The 55 Concepts: Self Help Article Series
by: Michael Cavallaro
Personal Growth
What exactly is personal growth?
Traditionally personal growth is understood as the growth of a person. This growth can be anything or take place in any fashion. Personal growth is often seen as positive things or positive changes. We would say that personal growth is not only positive. It is anything that causes a person to grow or go beyond their current state of consciousness.
It could be something that is ‘negative’ that causes growth. Often it is negative experiences that actually cause the expansion of consciousness or awareness. To say that this expansion is positive or negative is a judgment. True growth is just that: growth - nothing else. No judgments of positivity or negativity. Every experience that a person has is personal growth.
Every experience that you have allows for the expansion of your awareness and consciousness. With each and every experience there is some sort of change. Personal growth is often seen as advancement, moving forward or bettering yourself. In order to move forward or better yourself that means that some aspect of you is unacceptable. Every aspect of you and every experience is acceptable and needs to be appreciated for the wisdom that each experience has given you.
No matter what you do personal growth is always occurring. What often comes into play in regards to personal growth is the judgment someone has about whether they like this change or not. Growth is change and change is always occurring.
Changing your perspective on the growth that occurs allows you to experience growth with little or no pain. What causes pain in growth is your judgment and your judgment is related to your belief systems and thoughts. By changing your belief systems and thoughts you will be able to experience growth in a way that is more pleasant. With this change of perspective you will find that growth will tend to be replaced by beingness.
Here are a couple of tips to use to shift from personal growth to beingness.
- Write down or become aware of your attitudes and beliefs about what personal growth is.
- Identify where and how you judge yourself.
- When you are having a negative experience or are wanting to change the way you are, ask yourself, “What did I learn from this experience?”
- Ask yourself, “Why do I want to grow?”
The desire to grow is seen as a noble human quality. The desire to grow most often comes out of the judgment that there is something wrong with you. When you are judging that there is something wrong you are not in unconditional acceptance of self. There is so much talk about being in the present or the now, but you cannot be in the present moment with the attitude that you need growth. Personal growth is about your ego/personality expanding beyond its limitations (this includes self judgments and all of your perceptions of past and future) to allow your spirit to experience the present.
When you are in beingness there is never anything wrong. In beingness there is no such thing. Instead of growth there is you being present and conscious in the moment without judgment, yet with choice. Strive for beingness and in beingness you will find there is no need to grow. In beingness there is only you; your spirit having an experience with the ability to choose to re-experience or change your experience to something else.
© Michael Cavallaro, 2010
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