Following on from my newsletter last week – I’d like to introduce Arianne who is a working Mum at P.S. Life Can Be Easy with two grown up boys. I have invited her to be a guest writer on this week’s blog. Here she describes how her life changed and improved after she became involved with personal development.
What does personal development mean to me? Well it has been quite a large part of my life for the past seven years. Obviously I can only talk about the benefits I feel I have gained from assessing my life. It is not always easy or comfortable to take a look at ourselves, but if we wish to progress positively in life, this can be wonderfully freeing.
My first experience of personal development was going on a course where ‘Big breakthroughs’ were guaranteed. Now I don’t know about you but I didn’t really understand what ‘big breakthroughs’ were and anyway that was something other people experienced, not me – or so I thought!
After all I was happily married with two wonderful sons and a successful business, so to be honest why was I going along to a personal development day? Well I did wonder if there was more to life than running after children, a business, a home and friends and still feeling slightly dissatisfied with life. What was there for Me and why did I feel like this when I had so much? I even felt guilty asking the question.
Am I glad I did go! First of all I realised that I was not the only person in the room who was in a similar position to me but also these people were looking/searching for something without necessarily knowing what that was. It was a relief to know I was in like-minded company.
I was aware I had ‘stuff’ going on in my life that gave me a certain amount of stress but I thought that this was normal. A lot of my peers were the same. It was quite acceptable to be rushing around like a ‘headless chicken’ trying to juggle everything and ending up exhausted by the end of the week. It was quite ‘normal’ to have a few glasses of wine on a Friday night to ‘wind down’ and relax. What was wrong with that?
I was reacting to what was happening in my life instead of taking charge and creating the life only my dreams could imagine.
Now, back to the course. I remember the very first exercise we had to do was to write our goals/dreams down in our manuals. I found this really, really challenging to do. I always felt guilty about asking for anything, for me. BHAM! That thought/feeling hit me like a ton of bricks – my first big breakthrough!
I never felt worthy enough to receive things and so shied away from asking. This was a deeply running program that I had just unearthed. I then realised that for most of my life I had stopped myself from really moving forward for myself as I had always held myself back through feelings of shyness, reticence or reluctance.
Since that moment I have attended courses, read lots of books and developed myself into a calmer, focused and more enlightened person. I now make time for me, without feeling guilty and because of this, everything else slots into place, easily. I fit more into my day, without feeling hassled and stressed; at the end of the day I have achieved everything I set out to do and more, effortlessly. But the most beneficial feeling I have gained is that I am happy and fulfilled being me! One of my favourite quotes is:
“You are never alone if you love the person you are alone with”
This is what inspired me to help develop P.S. Life Can Be Easy as I have benefited so much from personal development that I want to share the benefits with others.
Life can be easy if you apply the tools and techniques.
I look forward to writing to you next time.
Arianne
