Hi everyone,
Welcome to the Forum’s new topic!
We have heard your feedback, so we will be regularly posting new topics to give you the chance to reflect on your journey so far. We will be including content around topics such as gambling harms research, news articles, reflections from GamCare staff, and more.
This week’s topic is growth. Around this time of year, many will reflect on things they would like to achieve for the year ahead, but it is important to consider whether those achievements will truly add to our happiness.
An article in Psychology Today argues that “pursuing personal growth is the best choice to achieve lifelong happiness and contentment… Personal growth is about overcoming our natural tendency to respond quickly or negatively to situations”. This is not an easy task and involves unlearning our current patterns and practicing different responses over and over again. But, starting to change the way we see the world and react to it can really increase our happiness.
The article discusses how personal growth can improve our responses to problems we face, “one of life’s purposes is to find these solutions. We have the power to adjust our typical responses to situations that bring on intense emotions, whether that is shame, anger, depression, etc. We now can begin to say, “I’m struggling with this…there are other people who have also faced this problem and they’re doing well. This means there must be a solution.” Instead of criticizing ourselves, or hating our lives, we can reframe our mindset to be more solution-focused than reactive. This will guide us towards finding a way to solve our problems and ultimately make our lives happier.” If you would like to read this article, please see: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/meditation-modern-life/202106/the-path-personal-growth
Life comes with lots of challenges, and with this approach we might start to see some of these as opportunities for personal growth. It is something that you may have recognised in your own journeys, noticing how your view of certain things, or reactions to situations or feelings may have changed over time. So, over to you!
What are your thoughts?
What would you consider as personal growth?
How do you think your view of the world has changed or not?
We would love to hear your reflections below.
All the best,
Lulu
Online Peer Support Team
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