Self Development and How to be a Winner in life...

By: Stephen, Thu Oct 21st, 2010
Self development experts say that your actions are a true reflection of your thinking. This is to say that your attitude matters a lot. Personal attitude makes all the difference between a winner in life and a loser. It is further said that you can change anything and everything if you change your mind set. What the mind has decided the body cannot defy.
Hence you must never doubt yourself if you want to achieve self development. Failure is the reward for those who have the audacity to demean themselves. If you do not value and respect yourself then no one will respect you. Thus your first step in becoming a winner in life is by admiring your strengths and knowing that you deserve the good things in life.
Nevertheless, confidence and self-assurance are not in themselves adequate. You need to have a plan of action, a strategy for attaining self development. Careful planning, rationality and creativity are the irreplaceable ingredients required at every facet of life in order to achieve success in life. Not forgetting to take action in whatever you set to do.
Many people fail because of not taking action. Therefore, if you have a vision and a good plan remember to strategize on how you are going to act on it. As the say "Procrastination is the thief of time". Hence you will need to do what you can today and not tomorrow if you are to attain self development. In reality 'tomorrow' never comes.
In any case, the best preparation for tomorrow is by doing your best today and with the available resources. Also failure comes sooner to those who wait for the perfect opportunities since they will never come.
To be a winner in life is really therefore a matter of knowing what you want and going right for it. Never hesitate to seize an opportunity; you might pay with your life thus the secret of self development.
Read more Self Motivating articles by following the links below.
About the Author:
Stephen contributes content on his wisdom and experience on Self Development that will definitely add value to your life. Visit his Inspirational and Motivational Website at Self Improvement Tips and start living a purposeful life.

To be a winner in life and not waste it, you are ideally also working with your spiritual guidance and according to your life's blueprint. Are you aware of the fact that you have one? Find out more on my website, http://www.tolovegod.com

Of dreams, spirituality and the I Ching...

By: Kathleen Falken, Wed Jan 17th, 2007

Jung began with Dream Interpretation and the study of Mythology and went beyond those with studies of Spirituality that are only now being seen for their profound insight and importance to all of us.

"The further we delve into the origins of a Collective Image (or, to express it in ecclesiastical language, of a dogma), the more we uncover a seeming unending web of archetypal patterns that, before modern times, were never the object of conscious reflection. Thus, paradoxically enough, we know more about mythological symbolism than did any generation before our own. The fact is that in former times men did not reflect upon their symbols; they LIVED them and were unconsciously animated by their meaning." -Carl G Jung

It was Carl Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961) who intensified the modern understanding of Eternal Symbols. Jung knew that the greatest study was of the PSYCHE ("Psyche" means "spirit" and "soul" and "mind" and it is this sense that, to us, Dream Study is central to the discovery of all three: Spirit, Soul and Mind).

Jung taught about the importance of dreams. Out of his exploration came the revelation that each of us has his or her own Personal Mythology -- both a part of and separate from the Collective Mythology.

Jung uncovered the characters and story-lines that make up our dreams. He told us of Heroes and hero makers, the archetypes of Initiation and Transcendence, the Shadow within each of us, the Anima (the Feminine) and Animus (the Masculine) -- and the Wise Old One. Jung admitted that it was always in him to grow up to play the Wise Old Man. There are worse role one can play.

Although best known for his influence on psychotherapy and dream study, Jung also studied Spirituality and brought to it his gift of profound insight.

In "Transformation in the Mass." Jung concluded:

"The Mass thus contains, as its essential core, the mystery and miracle of God's transformation taking place in the human sphere, his becoming Man, and his return to his absolute existence in and for himself. Man, too, by his devotion and self-sacrifice as a ministering instrument, is included in the mysterious process. God's offering of himself is a volentary act of Love, but the actual sacrifice was an agonizing and bloody death brought about by men... The terrors of death on the Cross are an indispensable condition for transformation. This is in the first place a bringing to life of substances which are in themselves lifeless, and, in the second, a substantial alteration of them, a Spiritualization, in accordance with the ancient conception of PNEUMA as a subtle material entity... This idea is expressed in the concrete participation in the body and blood of Christ in the Communion."

In his Forward to the "I CHING, or Book of Changes" Jung said:

"The ancient Chinese mind contemplates the cosmos in a way comparable to that of the modern physicist, who cannot deny that his model of the world is a decidedly psychophysical structure. The microphysical even includes the observer just as much as the reality underlying the I CHING comprises subjective, i.e. psychic, conditions in the totality of the momentary situation... The I CHING does not offer itself with proofs and results; it does not vaunt itself, nor is it easy to approach. Like a part of nature, it waits until it is discovered. It offers neither facts nor power, but for lovers of self-knowledge, of Wisdom -- if there be such -- it seems to be the right book. To one person its spirit appears as clear as day; to another, as shadowy as twilight; to a third, dark as night. He who is not pleased by it, and he who is against it is not obliged to find it true. Let it go forth into the world for the benifit of those who can discern its meaning."

