthy, are driven by intrinsic motivation, and experience a sense of well-being. When these are not realized our emotional development is stunted, motivation diminished and our happiness compromised. 

Which are these basic emotional needs?

1) Relatedness: the need for belongingness and connectedness, to feel accepted and loved; 2) Competence: the need to have a sense of self-efficacy, to feel that we are capable achieving desired results, to feel confident that we can be successful and effective in what we set out to do; and 3) Autonomy: the freedom to give direction to our lives, to make choices or have a say on matters that affect our lives. These basic needs must be satisfied, not only in childhood, but across the life span for us to experience an ongoing sense well-being

Basic Needs and Intrinsic Motivation

One major dynamics that we need to keep in mind in understanding emotional maturation is motivation. Success in life as well as satisfaction in life is built on what is called intrinsic motivation which refers to doing an activity for the inherent satisfaction of the activity itself, that is, when we are motivated by the value of an activity or by an abiding personal interest in it. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is at work when an activity is undertaken to attain some expected or promised external rewards contingent on compliance or task performance.

Thus, in the school setting, intrinsic motivation is involved when one studies because one is really interested in the subject. Extrinsic motivation is involved when one studies because of the benefits it may bring.

The basic needs of relatedness, competence and autonomy are all involved in fostering intrinsic motivation.

A secure, supportive relational base is essential for developing intrinsic motivation For example, when children engaged in a task are ignored by their caretakers (when there is no mirroring) they are observed to have low intrinsic motivation and their achievement level is lowered. When students experience their teachers as cold and uncaring, intrinsic motivation is reduced. Thus, high quality performance seems to require the presence of appreciative and encouraging mirroring figures.

Opportunities for choice, initiative, creativity and experimentation, so very necessary to build competence, also enhance intrinsic motivation because these provide us a greater feeling of autonomy. Thus, when, both children and adults are given freedom to organize their activities the way they would like to, they are more intrinsically motivated and show greater interest and creativity.

Research has shown that teachers who support autonomy generate in their students greater intrinsic motivation, curiosity, and desire to face and overcome challenges. On the contrary, students who are taught with a more controlling approach not only lose initiative, but learn less effectively. Parents who support autonomy, compared to controlling parents, have children who are more intrinsically motivated.

In regard to adults, autonomy basically means the capacity to make one’s own decisions without undue pressure or fear. It supposes a setting where thinking and personal responsibility are not stifled or just tolerated, but encouraged.

A Facilitative Environment

An important point to note here is that what matters more than someone helping us to meet these basic needs is whether the environment in which we find ourselves is one that facilitates or thwarts the fulfilment of these needs. An environment that encourages relatedness, competence and autonomy facilitates healthy emotional development. On the other hand, an environment characterized by lack of connectedness, excessive control, non-optimal challenges, disrupt our inherent growth potentials, curb our initiative and lead to distress and psychopathology.

So if we are to grow emotionally healthy as well achieve our potential for growth and high quality performance we need environments that foster the fulfillment of these basic emotional needs. And if we want others to experience the same, we need to create from them such an environment.

Quiet Time

We could take a few moments to consider if our needs for relatedness, autonomy and competence are being met or not. We could also consider how we are helping those around us to meet these needs.

…..

We know that our God is very interested in our emotional wellbeing, our health and happiness. God wants jus to experience relatedness, become competent. God respects our freedom to make choices by giving us free will. God wants us to make choices that lead to health and happiness. But God does not force us.

We could stay for a while with the memories and feelings this reflection is evoking is us and talk to this God about our experiences and desires and longings related to these basic emotional needs for relatedness, competence and autonomy.

Have a pleasant weekend where you experience enhanced relatedness, competence and autonomy. Be well, be safe, be blessed.

Psyche Soul - 7 COPING WITH STRESS AND ANXIETY DURING COVID – Physical, Mental and Spiritual Strategies

 Podcast link:

https://anchor.fm/boscom/episodes/2-7-Psyche--Soul---COPING-WITH-STRESS-AND-ANXIETY-DURING-COVID--Physical--Mental-and-Spiritual-strategies-21-ei4v6b

 Hello, This is Jose Parappully, Salesian priest and clinical psychologist at Sumedha centre, Jeolikote with another edition of Psyche and Soul.

Last weekend we focused on self-care during Covid 19. This weekend we shall focus specifically on the stress and anxiety related to Covid, and the physical, mental and spiritual strategies that can help us cope with them.

With the growing data emerging on the lasting physical, mental and emotional consequences of Covid, it is likely that our stress and anxiety levels would be rising higher and higher. The prolonged exposure to stress arising from the crisis is likely to have insidious long‐term health effects including increased risk of physical (e.g., respiratory, cardio-vascular, neurological, reproductive) and mental (e.g., depression, anxiety and post‐traumatic stress, impaired cognitive function) disorders. These effects are likely to remain long after the pandemic ends and the lockdown measures lifted.

