Humans are ever-changing beings and the key to personal growth and development is awareness.

You know how you look at yourself in the mirror every day and don’t really see any changes until they’re too distinct to miss, but then you bump into someone who hasn’t seen you in years and she comments on how you look?

Well, the same could be true in realizing how you’ve grown spiritually, or in terms of your thought processes, attitudes, behaviours.

Human beings are not static entities. We are ever evolving, growing, and developing

Or at least many humans are. I guess there are those who have no interest in growing or changing or evolving, and will continue to do the same thing day in day out, think the same thoughts, learn nothing new, exhibit the same behaviours, watch the same TV shows, drink the same brand of beer.

But for the rest of us, expanding our consciousness, trying something new, stretching ourselves to see how far we can reach, reading new books, changing our perspective, and enriching our lives and our relationships could be an exciting part of life.

The key to personal growth and development is awareness

If we aren’t aware of something, how can we change it? If we take one step back from ourselves and others, and just observe, we will see so much and can choose to correct, refine, celebrate, or continue doing what we see.

As with anything, there are gauges that show us things

A gauge that we have gained weight is when our clothes are too tight. A gauge that we might need some exercise is when our bones creak when we get up from the sofa in the TV room. A gauge that we have grown spiritually is when we respond differently, more constructively to a situation.

Internal gauges are very exciting. This “internal locus of control” is vital as it detaches us from the opinions and perspectives of others. So, we can be our own gauge regarding our personal growth and development.

We can set our own targets about our own development, and track our progress through the gauges we choose. This is great because in turn it increases our awareness so we don’t continue going through life asleep or living by default.

Another gauge is when we come into contact with the world and can determine the extent of our progress and changes in “real time”.

Sometimes we don’t really know how far we have come until we are with people who might well have had incredible life-changing experiences in the interim years, but when we see them years later, they are engaging in behaviours that are no longer a part of our life. And that’s when we have more evidence that we have progressed, and how much further we can or need to go.

All this growth and development and awareness and observing ourselves and others, needn’t become a heavy chore. It should be fun and enjoyable, and when something is fun and enjoyable we tend to want to do more of it. Not so?

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About the author

Beba Papakyriakou (BA; BA Honours Psychology)

Beba Papakyriakou is an international business owner and published author, with two psychology degrees. She is very closely involved with child abuse organisations, has been on national TV, and has handed over copyright of one of her books to a non-profit organisation for their use and fund-raising.

She has been working towards raising her own vibrations and those of people around her.

Writing is one of her passions and she believes that finding expression through writing often leads one towards wholeness. (And fun!)

Writing site: www.houseofbeesting.com financially fuelled by International Business interests www.c-success-b-success.com/promo