Personal Development Blog

To me, personal development isn’t only about improving one’s mind or skills, but also about health.   These are very interrelated, in that when you have more energy and physical health, you are going to feel better about yourself.  And when you feel good about yourself, you will take more interest in your health.

One major component of health is of course nutrition.  I believe green food extracts can be a great way to improve your health through better nutrition.  These are often called “super green foods” and are being written about more and more lately.   Tony Robbins spoke of them very highly in one of his seminars I have on CD, claiming it’s responsible for his high energy levels.  While I don’t believe green food extracts can be a substitute for eating right, and regular foods, I do feel they are far better than vitamins as a way to get additional important nutrients.

The feeling of being unimportant can be so devastating that some people take drastic measures to make sure that their presence is recognized. If we think back to when we were in elementary school, we can remember the class clown who called attention to himself by overt misbehavior. His being singled out by the teacher and being sent to the principal’s office was a desperate attempt to be noticed.

These actions are not restricted to young people. If we feel distressed because of a negative self-concept and think that other people do not appreciate us, we may seek recognition in an effort to convince ourselves as well as everyone else that we are respectable people and are not as bad as we are afraid we may be. Therefore, we may push for recognition in different ways.

Anything you do or experience can provide you with an opportunity to practice mindfulness.  But you may want to begin with some of your usual activities - the ones you may be doing now on automatic pilot while you daydream, space out, or obsess.  The truth is, even the most routine tasks can prove enjoyable when you do them with wholehearted care and attention.  Here’s a list of common activities with a few suggestions for infusing them with mindfulness:

When you’re overloaded by anxious thoughts that diminish your confidence in yourself, you tend to see things as more negative than they really are.  Before the event, you may make negative predictions about how other people will respond to you, how you will perform, and how events will turn out.  After the event, you may make negative evaluations of how you handled it.  Certain patterns of anxious thinking are associated with social anxiety.  Being aware of these patterns can help you identify them.