Course Summary - Personal Statement Example

28th Nov., The Following is What I Have Learnt from the Sapp 407 SEM Comp Approach TX. One of theimportant lessons that I have learnt in this course is the importance of right attitude in healing. Overcoming the negative attitudes (negative blocks) that we have, and developing positive, life-affirming attitude is crucial in the healing process. In healing people, therefore, examining their overall life pattern with the intention of helping them to overcome their negative feelings like, hatred, jealousy, and envy is quite important. I have learnt that some chronic illness like cancer is caused by negative attitudes, and healing such illness, therefore, requires that we help the sick person to develop positive attitudes in life. I have also learnt that remaining happy in life can protect one from many kind of diseases. In this course I have also learnt that spirituality is an important element in healing drug addicts. Although addiction is primarily a psychological, social, and medical problem, it is also a spiritual problem. This is because some forms of addictions can be caused by false religious beliefs; misrepresentations of some important religious tenets such as God, Sin, and Grace can lead to some forms of addictions, or prevent people from seeking spiritual solutions to their addiction problems. For instance, misrepresentation of sin can make addicts afraid of seeking spiritual solution to their addiction problems because they are afraid of being judged wrongly by the society. For that reason, holistic addiction healing program should involve spiritual approach to the addiction problem. In this course, I have also learnt that coincidences may not be merely happenstance occurrences as many people believe. Coincidences may actually be a pointer to a reality that we do not know. That is why some scientists are of the view that coincidences are windows into a world where thought can change reality. This issue, however, is quite controversial, some scientists view coincidences as mere happenstance that obeys the law of probability. Despite this controversy, however, I have learnt to look at coincidences critically as something that may be a pointer to something else. Another important lesson that I have learnt in this course is on the difference between the terms synchronicity and synchronism. Synchronicity simply refers to the simultaneous occurrence of two meaningfully related, but causally unrelated events. Synchronism, on the other hand, refers to the simultaneous occurrence of two things which are not meaningfully or causally related. Both synchronicity and synchronism refers to different forms of coincidence. Understanding the difference between the two forms of coincidence is quite important in investigating the phenomenon of coincidence. Synchronicity is the form of coincidence that the scientists and the psychologists are interested in. The other important lesson that I have learnt in this course is on the importance of laughter in psychotherapy. I have learnt that discrete use of humour promotes therapeutic healing. Humour taps and channels human emotions into positive effect, thus aiding in the process of therapeutic healing. Humour boosts immune system, increasing natural disease-fighting killer cells and lowering blood pressure. Laughing also helps the patient to gain a new perspective about his/her condition that is troubling him/her. Humour is also diagnostic, i.e. it can help the psychotherapist to know the difficulties that their patients are going through. Humour, therefore, is an important adjunct to therapy; humour, however, is not a therapy but a complimentary treatment. In psychotherapy, humour should be used discretely because it isn’t effective for all patients; for instance, humour isn’t effective for the patients who are emotionally tensed up. For that reason, the use of humour in psychotherapy should not be advocated as an adjunct therapeutic method for all patients. In this course, I have also learnt the reason why humour aimed at crisis situations is received negatively by those in the crisis, and positively by those who are not in the crisis. The reason for this difference in the reception of humour lies in the fact that those closest to the crisis integrate the crisis into their internal emotional being. For that reason, the people closest to the crisis perceive humour aimed at the crisis as being aimed directly to them. Consequently, people in crisis are offended by the humour aimed at the crisis for they perceive the humour as being insensitive and flippant. On the other hand, the people with some distance from the crisis do not merge the crisis with their emotional state, for this reason, they interpret humour aimed at the crisis situations in the positive way, and they gain new perspective into the crisis from the humour. As time passes, however, and distance is gained between the crisis and those close to the crisis, those who once regarded the humour aimed at the crisis as offensive will start viewing the humour in a positive manner, and