Self-development is possible also by reading books, and topics such as happiness and unhappiness are closely related to our mind, to the way we think. Taking care of our mind, becoming a master of our own thoughts contributes to a good mental health. To have a better understanding of mental health, some books about depression may be more insightful and helpful than most people think. Reading books about depression is something for those who are not afraid of the word depression and are interested in self-development.
Life itself is a personal-development workshop. In life people often choose specialized courses and seek help from experts to learn something they are interested in or which they think benefits them such as for transforming some challenges.
Life is a series of experiences. We think and feel ourselves through life. During our life, we experience a wide range of emotions. Most humans prefer and enjoy feeling good and are motivated by doings things which feel good or lead to feeling good afterwards.
One could say that ideally the goal and direction in life is towards feeling as good as possible as often as possible, accepting that it is not always possible (when looking back, not every day was amazing and beautiful 24/7).
If we clearly know what we want – feel some amazing emotions quite often. The question to answer is: How? Why am I not feeling those emotions so often? What is missing? What needs to change? That’s when self-development often comes in as a way of improving upon the current situation and having the vision of something better.
Some forms of suffering are part of life, but we often witness also some unnecessary and prolonged suffering. We could say that one of the motivations behind self-development is to be able to recognize unnecessary and prolonged suffering and be able to stop it or reduce it. Another motivation behind self-development is we want to feel better, we think that those new and improved skills when applied will result in improving the way we feel. We want the associated feelings, how it makes us feel.
A thought behind self-development is also – something is not as good as it could be, let’s make it better, because it will have some benefits. Benefits on the quality of life, on the enjoyment of life.
We are not after money in the first place, but what we are after are the emotions and states of being that it helps one to feel. No or little money reduces the amount of possibilities and experiences on this planet, which are available to be experienced only by paying for them. You can live a life full with positive emotions without needing too much money too. You don’t necessarily need more money, but more understanding and better thoughts. Letting go of heavy weights (clinging to certain thoughts, which direct your focus away from feeling good – from thinking better thoughts instead). The level of your wellbeing is strongly dependent on the quality of your daily thoughts.
Many times our talents/skills and what we enjoy doing is not paid as good as some other activities, which we often do not enjoy so much. So many people find themselves often in the position of making compromises in life – choosing to dedicate a big portion of their time in their one life doing things that they do not like or they do not enjoy that much. Just because they earn more money from it and then compared to the time it took to earn that money they have a smaller amount of time to enjoy that money to create some good memories and experiences to feel some good emotions often tied to money.
Are you asking yourself the right questions?
Some questions to ask yourself:
- Find out root causes: What is missing in my life that I am longing for? With what am I not satisfied? What is not good enough in my life? Based on your answers you can decide or talk to a personal-development coach/expert about what type of self-development you could benefit from the most.
- What can I do now to feel even better?
- What can I do now to feel better in the future? Suffering often comes when we do not enjoy the things we are doing now and for some reasons they do not lead to feeling better in the future either.
- What activities are free and it is easy to feel good by doing them?
What drives people to attend self-development courses?
The selling point behind some self-development courses, which focus on money, is the idea of:
- Earn a lot of money with little or no risks by little work or by work that you enjoy
Other types of self-development courses are often about:
- Learn skills which will get you a promotion or you can rise your prices afterwards
- Learn skills which you will be able to help others in an even better way
- Learn skills which reduce or eliminate some forms of suffering
- Learn new hobbies or improve in existing hobbies to enjoy them even more
- Curiosity to learn something new, for the experience itself, for meeting new people
Looking for a positive impact
Would you still be suffering if you would be completely healthy and have enough money for a comfortable life while doing things that you enjoy doing? If not, then in regards to self-development you might be looking at learning how to keep living a health maintaining lifestyle, and which skills you can learn that you would enjoy using them for earning your living with them.
If your time is limited (you have x amount of years to live), you have to make decisions about which self-development skills makes most sense right now to learn and why.
Does the skill improve or have some type of positive impact:
- On your health
- On how you feel about yourself
- On your friends, family, clients, strangers you meet
- On enjoying certain activities more
- On earning more money that you can use to afford something you desire to experience, that is not possible without money or it is the path of least resistance to pay for it
It is the nature of a human being to explore and learn, and think a lot.
“If you have knowledge, everything will follow.”
“Knowledge is power.”
Ways of learning/self-developing
How can you develop yourself to learn something new or become better at something?
- By reading & understanding
- By listening to and/or watching & understanding
- By applying what you have learned and understood
- By practicing regularly
- By talking one on one to experts who explain you something clearly, give you a new different helpful perspective on your struggles/challenges, they give you insights suitable particularly for your situation
You can develop intellectually, become smarter. It can be of value if used, applied, if you can profit in some way from it, such as feeling better thanks to it, or helping someone else thanks to it.
Self-development books about depression
There are different types of books that you can read and you can benefit from it.
The goal of self-development can be to reduce or eliminate suffering (unhappiness).
There are two main types of suffering:
Physical and mental. For both of them the general self-development terms would be physical health and mental health and what lifestyle, what activities, what mindset and way of thinking lead to physical and mental health. Often one has to read multiple books about these topics, because they are highly specialized. One book, which is a great compendium about holistic health, body-mind-spirit topics, giving meaning to life, understanding success and failure, self-motivation, and more is the book: Quest for a Depression-free Life.
If you want to live a happier life, you can benefit from understanding what causes one to feel unhappy. Depression is extremely common on planet Earth. Many people consider the term “depression” a bit scary and a taboo word. Most people just say I am often sad, unhappy, unmotivated (which could be a mild form of depression that could worsen over time). If you are sad and unhappy very often, self-development for holistic health: physical and mental health would be a good topic to look into. You can start by reading the practical self-help guidebook Quest for a depression-free life.
We grow the most when we face challenges, when we face our fears.
If you want to grow more, read some books about mental health such as books about depression too.