The 3 pillars of balance in personal growth

Throughout history and geography, one can find endless psychological, philosophical, sociological and religious currents that have tried to offer answers to the existential questions of life that as individuals endowed with intelligence we have been able to consider.

When someone immerses himself in the study of any of the aforementioned disciplines, he is usually surprised with examples of thought that, seeming contemporaneous with our questions, possess in most cases hundreds, if not thousands of years of antiquity. For curious minds, devoid of prejudices, it will not be a difficult task to delve into the various sources of wisdom who have tried, with varying degrees of success, to resolve these issues in a effective.

Being able to establish associative links between those ultimate foundations of these currents, we can find a series of pillars of wisdom that have served as the basis for offering answers yesterday and today.

• Related article: "Personal Development: 5 reasons for self-reflection"

Get to know yourself, accept yourself, improve yourself

In this effort to find the lowest common divisor of personal balance, we have been able to identify three basic aspects that are repeat over and over again in various techniques and currents that could be summarized in the phrase of Saint Augustine: “Know yourself, accept yourself, improve yourself".

In conventional cognitive behavioral therapies, we find how a base of beliefs or thoughts, not always Conscious for the individual, they activate, maintain or direct his behaviors, being necessary for the return to normality, cross a series of treatment phases which would consist mainly of:

1. Evaluation

Identify the causal factors of behavior through a preliminary exploration with different types of assessment tools.

2. Intervention

Employment of cognitive and behavioral modification techniques, aimed at the recovery of normal levels of behavior in reference to the general scale.

• Related article: "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: what is it and on what principles is it based?"

3. Tracing

Periodic review of the achievement of the intervention objectives and improvement proposals.

Principles of personal growth from Coaching

In the much maligned and often mistreated Coaching technique, based on John Whitmore's CAR model, three basic principles are recognized for its operation that would be summarized in the initials of said acronym.

1. Conscience

It would be formed by an objective part, coming from the possibilities offered by our own senses. What would come to be personal hardware. And a subjective part, coming from the belief system, values, learning history and others. acquired sociocultural influences, which modify our interpretations of reality everyday. It would correspond to the personal "software".

2. Self-belief

As a fundamental basis for the successful development of the technique, we work on the idea that the individual possesses all the personal resources necessary to overcome difficulties that are raised to him, understanding that his role in this story is not that of the end itself, but that of the means to achieve it.

• Related article: "Self-regulation: what is it and how can we enhance it?"

3. Responsibility

Once the previous steps of knowledge and acceptance have been internalized, the protagonist of the coaching process assumes the responsibility for action, committing to the execution of new processes that may give rise to new solutions. In short, leave the famous comfort zone and face the path of improvement.

The keys to personal development according to the ACT

Finishing this review, we would find the well-known third generation therapies, and specifically ACT or Acceptance and commitment therapy. As its name suggests, this type of therapy renounces old cognitive efforts behavioral to fight against their own personal nature, finding the key to development and wellness in:

The acceptation

Acceptance, after self-knowledge, can be seen as a necessary tool to overcome deviations from the norm in terms of thoughts, feelings and behaviors, incorporating certain nuances of an emotional nature with respect to the predecessor techniques.

Commitment

Commitment, as a personal will to lead the change according to the characteristics and values ​​of our own personal nature.

Finding the psychological balance

As can be seen, there are multiple ways of approaching a situation, the same problem, of facing a challenge. But if we make an effort of observation, it is not difficult to find those common bases or pillars that support personal balance.

At UPAD Psychology and Coaching we are aware of this and we like to go to all kinds of sources of knowledge to implement our work methodology and offer our users all the tools at our fingertips for your performance, well-being and personal satisfaction.