hence learn from the humour. Humour in crisis situations helps to provide perspective and to help us deal with the emotional turmoil. In this course I have also learnt that it is possible to train people to laugh. Due to the therapeutic value of laughter, many laughter clubs, over 200 clubs, have been started in USA, dedicated exclusively to training and helping people to laugh. Kataria, a physician from Mumbai in India is the founder of the Laughter Yoga, a movement dedicated to helping people laugh so as to remain healthy and to avoid many health problems related to emotional depression/stress. Kataria’s laughter movement has over 5000 laughter clubs worldwide. In this course, I have also learnt how laughing heals. Laughing changes a person’s chemistry, physiology, and enhances one’s chances of experiencing happiness. According to William Fry, a psychiatrist at Stanford University, laughing increases blood circulation, stimulates the immune system, exercises the muscles, and invigorates the brain. According to Kataria, the founder of Yoga Laughter, laughter prepares the body and the mind for happiness. I have also learnt in this course that there are two sources of laughter, i.e. the mind and the body. Adults laugh from the mind, after evaluating and judging what is funny, while children laugh from the body. Yoga laughter is aimed at cultivating a person’s childlike playfulness. Another important lesson that I have learnt in this course is on the immense power of the human mind. Contrary to what many people believe, reason is not the only function of the human mind. The human mind has the capability of developing the quality of awareness that is distinct from the rational element of the human mind. To develop the quality of awareness, we need to renunciate some corporal pleasures that inhibit our minds from this power of awareness. The awareness power of the mind helps us other people at an extra-ordinary level. The mental power of awareness involves a greater inner calm, sharper concentration, deeper intuitive understanding, and an increased ability to hear the hearts of other people. Developing the mental power of awareness, therefore, is quite important in helping other people who are in various kinds of needs. The best way to develop the mental power of awareness is through mediation coupled with austere lifestyle. Meditation helps us to prevent our minds from wandering around, and to concentrate on one particular thing. In meditation, we are required to have discipline and to let go all our thoughts that are preventing our minds from concentrating on one thing. Meditation, therefore, is not easy, but with discipline and commitment we will ultimately be able to concentrate and to develop the mental power of awareness. In this course, I have also learnt the importance of self-discovery and self-healing. As a healer, physician or psychotherapist, helping the patient to honestly and truthfully self-discover is very important in the process of healing. I have learnt that self-discovery among the patients helps the patient to start the process of self-healing; self-healing is the best and the permanent form of healing. In the process of self-discovery, the main responsibility of a therapist is to help the patient to develop a truer and more correct self-image; the therapist should ensure that there is a close correspondence between the patient’s self-image and the reality or the truth of what the patient is. The process of self-healing starts once the patient has discovered themselves fully. In this course, I have also learnt the reality of Shaman and Shamanism. One of the meaning of Sharman is given by Mircea Eliade. According to Eliade, A Sharman is person who “journeys” in an altered state of consciousness, usually induced by such things as rhythmic drumming, percussion sound, or psychoactive drugs ?(Harner, 7). The journey that a Shaman undertakes is a spiritual “journey” and not a physical one. A Shaman undertakes a “journey” for a number of reasons which are aimed at helping the members of the community. Some of the reasons why a Shaman may undertake a “journey” include diagnosing or treating illness, for divination or prophecy, to acquire spiritual power through interacting with the spirits, to establish contact with the guides or teachers in the spiritual reality, or to contact the spirits of the dead people. Shamanism, however, should not be confused with the trance. In trance, the spirit takes control of a person’s consciousness, while in Shamanism, a person retains his control and consciousness throughout the spiritual journey. A Shaman, therefore, is simply a person, who journeys to the spiritual world to seek out the spirits, and he remains in control throughout the period that he stays in the spiritual world. I have also learnt that Shamans are different from medicine men and medicine women; although, of course, some shamans are medicine men and medicine women, there are many shamans who do not practice medicine. Work Cited Harner, M. “ What is a Shaman?”. 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