I chose Personal Development as a lifestyle back in the early 1980s ... as did many others. And together we learned how the Mind works, we learned how emotions prohibit our intelligence and that using our Mind is paramount to learning how to take 100% personal responsibility for our reality.
But things have changed. And not for the better. The majority of those who think they are doing Personal Development are simply processing their emotions (read: circling in their emotional state) instead of progressing and/or dealing with their issues or expanding on their hopes and dreams.
The Mind has been lost in translation over the last couple of decades. Any definition of the Mind now has been twisted out of context and people's attention has been focused on "The Heart". As though one cannot demonstrate empathy and compassion whilst intelligently observing and analyzing their situation and/or associations in any present moment.
The Mind is our non-physical consciousness with the ability of THINKING and analyzing feelings, and the data from the other senses. More recently it is compared in a competitive way with the heart as less powerful, with less energy emanating from it. Well if they are talking about its measurable electromagetic field, then yes; the heart while pumping is generating more electromagnetic energy than the stationary brain. But we are not talking about the physical organ, known as the brain ... so why compare it to the physical heart?
Personal Development involves using the Mind which not only encompasses our entire body (and any larger field when we direct it to), but also our ability to think, observe and make decisions. As well as the innate ability to store data (collected from the 5 senses and thinking) in the subconscious aspect of our mind. These are non-physical accomplishments that certainly do have an effect on our physical and emotional realities, but this is very different to assuming 'coming from the heart' is a better method of 'thinking' or making decisions.
That'll do for now, I'll be back with more insights into the dumbed down Personal Development industry.
Marianne Thorne
Attitude Coach (with over 30 years experience)
http://CreativeGoalSetting.com