Analyzing the Contemplative Psychotherapies

Contemplative Psychotherapies

Some ancient contemplative customs of meditation are the Christian meditation, Jewish Tzeruf, Buddhist and Confucian meditation, Islamic Sufi Zikr and Taoist and Hindu yoga. In several settings, the practices are believed to be conventional and a part of the everyday lives of the people. All of these practices were either used for spiritual or religious purposes in the ancient days; however, they are now also used for emotional and mental benefits. There are professional academies for training and providing relief to the people through meditation and yoga. Yoga and meditation are the main two types of Contemplative customs. Yoga is a set of beliefs, obligations and knowledge that has almost the same aims as of meditation. It includes a set of diet, ethics, intellectual exploration, breath control, and lifestyle and body postures. Meditation is complete peace of mind, which helps to improve health, growth and intellectual space intentionally (author).

The contemplative psychotherapies are established on five postulates which are: the mind is functionless, poorly developed and uncontrollable; the idea of functionlessness cannot be identified easily as it is shared and is mostly demonstrated in attention of heedlessness; the debilitation of the mind depends on mind functionality; and that the mind functionality can be improved by training the mind, improving reasoning, intellect, health and happiness; and all of these can be tested by the person himself as well (author).

The contemplative objectives are better understood through psychological development (author). Transpersonal, personal and pre-personal are the three psychological developmental levels (Wilber, 2000a, as cited in Walsh, 2014). According to the author, the people get involved in their personal lives which dominate their self-awareness, and limits sensibility (author). Yalon & Josselson (2013, as cited in Walsh, 2014) also supports this option and describe life as following the customs blindly, getting carried away by fashion, fake, shallow and avoiding the thoughtful questions related to nature, at the personal level. Childhood mentality has been equated to and related to conventional thinking (Kaplan, 1985, as cited in Walsh, 2014); while adulthood mentality is linked with an advanced level of thinking which can be learnt through meditation only. At some times it is collective developmental arrest rather than conventional thinking (author).

Arlow (1995, as cited in Walsh, 2014) state that the mental life reflects the continuous struggle between the unconscious and the conscious mind. The humans have the state of mental inequality. The transpersonal and personal developmental levels are postulated by the introspective psychologies. The rift exists between meditation and psychotherapy in which psychotherapy is for personal development and meditation is for transpersonal development. The above statement shows an example of psychoanalysis which is a psychological conflict. Abraham Maslow (1971, as cited in Walsh, 2014) states that psychoanalysis has not presented our capabilities and nature in high regards and the human mind's strength has also been inaccurately assumed as this field deals mainly with problems and conflicts in addition to the contemplative idea of pathology. Psychoanalysis does not identify greatness of the mind. The contemplative psychology debates that the waking state of the human is not perfect and the meditations or reflections can identify and change the thought process open to emotive therapies both cognitive and rational. The contemplative treatments are known to heal and correct the negative thoughts and beliefs, which are mostly the cause of clinical psychopathologies. These therapies enable the person to think rationally and explore his hidden abilities (author).

The people who meditate regularly are relieved of their negative thoughts, anxiety and neuroticism and positive thoughts are engrained in them while self-control is also embellished. People doing meditation daily lead a healthier, happier and stress free life (author). Contentment and positivity surrounds the person and the people who are married feels loved and their communication becomes more refined (Carson, et al., 2004, as cited in Walsh, 2014). Meditation also shapes speed and attitudes, embellishes concentration (Shapiro, et al., 2005, as cited in Walsh, 2014) while building compassion, self-control and self-esteem (author).