Are you excited and confused about the thought of unwrapping your mind? Patrick Stoeckmann says your mind is all wrapped up, and he doesn’t mean with a nice ribbon around it.
When I say your mind is “wrapped up” I am talking about all the ideas, thoughts, beliefs and systems that fool you into thinking that you or the universe are limited, incomplete and need a fixing. Most of these ideas and beliefs you adopted from others at a very early age and since then they populate your nice little mind, cloaking it and make you feel small, worthless, not good enough, sick and in need for outside expert advice. Of course your might think that Personal Development is the answer to this dilemma. But before you think you’ve found the answer, do a bit of research.
What has Personal Development really done for you (and me)?
Reflecting on my life and on a lot of my friends who are on any form of path, I wholeheartedly have to ask myself: What has Personal Development really done for me (and them)? Yes, in several areas my life has improved dramatically. As an example: I am much more confident than I was 20 years ago. Question is only whether that would not have happened if I have not visited several seminars.
However the real important question is: Is my life better than it was some years back?
That could be a tougher question to answer if you’re not only looking at certain areas, such as finances or productivity, but at your life as a whole.
What does Personal Development stands for today?
A quick WordNet search will tell you that “development“ is associated with the act of improving. So, is my life getting better through Personal Development?
Is my personality getting better through Personal Development? These are important and tough questions to ask yourself. And what does “better” mean?
Does it mean that in the there is something missing and needs to be added? In a nutshell, does Personal Development really mean I am incomplete and can only be complete by adding new stuff to my personality?
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, develop means: “unroll, unfold,” So, “development”, in its essence means to undo a wrap up. From now on, when I talk about development, I am not talking about adding new stuff or making something better. We are talking exclusively about undoing something that has wrapped us up in the first place. So Personal Development should mean to unwrap those things from your personality that hides the real persona from showing up.
Today especially in the Personal Development Industry the term “Personal Development” is often used to make us feel unfinished, incomplete – because we need to develop, we need to become better – and so we go for all the promises of the Gurus to fix us, to make us better, to make us complete at last. You have to add their thinking, their methods, their programs to your incomplete mind to become a complete mind. Then they release another program or someone else becomes the next Superhero of Human Development. And you realize that the holy gates of bliss are now even farther away lands for you. And so the path that you were following turns into a trip, where you are craving for another dose of the drug of those clever pushers of salvation.
But maybe I don’t need a fix. Maybe I am already complete deep within me, maybe I don’t need to do all of this – to just experience bliss and peace of mind.
Maybe the best thing I could do is forget most of the teachings – and just remember my inner wisdom that will guide me far better than all external knowledge to the place where I am destined to go.
Don’t get me wrong – I don’t say that you should refrain from learning or listening to good information. It is not the information out there that is causing the problem but our own approach to it.
I am a big believer in constant learning. Did you know that education also has nothing to do with adding new stuff? To educate literally means to bring out that which is already within you. So all the information that is out there only should make you recognise the knowledge that is already within you.
If I learn something that is enjoyable to me, I feel light and, passionate about it, and though there may be frustrating moments, my motivation is innate and doesn’t need any external stimulus.
