“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”
– Plutarch
[Renowned Greek historian, biographer and popular essayist whose biographical works on The Lives of Roman emperors earned him fame that greatly influenced English and French literature in the future.]
Inward growth would mean exploring oneself with a view to expanding the intellectual capabilities and developing mental maturity with respect to the ever changing environment. This inward journey delving into one’s own self would help identification of potentials as well as weaknesses. How we react to an extrinsic stimulus and utilize our potentials to optimize the goals of life and how well we insulate our areas of weaknesses against external threats would be the important tools facilitating inward growth. It is a continuous process of understanding the realities of life and expanding our knowledge and skills to make the most of the journey.
Life can be highly fulfilling only if we can nurture our inner self to the full potential. Growing inwardly and nurturing positive traits ultimately gets reflected externally. As we develop physically, our inner growth continues until our character and traits are fully manifested like a full bloomed flower firmly attached to its stalk. The stalk representing our roots or the value system should be strong enough to hold the full bloomed life for a long period.
Human mind is highly impressionable that gets molded easily due to external influence. Most of us being subjected to external influence forget to listen to our soul’s call. What is our soul’s desire? Are we able to hear the rumblings of our mind? Our mind becomes restless and becomes an easy prey to external situations. Consequently, our potentials die an unnatural death as we start living other’s lives.
The Story of the elephant and the fly:
An elephant was engaged in feeding on the leaves of a tree. A fly came by buzzing and moved around the elephant distracting him. The elephant drove it away flapping his long ears. But the fly again came down buzzing. Again the elephant drove it away. This happened several times. At last, the elephant blurted out, “Why are you so restless? Why do you keep buzzing unnecessarily instead of remaining quiet for some time?”
The fly replied, “I am drawn to everything easily whatever I see, hear and smell. I can’t help myself from these attractions. But how can you stay unperturbed in spite of my repeated buzzing? You don’t seem to care.” The elephant replied, “This is because I am able to control my senses and focus on a particular thing at a time. When I am eating, my entire attention is on it. I do not allow my senses to rule my mind. On the other hand, I control my senses and divert my attention to a particular action in which I am engaged.”
We should, just like the elephant, have control on our feelings and senses without being swayed much by external factors. As quoted by Lao Tzu (Father of Taoism), “He who conquers others is strong. He who conquers himself is mighty.” So, how to grow your inner self?
Know thyself
As the noted Greek philosopher, Thales has said, “The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.” Still it is important to examine and explore yourself to develop into better personality. This is the first step toward growing inwards. What would you like to be? How you picture your life? What you love to do? Finally, are you doing those things that you would love to do? These are the questions that you should often ask yourself and get a clear answer. Human mind is fickle and therefore, fixing a vision demands sincere efforts. The more you ask these questions to yourself the more you get clarity on your vision and mission that truly helps you grow inward.
Find your passion
Let your life not be driven by external stimuli. Detect your own passion and carve your life out of it. If you love to do something, strive to be the best at it. All of us have passion which remains dormant in our minds, and the inner voice always guides us to follow that. We just need to compose our mind and listen to that call. Great men who have lived great lives had the immense will power to follow their passion forcefully by overcoming the external influences.
Do not encage your mind
Anchoring on preconceived notions is a big obstacle to inner growth. Your passion will not be able to spread its wings if your mind is encaged. You can grow inward only if your mind gets enough room for exploration. Preconceptions block this space. Your vision to alternative options is blindfolded. It is imperative for you to widen your perspective and start having the picture around you with a more meaningful stuff. It takes us closer to ground reality rather than a hostage to stubborn ideas and concepts.
Experience a novel journey whenever you get a chance:
It might be reading a book of great literary and informative value. It may be a physical journey to an alien land where you learn about a new culture and ways of life and people. The journey may be exploring a new mechanical or electronic gadget. It may well be an experience of working among the poor to clean a slum from heaps of garbage. The point is your attitude towards learning something. Just by interacting with a variety of people you get a mental exposure. Our mind is like an expandable rubber sheet- the more we work on it more it would grow.
Get out of your comfort zone
Relying more on comfort zone restricts our inward growth. Vision gets stunted if you continue to dwell in that zone as there will be no room for innovation and improvisation. Life then becomes stagnant and starts collecting moss. Always take up challenges in life. The maximum loss you might incur is you will lose the game but if you haven’t tried it at all, you might never know a potential that you really had. So do not hesitate to climb the rocky mountains even if it seems impossible. These challenges build your inner self to tread along a great life.
Meditate to groom your intellectual self
Regular meditation even for ten minutes could work wonders. Mind is the controlling device that dictates your life. Inner growth can be achieved if only your mind is activated for that. Meditation helps in being one with your own self. This replenishes the fatigued mind with which you have trusted your inner tendency to grow.
