Change occurs in our lives. What was important years ago may no longer be a priority. Experts in psychology and human development recommend a periodic review of one's past to determine how it meshes with the present. Paradisiacal soul-searching is an examination of our feelings, motives, aspirations, etc.

This soul-searching provides opportunities to plan events based on the past. Paradisiacal soul-searching is a walk-through of memories emotionally surrounding us. Said writer Helen Steiner Rice: "Memories are treasures that time cannot destroy. They are the happy pathway to yesterday's bright joy." The song "Precious Memories" certainly supports this point.

As we reflect on moments and events in our lives, we embrace things that make for a state of equilibrium within us. Paradisiacal soul-searching forces us to respond to many questions, some of which will generate uneasiness. This process is to engender personal satisfaction from whatever direction stimuli might emerge.

It is rational to assume people want to improve their lives. They do this by changing the way they customarily think and how they act on stage (Shakespeare). Behaviors are unlearned and replaced by more advantageous ones. Said Indian statesman Jawaharial Nehru (1869-1964): "What we really are matters more than what other people think of us."

Seven suggestions are presented to alter mind-sets; they are aimed at producing attitudes and behaviors based on paradisiacal soul-searching principles:

1. Practice a perfect faith. Bountiful works alone will not bestow a heavenly paradise. This will have to be done through a perfect faith.

2. Trust that there will be a tomorrow and a better tomorrow than that tomorrow. Grow and be sustained in this belief.

3. Fear not. Said Aristotle: "Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil." Added Thoreau: "Nothing is so much to be feared as fear." Chimed in today's writer Sue Augustine: "The fear of succeeding holds more people back than the fear of failing."

4. Closed doors. A closed door is just a beginning in that a door is always opening, even after it closes. Keep pushing closed doors.

5. Embrace new visions and new ventures. The creators of BET, Google, MySpace, FaceBook, Microsoft, etc., did this in their time. Maintain the momentum.

6. Treat people individually. As much as people want to treat others equally, it cannot be done. An iota of difference among individuals will render different responses.

7. Quietly luxuriate yourself. You owe yourself special moments, and they are moments owed you. Luxuriate as often as time and resources will permit.

It might shock humankind to know that there are cures for HIV/AIDS, leukemia, cancer, and heart disease. The cures exist; humankind has yet to connect to them. In time, the cures will be uncovered.

Paradisiacal soul-searching is a quest. "The Serenity Prayer," by Reinhold Niebuhr, provides guidance for it: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference." Amen.

Reach T&D Columnist Howard D. Hill, Ph.D., via educationconsultant@sc.rr.com.

You must be logged in to comment.