​​Beginner’s mind is a state of consciousness in which the mind is completely open, without any preconceptions about people, events, surroundings, or anything else.  It is an incredible state of novelty, awe, and curiosity.
 
Entering the state of beginner’s mind is one of the cornerstones in several spiritual traditions, especially in Zen Buddhism. However, it is not important for religion only; it is one of the key practices for spiritual development and personal growth in general, even for some atheistic or agnostic practitioners. Similar to mindfulness, beginner’s mind brings about deep inner peace; it opens up the sacred heart and its ability for love and compassion; it activates creativity and unveils numerous hidden gifts.
 
How do we grow beginner’s mind and make it take deep roots in our everyday life? Simply, we need to learn how to enter this state of consciousness first and to practice it persistently. 

Typically, the practitioner should enter the present moment. They have to intentionally put aside all preconceptions about the current situation; to pretend that they know virtually nothing about it; to feel genuine curiosity; to willingly observe everything as they are seeing it for the first time in their life.  
 
Nevertheless, for some people, this practice can be insufficient for developing a strong and enduring foundation for a pure, innocent state of mind. That's why everyday meditation sessions are critical. And I am going to introduce you here to a completely new kind of meditation that will not only take you into the state of beginner’s mind but will also, if practiced steadily, help you expand your consciousness in many ways.
 
We will name it ‘Alien Meditation,’ because you will first imagine yourself as an extraterrestrial being in an alien environment, so that your real human body and everyday surrounding seem strange and new, at least for a while.
 
Practicing this meditation will enable you to delve deeply into the profound state of beginner’s mind, while your consciousness and creativity will be expanding tremendously.

​​How many times have you heard: life is so hard; people are selfish; trust no one; it’s his (her) fault…? Very often, for sure. It’s the victim mentality in action. For some people, there is always someone or something to blame.
 
Almost all of us carry within the victim mentality, regardless of gender, profession, age (except for small children), or any other determinant. Taking the form of victim identity and behavior, this mentality very often surfaces in everyday life from the depths of our subconscious minds, bringing us numerous troubles or reinforcing the already existing ones.
 
The victim identity is detrimental to our mental and physical health. However, like every other part of our being, it plays an important role in our maturing and spiritual development.
 
 
Identifying the Victim Identity
 
Perhaps the most difficult part of the process of getting rid of this identity is recognizing it first. How does it manifest? How can we immediately recognize the appearance of the victim identity in everyday life? Here are the most important indicators:

• Blaming other people. Whenever a complaint, gossip, or moan is related to blaming someone, even if it seems completely justified - it is a manifestation of the victim mentality. In that way, the person unconsciously tries to get attention, compassion, support, and validation that someone treated them unfairly, rudely, harshly ... Blaming others is always a sign of the victim identity.
• Blaming oneself. Often a person in the victim identity does not blame other people, but herself instead. An emotion of guilt for deeds she apparently did or did not commit overwhelms her completely. She is in a state of self-pity in its extreme form. She intensely complains about it to other people (although sometimes she keeps everything to herself). Such complaints are also very dangerous for a person's mental stability and overall health.
• Blaming the circumstances. Many people also frequently complain about life difficulties that have befallen them. In this case, the person does not put blame on himself or other people. He instead blames the circumstances and hardships in his life. However, it is still a form of the victim identity, where the “victim” consciously or unconsciously blames life, God, the universe, society, unfortunate events, etc.

 
Therefore, the core attribute of victim identity is blaming.
 
The “victim” typically says to himself or others:

• I can't.
• Life is hard.
• Life is a struggle.
• I am always a victim.
• I always have problems.
• People are selfish.
• You can't trust people.
• Others are better than me.
• Beware of deception; it's everywhere.
• Everyone is always picking on me.
• You don't understand how hard it is for me.

​Subconscious Causes of the Victim Mentality

​In this article, we will talk ruminate over the true, healthy kind of self-love. It is as pure and noble as parents’ unconditional love of their children.
 
Self-love is immensely important!
 
But first to clarify: in this kind of love, we are never putting ourselves above others. Even if we do not feel much love of other people, when we truly love ourselves, the love of others will naturally grow in our hearts.
 
True self-love is not egoistic, is not selfish at all. When you truly love yourself, the love of others will naturally blossom in your heart. Like all other beings, you also deserve love and happiness. Therefore, why shouldn’t you love yourself as others?
 
I guess this is the only topic I maybe disagree with Eckhart Tolle. Unless I misunderstood him (which is quite probable), he asserted several times that it is not possible that you love yourself, because love is a relationship between two or more beings. On the contrary, I feel that real love is not a relationship, it is a state of being. Perhaps it's just a matter of different definition. When we love somebody, we desire that they be genuinely happy. Similarly, if we love ourselves, we desire true happiness for ourselves, that we be joyful, healthy, and prosperous. So, we can love ourselves, and it is crucial for our well-being.
 
