Personal development
If we want to achieve a better balanced life situation we can try to develop ourselves in order to handle our life in a more satisfactory way. This work must take place in a certain order to be successful:
1) reclaiming faith in my own human worth and dignity, regardless of social function.
2) understanding that faith in the absolute value of the human individual is a prerequisite
to find purpose in life. Without purpose it is difficult to motivate active engagement.
3) in this way we motivate ourselves to reclaim responsibility for our own life and for our
participation in human fellowship.
4) this reinforces our will to achieve results of our actions which will honor the positive
motivations we harbor.
5) a stronger will creates more courage and self-discipline in trying to reach our goals.
6) in this way we will gradually pass on to more satisfying active achievements.
To develop and mature as a person does not primarily mean more education. It means to become more aware of oneself. Not so much about the roles we have to play in every day life, our social identity, but more about becoming conscious of what and who we are behind the masks we show others. Below our defences and survival mechanisms, our ”ego”, we can find our deepest identity, that which is often called ”the self”. From there we draw those good energies which help us to grow and mature as humans and individuals.
Personal development means in fact to become more conscious of our deepest self and give this enough room to develop. As a result we will gain more insight and energy to cope with ourselves and our life.
We may harbor a feeling of security when the outer world seems stabile. But we will often become afflicted by situations we did not want. Change and loss are inevitable in life. And when outer stability breaks down, our inner stability will crumple too. If this happens it is not easy to keep energy, vigour and enthusiasm alive. Fatigue and discouragement forces us more and more to abstain from actions which perhaps could give us a better daily life experience. In this situation can conscious and active personal development bestow us with possibilities for more positive moments in everyday life. This will in turn strengthen motivation and energy to change things and go on with our life. A good start on this road is:
1) to train the ability to appreciate positive things in life and ask ourselves every day: What is satisfying just now? This question helps us to focus on positive parts of the life we ex-perience just now and will therefore strengthen our life energy.
2) to go in for practical action and everyday ask ourselves: What needs to be done? This question helps us to remain active and it reminds us also of the fact that we to a great part are owners of the key to happiness and wellbeing. One could say that we have the ability to decide what our inner climate will be.
Some suggestions
Be concerned about your view of life
The attitude you have to yourself and to the world decides the quality of your life-experience. Be conscious of every moment of your life and focus on positive things. Concentrate on what you are for, not on what you are against. What you fear and fight, will be strengthened in your mind. Work on positive images in your mind but do also accept that which seems negative to you. Accept it just now. But do not dwell on it for long.
Try every day to achieve balance between rest and activity
Reserve daily moments of calm and rest just for you. Practice relaxation or meditation. Or enjoy nature, sit there, lie down, do exactly what you like and give your soul some calm. Everything will reassemble in you and come to unity and wholeness. Allow yourself twenty minutes every day to make this journey into your depth. It will increase your knowledge of yourself and make you stronger.
Practice to be conscious of every moment
Experience your happiness, just now!. Allow anxiety, just now! Allow your sadness and grief, just now! Allow your anger, just now! Take in the sunshine and the rain, just now! And when you have experienced this, let it go.
Cherish your soul
Make the most of every moment of beauty, every moment of warmth and love and every moment of light in your soul. Try to find all those things and situations which will touch your heart and soul in everyday life. All those things we usually pass without noticing.
Cherish your body
Give the body every day some of your time and lots of your love. Accept it and care for it, whatever it feels like or looks like. Give it a little luxury and offer it pleasurable movements, those which are pleasurable for you.
Cherish your loving relations
Build warm relations to people, animals and nature. But be wise enough to understand if a relation will harm your soul and bereave you of your human dignity and wholeness. Forgive yourself and the other person and be courageous enough to leave this relation if you fail to reshape it.
Accept all your experiences of life
Accept that a rich and real life-experience consists of both grief and happiness, both anxiety and calm, both anger and love, both darkness and light.
Accept difficulties, just now! But do not accept that this must remain. Everything in life is continuously moving and striving for balance. After the darkness of night the light of day will always come. But only if you open your eyes and let it in.
Set your goals in harmony with yourself
Aim at goals which engage your good qualities. Those attributes which make you happy and will interest and engage you and help you to grow and mature. Make plans and dare to act in order to reach these goals. Find a positive meaning in things that have to be done and focus on this in doing your task. But if that which you have undertaken hurts your soul or your body, have the courage to leave it.
Above else
Focus in every moment of your life on that which is now, just now! Not on what has been, not on what you think will come, but on that which is now, just now!
Remember
It’s the road that is your life, not the destination!
Life is now, just now!