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Spiritual Growth is one of the primal drives of mankind. Deep down everyone wants life to be better, to have more understanding and control of their personal environment. The reason is irrelevant – it may be altruism or greed – but a little more money, better health, better relationships definitely would not go astray. Happiness shows that the smiler has cleared the connection with their divine aspect or higher self. When in this state a person may achieve just about anything they desire.

I believe that Self Actualisation is one of the primal goals of life, whether that be mankind or indeed any other form of life. We are all on the treadmill of self development. It may be defined as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. Mankind is a funny creature, we are compulsive achievers – even if we see nothing to do. Achievement leads to contentment, but there is always more to do – this is a constant source of discontent.

Kaizen is a philosophy of continuous improvement. Created in post World War II Japan to assist the country back on its feet after being devastated during WWII and being the test population for the atomic bomb. It involves a very oriental philosophy of incremental change. To observe and improve are the two main components. This fits very neatly with the process of conscious living.
A series of small changes is manageable – but very profound when viewed over a longer term.

There are many aspects of happiness – all must be addressed. Happiness is the best indicator of a low stave in our life. The water barrel shown cannot hold any water past the level of the lowest stave. Look for things that we are most unhappy about and address them first. There is little point in working on our strengths or lesser weaknesses when it is our base weaknesses that are pulling us down.
We cannot improve our life until we increase the height of the lowest stave past the height of the second lowest. Our barrel can then hold more water.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Abraham Harold Maslow ( 1st April, 1908 – 8th June, 1970) was an American psychologist who described a structure of human needs grouped as Deficiency Needs and Growth Needs.
Each lower need must be met before moving to the next level. A need must be satisfied in order to move on to the next. If at some future time a deficiency is detected, the individual will act to remove the deficiency. This theory does assume that we have an inborn desire to improve our lot.

Lifestyle Change Systems make life easier – they provide the answer when things get confused or stressed. I have always found that I need to know where I am before I can begin to organise my future. This is best done with a form of life audit. Simply speaking, I write down everything about where I am now and the changes I need to make sort of jump out at me.
What do you want to change and what do you want to change it to? Maintain a positive mindset which is critical to live a fulfilling lifestyle.