Personal Growth

Life is a flowing stream and we need to joyously flow with the current. The more we try to oppose it, the more we lose our vitality, our life force. Personal growth is realizing just that.It means knowing one’s soul, to know about those deep motivations and recesses that lie withinself.  But it is not an easy task. It requires a lot of hard work and dedicated perseverance. It is not for the weak hearted since it requires a lot of courage, for it happens too often that a man is brave enough to face the entire world save the truth of his own self.The things that lie locked deep inside the self may not all be to our liking, may not give us any kind of happiness either. People sometimes confuse the never ending process of personal growth with the pursuit of happiness, but we should understand that running after happiness is as futile as trying to catch our own shadow. It shall elude us, lest we stop trying. But let us be not foolish enough to think that happiness shall last forever, for whatever gives happiness will be the cause of much pain as well.

As we step into adulthood, life has waiting for us a lot many problems which need to be handled responsibly. A character disordered person may cause himself a lot of unhappiness by not being responsible enough to realise that life is difficult. Yes, that is the hard truth: LIFE IS DIFFICULT. Yet it has to be lived, keeping in mind the beautiful gift life is. But these problems and responsibilities become a lot easier in life if we accept them.

Acceptance and equianimity lead to personal growth. Life is to be lived with complete acceptance of our limitations and difficult emotions. Only when we accept life just as it is, are we able to enjoy it. Acceptance and equianimity help us break away from the constant ruminations of past and future thoughts which occupy our minds most of the time. They help us live in the present, enjoy the present. But some confuse this humble acceptance of life with inaction, something which will make their lives insipid and dull. But it is not so. Just for example, acceptance should not be the reason for one to be not happy about buying a new phone, but acceptance is about being wise enough to be not obsessive about it, not to attach oneself so much so as to lose one's identity when the phone is lost.

In this modern age of endless anxieties and difficulties, a supple and equianimous mind is needed to take on the travails of life. A flexible mind reacts to problems just like water reacts to a cut or a blow; it yields yet regains its composure. We need to learn from nature and its methods. It will lead us to a meaningful life.