Doing a Self-Assessment for Self-Discovery

To a very large extent, many of us tend to see what is wrong with others without taking in to account or having a close look on ourselves. Taking a self-assessment is vital in making us become the best or have a realization of the best in us. You need somebody is very honest to help you in self-assessment. There are a number of self-assessment tests that you can undertake for self-discovery.

 

Self-assessment entails looking deep into you for an insight thus self-discovery. Here you do not become self-centered but have some time to look at yourself get to learn about the person you see every time you look at the mirror. 

 

The first step to a tangible self-assessment is to be very honest about you. Take a hard look at the mirror and take time to study the person you are seeing. Describe the person that you see in the mirror using up to a total of 25 adjectives. Consider using both good and adjectives that are bad. This is important owing to the fact that you are undertaking a truthful exercise. Consider digging deep down. Uphold utmost honesty. Allow for rediscovery of yourself.

 

After looking at yourself in the mirror, and discovering the person reflected in the mirror. Consider your likes and dislikes. This is vital to allow you identify any potential issues that may help you know the root cause of your likes and dislikes. It will help in prevention of repeating a bad behavior. Keep in mind the fact that failure to focus on your past, you be forced to repeat the same past. Look for the ways you can use to cope with the elements that may be stressing you.

 

Consider the activities that you like doing. Which books do you enjoy reading? What in most cases makes you not tolerate with life? What saddens? For all the answers that you give, provide an explanation. Explore the explanations to depth. 

 

The next exercise is to begin doing a journal. For a whole week, write down all your emotions, actions and thoughts that you might have heard throughout the week. Write down what you do comfortable without much effort but is also very rewarding. A journal is different from a diary in that in it you write personal thoughts and reflections you might have heard. 

Encourage or Fix—What Is Your Style?

Each of us has an approach that we use when people come to us for help with their problems. Some of us like to encourage the person to find the answer within themselves and we stand with them as they put their plans into action and reap the benefits and consequences of choices. Others of us prefer to fix the problem for the person, exploring ideas for plans and actions that will potentially solve problems.

 

Neither style is more beneficial than the other and most people would agree that both styles are necessary qualities. However, as each style affects the way we treat our families, friends and work colleagues, its’ worth knowing which style more clearly emulate in our interpersonal relationships. How do you know if your style is to fix or encourage? Here are some useful things to consider about each style of helping others. 

 

You Like to Help Others by Offering Solutions to Their Problems When They Approach You with Their Problems.

 

Men in general like to fix problems more than listen to others talk about them. Problems need to be fixed and a man using his left sided logic, likes to help develop a plan of action to solve a problem and to seek its resolution by providing solutions.

 

Men and women instinctively want to fix a problem when faced with one, be it their own or someone else’s problem. Many people need and want this help in their lives. Whilst it may not be considered empowering the other person, sometimes life needs create a need in us to find this style of helping. 

 

You Encourage Others to Talk about Their Problems and Help Them to Find Their Own Solutions.

 

If you are the sort of person who likes to encourage your friends and family to talk about their problems and help them create their own solutions you are more likely an encourager than a fixer. Women instinctively do this amongst themselves when they “share” their problems with their friends. Men often do this with each other when they play golf or drink together, or join mentoring groups facilitate talking and sharing. 

 

Most of us use both styles of helping others interchangeably in our lives depending on who we are talking to and what their needs are. Learning to be selective on who we use which style with is a journey of self-reflection and of personal discovery. 

Have You Ever Encountered Yourself?

Actor James Baldwin once said, “I have encountered a lot of people in Europe, I have even encountered myself” It begs the question, have you encountered yourself? To encounter means to meet by surprise or unexpectedly, amongst other meanings. When was the last time you experienced that type of surprise meeting with yourself? 

 

Have you been in a situation where you found out you liked something you didn’t think you would enjoy? Maybe tried a new food, or a new sport. Maybe started a new hobby? When this happens without you orchestrating the situation you are encountering yourself. Many people stay in their comfort zones, and rarely find themselves in a situation where they are challenged by encountering themselves in an unexpected or surprising ways. 

 

As a personal challenge take time to do something different today. Take a walk on the beach or through the forest and use your senses to experience the sights, smells and tastes around you. Walk slowly and keep a journal close. Allow your self-time to experience things you may usually walk past and write down the things that you become aware of. Write about the way they impact you and if they bring back childhood memories or other significant thoughts, write them down as well.

