Blog #2-Chris A-Source Summaries

"Believing and having faith in a religion helps add meaning to your life." 

                                                                              -Chris Armendariz

                                                                          

Spirituality and Openness: 

This article is by Rabbi Shapiro and he talks about how to enhance your minds openness to other things that surround you and just how to be more open minded as a person. He states that "an open minded person is curious about the world. When being open minded, comes many crazy creative ideas. Shapiro attacks these ideas by asking, "Does this idea make me more just and compassionate? Rather than, Is this idea true or false?" If an idea can be an addition to one's capacity to act "just and kindly" then the idea is considered worth entertaining. If the idea does otherwise it is considered better off left alone according to Rabbi Shapiro. 

Where is your peaceful place?

This article had me think deeper about how being open-minded throughout a day can lead to some pretty crazy ideas. Not to be judgmental of others is an attractive aspect that everyone should possess in order to live a satisfactory life. With an open mind, you are saying to the world, here I am world, now show me what you've got to offer! You are hospitable to your surroundings and humble through conversation. I appreciated reading Mr. Shapiro's article and hope that you got a better insight on why being open human being is an important factor in life.

Google Scholar: 

This article focuses on how Spirituality can serve as an aid to one's mental health. Spirituality practices can be a form of medical practice, for "there is a positive correlation between a patient's spirituality or religious commitment and health outcomes." A first step to take when dealing with someones medical illness, is through this tool called HOPE. These so called HOPE questions help the individual get in touch more with their spirit and inner self. H---sources of hope, strength, comfort, meaning, peace, love and connection; O---the role of organized religion for the patient; P---personal spirituality and practices; E---effects on medical care and end-of-life decisions. 

When looking deeper at the statistics from this article,I found that 95% of Americans believe in God and that up to 77% of patients believe that their physicians should take in consideration their spiritual needs. My favorite part of this article were the effects of the relaxation response and meditation on health results. There are two steps to consider for the relaxation response: 

1. Repeating a phrase, word, or muscular activity. 
2. "passively disregarding any obtrusive thoughts that come to mind and returning to the repetition."

If you practice these two on a day to day basis you will find a significant psychologically throughout the day, and these two steps can be used for certain medical conditions. It is stated that, "One quarter of the patients described a feeling of increased spirituality as a result of practicing the technique." Those who did not partake in this Relaxation Response were more likely to have worse medical outcomes than those that did partake in this Relaxation Response. A few physiologic effects of the Relaxation Response are:

1. Decreased rate of breathing
2. Decreased muscle tension
3. Increased slow brain waves

This article was beneficial for me because it provided me with clear terms to comprehend as well as a good insight as to how spiritual practices can enhance ones medical condition. I would recommend Google Scholar as an Academic source most definitely. There is a difference between spirituality and religion and a lot people get these two terms confused. Spirituality is a complex part of the human experience. Spirituality has to deal with the fact of finding meaning, truth, and purpose in your life, that search for explanation to make you life meaningful to you. It also has to deal with feelings of love, hope, and any connections regarding your inner peace and body comfort level. The last aspect that spirituality deals with how the person shows externally their spiritual beliefs. (i.e. meditation) Now moving on to religion, many people find their spirituality through religion. Each religion helps to answer, unravel, and reveal questions posed by the individual through its own creative unique way. 

I don't know if it just me, but this video had me feeling like I was literally in another world. I felt very relaxed and almost "high" from the sound and images combined. I liked to watch the images and listen to the sound because it allowed me to zone out and try not to let any thoughts come in but the bliss sound. Good ways to practice meditation can simply be by just sitting or laying there in silence and not let any thoughts travel through your mind. What helps is focusing on phrase or image or word because by doing so, your mind is only focused on one thing only instead of a lot of random flowing thoughts. I believe that if you "train" your mind mentally that you can be able to do experience certain euphoric moments in life that other may not get to; People that don't care to chance their lifestyle.  . .