The road to personal development can be full of road blocks. We tend to live in our minds, not our hearts. Self help programs tout the importance of positive thinking, and certainly positive thinking is a powerful component of spiritual health. The problem most of us face is we don’t use our hearts. Your heart knows no limitations. It’s your mind that gets in the way. It uses filters that prevent you from pursuing your heart’s desires.

Go Beyond Positive Thinking

Consider your list of must do tasks. Things you promise to do for others. They might be unpleasant things, expensive or time consuming, things you don’t enjoy. Positive thinking won’t make you enjoy the tasks. But if you are manifesting the things you want in your life, your must do tasks won’t be a burden.

If your must dos live in your mind, you probably dread them. But if they come from your heart, you enjoy them, or at least the rewards. For instance, if your must do is lose weight, you might dread changing your habits, but you enjoy the reward and work to improve yourself.

  Focus on Your Personal Development

While your mind’s primal instinct to survive limits you, your heart is connected to your Authentic Self, and recognizes unlimited possibilities. Your desire is tied to strong emotions and motivates you to get things done. When you access your passion you have the focus you need to take persistent conscious action to make things happen in your life.

So how do you move past the limits of your mind? There are three steps to discovering your passion and improving your spiritual health. First, ask yourself: What would I like, that I don’t currently have in my life? Write down your answer, repeat the question, and write down your answer again. Continue until you can’t think of anything more.

Following Your Passion is Key to Your Spiritual Health

Now, ask yourself: If I did have those things, how would I feel? Ask the question for each answer you wrote down previously. This is how you will rate the emotion attached to each desire. The stronger the emotion, the greater your desire.

Lastly, measure the strength of your desire. Rate each one with a number between one and 100. The more emotion it stirs in you, the higher the number. Intensity is very important. The more intense the feeling, the closer you are to discovering your desire.

Your spiritual health and personal growth depend on you following your passions. Because we are trained to think, not feel, it takes conscious action and effort to get out of our heads and into our hearts.

Tags:   desire · goals · limitations · motivation · possibilities · self improvement1 Comment