Connecting With a Personal Development Community
It is a fascinating process to be growing spiritually at the same time as starting up a new business or indeed doing anything at all that requires concentration, dedication and your time. Spiritual growth, at least for those of us who are not Masters, takes time and awareness. A sort of constant state of thinking about who and what you are being, doing and having.
I have often wondered if it is possible to experience leaps of personal growth while highly engaged with a job or other activity. Yet now, after 18 months of very intense personal development and having the time to put to that, I have taken over a business and am once again immersed in things other than concentrating being the highest being that I can be. Is it possible to do both?
Yes and yes. Delightfully, excitingly and energetically I now believe that anything is possible. I can have my business and personal development too.
This is a pleasing concept for me as I came to my new life 18 months ago after many years of demanding work during which I rarely had time to sleep let alone read Deepak Chopra or watch The Secret. For years the joy of such pastimes slipped right be my. Sure I was aware of the brouhaha surrounding The Secret and somewhere in the depths of my memory I recalled something about thought control and The Silva Method. But to actively pursue such concepts was beyond me at the time.
Now, though, it is the nectar of life to me. It is that which is the source of my energy and personal strength. I found that you simply take the time for what you want. If you want it enough you will choose to find the time. And I choose to extend my spiritual growth, every minute of every day. To create my path and to reach for my higher self.
And now for the tip, link up with like minded people, source the connections around you so that you place yourself with others who will support, encourage and nurture you. And enjoy the path to a life that you have made for yourself because the journey is not about the destination. It is about all of the fun along the way. And here is an online community that will do all of the things that I have just mentioned - iamconnected.com – go ahead and take a look. It just might be the community of support that you are looking for.
Let Your Light Shine
I am a keeper of inspiring words – usually in the form of cards and such like given to me as gifts. And today I happened upon one with the following words by Sam Friend:-
“There is in each of us so much goodness that if we could see it glow, it would light the world.”
Those words got me thinking about the path to enlightenment and the journey to becoming a better person. Often we take for granted the goodness that we have within and seek and seek for more and more. Which is a good thing, I know, to be constantly learning and bettering ourselves. And yet if we do not pause for a moment or two and celebrate the goodness that we already have within, let others see that and let our light shine, we lose the everyday opportunity to be the role model and teachers that we truly can be. Every one of us has the capacity for that.
So take this moment to reflect on your own goodness within and let your light shine for all of those around you so that they too can be inspired.
When The Going Gets Tough Use Your Daily Journal
I am a great fan and advocate for the daily journal as a part of the personal development and self awareness journey. I have cultivated journaling each day as a habit and over time have developed an array of very useful tips for assisting to keep the daily journal interesting and stimulating. There could be nothing worse for me than to have a habit which is mundane and boring. And I coach people using the daily journal as a key element to attract and maintain life success. I am even in development phase for a commercial product around a daily journal.
So it came as a great surprise to me this week to discover that 6 days had passed since I had made an entry in my daily journal and 10 days had passed since I had written about my thankfulness, gratitude and appreciation for life. It happens that I had been feeling a bit low in mood and unmotivated over the last three days and yesterday I decided to explore that in my journal. I opened up and noticed how many days since I had made an entry. Well, I thought to myself, be your own coach!!
So I went through my daily habit, entering in my journal what was happening and working through how to move forward, going over my years goals and writing about how I was working towards them, listing my gratitude for what I have right now and what is coming to me in the future. Lo and behold, it worked, got me back on track and I decided on a couple of processes to help me through this low motivation phase. My mood lifted almost immediately.
For the moment, my daily journal will consist of decisions on the actions that I am taking towards my life goals and I will check back over that each day to see my progress. With that inspiration, I completed 2 of my 3 tasks yesterday and one that was not on the list but the time was right. Today I am well on the way with the 4 that I committed to for this day.
Learning? Sometimes it helps to just go back to the basics and I know that the daily journal is one of those basic but essential habits. Oh and just for a bit of fun I had a look back to where I was this time last year. Happily, much progress has been made and some of my big life decisions are coming to fruition right now. Attract success – you betcha!!
More Ideas To Make Your Daily Journal Easy
I am, as you know, a devotee of the daily journal habit. Apart from the fact that the development of daily habits is a contributor to happiness (and who does not want happiness?), it is also pretty amazing to read back over your journal at the same time of the year, from time to time, and see the changes that you have made in your life, for yourself and/or they way that you are feeling. Writing down some of your daily thoughts and ideas can be fulfilling in many other ways as hand writing, which some say it is becoming a lost art, can help you to make sense of what is happening, how you are reacting and why and actions that you can take to make changes where you want them. And it will definitely help you on your journey to success.
Sure, it can be a confronting process at times as you may start to explore some parts of yourself that you prefer not to face but that is where the real value if this lovely process comes in. You are exploring these things just with yourself!! No-one else unless you chose to. And then you can look at them in wonder, at a later date, and laugh about your fears. Some of the things that I have been afraid of in the past have proven to be just nothing later, because I took charge of them.
How does it get any better than that?
So recently, in my quest for more content to help people to work with their daily journal, I was delighted to read “Your Pocket Life Coach” – seriously recommend that you get this one. Carole Gaskell, Author, outlines some of her ideas for the daily “inspirational” journal. So test these out and see a previous blog of mine, 10 Ideas To Get You Started With A Daily Journal, for even more ideas.
From Carole Gaskell:-
- Use your daily inspirational journal to record your thoughts, insights, intuitive ideas and actions
- Write about things that make you happy, confident, excited
- Record your achievements and what you are committed to doing next
- Note the people you love and why
- Outline your plans for the next day, week, month etc
- Put down what you have learned that day or things that have helped you in your development.
Oh, and have fun!! And my congratulations to Carole for such a smashing little book.
Inspiration In The Air, Inspiration Everywhere
Seriously, I think that I can smell and feel the inspiration all around me, not to mention with the people I meet, books that I read and music that I listen to. And I think that I know the reason. I have been focusing on inspiration and am attracting it like crazy. I love the whole inspiration effect and I love how the Law of Attraction works.
Some months ago I was reading a “Business Bullet” written by Andrew Griffiths and he said that we all need to get a daily fix of inspiration just as be do exercise and good nutrition. Well, I took his words to heart and started to be active about my daily fix. And here it is, just arriving in my life. Inspiration in the air, inspiration everywhere.
So here are 5 quick tips on how to get your daily dose of inspiration!!
- Keep your mind, ears and eyes tuned for it; look for it in the people you talk to, the mountains and plains around you, the birds and animals and your own thoughts.
- Read poetry again. It is just amazing what poets write.
- Stop tuning in to the mainstream media and do something different like read blogs, get self improvement books out of the library, beg or borrow some cd’s and listen while you drive to work. I just love “Conversations With God” and “Beyond Freedom“.
- Google some of your favourite gurus and read some of their web page or watch some of their YouTube. Try the Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra or Brian Tracy.
- Listen to some different music and step out of your comfort zone there. Try some music from a different country or cultural group. I am loving Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu right now; it just touches my soul.
No doubt you will come up with a list of 5 for yourself as well, just do it, because life is so much more exciting when you are getting your daily dose of inspiration!!
