1. Compare and contrast the Loving Kindness exercise and the Subtle mind exercise.

In comparison loving-kindness opens our heart to others and gradually diminishes self-centeredness, priming our mind for further development. The subtle mind—witnessing, calm-abiding, and unity consciousness, opens our mind and reveals a penetrating wisdom that knows the truth of our life and of existence. Loving-kindness and wisdom are the essential elements that heal at the source and drive human flourishing.

Explain your experience including the benefits, frustrations etc.

My experience with the loving-kindness exercise included the benefits of a diminished focus on myself and my own needs and an enhanced concern and compassion for the welfare of others. My mind is calmer and it is confirmed that loving-kindness really does attract loving-kindness.
My experience with the subtle-mind exercise was I cultivated wisdom by taming and training my busy mind, accessing its deeper levels, and exploring the essential nature of mind experience. I learned how to diminish the ceaseless mental movements of thoughts, feelings, and images. I am able to still my mind and develop a witnessing consciousness that’s subsequently progressing toward the stable and facile mind of calm-abiding. In no way did I experience frustration.

2. Discuss the connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness.

The connection of the spiritual wellness to mental and physical wellness is the development from body to mind to spirit is a shift in experience and identity from the realm of the physical with its emphasis on survival, instinct, and self to the more subtle and intangible realm of the mental with its focus on ideas, intention, and interconnectedness to the most subtle spiritual realm of awareness, wisdom, and oneness. This same development sequence is also a shift from outer to inner to innermost.