Photo by malias

Has this ever happened to you? You start thinking about someone you haven’t seen in years. Next moment you see them walking towards you. Or you remember a long-lost friend.  Then the phone rings and you find that it’s her or him on the line!
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Carl Jung called such experiences synchronicity. In his research he noticed that some occurences were connected in such a meaningful way that they seemed to defy the laws of probability. There are many different explanations for synchronicity. Most theories one of three explanations:
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1. Synchronicity is connected to our psychic abilities. This means that we can intuit when a certain person is going to ring us, or is walking towards us. This is why we start thinking about them.
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2.  Mysterious affinity: Certain people, objects and happenings are connected to each other. Sychronicity make these connections visible.
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3. The mind can manifest objects and happenings. This theory has been expanded into the ‘Law of Attraction”. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by kk+
All self development - whether it’s getting fitter, or learning new skills - follows the same three principles: comfort, stretch, and stress. This theory was developed by two psychologists, Andy Ryan and Dawna Markova.
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Comfort is the realm of our ingrained habits. Stress happens when the challenge is so great that we feel overwelmed. Stretch is the zone in which true change happens.
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I experience these three principles of development each time I go to a yoga class. If I stay in the comfort zone, my body remains as it is, and I don’t develop flexibility, strength, and balance. If I force my stretches, I am apt to sustain injuries. It is in the mid range where I stretch further than is comfortable, that sustained change happens.
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The comfort zone has its own importance. For example, it’s important to hold a stretch and relax into it until it feels comfortable. Only then should one enter the stretch zone once more in order to lengthen  muscles and ligaments.
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The optimal way of development is by alternating between comfort and stretch, whilst avoiding stress.
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The stretch zone can feel uncomfortable because the new skills or behaviours feel strange and awkward. Dawna Markova says: Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Ellhoisa

What’s your mission in life? Do you feel that your life has a special purpose?

I think every life has a meaning. But it’s hidden. If we never find it, we may feel that we’ve missed our life.

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Luckily, there is a pointer that can reveal our purpose in life. This pointer is passion. Passion is a central power of the soul. Finding our passion means connecting all the parts of our being and feeling the special energy that can transform our life.
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Steve Pavlina - who is arguably the most successful personal development blogger on the Internet with more than 2 million visitors to his site each month - has written some fascinating articles about finding the purpose of life.  He said in a post named Passion vs Self-discipline:
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Passion is simply an emotional state, and a temporary and unstable one at that. The reason passion gets so much credit is that it helps motivate action. And action is what generates results.
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I don’t agree with Steve Pavlina on this point. And he himself wrote in another article:

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Passion and purpose go hand in hand. When you discover your purpose, you will normally find it’s something you’re tremendously passionate about.

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True passion is a wellspring of energy that drives our life, and aligns it with our ultimate purpose.

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There is a lovely ancient word for ‘life purpose’. It is the word ‘calling’. A calling is an inner urge to pursue an activity or perform a service. We are called to develop to our highest human potential.

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One my readers wrote to me recently and asked:
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“Does my mission have to be huge? Does it have to change the world?”

I answered, “No. It just has to change your world, your future, and your life.”
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The purpose of life can be found in unexpected ways, as the following story of Yarra Amoroso shows.
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Yarra - a talented artist who was struck down with Multiple Sclerosis at age thirty-two - found her purpose of life as she was lying helpless in hospital after a severe attack related to MS. At that time she spoke the following into a dictaphone:

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“The strongest thing that kept coming was, “What a blessed life!” I was just dissolved into gratitude. I would never have guessed in my thoughts or visualisation, ‘Aha, this is why I came. This is it: I came for gratitude!’”

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Yarra discovered that gratitude was her purpose in life! And she focussed on that purpose until she finally died eleven years later. She had a profound effect on all who knew her. A family member wrote after her death: Read the rest of this entry »