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In my last post I covered 3 ways to greater happiness:
- Personal development.
- Building relationships.
- Serving others.
These are pretty large categories, so I also included some suggestions for achieving each of these giddy-getting goals:
- Heal your wounds.
- Fill your well.
- Find your purpose.
- Connect and make friends.
- Share joys and sorrows.
- Have fun.
- Share your gifts.
- Volunteer some of your time.
- Help those in need.
Today, I’m covering strategies to accomplish the first 3 suggestions, which all help you on the road to ongoing personal development:
- Heal your wounds.
- Fill your well.
- Find your purpose.
Healing your wounds can be a monumental task. You first need to realize you have wounds to heal and assess them for depth and severity.
It’s like emotional triage.
Don’t get caught up on what caused the wounds. When you over-analyze the causes, we find excuses for the effects.
Just acknowledge you have wounds (we all do) and figure out how to best heal. Maybe it’s through talk therapy – and that could just be talking with a friend or trusted confidante who can lend a listening ear.
Maybe you’d respond well to bodywork, yoga, or somatic therapy, as it’s well-known our emotional traumas get trapped in our bodies and physicality.
I’ve cried like a baby in a yoga class after going through something traumatic and emotional – and it felt so good afterward.
You may need to work with a specialist, a healing group, or read some books and journal the heck out of things.
But, whatever you do, work it out.
Acknowledge. Heal. And love yourself throughout the whole process.
Without this vital healing, you won’t be as prepared as you can be to receive the gifts of enlightenment, love, and learning that come through personal development work.
There are so many different ways to optimize your life.
Dedicating yourself to developing great habits, behaviors, thoughts, and emotional states will lead to greater happiness, but healing the wounds that keep you in a perpetual loop of loss, anxiety, depression, or sadness must come first.
Next, it’s time to fill your well.
The wounds that took up places in your heart, mind, and body need to be replaced with self-love and self-care. Like healing, this can look different and is as varied as we are, as a human race.
- It could look like you learning to say no.
- It could look like you taking on a new skill.
- It could look like you traveling by yourself somewhere.
- It could look like you starting an exercise regimen.
- It could look like you leaving the job hate.
Filling your
Sadly, too many people think this is selfish behavior. Don’t be one of those people. Without giving to yourself and showing yourself love, you can’t be there for others in the way you want.
Lastly, it’s time to focus on your purpose.
Figuring out your purpose is one thing. Applying it in a realistic way is another. If you want to live and work in your purpose, you need to find the commonality (the intersection) within 4 important areas.
First, write a list of answers to these 2 questions and see if there’s anything common to both lists:
- What do you love to do?
- What are you great at?
Next, think about the common things, and answer these 2 questions:
- Could you get paid for it?
- Does the world need it?
When you think of purpose in this way, you are addressing not only what you’re passionate about, but what could also be a profession, vocation, and mission in your life. You’ll know you’ve found your purpose when it doesn’t feel much like work. When you’re focused on it, you feel empowered and alive.
You find joy and excitement in it. You feel in your groove.
Personal development is a lifelong pursuit and one that will lead to greater happiness when you focus on what works best for you. There is no one answer for everyone.
Your path to healing, the ways you fill your well, and the purpose you choose to embody and manifest are all your own.
Greater happiness is your right and can be better achieved through a focus on personal development.
The only other thing you need to do is realize you’re worth it.
Share your questions and comments below and tune in next time to discuss the area of building relationships and how that contributes to greater happiness!
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