RUNNING HEAD: SPIRITUAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL INVENTORY

Spiritual and Psychological Inventory

James Keaton
Kaplan University
HW420: Creating Wellness: Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Healing

SPIRITUAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL INVENTORY

As we walk around each and everyday, most people do not think about their spiritual or
psychological wellness. We are so focused on the here and now that we rarely take the time to
explore our inner self. Below is a list of questions to help someone gain a better understanding of
their spiritual and psychological.
When we speak of spirituality, we dont always speak of a higher power or some
religious person.

Do you consider yourself to be a spiritual person, and if so, what do you believe in?

Asking this question will allow you get to know what the person knows about spirituality and the
mind, body, and spirit concept. A lot of individuals have no idea what you are talking about when
you mention their mind, body, and spirit. Most react by saying yes, I attend some type of
religious services, or no, I dont go to church or believe in a higher power or a divine being.

Do you have an understanding of the concept of spiritual wellness? What about

Psychological wellness?

Spiritual wellness is our personal beliefs and values that give us purpose, and a meaning to life,
or a better understanding of it. Psychological wellness is pertaining to the wellness of the mind
whether we are happy, or if we are satisfied with our life choices

Psychological wellness is pertaining to the wellness of the mind. Do you understand that
meditation can be beneficial in helping you to gain a better understanding of your inner
self, and when done properly can help obtain an inner peace?

When people think of meditation, they imagine Buddhist Monks hitting their gongs and chanting
prayers while burning incense. There are many forms of meditation such as, Primordial Sound
Meditation, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Zen, Kundalini Yoga, and many more. The
trick is to find one that works best for you. In order to be successful, meditation needs to be

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simple, comfortable, and have results that make you to keep showing up everyday. (Lechner
2015)

Have you ever had a profound spiritual experience? If so, are you willing to discuss how
it affected your life?

When some people have experiences that they cannot explain, they will tend to ignore them or
suppress them because they feel that if they were to tell someone then they would be labeled as
crazy or weird.

How can spiritual wellness help you improve your personal life? Your professional life?

This question will help them establish some type of plan or goals in their lives to on a spiritual
level.

When your mind becomes cluttered with thoughts and problems that plaque you and
make it impossible for you concentrate, what method(s) do you use to help you clear your
mind?

Ask to see if they ever just take time out to sit and clear their mind, or if they just seem to be
constantly in motion, never taking time to decompress or unwind.

Do you believe in prayer? If yes, how does if help you?

When some people pray, they pray just because that was how they were raised, never really
realizing that this is a very intimate moment with God and with yourself. Some ask for instant
wealth, self-gratifying, or materialistic things and never really understand the true meaning.

When you become angry, how do the mind-body-spirit connection help you resolve those
issues? Do those issues go unresolved?

Most humans, when they become angry with someone or something, will tend to hang on to that
anger, never really realizing what harm they are doing to themselves. Even though anger is an

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emotion, it can manifest itself into a physical ailments such as tingling sensations, heart
palpitations/tightening of the chest, increased blood pressure, headaches, pressure in the head,
sinus cavities, fatigue, or a combination of them. (PsychGuides.com 2015)

How hard is it for you to forgive someone?

A lot of people find it very hard to forgive. They see forgiving someone as himself or herself
being at fault, or the one who caused the problem in the first place. Forgiveness is about you
releasing the other parties control over you and giving you a peace of mind. It is never about, but
all to do with you.

After discussing the mind-body-spirit connection, what type of person do you see
yourself becoming?

Now that they have familiarized with this concept, hopefully they can see themselves in a
different light and see things around them in a more positive way.
The person that I chose to interview for this assignment was my daughter. I was
somewhat shocked at the findings after I interviewed her. She says that she is a spiritual person,
does believe in a divine power, and sees herself as begin spiritual also in a non-religious way.
She prays when it is convenient for her and states that she doesnt really understand the power
of prayer. Hopefully as she grows older and more mature, she will come to understand things a
lot better. She stated that she has had spiritual experiences, but at the time, she thought them to
be insignificant, and could not recall them. When we discussed meditation, she stated that, she
doesnt meditate, but she would love to be able to master one of the techniques of meditation.
Also, since her days are full of the stress of going to school full time, and trying to maintain a
home life, it has left her little time to practice trying meditation.

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She has a does have anger issues and finds it very hard to let go. We talked about the
health issues that can manifest from the pinned up anger. She says that she realizes that her anger
issues can and does causes her some issues, but she just does not know how to let them go. These
anger issues go hand in hand with her problem of finding in her heart to forgive. As we discussed
her inability to forgive, it made her realize that this was an issue that she never knew she had.
Explained to her just how important meditation could be to help her conquer these issues, and the
many benefits of meditation. You cannot help but to realize just how important meditation is to
the spirit, even science is getting on board. It increases wisdom and gives you perspective,
decreases anxiety, stress and depression; it increases your happiness and health by increasing
positive emotions, increase life satisfaction, boost your immune functions, decreases pain and
inflammation, and many more benefits. (Seppala, 2015) Now that she has become familiar with
the mind-body-spirit concept, she said that it has changed the way that she will view things now.
It has also made her very conscious of her surroundings and now wants to take time to explore
her mind on a sub-conscious level. She would love to be able to find that inner peace and live a
less stressed life.
We did discuss whether she thought that she was pessimistic or optimistic, she wasnt
sure, so I asked her to perform the test in our book, Learned Optimism/ How to change Your
Mind and Your Life, test your optimism. (Seligman 2006) After reading and trying to decipher
her scores, we determined that she was a pessimistic person, which was surprising to her (not to
me though). As we talked about different things, it always seems that she didnt seem positive. It
seems that she would put the blame on other people, or other things that were far too negative
about the things in her life. Looks as if I have found my first client.

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There would be things that I would like to add to my inventory; the mind-body-spirit
experience is so large with many different aspects to it and so many different types of meditation
that I would like to explore to at times, it is almost overwhelming. I would add more reading to
explore other questions because as I was interviewing my daughter and doing the research to
answer the questions, things came into light about myself that I didnt know. I have learned a lot
about this experience and now I am borderline obsessed to learn all that I can about the mindbody-spirit experience.

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Reference
Seaward, Brian (2013) Health of the Human Spirit: Spiritual Dimensions for Personal Health
Lechner, Tamara (2015) 5 Types of Meditation Decoded
http://www.chopra.com/ccl/5-types-of-meditation-decoded
PsychoGuides.com (2015) Anger Symptoms, Causes and Effects
http://www.psychguides.com/guides/anger-symptoms-causes-and-effects/
Seppala, Emma (2015) Benefits of Meditation: 10 Science-Based Reasons to Start Meditating
Today
http://www.emmaseppala.com/10-science-based-reasons-start-meditating-todayinfographic/#.VcpWYpNViko
Seligman, Martin, (2006) Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life