At the core of all these conditions lies elements of one of the most basic and primal human emotions--fear. In the case of the COVID pandemic, this fear is inextricably tied to feelings of helplessness and the loss of a fundamental sense of safety, security, financial stability, and the ability to envision a brighter future. Fear of infection in the presence of others, of contact with contaminated surfaces, and of passing too close to another human being evokes an increasingly familiar mistrust of others, avoidance, and withdrawal from everyday activities, thereby shrinking and constraining opportunities for essential human contact and social support, vitally necessary for adaptive functioning. All this leads to increasing levels of stress and anxiety.

There are specific physical, mental and spiritual strategies we can use to cope with this rising stress and anxiety.

 Physical Approach

 

Healing Through Breath

From ancient times breath has been used as a powerful tool for calming oneself. Doing some mindful (slow, focused) breathing affects our parasympathetic nervous system and calms us down and makes us feel more in control.

Abdominal, deep breathing is especially helpful. We take in the breath through our nostrils, hold it for a few seconds, and breathe out through our mouth. Make the exhale, that is, out-breath much longer than the inhale, the in-breath. Pay attention to the pause between the exhale and the inhale. Try to empty out the breath completely in the exhalation before inhaling again. Rounding our lips to create very small opening through which to exhale makes the exercise even more beneficial. After a while notice how the breathing is affecting our body and mind. Stay for a while with whatever we are experiencing.

 This form of breathing can be done often particular when we are feeling overwhelmed.

Mental Approach

Cognitive Reframing

Our beliefs about Covid and its effects play an important role on our capacity to cope effectively with stress and mitigate its maladaptive outcomes. Many models of stress suggest that stress appraisals and mindsets are central to determining whether our responses to stressors are adaptive or maladaptive. When we appraise the stress situation as challenging, that is, offering opportunities for growth, as opposed to threatening, we are able to cope more effectively. This approach is particularly effective in contexts where the source of stress cannot be avoided, as in the case of Covid. So, reframing our beliefs and attitudes, seeing opportunities in the Covid pandemic rather than dangers, will reduce our stress levels and help us cope better.

Are you experiencing the Covid situation as threatening or challenging? What opportunities can you find in the Covid lockdown?

 Spiritual Approaches

 

Healing Through Meditation and Prayer

Meditation and contemplative prayer have a calming effect on us and can heal us. The simplest and easiest, and yet a very effective form of meditation, is to simply sit quietly and focus on our breath. We don’t need to do any kind of deep or slow breathing. Simply be aware of our breath and the breath will do what it needs to do. When our mind wanders away from the focus on breath we gently return to it and keep returning. This will calm us down, relax and refresh us. Doing it even for short spells during the day, will reduce our anxieties and depressive feelings.

 

We can also turn this simple meditation into a prayer. Instead of focusing on our breath, we focus on the Divine (whichever way we understand it) dwelling within us. We simply sit in the loving awareness of this Divine presence within us. When our mind wanders away, we gently return to the loving awareness of the Divine within us, and keep doing this over and over again as distractions are inevitable. Thinking  of a simple monosyllabic word that has for us some association to the Divine (like the name we give it, or words like love, joy, peace etc.) can serve as a vehicle that takes us back into the loving awareness of the Divine. The deep relaxation this attention creates combined with the experience of the unconditionally loving divine presence, can activate healing mechanisms within us.

 

Loving Kindness Meditation

Loving Kindness Meditation is a technique used to increase feelings of warmth and caring for self and others. It consists of turning positive emotions (e.g., love, warmth, compassion) towards oneself, loved ones, other humans, and ultimately to all living beings. During Loving Kindness Meditation, we sit quietly with eyes closed, focus on our heart, think about a person who loves us very much being near us and experience that person’s love filling our heart with warmth. We now think of more and more such loving people around us sending us love and warmth. We feel our heart filling and overflowing with this love. We now send this love to people whom we know and love, and gradually to people all over the world and then to all living creatures in the universe, wishing them health, happiness and wellbeing. We remain in this experience of receiving and giving love for a while, and take a few slow breaths before we open our eyes.

Doing the Loving Kindness Meditation, even for short periods, is a useful tool during the COVID pandemic and other stressful times because of its many psychological and spiritual benefits. It relieves self-pity, sooths fear and anxiety, reduces depression, dissolves anger, and negates feelings of isolation and aloneness in coping with adversity. It enhances positive emotions such as love, warmth, empathy, joy, gratitude, hope and positive feelings toward others. Loving Kindness Meditation enables us to remain calm and peaceful not only when we engage in it, but throughout the day. The overall effect is increase in our emotional wellbeing and overall life satisfaction.

These physical, mental and spiritual strategies have been practised by Jesus of Nazareth in his healing ministry. He reached out and touched people, he breathed on them wishing them peace. He invited people to reframe their beliefs and attitudes. He loved people and invited them to abide in his love as he abides in his Father’s love. He exhorted them to reach out in love to others just as he reached out to them in love….

Whether we practise the healing tools presented in this podcast or not, we can focus on the presence of this loving and compassionate Jesus with us, reaching out to us in love, embracing us warmly and filling our heart with love and compassion. We can then visualize ourselves reaching out to others with love and compassion, thus filling the universe with healing energies, which can also positively affect those infected by Covid and bring them healing and peace…..

Have a pleasant and love-filled weekend. Bye for now.

Jose Parappully, PhD