Road To A Better Life - Amir

[Amir]

ROAD TO A BETTER LIFE – Self-Help Journal

Hello, welcome to my journal. Here I will write whatever I experience while doing self-help/self-improvement. Let’s start off by telling a bit about myself, and then go on with telling what I am doing now to change my life for the better, I will also be talking about the problems I am facing while doing this.

 

My name is Amir, I am 16 years old and I live in the Netherlands. I grew up with both of my parents, but they got divorced when I was little, so I did not get to experience the divorce. I live with my mother most of the time, and have a few brothers and sisters. My father is open-minded most of the time and is open to most of the ideas I have gotten in this field. Nobody that I know is this into self-improvement, although I do get inspired by my father sometimes.

 

Right now I am working on getting better at programming, which I do learn at school. I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to in the beginning, now that I know how it works a bit.

 

Okay, now that I have that out of the way, let’s talk about what I am busy doing now.

 

My plans for the future:

 

Right now I am working on changing my habits in a positive way.

 

Here are the habits I am trying/wanting to get.

 

Trying: Bold text

Wanting: Bold text with line underneath

 

-          Meditation (mindfulness)

Right now I am working on meditating every day, starting with ten minutes in the beginning and doing it longer later on (I am using guided meditations most of the time).

 

-          Getting better sleep

Normally I would sleep very late and wake up early, now I am trying get a better sleep cycle and it is working out quite good for me.

 

-          Exercise (Probably at home)

I want to become healthier, more muscular and feel better overall.

 

-          Eating healthier (Won’t be able to do this a lot, since I still live with my mother)

 

-          Read more books

I would love to read more books.

 

I would be really grateful if you’d leave some suggestions/tips for me!

 

 

Things I am doing as well:

-          Taking cold showers (to get more discipline and get out of my ‘comfort zone’ more)

-          Working on getting better with relationships. (I am in a relationship right now)

-          Being more mindful throughout the day

 

 

Problems I have faced:

- Procrastination

- Depression (Fully recovered )

 

Problems I am facing now:

- Being honest with myself

- Over-thinking

- Lack of focus on school

- Being mindful of me becoming angry, but still feeling like crap

 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Amir said:

Problems I am facing now:

- Being honest with myself

Start with this one.  It is the base for everything that follows.  If you truly love yourself, be honest with yourself.
This will be of enormous aid in mastering self-deception, and it will the beginning of a freedom that you never felt before.

The first few times that you do this may feel awkward or difficult, but it gets easier with every time you choose honesty over giving in to some sort of side tracking desire.

Friends may sometimes ask you to join them in  "such and such"  an activity, but, if you see that it only appeals to boost your self-image or satisfies non-productive desires, then that is the time to unleash the power of being honest with yourself.   With courage and clarity you tell them that this is not what you have in mind right now, and that you have something else to do.   Do not try to justify yourself if you are questioned, no need to feel that you must explain, and do not give up courage (the courage of a warrior for true inner freedom).   You will win.  Just stick to it, friends will respect you for your strong position, or if not then perhaps they are not really friends if they do not care enough to respect your decisions.

That might not enter your particular circumstances, but I just mention it as an example of how there might be challenges to being honest to oneself.

I see much promise here and a great attitude for change.

Joy

 

[Amir]

On 15-2-2016 at 10:36 PM, Guest said:

Start with this one.  It is the base for everything that follows.  If you truly love yourself, be honest with yourself.
This will be of enormous aid in mastering self-deception, and it will the beginning of a freedom that you never felt before.

The first few times that you do this may feel awkward or difficult, but it gets easier with every time you choose honesty over giving in to some sort of side tracking desire.

Friends may sometimes ask you to join them in  "such and such"  an activity, but, if you see that it only appeals to boost your self-image or satisfies non-productive desires, then that is the time to unleash the power of being honest with yourself.   With courage and clarity you tell them that this is not what you have in mind right now, and that you have something else to do.   Do not try to justify yourself if you are questioned, no need to feel that you must explain, and do not give up courage (the courage of a warrior for true inner freedom).   You will win.  Just stick to it, friends will respect you for your strong position, or if not then perhaps they are not really friends if they do not care enough to respect your decisions.

That might not enter your particular circumstances, but I just mention it as an example of how there might be challenges to being honest to oneself.

I see much promise here and a great attitude for change.

Joy

 

Hey thank you for the reply! Because of you I started doing this, learned a bit about self-deception and it is way harder then I thought it would be. I keep on contradicting myself and I forget being conscious of the lies I tell myself a lot as well.