By Sejal Shah and Denise Everheart | Posted: August 05, 2020
Celebrate your uniqueness: here is how you can use SKY Breath Meditation for your personality development.
This is such an insightful and empowering quote. If we can take some time to contemplate on this, it can change our life for the better. It simply means that we are all born with our own uniquely gifted personality and that needs to be recognized, cherished, nurtured, and celebrated. This powerful wisdom comes from the ancient Indian tradition and many other cultures around the world. Though in the modern era the whole science of personality development has evolved and studied, the clue that this quote has given can be life-changing!
Rediscovering our uniqueness
Have you observed when a child enters a room everyone in the room just gets attracted by the child's mere presence? The child doesn't have to make any effort. It all happens naturally. The child has not undergone any personality development classes yet, but it still charms us just by its natural presence. More than anything else, it is the child’s freshness, innocence, friendliness, and naturalness that attracts us.
As we grow up, we tend to lose that charming presence and naturalness that we all had as a child. How do we restore that child-like freshness, friendliness, and naturalness in our lives? In recent years, people have used many different tools for personality development including self-help books and classes. For me and many thousands around the world, the regular practice of the powerful breathing technique, SKY Breath Meditation, has played the magic. The recent research done at Yale and Harvard University published respectively in Frontiers in Psychiatry and the Journal of American College Health showed that SKY breath meditation (Sudarshan Kriya) showed to help in 6 measures of student well-being: stress, depression, mental health, social connectedness, positive emotion and mindfulness, also self-esteem, life satisfaction, and conscientiousness.
The modern view of personality development
Personality development has been a major topic of study and research for some of the most prominent thinkers in psychology. Since the inception of psychology as a separate science, researchers have proposed a variety of theories to explain how and why personality develops. We are born with at least some personality traits, but one could say that all of life is a determining factor when it comes to personality. Family genes, birth order, social experiences, relationships, and even religion are some of the factors that contribute to our personality formation.
What is personality?
According to Britannica, personality is defined as the following: “Personality, a characteristic way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Personality embraces moods, attitudes, and opinions and is most clearly expressed in interactions with other people. It includes behavioral characteristics, both inherent and acquired, that distinguish one person from another and that can be observed in people’s relations to the environment and to the social group.”
Why is it important to develop our personality?
Now that we have a better understanding of personality, why is it important that we develop our personality? Besides inherent internal motivation to improve ourselves, we see the benefits of those with the most desirable personality traits experiencing more happiness and success overall. Deeper clues to why it is important to always be working on personality development can be gained by looking into Abraham Maslow’s process of self-actualization.
Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who was best known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. At the base of the pyramid lies our physiological needs like food and shelter. Above these are our safety needs, the need to feel secure. After security comes love and belongingness- the need to connect with others and have intimate relationships. The next level on the pyramid is esteem needs. We all want to feel a sense of accomplishment. And at the peak we find self-actualization, achieving one’s full potential. Maslow believed that you could only move up the pyramid towards self-actualization when the lower levels are taken care of.
Just as we progress through life, and make our way up the pyramid it is only natural that we desire for the highest. But how do we go from the middle of the pyramid to the apex, self-realization?
What are personal development skills?
The list of personal development skills is a lengthy one, perhaps without end. Let’s look at just five.
Adaptability. Meeting our physiological needs can require adaptability and even increase survival when challenges are high. On a large scale, we might need to handle changes to our living conditions due to environmental or economic factors, like floods or shutdowns. On a smaller scale, challenges could be daily with changeable schedules and circumstances at home and work. Not being adaptable is equivalent to increased stress at the very least.
Problem-solving. Being able to problem-solve is not only a time-saver in general, but it can also be a factor in survival and giving you a sense of accomplishment.
Communication. Whether you’re communicating with the opposite gender or across generations, in a personal relationship, or during business dealings- good communication is key. If you ever played the game telephone as a child you know how easily spoken words can be misheard even directly in one’s ear. And miscommunications with written texts and emails are even more challenging when it comes to communicating effectively.
Interpersonal. Skills related to intimate relationships, including family, friendships and romantic all lead to that sense of belongingness and love. Without an interpersonal skill set, we may feel life isn’t worth living.
Leadership. What makes a leader a strong one? Having all the skills for success has a lot to do with taking responsibility. President Truman is well known for his belief that “the buck stops here”, and he was ultimately responsible for all of his decisions and outcomes.
