InnerSelf

by Brooks Palmer. I’ve noticed that a number of recent self-improvement books use the phrase becoming a better you. The problem with trying to be a “better you” is the implication that you are not okay now. It also presumes that there’s an objective standard of okayness. Often we want to be “better” so that...

by Napoleon Hill. People who do not succeed have one distinguishing trait in common. They know all the reasons for failure, and have what they believe to be airtight alibis to explain away their own lack of achievement. As you read the list, examine...

by Agapi Stassinopoulos. For years, I looked at myself through the prism of trying to “fix” myself. It was subtle, out of sight, like a current underneath the smooth surface of a river, but it was altering the flow of my life...

by Mary Hayes Grieco. There is a nearly universal form of perfectionism hard-wired into human nature. It is the belief that we are “falling short” of what we should be. It is the habit of feeling somewhat disappointed in ourselves. Here's how we can move past this...

by Keith Johnson.

Rather than comparing ourselves to others or competing against others, author Keith Johnson suggests "Focus on becoming your personal best. Compete with yourself by becoming your best; then compare against only yourself." 

by Alan Cohen.

A number of years ago I went on an intense lecture tour that left me feeling exhausted. The last event of the trip was a full-day workshop, and as I pulled myself out of bed that morning to get ready for the seminar, I wondered how I would gather the energy to present a decent program. When I arrived at the venue, I...

by Marie T. Russell. Hero worship has existed "forever"... it seems that humans have a need to worship someone or something "greater than" themselves. Whether we choose to worship an external God figure (like a saint), or a hero figure from a comic strip or movie, or the movie stars themselves, the concept is the same. We look up to someone "better than us" or...

Whenever you live something consciously it never becomes a loaded thing on you. If you go to the market to purchase something and you move consciously, walk consciously, purchase the thing consciously, with full remembrance, mindfully come back home, this will never be a part of your memory. If you want to remember it, you can remember it, but it will not be constantly forcing your attention towards it...

by Marie T. Russell. A question that often arises is "How do we know what is right for us?" How do we find our 'proper' place in life, whether we are talking about employment, living location, vacation spot, etc? It seems that whatever the question, the solution is always the same...

by Marie T. Russell. One hears a lot about nurturing... nurturing one's self, nurturing loved ones, children, etc. I have been advised many times in my life to pay more attention to myself, and to nurture myself. Not feeling too clear at one time about what that meant (since I had never learned how to nurture myself), I asked...

Ask yourself, "Who do I pretend to be?" Sometimes we become so immersed in who we think we are -- or who others imagine us to be -- that we begin to identify with the mask that we wear as we weave our way through the world, Psychologist Carl Jung called this mask the persona. If we come to believe that we are our mask, then...

by John Welshon, So many of our problems arise from a fundamental disconnection with our own awareness, our own wisdom, and the natural world. Once we disconnect ourselves from what we know, and what is real, we are free to careen headlong into...

My eight-year-old neighbor Mark keeps me on my toes. Mark asks lots of questions, which I am sometimes tempted to dismiss as childish. But when I think about them, I usually discover a profound lesson. The other day Mark asked me for a ride to the local grocery store...

"He makes me want to be a better person." As I reflected on this statement later, I realized that this is the best compliment anyone could ever hope to receive. Just think about your own life... Think of the reactions and comments you may have made about others...

by Alan Cohen. It is not so important how much we give; it is how we give that counts. If you have a lot, but offer a little, you have given little. If you have a little, but give it all, you have given much. Our actions are real not for their outer...

by Louise Hay. You'll never have good self-esteem if you have negative thoughts about yourself. Self-esteem is merely feeling good about yourself, and when you do so, you develop confidence. Confidence then builds self-esteem -- each step feeds upon the other...

by Alan Cohen. It is easy to be seduced by the idea that how things turn out is more important than what happens in the process. The real question is not "How did it turn out?" The question is, "What happened to your spirit as you journeyed?"

I woke up this morning to grey skies. My first thought was "Uh, a grey rainy day!" It came to me that perhaps I would be best served when I wake up in the morning to find just one good thing about the day... that the rain had stopped, that the weather was warm even if damp, that I had the leisure of taking a morning walk... So many things to be grateful for!

Most people have some physical symptom that signals them that they are starting to run down their batteries. A sore throat, headache, or hemorrhoid flare-up is the universe's way of alerting you that you are getting stressed. Instead of working harder or overriding the symptom with a drug, step back and regroup...

by Gus Fowler.

Losers visualize the penalties of failure. Winners visualize the rewards of success. Today, we are going to talk about creative visualization, that is, the technique of using your imagination to create what you want in your life. There is nothing new, strange, or unusual about creative visualization. You are already...

Have any of you noticed that sometimes when you try to create something, certain obstacles will come up which question exactly what you're trying to create? I've wondered if this is some kind of test, you know, to see how bad I really want the creation.

by Kathleen Norris.

