Personal development ruined my life!
If you had been with me in May of 2000 you would have seen me in California, having the time of my life. I was travelling in a convertible Mustang with my best friend living a scene from Thelma and Louise (without the bad stuff!)
From the outside, I was a super outgoing, gregarious, young woman with the world at my feet. However, on the inside I had little self-belief and people would constantly take advantage of my trusting nature. Traditional methods of education don’t work with my brain, so in High School I created the belief that I was thick and stupid. I had the confidence to be outrageous yet no true inner-confidence.
On that trip I became close to the Kelly family. Robby introduced me to some insightful books including ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’. I became fast friends with his gorgeous sister who helped me discover ‘The Landmark Forum’, a 3 day seminar where I learnt more about myself than I ever thought possible. Bit by bit, my life started to change. Little by little, with every book I read, with every course I went on, things changed. Each time I went a little deeper into the layers of my thinking, into the layers of my belief system, I resolved inner conflicts and traumas. I liken it to the peeling of an onion, we work through the layers, to get to the next layer.. the thing is.. the onion never ends! We are forever evolving, growing, realising and developing.
I was developing, fast. It was a time of massive growth and development. However, what happens when we start to make changes to ourselves? WE CHANGE!
I believe that if we change the way we see things we become a different, improved version of ourselves. Friends and family may find it strange, they may accuse you of joining a cult(!) and they may unknowingly manipulate you back to being a smaller version of yourself.
When you grow, it shows the people around you that they haven’t grown,
that they need to step up, that they need to work on themselves.
This is how personal development ruined my life! I had to let some of my friends go. Friends who were living in unhealthy ways that no longer suited the future that I was now creating for myself. I needed to stand up to my family and be strong in what I believed rather than have them pull me back
into their ways of thinking and being. I mean can you imagine? I was the only vegetarian in a large farming family from the North West of the UK. I think I was always just a little bit different!
I had to constantly justify why I was living this way and why I was making these choices. I chose ME! I chose health. I chose to be living a raw, vegan lifestyle. I chose exercise. I chose yoga. I chose to travel and to do retreats. I chose Life Coaching and I chose to understand that things are not always the way that we think that they are.
This changed my life. I would be in a very different place in my life right now if I hadn’t chosen personal development. It did ruin my life. It ruined my life in THE BEST way. God only knows where I would be now without all of that personal development – probably hanging out of my own arse in Ibiza somewhere!
Growth is a human need that needs to be fulfilled. If you don’t grow and develop your brain will give you anxiety as it will start to overthink and your adrenal system will start to kick in, this is simply the body’s way of telling you that one of your basic needs is not being met.
So, I ask you this;
What are you doing on a daily or weekly basis to develop yourself?
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