Welcome back to the place where I dump my ramblings about self-development onto the internet. This time we are going to cover a quote from my quote book.

I want to jump right into it and just give you the quote straight away:

Man’s mind stretched to a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Shit…now that I look at it, there almost doesn’t seem to be a need to break it down. It’s so straight forward but powerful. Well, I’ve got you held captive and it’s unlikely by this point that you can be bothered to switch to a different tab.

So, what does this mean to me. Even though he is talking about someone’s mind in the quote, I feel as if it can be related back to any form of growth. I very much believe when we grow as people, it changes the makeup of who we are as a person. Old beliefs and habits are discarded and newer ones take their place, in a never ending cycle of renewal but also rebirth.

That’s what I find so engaging about self-development as an interest, you essentially get to design yourself anyway you like, as long as you have the vision for it. Let’s bring it back to the mind now. Epiphanies, that’s what I think stretches the mind. Having one changes everything, it becomes a paradigm shift that morphs how we see the world and our place in it. That’s why we can’t go back to what we were before, the mold of your mind has been contorted.

Now, these epiphanies can occur naturally over time, but that would be leaving things up to chance. No, instead we want to encourage these things to happen as frequently as possible. However, I will state that you can only handle a certain amount of them over so many months. Since the mind has to incorporate drastic change, bit by bit. You might be wondering what that limit is, it’s hard to say as it varies from person to person. But from my experience, the mind won’t offer up these kind of epiphanies without you being ready for them, so it kind of balances itself.

How do we encourage them though? Easy, and it’s the thing you should already be doing on a daily basis. Reading, especially non-fiction. That act alone will jump start the process, and after a while you’ll become a fiend for those moments of enlightenment. A recent one for me happened after reading a book called “Manufacturing Consent” by Noam Chomsky. That one hollowed out any respect I had for the mainstream media. Dare to read it, only if you’ve got what it takes.

So yeah, that’s really it. Other moments and experiences can trigger them too, but reading is the quick fire way to get it off the ground.

Thank you to all the Hedites out there, enjoying and sharing their thoughts on my posts. Much love. Also, my Masters coursework is all done, so I think post scheduling will be back to normal.

Till next time…