 

If you are taking a journey of self-discovery, encountering yourself is the first step to learning about the person you are. Another meaning of encounter relates to conflict and confrontation. Much of the time we prefer not to confront ourselves and we certainly don’t want to know inner conflict, but for self-discovery to be successful, we must be willing to consider even the inner conflicts we have constantly raging inside us, some more low key than the others. We must be willing to confront the unjustifiable fears and assumptions we make often with no reason. 

 

Our lives can sometimes be like that of a small child who looks at what the food on his plate looks like and decides what he feels about it simply by looking. If it looks good, he will try to eat it, if it looks bad he will tell you he doesn’t like it. We try to encourage children to try food before they say they do not like it. This is the key to self-discovery and personal encounters. Giving ourselves permission to unexpectedly find ourselves and challenge our preconceived ideas.

Knowing Your Real Self

Knowing your real self can be a daunting task. It demands understanding your personal aspirations your emotions and even the spiritual values. It also entails knowing how best to fulfill the requirements you want in life. Self-discovery leads to having a long-lasting peace of mind, happiness and you will tend to be contented. To a very large extent, we are able to acquire knowledge, develop talent and skills in areas that we are comfortable in handling.

 

The first step towards knowing yourself is to look the needs of your soul. It is important to note that we are not just a body but rather we have an inner self that comprises of the soul that also yearns for satisfaction. Research has it that the soul is immortal.

 

You should always aspire to remain connected with yourself and draw attention or move away from distractions that may come from outside. In most cases our attentions are drawn to meeting outward desires and most cases this do not add up. In most cases satisfaction of one of these external desire leads to another one cropping up. In most instances we are busy with the desire to meet needs of the body and this is what makes as loose the self. Taking time to meditate will help you realize and know yourself better. It is a practice that can help us discover ourselves better.

 

Real self to a large extent remains to be in love with other fellows despite having differences that are external. It gives us glimpses to our inner self. When we cling to what we absolutely love with other individuals. This to a very large helps in discovering of the inner self. Negative emotions to a large extent led to reduction of discovering our inner self.

 

Another thing that will help you discover your real self is through having commitment towards life. It gives a very good opportunity to have a wide picture of life. When we are committed in life, we tend to focus on intangible values like love honesty and sacrifice. We get contented when we love others; make other people be happy, share the worries of others. These activities to a large extent make you know your inner needs.

 

Having a deep insight into you is vital to having a meaningful and reasonable life. It helps add or make a better you.

When You Know What Makes You Happy You Discover True Gold

Do you know what makes you happy? If you do then you have discovered true gold. We are not talking of the momentary flashes of happiness that come when we eat a favorite desert or drive a beautiful car. These will provide temporary happiness but once the dessert is eaten or the car is returned to its owner, the potential is there for the problems that robbed you of your happiness to return. The happiness being discussed here is the happiness that you can take refuge in, that keeps you at peace with yourself and your world, no matter what is going on around you. 

 

Some people find a sense of happiness in their relationship to God. For some, happiness is found in pursuing a new hobby or learning a new sport. Many find roles in life define their happiness. However, are these things really the source of true happiness? They certainly contribute to it, and probably most people use these as their source of true happiness.

 

Self-acceptance is the key to the true gold that helps us to deal with the everyday trials of life. We may express that self-acceptance in our relationship with God, with others or with things in our lives, but unless we accept ourselves first, nothing will truly satisfy us or make us happy for very long. True inner happiness has its roots in who we are and not on what we do to stay happy.

 

Psychologists have long promoted the idea that the greatest love affair we can have is the one we have with ourselves. This love is not self-seeking, self-promoting, or self-focused. It is a love that accepts that we are unique individuals and the problems we face and the struggles we go through have nothing to do with the person on the inside, the person we live with when we are along with our thoughts and ourselves.

 

Even if we hit are hard by whatever rocks our experiences in life may throw at us, they can’t harm the inner person. We can experience that level of true happiness when we learn to love ourselves and see ourselves as the true gold we are. We can find refuge in self-acceptance, knowing that we are not defined by our experiences, but rather we can define our experiences by our reactions to them. 

Discipline Is Important to Attain Spirituality

Discipline is the basis of the whole universe. The Earth, the Sun, the Moon and other planets, all are governed by a set of laws to maintain perfect harmony and beauty. There will be utter chaos without this order. Similarly, discipline is one basic requirement to lead a spiritual and civilized life. Every man has to set certain norms to maintain peace and order within his or her mind. 

