The following activities greatly contribute to personal development, sound mental health and enhanced cognitive performance. Ultimately, they will help you become a better person.
Although defined broadly, the term “self-improvement” basically refers to the wide range of strategies individuals deploy for the purpose of becoming better people.
There are multiple personal development activities you can deploy to optimize your productivity, mental health, emotional intelligence, etc. Some of them include:
1. Meditation
When we talk about self-improvement, meditation is one of the first things that come to mind. Practicing meditation is certainly one of the most important personal development activities.
It is all about enhancing your mind and body in ways that help you operate more effectively in the world. In terms of mental optimization, meditation empowers individuals to think more complexly and critically. Meditation is also effective in boosting the individual’s ability to concentrate.
Another big benefit of meditating regularly is that doing so is known to reduce stress levels. This outcome is important because people who are under substantive stress for extended periods of time tend to think and act in ways that are not conducive to their health and the well-being of the other individuals in their immediate environment.
For example, people who experience extensive anxiety will oftentimes yell at others to attain a sense of relief or power. Individuals who are constantly under stress will also oftentimes isolate themselves from others for extended periods of time. This makes the person more susceptible to depression and other mental illnesses.
Meditation doesn’t just empower people to attain and maintain mental health. It also metabolizes the self-improvement process by getting the body in better condition. For example, regular meditation is linked to the enhanced functioning of the cardiovascular system. Breath-based meditation is also a great way to increase the efficacy of one’s respiratory system.
2. Yoga
As discussed above, meditation brings individuals a wide range of mental and physical benefits. Similarly, doing yoga regularly can help people become or remain sound in their minds and bodies. This is the case for many reasons, one of which is that yoga involves individuals consciously breathing and linking this breath to the movement of their bodies.
In addition to promoting body awareness, this reality enhances breathing and thereby generates a wide range of positive psychosomatic outcomes. For example, conscious breathing produces oxytocin within the body. In addition to releasing this “feel good” hormone throughout the body, conscious breathing reduces the presence of the stress hormone cortisol.
These positive effects of yoga can all facilitate personal development. A properly functioning body helps reduce susceptibility to mood instability and the hampered productivity that oftentimes results from it.
3. Eat Optimally
While a healthy diet is not directly linked to personal development activities, it plays a huge role in your mental health. Eating optimally is important because your nutritional intake plays a key role in determining outcomes like your cognitive capabilities, weight, susceptibility to disease, and energy levels.
You may not be aware of that, but when you eat optimally, you contribute to your own self-improvement process. A balanced diet gives you the energy and mental stability necessary to make prudent life decisions and work effectively in the business setting.
Eating optimally can also prevent you from gaining excess weight. This outcome of eating well is immensely important. Being overweight makes you susceptible to a wide range of unwanted conditions. Some of these include diabetes, depression, and heart disease.
Unfortunately, most Americans don’t eat optimally. This fact becomes plain when you look around and see the wide range of fast food restaurants that bring in millions and millions of dollars every year as people stuff their faces with salt-laden, chemical-rich hamburgers, hot dogs, milkshakes, and more. In addition to metabolizing weight gain, these unhealthy foods can cause other issues such as sustained lethargy and mental instability.
Fast food restaurants are not the only aspect of the American eating epidemic. Another part of the puzzle is vending machines which serve chips and chocolate bars that are nutritionally vacuous and preservative-rich.
A third piece of the puzzle is the culture of acceptability. It makes it possible and permissible for these types of foods to become integral to an individual’s dietary lifestyle. It’s not uncommon for people to nod their heads in approval or agreement with people who conform to the “Fast Food Nation” lifestyle while mocking individuals who bring a salad or apple slices to work for lunch or snacks.
4. Help Other People on Their Journey to Personal Development
If you’re really serious about personal development, make sure that you help other people on their journey to becoming better individuals. First of all, it will help you cultivate key character traits like empathy and emotional intelligence. Secondly, you’ll be contributing to the world in a big way by ensuring that it is populated by productive, positive people.
Many of today’s people need assistance with finding their purpose in life, especially the younger generations. Consider the following fact: according to Intelius felony data, 20-year-olds have the highest rate of felonies, which is 4%.
Many of these individuals could have followed a completely different path in life if only they had received the necessary support and guidance. By helping others find themselves, you are literally making the world a better place.
Conclusion
The above four activities that you can implement will boost your personal development and help you become a better person. Incorporate them into your life now so you can become a more productive and positive individual who makes big things happen for both self and other!
This is all good, common sense advice. Diet, exercise and helping others all make sense to me. I follow these practices every day. Think about this: prayer is talking to God. Meditation is listening for the answer. Yoga is physical as well as spiritual and an excellent use of ones time..