Yes, love is a deep tendency toward a unity of two or more beings, toward oneness. This is indeed an important aspect of love, but it also could be applied to self-love. One can love her own parts of personality, her physical body, her heart, soul, or higher self, as all these may be considered as relatively distinct parts of her being. Why not? Through self-love, she may help all these aspects of her being to fully reintegrate, reunite, and become one, as they have actually been all the time.
 
 
Why Is Self-Love So Important?
 
By loving ourselves, we are doing our best for our well-being, for our growth, health, and overall happiness.
 
When we truly love ourselves, our actions, both conscious and subconscious, will genuinely be directed toward our happiness, prosperity, and spiritual liberation.
 
If one develops healthy love toward herself, she won’t be able to do any harm to herself anymore, neither consciously nor unconsciously. Her subconscious mind will not undermine her genuine actions. Moreover, she will feel lovable. She will further deepen existing bonds with supportive people, heal many painful interactions, and attract some new, beautiful and fulfilling relationships.

​Additionally, scientific research has shown that developing self-love results in an increase in optimism, and a decrease of depression and anxiety. It also brings frequent and more enduring healthy behavior changes and more effective recovery from stress.
 
On the other hand, lack of self-love increases suicidal tendencies and attempts according to the American Association of Suicidology. It intensifies depression, hopelessness, and low self-esteem. This is the root of self-sabotage. Self-love deprivation may also lead to alcohol and drug abuse, eating disorders, and many other difficulties.
 
 
Holographic Principle 

I often reflect over many aspects of life through the Holographic View of the Universe, because of its universality, incredible lucidity, and symbolic applicability in virtually in all areas of our existence.
 
In short, translated to spiritual life, the Holographic Principle asserts that our inner being is symbolically mirrored in the outer reality, and vice versa. Applied to this topic, the holographic view implies that whenever we, as a microcosm, are cultivating healthy self-love, we are certainly growing love of the macrocosm, i.e., external world and all its beings.
 
In other words (and putting aside romantic love), we can truly love others only to the extent we love ourselves. And when we truly love others, we love and nurture ourselves, too. 

However, if we are desperately trying to love other people, while we haven’t resolved our inner obstacles to our well-being, a dangerous imbalance may occur – all the energy of love directed toward other beings will be reflected back into ourselves, but may dissipate and pale out.
 
 
How to Develop Self-Love ​

​Every human being has their unique excellence. It is a particular talent, skill or ability possessed deep inside, which is unusually good and so surpasses ordinary standards.

You may already be certain of your own excellence. If that is the case, the part of this article about it might not be relevant to you (although you still may find the Timeline Method useful for other purposes).

However, most people do not know what their best qualities are. Inhibited by the chores and pressures of everyday life, people often forget about their unique strengths and talents. They may not even be aware they have any excellence at all.

Once we are able to reclaim that lost power, though, we can redirect our lives toward any path. We can find a unique purpose on Earth and make our lives immensely happier.
 
The Timeline Method

How do we achieve that? Here is one direct method for finding our excellence: the Timeline Method.
​
First draw a simple timeline on a sheet of paper, with a zero point representing the year of your birth, and a point near the right arrow, indicating your present age, as shown below. 

​Now, say that you are 40 years old. Divide your lifetime into 5-year periods, which in this case means to divide the line span between birth and present into 8 parts (see figure below). 

​Then, try to recall a few of the most important events in your life for each 5-year period, whether they are positive (pleasant) or negative (unpleasant) to you. When I am talking about events, I mean experiences. They can be sudden and brief incidents, related to an exact point in time, or kind of fuzzy impressions, even stretching through longer periods of your life. They might be a mix of positive and negative feelings, rather than just one. The only criterion for the importance of events should be the intensity of emotions connected with them, regardless of their pleasantness.

So, although our intent is to recollect positive experiences related to important achievements from our past, it is necessary to search for all types of experiences (positive, mixed, and negative ones), because that will ease the whole process of recollection. The events will flow out from our memory more naturally. Also, this timeline may play a tremendous role in other aspects of your inner work. Perhaps you might want to work with traumas from your past, using, for example, Accepting the Temporary I technique to dissolve the unpleasant emotional burden of events.

You could also do this without drawing the timeline. However, a visual representation of the concrete periods of your past is a good stimulus for your subconscious mind and smoother memory recollection.

You may put pleasant and mixed experiences above the timeline, and the unpleasant ones below it.

It might look something like the figure below:

​Write down the labels for every experience, together with dominant emotions and names of the most significant people involved in each life event.
 
