Throughout my healing, I’ve come across many approaches of “how” to heal. As well as the vast amounts of opinions of what you should or shouldn’t do. With all these different takes, it’s easy to feel confused and overwhelmed. “Which path is right?” I’ve certainly struggled, and still do at times, with knowing which path is the right path. But the reality is, there is no wrong or right. What I’ve come to learn is that personal development is just that: personal. So what is personal development to you? It is a deeply introspective journey initiated by your own experiences and challenges and moulded around your own needs and goals.
When you desperately want to change, pulling yourself out of that dark hole feels like survival, a necessity. For me, I had had enough of what was. This drive can be an amazing catalyst to open yourself up to what could help you heal. But I also noticed that the fragility I felt, especially in the early days, made me harder on myself when some approaches didn’t work. I remember really wanting a certain idea to work for me, and when it didn’t, I’d feel panic and defeat. Thinking, “Ah man, now what will I do?” or “What’s wrong with me? Why doesn’t this work?”
So instead, find what truly matters to you. Ask yourself what your values are and what you truly want from life. I think to get the most out of your personal development journey, you have to be deeply honest with yourself. Acknowledge your strengths and evaluate where there’s room to grow. We each have different habits and skills. Addressing these parts of us can help make the journey all the more unique. What might need focus for one person could be irrelevant to another.
This is also why introspection is so key. It can help us understand why we do certain things and why we react the way we do. When we make our personal development journey unique to us, we are better able to uncover and accept the parts of us that we may have been reluctant to embrace in the past and sometimes reinvent the parts that had become distorted by external influences.
With this in mind, I want to stress that the content I create comes from my perspective, my own journey. We each learn, grow, and evolve at our own pace. We each have our own style of growth. The techniques, tools, and practices I discuss here are ones that have helped or continue to help me.
If I can spark any inspiration for you to help yourself, I’m happy. My words are meant to be little breadcrumbs to help nudge you to find your path. If you are intrigued to try the practices I do, I hope to give you an idea of where to start. What I don’t want is for anyone to feel pressured to do this or that. Or worry that if you don’t get on with an approach I discuss, then you’re doing something wrong. Because you’re not. Working on yourself is such an individualised, lifelong journey. There are still many things I struggle with. But the important thing is that we keep trying.
What does personal development look like to you? I’d love to hear your story. Leave a comment or just fill out a contact form!
To learn more about personal development, check out this page Personal Development: Nurturing Growth and Self-Improvement
