Is All Personal Development Obvious?

[Chrissy j]

Can't you just grow and come to all these conclusions yourself? I mean how necessary is the theory? I mean a lot of this stuff seems like common sense and isn't everybody already doing all this stuff besides maybe meditation and enlightenment work? I feel like I stress out over personal development and maybe would it be better to just drop the whole thing and go with the flow? Or would that result in me being stuck? I look around and it seems like everybody is so happy and positive all the time and maybe I'm just the only one who isn't truly happy. I'm not relaxed like I want to be and personal development is backfiring on me. Any advice? Like I thought about maybe teaching this stuff but is it actually necessary and can you live a good life without personal development? I feel the community likes to say that people are living terrible life's but I don't think that is actually true. Or am I mistaken? Couldn't you just be happy and live a good life without theory and personal development etc. Just growing from common sense?

[Erlend K]

There are some sd practices that most mature people who takes their lives seriously do, like physical exercise, keeping a healthy diet, trying to achieve some kind of mastery in their work, see a therapist to work on emotional issues or relationshop issues (If one have any that needs working on) etc. For most people its possible to live a great life without ever studying sd. The main predictors of happiness/well being over ones life are well documented through longitudinal studies. The two main ones are health and the quality of ones social relationships. After this comes gratitude for what one has, being present to the moment and mastery and meaning from the activities one spend a lot of time on (=work/career for most of us). Everything else is frosting on the cake and not nessesary for enjoying life. Imo, sd is useful to the degree it helps us achieve or strengthen these basics. If you enjoy it, it can be a great hobby. For me its the most fun and engaging hobby I have ever found. 

[aurum]

5 hours ago, Chrissy j said:

Can't you just grow and come to all these conclusions yourself? I mean how necessary is the theory?

You could grow and learn it all yourself, just like you could do a lot of things. Doesn't make it a good idea.

Unless you honestly think you have more wisdom than the millions of human beings who have lived before you and have faced the challenges you are going to have to face (you don't), then you need to study the theory.

Think about the fact that you could read a book from someone who spent 30 years developing a single topic. You get to leverage all that time, blood sweat and tears they put in so you don't have to.

Then they hand you that wisdom on a silver platter. You don't even have to pay for it these days, you can just torrent it.

If there's a bigger "hack" in life, I don't know what it is.

5 hours ago, Chrissy j said:

I mean a lot of this stuff seems like common sense and isn't everybody already doing all this stuff besides maybe meditation and enlightenment work?

It only seems like "common sense" when you don't have the proper experiences to appreciate it. Then you realize that 99% of people aren't acting on this "common sense".

5 hours ago, Chrissy j said:

I look around and it seems like everybody is so happy and positive all the time and maybe I'm just the only one who isn't truly happy

The majority of people aren't happy. But the problem is you can't even see that until you get to a certain consciousness level.

5 hours ago, Chrissy j said:

I feel like I stress out over personal development and maybe would it be better to just drop the whole thing and go with the flow?

Going with the flow is actually a valid phenomena when you get to a certain point in your journey and you appreciate what that actually means. For you, "going with the flow" means not taking proactive control of your life, going back into the herd and falling asleep.

 

[Nahm]

@Chrissy j Make 2 cycles one. The foundational or primary cycle is the exposure to the illusion, and the comforting return to meditation, or the void of love. Repeat daily. The secondary cycle is only firmly achieved if it is secondary to the primary cycle. The secondary cycle is similar in nature to the first but on a deeper scale. Experiential; psychedelics, and not psychedelics. The culmination of these combined cycles is, within the illusion there is the desire for growth and expansion, and without the illusion the knowing that the IS is all there is and All Is Well. All is divine. All is you. Polarity, all be it an elusive illusion, allows for experience, but is enjoyed when on the foundation of nonpolarity.

[Damir Elezi]

I think the reason why people who don't do PD seem kinda better off at first is the fact that they don't even notice their inner pain. That's why you can see normal people just crack up and burst out into existential crises if they just think about their lives a little bit and reflect on their childhood a.s.o. If you get a little more conscious, the first thing you might notice is how broken you are inside. I find myself in this situation as well, but I see hope because I can change myself.

Of course you can do all the stuff advocated here without calling It personal development. The only thing That's different between people who do personal development and those who don't is that those who do It are conscious of their own path and the direction they go into, they look at everything in a bigger perspective. If you do not focus on yourself, your life will depend on how you were raised and what outer circumstances happen to you. If you have a great environment, yeah you might get the same results. But that is not the norm, I think you won't have control over your life unless you are not able to change yourself. That's what personal development is to me.