When I began using computers during the 1970s, I noticed they were influencing me in unexpected ways, especially with regard to my sense of time. In a matter of days I went from marveling at the speed with which the computer could complete bookkeeping tasks I used to labor over, to snarling at the stupid...

One of the teachings that is emphasized by many teachers is that of acceptance. Accepting what is. What exactly does that mean? Does it mean accepting the way things are? Well, yes it does. It is an impartial observation: I see how this is, I acknowledge that this is so. Yet, does it mean that nothing can change?

The thing about sequels is that they rarely measure up to the original. Like movies, there are two ways to live a life: hiding out in history, or dancing on the cutting edge. History is safe, but reeks of regularity. The cutting edge seems scary, but it bestows life...

Least effort is expended when your actions are motivated by love, because nature is held together by the energy of love. When you seek power and control over other people, you waste energy. But when your actions are motivated by love, there is no waste of energy. When your actions are motivated by love, your energy multiplies and accumulates.

It is no accident that you are working in your present organization or that you are working with and for the people you do. All of this has been arranged by you -- by your Higher Self -- to give you as many opportunities as possible to learn and to grow spiritually.

by Matthew Fox. Where does our hope lie? Where shall we ground ourselves for continuing on and changing our ways radically? Creativity can redeem and save our species. I agree with Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés that all women and men are born gifted. All we need to do is release this creativity, get out of its way, as M. C. Richards used to say.

by Daisaku Ikeda.

Words which contain a reference to good and evil have become degraded, especially those which refer to the good -- not only courage but also effort, patience, love and hope -- are met with cynicism and indifference. Unless we boldly confront cynicism and indifference, we cannot make fundamental and effective responses.

We all want to leave our children a better world than the one we found. The greatest legacy you can bestow is joy, which is a choice you can make right now. If you wait until the world changes to let your light shine, your dream will wither and die. Make your joy conditional on nothing outside you and on everything inside you...

by Richard Carlson.

Human beings have essentially two modes or mind-sets that we operate or live in, with, of course, some shades of gray in between. We have what you might call a healthy mode, and another, which you can think of as reactive. When we are in our healthiest state of mind, we 'dance' with life. We're...

by Lillian Too. Stress comes from anxiety, fear, guilt, and pressure. Stress causes headaches, earaches, toothaches, chest pains, palpitations, skin rashes, and butterflies in the stomach. Stress makes us hold our breath or breathe unevenly, gives us indigestion and diarrhea, or causes constipation. Stress leads to...

Ever heard the saying "3 steps forward and two steps back"? Of course you have! Well there's more than that. All universal activity, including human endeavor, occurs in excess and must be corrected. We must remember that one's life is expanding in an upward or positive fashion, but always with a series of setbacks to correct our excesses. It is this "natural" progression that we describe as "three steps forward and two steps back".

by Ed Rubenstein. Any moment in which we are unaware and out of balance and harmony, then we are in trance. When we are feeling superior and feel justified in our judgments, we are in trance. When we feel inferior or unworthy, we are in trance. Streams of past, future, or worrisome thoughts that surface...

Some of our fears are so slight, or come up so rarely, that we ignore them for the most part. Yet, all our fears are with us constantly whether or not we acknowledge their presence. They reside in our subconscious and create havoc in our life. Whether your fear is of death or of cockroaches, that fear runs your life.

As human beings, we seem to have developed a tendency to look outside of ourselves for the solutions to our problems. When we encounter a challenge or difficulty in our life, we run to someone else for the solution... While it is not good to develop a dependency on others, these people can help...

When something is taking place that is not in complete harmony, ask yourself one simple question. "Where is this coming from?" Keep repeating the question and take it step by step until you get to the "bottom line" -- a basic belief you hold which is instrumental in creating your reactions (and your reality).

by Michael Sky. Emotional suppression sometimes serves a useful, even essential purpose. When suffering a severe traumatic injury, for example. Yet while emotional suppression may sometimes serve a useful purpose, inhibiting the free flow of emotional energies over the course of a lifetime causes serious...

by Bud Harris, Ph.D. Using the word consciousness in any discussion can be confusing because it's a word used to mean so many things. As Jung defines it, consciousness is the perception of a relationship between a subject (my ego) and something else that's either outside of me or part of my inner world. Becoming conscious, in the Jungian sense, requires a committed effort to know ourselves, but this effort rewards us with a sense of energy, assurance, and peace.

The first among the six perfections is generosity. Generosity is of three types: giving material aid, giving dharma, and protecting from fear. 'Giving dharma' refers to the giving of teachings to other sentient beings out of the pure motivation to benefit them. Giving away one's own possessions without even the slightest touch of miserliness and without any hope for reward is part of the practice of generosity...

I had arrived at my first powwow. As I sat listening to the drums I couldn't help but wonder... Did I have the strength to align myself with the power of the eagle? The courage necessary to take on the responsibility of becoming so much more than I thought I could be? The integrity to accept a powerful new dimension in my life?