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 »

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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.

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.

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.

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.

The optimal way of development is by alternating between comfort and stretch, whilst avoiding stress.

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 »

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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.

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 »

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