Ways to improve your personality
Libraries and bookstores are filled with books of ‘how to’s’ for self-improvement, perhaps even your bookshelf has a few. Just about everywhere you can find helpful programs for enrichment, from community centers to universities, in-person and online- they all offer various programs for personal growth. We all want to be a better listener, a wonderful conversationalist, and have a winning attitude, in addition to so many other positive qualities. Self-effort and determination aimed at personal growth can take an individual’s personality to greater heights. There are also techniques for improving one’s self that fall into the category of meditation and breathwork. These techniques have been also proven to affect at the deeper levels and even your genes. Here are 7 Eye-Opening Ways Meditation Can Help Your Personality Development.
The connection between how we deal with and store stress affects how we express ourselves and our social interaction with others. If we can somehow manage stress and gain emotional stability, we can not only have a ‘good personality’, we can have one that is unshakeable, come what may. Just as there are numerous books on self-improvement, there are a myriad of techniques for managing stress.
Mindfulness techniques have gained in popularity in recent years, but not everyone finds them to be easy and effortless- for most, it is an exercise too easily dropped. The recent research that I mentioned earlier also has proven SKY to be far more effective than mindfulness.
For those wanting an effortless technique for greater awareness, a different kind of personality development training, SKY Breath Meditation has helped millions of people gain personal growth in the form of these skills and qualities, and many benefits too numerous to list:
Increased positive attitude
Increased critical thinking
Increased emotional intelligence
Heightened awareness
Reduction in addictive behavior
Increased self-esteem
Improved communication skill
SKY Breath Meditation, an evident-based breathing technique, uses specific circular, rhythmic patterns of breath to bring the mind and body into a relaxed, yet energized state. Normally one would have to find an Art of Living meditation studio in order to learn SKY. But now for a limited time, you can easily find a ‘virtual’ meditation studio and learn the SKY Breath Meditation online.
Here is what practitioners of SKY Breath Meditation say:
I feel that I am able to get through problems and challenges more easily. When a problem arises I don't see it as the end of the world or some huge bundle of stress, just a short phase that I need to get through. I use SKY breathing and meditation to relax. The process opens creativity and avenues to find answers. I look at life in a more positive and open-minded way.
-Mary Walker, Singer/Songwriter, Massage Therapist, Boone, NC
As a result of regular practice of the SKY breath meditation, I have noticed substantial benefits. In particular, I am now better able to deal with uncertain and changing situations. In the professional arena, as a graphic designer, it helped with creativity, dealing with difficult client personalities, not being attached to a particular outcome, and becoming more aware of how my actions affect myself, other people, and the environment. All this has helped me become more accepting of myself and others, take more responsibility for the things that are important to me, and overall kindled an appreciation for the deep interconnection we all have with each other.
-Alex Marculescu, Graphics/Web Designer, Cleveland, OH
After learning the practice of SKY Breath Meditation, I have been able to improve my communication and interpersonal skills. As a CPA, I deal with people who are highly stressed. Its important to be a good listener. I have also become a more creative thinker, able to improve the systems at work and at home in my kitchen. After SKY, I am more self-aware and dynamic. Now in my second career, as an ambassador of Ayurveda, SKY enables me to manage marriage, motherhood, and my new business. This is all due to having taken the Art of Living workshops.
Sonia Karwal, CPA, founder of Veda by Sonia
These are just a few of the experiences from the thousands of experiences shared by people of all walks of life across the globe.
To learn more about SKY Breath Meditation and the power of your breath to improve your life, you can attend a free online introductory session, called Beyond Breath, and do a guided meditation with a live meditation instructor- no reading required! and answer any questions you might have. Have a look, with fresh eyes at the world of personality development through the power of your breath!
To learn more, read The Scientific Benefits of Meditation: Head to Heart, Body to Mind.
Sejal Shah, E-RYT 500 Sri Sri Yoga Teacher, YACEP, C-IAYT, Meditation Teacher, Happiness expert, NYU Post Graduate Medical School approved Yoga-CME retreat facilitator, Mind-Body Wellness Writer, Homeopath. She can be followed on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Denise Everheart is a freelance writer, life-long meditator, SKY Breath Meditation instructor, party planner, veg chef, and recipe designer. Follow her @everheartstudio4meditation and @celeplateyourlife on Instagram.
