What is Growth?
Growth is bettering one or more aspects of something or someone. Growth is learning from improvement by developing it into something better. Growing happens all throughout life no matter one’s age, as we age we adapt to the changes throughout life which promotes growth through life’s process. Growth is about learning more about ourselves and the world around us.
What enables Growth, what allows Growth to happen?
Well scientifically speaking it is the process of Mitosis which generates new cells that are genetically identical to each other, in other words, it’s what allows growth to happen. Mitosis enables organisms to grow in size and repair damaged tissue. Growth is biological as it is the development through our social, emotional, cognitive, intellectual, and moral aspects of life. Development refers to functional or behavioral changes within or without. We grow through time and life experiences, as we grow with knowledge and change. Evolution is growth, with evolution being defined as the descent with modifications and as the change in characteristics of a species over time relating back to a common ancestor. Relying heavily on the process of natural selection to select the most favorable fit traits. All though, through evolution the human mind has developed into a feat of genetic excellence giving humanity the ability to walk, work together and communicate.
What is Psychological Growth?
Psychological growth is associated with the need to oblige a major stressor and may be experienced as a transformative state. Growth has been best understood as a systemic process of actively learning and adapting new ways to constructively function after enduring a crisis. Psychological growth is defined as “The potential to cultivate inner potentialities, seek out optimal challenges, and integrate new experiences into the self-concept ”, According to (Baldwin & Landau, 2014, p. 163; also see Sedikides & Hepper, 2009). Psychological growth refers to Positive changes in an individual's psychological functioning, which can include improvements in emotional, social, cognitive, and behavioral areas.
Here's an example of Psychological Growth:
Let's say a person has a fear of public speaking. They avoid speaking in front of others and feel anxious even thinking about it. However, they decide to take steps to overcome this fear, such as practicing speaking in front of small groups or taking a public speaking course. Over time, they become more comfortable with public speaking, and their anxiety decreases. As a result, they may feel more confident and empowered in social situations and have better communication skills. This is an example of psychological growth because the person has overcome a significant fear, developed new skills, and improved their overall psychological functioning. They may also have gained new insights into their own thought patterns and behaviors developed a greater resilience in the face of challenges. Psychological growth can occur in many different areas of life, such as relationships, career, self-esteem, and personal development. It often means taking risks, learning from experiences, and developing new coping strategies and perspectives.
What is Nostalgia?
Nostalgia is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period of time or within a place with happy personal associations and it strengthens one’s perceptions of psychological growth. Nostalgia is a powerful emotion that can transport us back in time to relive happy memories from our past. It’s a bittersweet feeling that can evoke both joy and longing. It can be a useful tool for coping with stress and anxiety as it can help us feel more connected to others. At the same time, Nostalgia can also make us feel sad and longing for a time that has passed. It’s often triggered by a specific memory or experience. Nostalgia can be brought on by a variety of things, such as music, smells, photographs, or even a particular place. It’s a common human experience, one that relates very closely to Dejavu. Nostalgia delivers a way of dealing with loss and change. It can also serve as a way of cultivating our sense of identity and continuity over time. With Nostalgia one begins to reminisce about their past, as we do thyself is able to connect our present selves to our past selves. All while maintaining a sense of coherence and continuity in one’s life within the current reality. It is a range of convoluted emotions that can have both Positive and Negative effects on our emotions and behavior. With a better understanding of the Science behind Nostalgia, we can learn more about ourselves and our emotional lives, and perhaps even be in control of nostalgia’s power to improve our overall well-being.
What is the Comfort zone?
The Comfort Zone is a safe place surrounding you in the mental and physical plane. It can be anything from what you wear to who you surround yourself with, to doing things that you enjoy deeply without any worry. Comfort is an ease to all discomforts mentally and physically, as it is to be free from distress, anxiety and worries. Our Comfort Zone is a psychological, emotional and behavioral construct that defines the routine of one’s daily life which includes familiarity, safety, and security.
How does getting outside our Comfort Zone promote growth?
Stepping out of your Comfort Zone means learning new things, meeting new people, seeing new places, and trying new experiences. All of these can serve to help expand your awareness of the world and how you fit into it and possibly introduce you to exciting new interests or areas you may just want to explore. This process of growth can lead into a deeper understanding of yourself and all your capabilities.
