My 5 Rules of Personal Growth

If you ask Google how to improve yourself or attain personal growth, you will get hundreds of results. Life hacks, lifestyle tweaks, healthy habits, self-help articles and what not. After many years spent unhappy with how I looked with the work I was doing, with my education, even around the people closest to me who loved me so dearly, I was exhausted and one such person.

This post will take you through the 5 habits I practiced to bring about a 180 degree change in my life. A result of large-scale experiments with tips from Google and time dedicated to and with myself, I found peace, and here’s a look at how I did it. I saw the change, felt the transformation. A difference in my personality, in my perceptions and in my appearance. You don’t know the power you have, because you’ve buried it inside.

#1 – Understand Yourself & Your Past - Unless you understand yourself, you just can’t grow. To understand yourself, your actions and your reaction, you must look at your past and understand. When we look at and try to understand ourselves so many problems are resolved and solutions found. The only thing that a person can control is their own self, so why not start by understanding yourself for the best?

#2 – Allow Yourself to Heal - Often we live through experiences and meet people who leave us with injuries and scars. When that happens, you must heal first. When you understand your past, you realize that one of the biggest reasons your personal growth stops is because of some wound of time or unhealed injury. Let yourself heal. 

Clean out your past and reinvent yourself. All things that don’t evolve become obsolete. Remove the stagnant bits you and clean out anything that’s holding you back. Most often, it is unhealed wounds and the weight of your past that keeps you from reinventing, keeps you from recognising the true growth that you’re actually capable of.

#3 – Walk Away from Toxicity - The biggest enemy of growth is a toxic and stagnating environment. This doesn’t just mean your physical surroundings, but also your thoughts, the people around you and your past experiences. So, if you want to truly grow, you must walk away and leave all of it behind. Think about it this way: Would a tree grow in barren soil or if watered with only herbicide?

#4 – Take a Break - Everyone and everything needs a break. Sometimes the biggest gift you can give yourself is just time away from others and time for yourself. The internet and modes of communication have been great for bringing us all together. But how great is it really if it’s pulling you down? Consider tuning out sometimes, consider stepping out of the world and into yourself sometimes. Give yourself the time to process what’s going on inside you, without being overcome by the phone’s ringing and the notification buzzing and everyone talking and the world burning up.

For one hour every day, disconnect with the world and plug into your mind.You’ll feel a difference, I promise. 

#5 – Earth Yourself - This will truly change the way you function. It started with a documentary that a friend of mine sent to me, and it was something I immediately felt, but till date can’t explain. For an hour every day I just walking on the ground and on the lazy days I just sit and put my palms down. Combining this and the one hour break from the last post is one of the most important parts of my day.

When you want to grow, you have to give yourself the time to do it. When you want to grow, you have to let yourself be. When you want to grow, you have to analyze and understand yourself. Maximizing your potential is about utilizing the best things about yourself. Everything begins & ends with what you can do to and with yourself. Understand your true authentic self, for that, is where you transform for the best.