You're Never Done Growing By Mark Yarrobino

I’ve talked at length in the past about setting realistic goals, and planning each step of your self improvement journey intelligently and carefully, but I think that I’ve failed to mention one very important point that needs to be mentioned. And it’s this: That doesn’t mean that there’s actually a greater end goal.

Oh sure, sometimes there will be smaller to intermediate goals, such as finding a new job, for example. But the grander journey, in actuality, never ends. You’re always going to be growing, if you’re smart about it. And I’m pretty sure you are. And you should always want to learn and grow. And I’m pretty sure you do.

And that’s the point, actually. I don’t want you to get scared off or intimidated by the prospect of having to work on yourself forever, because that’s what you should want to do.

Too often, someone will go through the trouble of trying to improve their life with the idea that they’ll get to a certain point and that’s it. They’re done. But it doesn’t work that way. How could it?

And it really isn’t work in the way most people think.

Think about your own past experiences. And think about how you’ve changed and grown over the years due to everything you’ve seen and done, and your encounters with others. Think of all of the people you’ve met who have made an impact on your life, and therefore altered your development for the better.

Why would you want that to end?

The truth is, it won’t. Unless you become a hermit or something like that. Otherwise, you’ll always meet new people and experience new things. And that means that you will always continue to develop.

Once again, I’ll use my kung fu training as an example. We get some new students every now and then who think that they’re supposed to put in a certain amount of time, or a certain number of years, and then they will have completed their kung fu training, and know all there is to know. Then, I guess, they’re expecting to move on to something else and master that, too. Those people always seem to be in a hurry. They want to load as many achievements under their belt as they can in as little time as they can. And they usually quit before achieving any of them, as a result.

Once again, it doesn’t work that way. We have a saying that roughly says that once you get your black belt, that’s when you start learning. I may have reached the sifu (instructor) level, but I’m still learning. And my sifu, he’s still learning, too. And his sifu is still learning, too.

And that’s really the point of it. If you accept that you’ll be learning for the rest of your life, then you come to realize that there is no hurry. And you become more patient, and so you stay with it and continue to improve.

Well, the same is true of your personal development. When you come to realize that there’s no hurry, and that you can always make improvements, and learn and change, then you naturally calm down, relieve a whole lot of stress, live more peacefully, and continue to grow.

Yes, you can have goals, and you can achieve them. I’ve always said that, and I encourage it. But you can also always change and grow if you’re smart and pay attention, and if you do it with the right perspective and state of mind. I encourage that, too.

Besides, you’ve got an average of 70-80 years on this planet. What are you going to do with all that time if you’ve “finished” everything already, anyway?

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=425328&ca=Self

Learn to Let Go - Part 2 By CD Mohatta

As we grow up, it becomes necessary to learn to let go of many things that we have taken on during our life. In Learn To Let Go - Part One we explored the main things that happen to us as we grow up and experience life. We lose family members who move or die; we start to collect memories and memorabilia; we begin to suffer mental, physical, and emotional illnesses; we have addictions and depression and learn about toxic, negative people; we see and experience abuse and sometimes our egos get in our way. To live life again, we need to re-evaluate what is really important to us and begin to get rid of the unimportant things.

LOVED ONES

This leads us to letting go of loved ones, not by death but by distance. If a child moves out of the family house to go to school, get married or start their own life, it is an unmistakable pain that is hard to get rid of. If a parent moves out of state after retirement, we feel abandoned and question why they had to go. Never thinking that it might be good for them, or cheaper or even better climate, we add that to out baggage. If a grandchild, a child of our dead son or daughter moves out of our home and into their own home, we again feel abandoned. We need to let go of loved ones who have a life of their on and are not making changes to hurt us but to better their own lives.

PREJUDICE

There are many types of prejudice in this world and each one is a different size and color baggage, but certainly, each one hinders your success. There are racial, sexual and spiritual prejudices. They are ideas that you struggle with and they take your concentration and your energy, so it is important to learn to let go of those prejudices.

DISAPPOINTMENTS

Things in our past can trigger emotions that make another piece of baggage. Past disappointments trigger emotions of failure. They make us feel as though we fell short of depending on our self. By holding onto disappointments, we can hurt our self-esteem and lower our capacity to improve ourselves. It is also very important to let go of disappointments.

MATERIAL POSSESSIONS

The biggest baggage many people have are old unused objects. They can be anything from knick-knacks and broken things to old clothes and outgrown things. When you have so many things to move to just dust, it is probably time to let go of some of the 'junk'. Certainly any old broken objects, which you planned on fixing some day, need to trashed or donated for others to fix. Old, unused clothes that have not been worn in one year, needs to discarded. In an article titled 'How to De-Clutter', you can see many ideas on getting rid of material possessions.

Look at a rich man. Most of them keep accumulating. They have many houses and many cars. What do they do with them? Only they know why they need so much. Rare amongst the rich give away all they possess to needy. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are recent examples. Other wealthy persons keep accumulating till the end of their life but have no happiness of mind. Is such accumulation of any use? We earn money and buy things to get peace. The end is not money but peace and comfort.