 

The strength of a man lies in discipline. It helps him or her to make progress. A man who is of a disciplined nature work in spirit of cooperation with other people. However, discipline does not mean negation of personal liberty. It means a self-imposed discipline. 

 

The importance of discipline in educational institutions is well recognized. A school is such a place that helps children attain spiritualism through the sense of discipline. Some children have the ability to follow this and learn more out this, while others who cannot follow this goes to the category of individuals who cannot hear what their inner soul says. In other words, discipline makes you lead a more organized life, and only when you lead an organized life, you have no confusions in life. A confused person cannot hear what his spirit wants to say, even if he wants to learn the process of hearing it. 

 

Therefore, though discipline may not have direct relation with the attainment of spiritualism, but its indirect relation makes it very important in a person’s life. You will see that if you have disciplines in every sphere of life, you can get success in all the spheres of life. School, political, domestic, professional personal or be it any sphere of life, discipline is the most important thing to attain the level of spiritualism.

 

Discipline though difficult is essential for personal growth as a human being. It helps you to be spiritually inclined, taking you to far-off places. Absence of it can lead to failure, defeat and backwardness. Today in society, it is very important to live in harmony with fellow human beings in a spirit of cooperation and mutual co-existence. If you do attain the level of spiritualism through a sense of discipline, then you cannot exist among others. All this is possible only if every individual follows a personal code of ethics and the one laid by the law for the prosperity of the nation and the progress of the society.

Levels of Meditation in Spirituality

Life is made-up of various sub-sectors with each playing a major in our day-to-day activities. Among them is spirituality which mainly categorizes of the different religions we believe in. There are those that believe in worshiping the moon, others believe in Allah, some believe in God while others even go to an extent of worshipping cows. Whichever the religion, it is still part of spirituality. All in all, different people go about different activities in a bid to improve on their spirituality. Most of these activities are based on meditation. This is basically because it is only through meditation that one can access the inner spiritually realm. As a matter of fact, meditation is said to accelerate one’s progress plus consciousness when it comes to spirituality. 

 

There are four levels of meditation that people use when meditating for spiritual purposes. The first level is simply referred to as the “walking meditation”. Why the name “walking”? This is due to the fact that this particular meditation is mainly aimed at stimulating the physical part and not the spiritual part as many expect. The physical part is as important to the body as the spiritual part is. Were it not for physical strength, then meditation would never have been possible. Basically, it involves the exercises that one does before beginning the actual meditating process. “Walking meditation” mainly involves breathing exercises as well as yoga routines. In addition to this, it also involves various activities such as singing and spiritual rituals such as spinning in the prayer wheel.

 

“Mindfulness meditation” is the second level of meditation. This is where the main meditating process begins with individuals settling down and tapping into their inner spiritual realm. What happens is that people relax and redirect all their energy into concentrating. While doing this, it is important that one stays in a yogic posture so as to strategically position the body in such a way that will facilitate meditation. It is up to the mind to turn that silence into a motionless period in the spiritual realm. The act of being motionless is quite vital for the process since it is believed that even the God-realization mainly includes stillness.  

 

The third stage is “Jyoti” which also means light. This is a phase in which one tends to see light emanating from the spiritual region. One uses the “Third-eye”, located between the eyebrows, to do this. Finally, there is the “Samadi” level. It mainly involves deep contemplation which is basically the climax. One gets elevated into the highest spiritual realm and feels the very radiant inner light. 

Marks of Spiritual Enlightenment according to Frances Vaughan

Frances Vaughan is one of the most renowned authors in the world. In addition to this, she is also a psychologist and an educator in the county of Marin. As a matter of fact, she is a member of the Fetzer Institute. Currently, she stands as the trustee of the institute. Fetzer has written several books based on different topics. However, she has specialized in the transpersonal psychology field. She discusses the various elements of the inner and even speaks of various spiritual traditions practiced by members of different religions. Frances is even a writer in various periodical publications such as the Fetzer Institute Newsletter. 

 

One of the areas that Vaughan has really emphasized in is spirituality. In most of her writings, Frances emphasizes on the need to be spiritually enlightened stating that it highly contributes to the general growth of the whole you. In fact, she has even come up with a list of items that mark spiritual enlightenment in an individual. Basically, these are the marks through which one can identify the level of spiritual enlightenment. 

 

The first mark basically relies on how one presents him or herself. In this case, one should be having that spirit in him or her that helps them consider the rest as well as themselves. In Lehman’s language, this is what we call being considerate. Being aware of those around you plus their relationships and also self-awareness are the characteristics the presentation of a spiritually enlightened individual. 