Finding the Excellence
​
With all this in front of you, you will begin the process of finding your excellence by making a new list out of all these pleasant experiences. It will just be a starting point for this purpose. These positive events will be a basis for a much broader list. Following each period from the timeline, write down every single achievement in your life that you can recall. Both your big and small achievements should be written down. 

Important criteria for these attainments are only two qualities: first, you loved doing them, so they were easy or natural, and second, you were happy with the result. 

Next, analyze and compare these achievements by passing through the whole list. Search for your individual traits which were praised most often, and which of your personal qualities had steered you toward every single accomplishment. Write down which traits and skills you had during those moments, or periods, that were required for achieving those feats. You may attach at least two personal qualities to each accomplishment. 

Next, go over all your newly written skills on the list. Find the most frequent and significant skills. If you can, it is best to extract only one or two of them. These are your abilities and talents that you should use for all your future endeavors; taken jointly, they are your excellence.

For instance, your true excellence might be public speaking, personal development, decision making, math, accounting, bookkeeping, sports, painting, music, singing, writing, legal, marketing, programming, humor, photography, video creation, wisdom, foreign languages, teaching, training, leadership, strategic planning, story telling, fitness, ability to focus, conflict resolution, futurism, …

Anyway, this revelation may be revolutionary to you. Thanks to it, you will be able to define or modify your life goals in accordance with your rediscovered excellence. You can steer your life in the same direction with much more confidence, or to change your direction whatsoever. 
​
Good luck with your inner work! :-)

​Many successful people keep journals. Also, some famous figures in history, like Napoleon or Marcus Aurelius kept journals. This practice has some obvious benefits – it clears up your mind, releases stress, and brings you clarity and inner peace.
 
There are many varieties of journaling, like keeping a diary; journaling with the Stream of Consciousness technique; keeping a journal from others’ perspective; dream journaling; art journaling; and many, many others. For all of these methods, you can easily find instructions on the Internet.
 
However, in this article, I will focus on a new type of this practice: the Vantage Point Journaling, part of the Reintegration System methodology.
 
 
Vantage Point Journaling 

We could say that this is a unique journaling technique. It is different from all other methods in that it initiates writing from four distinctive points of view:

1. From our Temporary I – in a “normal” state of everyday consciousness;
2. From our Heart – done in a deeper state of consciousness;
3. From the other person’s perspective (optional);
4. From the state of Pure Consciousness (Presence).

 
You can adapt your Vantage Point (VP) Journaling practice to your own needs and circumstances. For example, you can keep your diary in a VP Journal form, or practice the Stream of Consciousness technique in a VP Journal framework. Of course, you can apply any other well-known journaling method and do it from several points of view of VP Journaling practice.

VP Diary Journaling 

This method of journaling is especially good for those of you who need to improve mental clarity, de-clutter the mind, and improve focus.
 
All of us know very well what a diary is. What’s important for this practice is that diary captures streams of thought in an organized and structured way. It requires investing a certain amount of energy and focus on writing.
 
In this framework we will write our diary from several vantage points – the Temporary I,[1] the Heart, another person’s perspective, and Pure Consciousness.
 
The VP Diary Journaling structure is the following:
  
Stage 1: Writing from the Temporary I
 
To begin with your journaling session, do not try to change your mindset or relax too much. Just stay in your current state of mind, whatever it is. Maybe you are anxious, worried, angry, or experiencing any other emotion. You have to write exactly from that state. In this stage, your vantage point is your Temporary I, your transitory I-feeling at that very moment. Just become aware of your Temporary I, its location within your body, and – write.
 
Think about your day, event, or person that you want to write about. The text should be relatively structured, with meaningful sentences. You may be putting on the paper the most important impressions of that particular day, event, or person. Your diary may also relate to thoughts, emotions, new ideas, etc. Let it flow from you.
 
If you are writing in the evening, you can structure your journal by creating a list of questions that you will answer:

• What tasks have I accomplished today?
• What positive things happened today?
• What am I grateful for today?

 
Give three to five meaningful answers to each of these questions.
 
When you finish your text, review it. Feel and fully accept main ideas or parts of your text, one by one. You must accept all the main thoughts in the text. By doing that you will effectively remove a great deal of that day’s burden.
 
On the other hand, if you are journaling in the morning, you can create a list of questions related to your goals or action steps for that day, like these:

• What are the top three tasks I need to accomplish today?
• How do I want to better myself today?

 
If you are working with goals, at the end of your text write down the most important goals you are currently working toward.
 
If you want, you can limit the time of writing in this stage, but it should last no less than five minutes. But don’t worry – if you are too tired, it won’t be a problem to reduce your writing to only one or two sentences that comprise your whole day.

​Stage 2: Writing from the Heart
 
The second stage requires you to relax and open your mind. You will probably already find yourself pretty relaxed because the first phase (writing from your Temporary I) has surely de-cluttered your mind to a significant extent.