In his Commentary on the "BARDO THODAL: the Tibetan Book of the Dead," Jung said:

"The Soul is assuredly not small, but the radiant Godhead itself. The West finds this statement either very dangerous, if not downright blasphemous, or else accepts it unthinkingly and then suffers from a theosophical inflation. Somehow we always have a wrong attitude to these things. But if we can master ourselves far enough to refrain from our chief error of always wanting to DO something with things and put them to practical use, we may perhaps succeed in learning an important lesson from these teachings, or at least in appreciating the greatness of the BARDO THODOL, which vouchsafes to the dead man the ultimate and highest truth, that even the gods are the radiance and reflection of our own souls. No sun is therefore eclipsed for the Oriental as it would be for the Christian, who would feel robbed of his God; on the contrary, his soul is the light of the Godhead, and the Godhead is the soul. The East can sustain this paradox better..."

Jung's exploration of the emerging New Spirituality was intensified with a dream...

At age 69, Jung suffered a heart attack. While unconscious, he had a vivid dream: "Far below I saw the globe of the Earth, bathed in a gloriously blue light. Far below my feet lay Ceylon... I knew that I was on the point of departing from the Earth. The sight of the Earth from this height was the most glorious thing I have ever seen. I had the feeling that everything was being sloughed away. Everything I aimed at or wished for or thought, the whole phantasmagoria of earthly existence fell away or was stripped from me -- an extremely painful process..." But it was then in his dream that he saw his personal physician who told Jung that he had been sent from those of Earth "to tell me there was a protest against my going away. Profoundly disappointed -- now I must return to the 'Box System' again."

Jung came to and continued to contribute to his fascinating studies for another 17 years.

It was Jung's major contributions in the studies of Myth, Dreams and Spirituality that helped us see that we don't have to live in the Box System. That by exploring and embracing the New Spirituality, by learning first from our own dreams, then by seeing the wisdom in the dreams of our fellows, that our lives on Earth can go outside the Box.

Do you dream?

What do your dreams tell you?

Do you follow their advice?

A matter of becoming still

By: John Harricharan, Thu Apr 19th, 2007

When I was much younger, I thought that education would be the answer to all my problems, so I went about obtaining degrees. I collected a good number of them including a summa cum laude degree in chemistry and mathematics, and an MBA among others. But I found that my education, even though it helped tremendously, did not bring real satisfaction. So I put the certificates and diplomas in the bathroom under glass and wrote, "Break in Case of Emergency."

Then I started working for Fortune 500 companies and became intrigued with those who frequented the boardrooms of power and fame. And though a part of me was fascinated, thrilled and even enjoyed the trappings of power, there was something that was missing, which I couldn't put my finger on. My heart and spirit were crying out for something that I couldn't find in major corporations.

Still searching for the "Holy Grail" I became an entrepreneur and built a very successful, multi-national business with offices in the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, India and the United Kingdom. Life seemed good. I traveled the world, wined and dined with leaders of industry and even leaders of countries. I was treated as a prince, but still it all felt empty and useless.

Wherever I sought for peace and prosperity and happiness, I'd find prosperity without the peace or I'd discover abundance without the happiness. Finally, one day, as I sat on my wife's deathbed (she was only in her thirties when she died), it became clear to me that my happiness, peace and prosperity were not dependent on anything external, but on that which was within me, that which had always been with me from my very first day on Earth.

So I started to look within me and discovered a wonderland beyond imagination. I realized that the one spiritual practice more important than all the others that could bring me peace, happiness and prosperity was the practice of going into the "silence" deep within me. Some call it meditation or prayer, others refer to it as contemplation or centering oneself. I do not know what it should be called, but I think of it as the "silence".

In the great silence within, I become renewed, refreshed and excited to face the physical world. When I return from my moments of silence or meditation, I feel great waves of joy. I feel peaceful, secure and safe. Perhaps in the depths of my being, there is a place of beautiful silence where I meet my Creator and where I find renewal of body, mind and spirit. Perhaps true success and peace emanate from this silent sanctuary.

Many years ago, I wrote the following: "Whenever problems seem to get the best of me, whenever I feel them closing in on me, I go to a quiet place that lies somewhere in my soul. I do not reason, analyze or think. Those will come later. I simply go.

From this place of silence, I garner strength and inspiration to stand firm in the face of fire, to be calm in the midst of thunder. When I emerge, the world has not changed, but I have. And in changing, a whole new world is born." I find that is as true today as when I first wrote it or thought it. Success, whichever way we define it, whether by money standards, health or happiness standards, is not a game of chance. It springs from deep within us, from our deepest thoughts and beliefs. It has to do with our fears and hopes and it flows eternally from our spiritual center of gravity.

Go into the silence within you. Try to do so a number of times each day. Let your true self speak to you. Listen to the "still, small voice", which is always there. You will find calm, peace and prosperity unknown in ordinary times. You'll find a new and joyous path opening ahead of you and you'll be delighted in the glorious adventures that await around the corner.