 

Another mark of spiritual enlightenment is the emotional self. How do you relate to the rest emotionally? Do you tend to be judgmental? Are you easily angered? If the answer is yes, then you are not spiritually enlightened. For a spiritually enlightened individual, anger should be replaced with forgiveness and judgment replaced with compassion. Generally, one should have that empathetic identity in him or her. 

 

Finally, motivation is a key mark in spiritual enlightenment. This refers to the inner or spiritual motivation. There are various characteristics of an individual that is spiritual motivated. To start with, one is normally full of wisdom. There is not even the slightest sign of ignorance in the individual. Secondly, the individual tends to replace fear with love. This brings about a sense f inner peace no matter the situation he or she is in. Finally, the individual is completely. This is liberation from all the earthly bondages such as addictions. With these characteristics, then it is a guarantee that you are spiritually enlightened. 

Reading Is a Way to Attain Spiritualism

Reading is a very rewarding leisure time activity. It is to the mind what food is to the body. It is a blessing for modern educated man who feels crushed under the pressure of daily life. Books provide an excellent means of diversion from day-to-day tensions. There are books to suit every taste and temperament. The quantity and quality of reading material is so enormous that anybody who is fond of reading is likely to find something that interests him or her. 

 

There are books on all subjects. The variety and number of periodicals are equally amazing. Modern man who is hard pressed finds magazines and journals immensely useful. He often complains that there is no line to read a book. However, a magazine can be picked up and glanced through even if one has limited time. 

 

Great books are a constant source of strength and inspiration. The Bible, the Gita, the Ramayana, the Koran, etc., are books, which provide comfort and solace to a disturbed person. These are books, which have enriched human soul. Anybody who spends a few minutes a day to read any of these books will confess to the amount of peace and joy he has derived from them. Such books are perennial and contain the wisdom of wise men down the ages. 

 

A well-chosen book is certainly the best of companions. The person who derives pleasure from reading does not feel lonely and bored. He is quite content to be left alone with his favorite book and indulge in the luxury of enjoying it in solitude. A book lover considers book his best friend and is generally possessive of them. In fact, one can depend on a book as much as on a good friend. Reading is such a satisfying pastime that any person who has it as a hobby feels enriched and content. It stimulates the mind and nurtures the soul. This nurturing of the soul leads to spiritualism that is very important to attain in one’s life in order to achieve pure success. 

 

Reading in a way relaxes the mind out the tensions of your everyday life. However, books on murder or detective books do not help you to alleviate stress but books mentioned above can help immensely. Therefore, if you want to attain spiritualism, then read more and more inspirational books in solace and understand the hidden meaning and underlying truths of life written in them.

Understanding the Concept of Spiritual Enlightenment

Enlightenment is frequently misunderstood as a goal or a state of mind that you ought to reach to be completely spiritual. The impression of enlightenment is diverse and it offers great perceptions to our lives in terms of our spiritual paths. The very first enlightenment is about a higher awareness. This simply means having the knowledge that there is something higher and beyond the normal daily awareness. It is about recognizing that you are not just a physical being with the occasional spiritual experiences but you in fact have a human experience which will be very helpful in terms of being able to see past the ordinary daily hustles and bustles that burden people up. Through turning your thoughts to God, your thoughts automatically become aware of God’s presence.

 

The very second insight is being able to accept the world as it is and understanding it is the way it is because that’s just why it is that way. Enlightenment is described as the quiet acceptance of everything. When you get to know and understand that everything that happens is according to a divine law then you will be aware of the fact that things do not just randomly happen and that there are no mistakes. 

 

Humans tend to rely on perfection a lot, we like it when everything should turn out just perfect and when things don’t work out, we get mad and awfully curse. The truth is that beneath our low perceptions there is something much bigger that is working that is why the wise remain at peace despite of a great challenge that faces them. Maybe when things don’t seem to be working for you maybe there is something else that is working.

 

The very final one and the most crucial one is having the inner peace. It may have very little value in our culture but every time you are at peace, you are highly enlightened. With a sense of inner peace, you are truly happy and content with yourself. It is at this time when your mind is calm, you are connected to God. It is said with the inner peace, there is an inner connection with God. Inner havoc suffocates your spirit and is responsible for the wall around your consciousness that prevents you from living from your higher self and from seeing life with a greater sense of clarity. Enlightenment is within our reach; it is not something we attain but rather something you connect with. It is simply being connected with God.