Using Meditation and Yoga To Improve Human Personality

What makes personality so important given that it is an abstract concept? Indeed, corporate organizations invest on personality development for their employees, while others have utilized their personality to gain success in life. This are indicators that personality plays a major role in the way an individual perceives themselves and how society perceives them thereafter.

As indicated above, personality is something that is innate in an individual and nourished or enriched using various methods. However, a different view is introduced by yoga as it believes that there are five different layers to the human personality.

Each of the five dimensions play a role in producing a unique personality. In order to establish that uniqueness, an individual has to undergo various yoga methods that target specific layers. Each of these layers start from the outer layers of the human body and into the internal aspects.

The Five Dimensions of Human Personality

The yogic view on human personality divides it into five different dimensions. Each of these dimensions serve as layers to the human personality that prevents one from attaining balance and a holistic personality is either one is missing. These different dimensions also serve as stages that are essential in an integrated personality.

*Physical Self: This sheath in an individual's personality represent the senses, which is therefore concerned with the body's physical faculties. The key to enhancing the physical self in yoga is to engage in a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle, as espoused in the yama and niyama of yoga.

*Energy Self: This dimension serves to enhance whatever efforts you have input at the physical self such that an individual gains more vitality and intensity to perform daily set of activities. A key factor in enhancing the energy self is the flow of prana or energy in the body and their assimilation towards various parts of the body.

*Mental Self: A strong mental capacity is vital for individuals who are living in stress-filled environments. The mind's ability to concentrate and adapt to pressures from the environment makes them more effective. Also, it enables you to stay calm and focused despite any form of adversity.

*Intellectual Self: All efforts on improving your intellectual self is based on the concept of “Buddhi”, which provides an individual with the discriminative power and knowledge. Formal studies is important for the acquisition of intellectual knowledge, but if you want to improve your level of wisdom, you have to follow the example of noble men through reading literatures and books.

*Blissful Self: This is the ultimate goal in your effort to improve human personality. At this stage, an individual is capable of preserving happiness and avoid any form of negative thoughts or emotions from getting in their way. This trait enables an individual to overcome emotional, physical, or psychological struggles.

Yoga defines your body as different from an individual's typical conception of what body is. There are two entities of body in yogic view – the physical and spiritual. Therefore, yoga postures are executed with those two bodies in mind and create a union for better personality development.

For the physical body, yoga postures help to add flexibility and strength. It also add some benefits including improved body circulation and more strength in your joints and ligaments. Therefore, execution of yoga poses help to prevent injuries and a variety of ailments including digestive disorders, high blood pressure, and other forms of body aches.

For the spiritual body, yoga postures help in the facilitation of energy flow and its distribution to various parts of the body.

Breathing and Concentration for Personality Development

The use of breathing and concentration techniques affect mostly an individual's mental personality. The more conscious and focused you are with your breathing patterns, it serves to relax your body and senses. Thus, breathing techniques are important prerequisite during meditation as it effectively brings about a calming effect. Once you are calm enough, then you improve your ability to pay attention to details and increase vitality.

Meditation for Personality Development

From breathing techniques, meditation evolves into a deeper kind of experience that involve your intellectual personality. The goal of meditation is to sharpen up your mind to the extent of focusing on a thought or idea without being distracted by an external or negative thoughts.

According to experts, meditation help in shaping better personality as an individual is more capable of looking at things objectively and making wiser decisions.

Deep Meditation for Personality Development

This must not be confused with yoga meditation since deep meditation is a separate component of yoga. It is more advanced than meditation as this is utilized to attain a deeper level of blissful self.

Through deep meditation, a person is able to reach the stage wherein the superficial and physical objects no longer matter as an individual learns to appreciate the deeper value of human personality and concept of self.

One of the keys to meditation is finding an ideal space. With ideal, it does not necessarily mean that you have to specifically find an area that is serene and away from the city. You can simply find a secluded area within your house that offers as little form of distraction as possible.

Once you have found your spot, then you can now move onto the meditation proper. Make sure that you keep your back straight during meditation to avoid straining yourself and keep your body as comfortable as possible. Then, follow the steps indicated below:

• As you sit, keep your body comfortable by sitting erect. You can use pillows or cushions to provide support on the weight points.
• Pay attention to your breathing, such as when you inhale or exhale. Do this for a few minutes until you are able to relax.
• If any area of your body is tensed, focus on them to release any source of tension.
• You can choose specific meditation techniques that you are most comfortable with. There are lots of them so you can try a few and see if it suits you.