The role of will power for the harmonization and development of Personality, determination and perseverance (2/2). By Matsyavatara das (Marco Ferrini)

Self-determination and

Perseverance Exercise.

Determination is a state of mind that can be cultivated and developed with a right predisposition. Like all mental states, determination arises from psycho emotional factors and attitudes like:

1. Desire. In the presence of a well defined and intense desire it is easier to develop and maintain determination for the pursuit of the target we aim at.

2. Definition of Purpose. Knowing what a person wants is the first thing, and perhaps the most important one, to develop self-determination. A strong motivation will help to overcome initial and unpredicted difficulties.

3. Self confidence. Trusting our own abilities to achieve a target, will encourage us to follow our program with determination.

4. Program definition. Organized programs, even when they are not well defined and focused, will encourage determination and strengthen perseverance.

5. The accuracy of acknowledgment. Knowing that our projects are based on solid reality and experiences that attain to our evolving nature, will favor determination. “Presumption of Knowledge” opposite to “real knowledge”, will weaken determination.

6. Cooperation. Empathy, tolerance, comprehension, harmonic cooperation among members of a team will strengthen determination for each member or element of the group.

7. Will power and planning capacity. Constant practice of will power and concentration on our thoughts – in a profitable manner – for the definition of a project, with the intention to schedule the targets we aim at, will develop determination.

8. Habit. Determination is the straightforward result of our mental frame, of a habit, of a deliberate performance, of an action used as a constant conscious behavior pattern. Our mental frame is modified in relation to our actions that, even unconsciously will influence the psychological structure with behavior models that are acquired and represented automatically in accordance with the adopted and acquired schemes. Fear, one of the worst and most powerful, destructive emotions, can be cured by the voluntary repetition of acts of courage. All the people that have made this experience know it well enough.

The role of will power for the harmonization and development of Personality, determination and perseverance (1/2). By Matsyavatara das (Marco Ferrini)

By analyzing, the relation between the inner self and will power and, on the other hand, the various psychological functions of the mind, we can very well notice how strong the link between will power and the inner self is: it is almost an identification of one another. Furthermore, by using will power, the self works on the other functions of the mind, governing and directing them. We are open to consider the existence of other two relations: firstly between the spiritual self and its reflex as a distorted self, the ego: the total of psychological contents in which the subject identifies himself. Secondly, between the individual (spiritual) self and the cosmic Self, the Supreme Soul or God for religious believers and theologists. Whereas the first relation is often contradictory, because the soul interacts with a distorted image (with the ego, the historic and transitory personality), the second version instead, related to the cosmic Self, is blessed, it is the source of complete harmony, of ecstasy. The problem of which will power to privilege depends on the relation we choose, either the first or the second one.

The unconscious process does not have a will power of its own, it is rather a self automatism, we cannot see its movement with our visual power, nor examine it with a rational thinking. However we can experience the existence of a dynamic process for which it functions spontaneously by responding to inputs that we provide for it with our conscious thinking, with or without a voluntary deliberated action. Our conscious thinking chooses the targets, selects the material, makes calculations, values and comes to a conclusion and, generally without knowing it, activates an unconscious process. Through the power of will – that represents the most immediate and direct function of the ego personality - we can produce a mental image of the target we aim at. It works straight forward in the subconscious in order to achieve its purpose, even though we do not know the way it works.

The conscious thought is not the doer of the material result, but it makes the mechanism work. Therefore, by acting here and now in the most ethical and correct way as possible (dharmya) the unconscious process is able to reach spontaneously the best results, without making any efforts. This is the reason why by acting properly and trustfully here and now, there is no need to worry about the future, because the targets will be achieved by the unconscious process that has been activated. The will power works at its best when we provide for the initial start- up and we let the unconscious elaboration to carry on naturally and spontaneously.

In order to fulfill a satisfactory and lasting success by using will power, we have to act accordingly, with no concern for the final result, rather by dealing with the psychological functions. As a matter of fact, the best way to use will power occurs when we activate and direct all the powers of the mind.

Before acting, likewise the physical world, the complex system of the ruling laws is taken into account, similarly before an action of will we need to consider the psychological dynamics and the ruling laws that such action implies.

Faith, discipline, courage, interest, optimism, to favor either an evolutionary or destructive purpose, will strengthen the power of will and vitality. Futility, pessimism, frustration, resentment, remorse, envy, jealousy, fears, nostalgia: they activate destructive dynamics that reduce the power of will, vitality and, as a consequence, the perspective of life. In turn such kind of attitude will accelerate the aging process. Every person in life feels the urge to satisfy fundamental needs, by following and realizing them in a healthy and ethical method (dharmya) they favor the development of will and strengthen it.

These major needs are:

- giving and receiving love

- finding and giving security

- being able to express one’s own creativeness and encourage others to do so

- feeling one’s own value and appreciating the value of others

- living new experiences and encourage others to make new changes

- developing self esteem and trusting mankind and divine providence

- living with a wholesome and fulfilling sense of satisfaction, inspiring others to do likewise