We have all faced periods in our life where we need to learn to let go. In Learn To Let Go - Part Three, we will continue our exploration of the things that we need to learn are not important. We can begin learning to let go.

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=423078&ca=Self

Psychic Development, Intuition and the Inner Voice By Philippe Byske

Many people have the mistaken belief that some people are psychic and some people are not. Really, however, we all have some degree of psychic ability. The difference in those who we consider 'psychic' and those we consider 'non psychic' has much more to do with how willing to trust their intuition they are.

Many people feel that they have intuitive abilities and acknowledge this sometimes, perhaps through an incident of synchronicity, or unexplained coincidence. Using your intuition involves trusting the information you receive that way. It is, on a more comprehensive level, 'just knowing' something and trusting it despite not knowing how you know.

Psychics may go for years will the inkling that they are 'a little bit' psychic without knowing that they can develop that intuitive sense for the benefit of themselves and others. Those seemingly random psychic experiences are clues that we have these abilities. It is up to us to learn to trust them and learn not to block them.

My own first psychic experience happened when I was a young adolescent. I was terrified to stay home alone because of recent news about the kidnapping of a girl my age, but that summer while I was out of school, I had to stay home by myself while my parents worked.

One day I walked into the garage on my way to the mailbox, and as I shut the door behind me, I realized that I had left it locked and I was locked out of the house. It may not seem like a big deal, but I was terrified. I jiggled the doorknob, tried to turn it, but it was hopeless. I was locked out, and I would have to wait in the garage or outside until one of my parents came home.

Then, 'something' told me to try the door again. 'Yeah, right,' I thought. But I did it, and the door was unlocked. It could only have come from a plane other than the physical world in which we live.

The chakras of the body are energy centers that allow us to process information from the physical and spiritual world around us. The ability to feel energy, or clairsentience, belongs to the second chakra, just below the navel. Have you ever had a 'gut feeling' that something was wrong? You were processing that information through the second chakra, and it is valuable information.

The fifth chakra is located at the base of the throat, and it is the ability to hear information. This 'inner dialog' is how we receive and process 'clairaudient' information. This is the sense that told me to try to open the door one more time that day.

Processing information through the seventh chakra is when you 'just know' something. This chakra is located on top of the head. Have you, or someone close to you ever just blurted out something from nowhere that happened to be very insightful? It probably reached him or her through the seventh chakra.

The key to developing our psychic abilities is to learn to trust the knowledge that we don't know how we acquired. It is a collection of experiences that builds over time and can't really be forced. We all have psychic abilities to some extent, and we all have the ability to make the best use of our psychic abilities if we will practice and learn.

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=424982&ca=Self

The Power of Subconscious Mind By Jacob Coroner

Consciousness is the awareness when we do a particular act such as thinking, feeling or simply doing chores or an errand. A person’s reaction while being awake or up is a sign of consciousness. This reaction is known as the conscious mind. Our ability to process external information is quite limited regardless of the word multitasking, a person can only process so much at a particular time. The process that limits the amount of information that our brain is taking in is called selective attention. We tend to only remember what we want to remember or we only pay much attention to what is important for us. The opposite meaning of conscious is subconscious. The power of subconscious mind is sometimes stronger compared to conscious mind.

All of us have a conscious mind. However, our everyday behavior and/or routines fall under a preconscious level. A perfect example is when you drive to the office. Since you have been doing this for quite a while now, most of your actions are already automatic. When a person has been consistently doing a certain act for a very long period of time, the act will fall to subconscious thinking. However the bustling sound or a loud horn might bring the driver back to the consciousness state. Reaction that falls under the power of subconscious mind are reactions that are performed unconsciously or automatically without the permission of our conscious mind. Most reaction associated with the power of subconscious mind are anger, jealousy, lust and even the desire to do bad things that will harm yourself or other people. Subconscious state sometimes makes people do crazy things because it is mostly emotional based feeling. Reaction under subconscious mind is sometimes hard to suppress and it will take much effort to put your conscious state back. That is why it is important to take a step back when you are really mad. This is to avoid the wrong way of thinking and the wrong doings. The powers of both conscious and subconscious mind are powerful but they also work together side by side. This mind power affects our daily act and daily performance. Since it is hard for us human to always be in conscious, just try your best to be alert at all times. The performance that is greatly affected by these two factors is our decision making. It includes the food that we want to eat during meal time, what clothes and shoes to wear, the mood swings and the attitude that we show or project to other people.

Conscious and subconscious are similar to plants. It works both ways. Fertile soil represents the power of subconscious mind. This side of the mind is compared to a fertile soil because it is simply there and you don’t need to look for it. The seed represents the conscious side of the mind. A person who plans to lodge plants will have to choose the right seed or the kind of seed hat he/ she needs and wants. Seed is also known as the conscious side of mind power because it is up to the people who plant it to also grow it properly. These are like bad habits that had been there in our system for quite a while. It tends to show up every now and then without us noticing.

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=427492&ca=Self