exhale

I would recommend that you make your primary focus illustration, not mastery of illustration. Perhaps, mastery of illustration will be an organic byproduct of love and dedication to illustration.

What brought me towards personal development? I was going through a stressful time in my life, where my wife, daughter and I were packing up our life, selling our house and moving to a different country for me to pursue residency training. Amidst the chaos, I noticed my reactivity becoming a harmful force in my life. I could feel my ability to control my emotions slipping. Any minor challenge was magnified and I was catastrophizing everything. I am not sure how, but I stumbled across actualized.org and listened to "how to control your emotions" and it opened my eyes to the concept of personal development and I have been a devoted student since. I quickly recognized the tremendous value in having a stable disposition in business and life, and that it is a key component of being a leader and role model for anyone watching--particularly my children. Is the major driver of being addicted to personal development not wanting to accept parts of yourself? Something that (I believe) I have always been conscious of, is that my goals, my personal development, my passion, my life purpose comes from a place of love. Before I started exploring personal development, I recognized that a characteristic of the human mind is to categorize and separate. By this mechanism, the mind works in a binary fashion: good or bad, love or hate, right or wrong, etc. Therefore, when one identifies something they want to improve in themselves--a flaw, it naturally wants to condemn this trait. The ego uses this condemnation as the catalyst for self-improvement. But, is it possible to love yourself--love that quality of yourself and simultaneous strive to improve it? I believe so, and that is consistent with my experience.

Terrific idea. I am in the greater Kansas City area. I hope there is a collection of people in this area that would make Kansas City a logical destination for you.

Are there databases or website that organize and promote the type of seminars, workshops, presentations and retreats that are particularly geared towards personal development, actualization, meditation, consciousness, enlightenment, spirituality, etc. ? I realize that I can google these topics on a frequent interval for my area, but I have had limited success with this strategy. I was wondering if anyone was aware of a more structured database that advertises/promotes these events? If not, does anyone have any recommendations or strategies on how they stay "in the know" regarding these events. I am living in the United States.

Veterinarian