Is Your Personal Development Regimen Working?

What if you don’t feel it?

A few days back, I wrote about a huge release I experienced. A 30-minute cry sort of release. A heavy weight I’d been carrying around for decades, gone. Just like that.

Over the next couple of days, I felt different. Lighter. I got my work done with less resistance. Dealt with client — and home issues with much less internal turmoil. And felt more energized, despite waking earlier and getting less sleep.

I have a friend who practices “channeling” (which I admittedly don’t know much about). He’s been doing some work with me. This big shift was a factor of that work, in combination with my recent meditation work.

One time, he told me that as I progress, I’ll need less sleep. I rolled my eyes internally at that. “Right,” I thought. “I’ve always needed exactly 7.5 hours. Why would that ever change?”

Apparently, it’s changing.

Channeling is not the only thing I partake in when it comes to personal growth. I meditate and practice yoga, as well as pranayama. I do “corrections” in which I go back and speak to my inner child or inner teen. I practice the Lefkoe Method for getting rid of limiting beliefs.

It’s less “fancy,” but I also journal.

In the last couple of months, I’ve also experienced (but haven’t stuck with) other methods such as EFT (tapping) and hypnosis.

And after doing these things for over a decade, I’m relatively open.

I also have a pretty good idea of when something works for me…and when it doesn’t.

When it makes a powerful shift…

And when it’s just “okay.”

Still, sometimes I’m surprised by the strength of a shift.

I think my favorite new skill is the one Michael Singer shares in “Living from A Place of Surrender.” Relaxing away from emotions as they bubble up.

That’s exactly what I did after my channeling friend helped me loosen that big block of emotions. It felt amazing.

As the pain came up, even while I cried, I felt grateful for its movement and resolution. Its “dissolution.”

And then, in the proceeding days, I noticed things. Like the fact that I was sleeping less and feeling good. Getting work done with less internal resistance. And feeling better about things overall. Clearer.

So why would you need less sleep as you clear emotional blocks?

I think Steven Pressfield might have written about this in “The War of Art.” Or maybe it was Michael Singer who said something in one of his lectures. My channeling friend certainly has mentioned it.

Maybe they all talk about it in some way.

When you carry around emotional blocks, they block the energy that’s moving through you. They create resistance, and that resistance makes you tired. So when you release these stuck energies and your life energy can flow better…you automatically have more energy. It’s not being wasted on resistance or internal turmoil.

How things build up (or in this case, tear down) completely

Imagine a large building like the Parthenon with dozens of columns holding it up. A table with four legs. A three-legged stool.

The internal battles we face in life are like the roof of the Parthenon. The top of the table. The seat of the stool.

As you work to dissolve your emotional blocks -

• by getting rid of limiting beliefs (Lefkoe Method)
• by relaxing away from samskaras (Michael Singer)
• by working through your ego states (Corrections)
• by tapping, or hypnosis, or any other method…

…you start to break down these legs, one at a time.

If you have a big pervasive problem — one that threads itself into every part of your life — it’s like the Parthenon. You’ve got a lot of columns to break down before you even feel a shift.

Smaller problems take much less to work through. Dissolve 1, 2 or 3 beliefs and you’re done.

In the case of my huge emotional release the other day, I’m quite certain that was a Parthenon. It affected my entire being.

What to Do If Your Personal Development Regimen Isn’t Working for You

I came here originally to write about “how to know when you’ve gotten rid of a limiting belief,” but I don’t think that’s really the topic here.

Instead, here’s what I want to say:

If you’re doing work on yourself…whether that’s one of the ways I mentioned or something else…

Give it time. Especially if you’re new to it. Chip away at the root of your problems. One day, a leg will fall, and you’ll feel the shift.

And if you keep going, at some point in the future…

The roof will collapse.

And you’ll know it.