An Integral Life is improvement in the main important areas of life — career, relationships, and mental and physical health. By identifying our areas of critical importance and embracing a wide scope of practices, we can construct a healthy, happy, successful life. Let’s explore the aspects of self-growth and personal improvement, to enrich our lives and the world around us.
David Roel is currently studying to become a licensed dietitian, and has long been interested in the fields of psychology, philosophy, self improvement and personal development.
Sources for Motivation
Love of self is not the only thing that will work to provide motivation to continue. That you love anything at all will work equally as well. Just loving something…
Read MoreNo need to reinvent the wheel
You have people who you are modeling yourself after. You are interested in accomplishing something similar to them. What are the things in common among them? What do they all agree on? The things they all agree on…
Read MoreIndividual Lines of Development
So we have identified our four important life areas. We can now break down the broad categories of the quadrants into individual lines of development. Individual-Exterior, body: Health & fitness…
Read MoreInterrelating Goals
Every one of your goals interrelates with the others. For instance, your physical health gives you more energy to devote to your work and your relationship. A good, stable career contributes to…
Read MoreGuiding Principles
Honesty. Live your life by honesty, starting with honesty toward yourself. Do not fool yourself about how much you’ve worked out this week, or how much bad food you’ve eaten. Do not establish dishonesty in your relationships. Very slowly, tiny dishonesties build up…
Read MoreWhy Bother?
I’ve had many people resist a lot of my philosophy, saying that there’s no point in putting forward the effort to change one’s life. Indeed, the amount of effort required is enormous. Why work towards getting oneself fit, why work so hard to get out of debt, why bother putting in the work needed to heal a bad marriage? What’s the point? Without the motivation, our attempts…
Read MoreHow can I find the time?
You can find the time to do something on your goals in all four quadrants, every day. It might be no more than five minutes for some of them, but you can do something in each quadrant, every day. Every day…
Read MoreAdding Levels to the Quadrants
We know that everything progresses developmentally. The progression of development can be broken down into identifiable stages, or levels. There are hundreds of developmental systems in the world, of course. Let’s see if we can apply some useful developmental models to our four quadrants…
Read MoreShadow Work
As we try to improve our lives, our actions will stir up negative emotions and energy and doubts that will try to tell us we’re not good enough, we don’t deserve to succeed, it’s too hard, it’s futile, it’s pointless, there’s no chance, etc. Those negative voices will come up, and it is critically important that we find a way to process them. Those are parts of our shadow, the parts of our psyche that will try…
Read MoreThe Mastermind Group
Find others who will help you in your path. One or more individuals who are as committed to a path of growth and development as you are. Regularly meet with them, online or in person, if possible, to go over your goals, both long- and short-term. The reason for this is to have…
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