How does getting uncomfortable and enduring the stress that comes with reaching your Outer Comfort Belt really allow you to grow as a person or move you towards achieving your goals, and push you forward into the next stages in your life?
Humans who do want to grow outside their Comfort Zone must be mentally prepared. They must also be prepared to change habits and mindsets that may keep them in their Comfort Zone. If it was easy to leave your Comfort Zone, there probably wouldn’t be so much fuss about it, but it’s not that easy to do. Moving into the learning or growth zone requires one to endure stress, as one will likely face some anxiety, uncertainty, and a little bit of fear. Yet as humans, we have been wired for survival since the beginning of our species’ time, and we naturally avoid these perceived threats as much as we possibly can. That is why it’s so hard for people to step out of their Comfort Zones.
If you’re not growing or learning new things, then you’re not taking chances in your life. Which means “Are you really fulfilling your goals or dreams?” If you find yourself pondering on the question “Why am I not accomplishing things I want to accomplish?” Then it’s time to look at all the areas in your life where you might be a little too comfortable. However, it’s also not healthy to push yourself too much all the time. Being in a constant state of high stress can take its toll; each human needs to return to thyself’s safety and security of their Comfort Zone every so often.
Let’s start by Achieving your Goals!
Unfortunately, not everything you want to achieve in life will be easy. By moving beyond your Comfort Zone into the Growth Zone, you’ll be able to do just that; grow. You’ll find yourself becoming more productive, achieving more, and reaching goals you set up for yourself; but of course only if you’re willing to put in the work.
What can boosting your self-confidence do?
Our accomplishments bring a sense of self-confidence, especially when you work hard, challenge yourself, and see it through until the end. The boost in self-confidence you get after achieving one goal can push you into achieving lots more.
How can we start Expanding our world?
Stepping out of your Comfort Zone means learning and trying new things, meeting new people, seeing new sights, and experiencing new adventures. By expanding our horizons and awareness through one’s cognitive experience, emotional experience, and physical experience.
What is the role of our cognitive awareness?
The cognitive center of awareness refers to your thinking brain or mental abilities, such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making. At this level of awareness, our brain takes center stage. Being where you can apply logic and rationale while considering facts and details to situations or challenges that come your way. Thyself will create a narrative around what we know, whether it is certain or uncertain, it is within our cognitive awareness to figure out where it plays a role within our Reality.
How do emotions take part in growth?
The emotional center evokes your ability to understand, express, and manage your own emotions, as well as the feelings of others. At the emotional and physical levels, you have your self-awareness embodied deeply between all awareness’s. Which is why it is one of the more difficult ones to find yourself truly growing at. Here, you're no longer "thinking" about thyself; instead, you're "experiencing" thyself through your feelings and sensations. Emotional awareness allows you to transcend into your internal experience, identify what emotions are present, and get more granular in identifying your feelings.
What does Physical Awareness allow us to understand?
Physical awareness allows you to understand and respond to environmental cues and changes, including sensations felt throughout the body . These sensations activate your intuition, giving thyself chills when you hear a powerful truth or your accuracy when locating something in the dark. You might express this as an unexplainable knowing and think of it as your gut.
With our mind being the center of one’s mental awareness, our heart is the center of one’s emotional awareness. The center of physical awareness encompasses the wisdom, use of your body and physical sensations concerning our environment. At the cognitive level, we have our conceptual self-awareness. It’s where one “thinks” about thyself, such as what you value, like or dislike, aspire to achieve, and believing to be the person we are all meant to be. All of these can help us by expanding one’s awareness of the world and how one might fit into it as it may introduce us to new interests or areas of the world we want to explore.
What can we do to build up your resilience?
Start by challenging yourself, it helps by moving you outside thy Comfort Zone and increases your resilience towards failure and fear. You will gain more confidence in thyself, how you handle failure or setbacks and become more comfortable with increased levels of stress, anxiety, and uncertainty.
What is achieving Self-Determination?
Finally, by stepping outside your Outer Comfort Belt often, allows you to learn more about yourself and gain more control over who you want to be from here on out, how you want your life to look, and what you want to do with it.
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Growth Vs. Comfort