Summer, 1972: Develop Yourself

Anais Nin believes in self-development. She writes, "Every human being should push his development and skills and creativity as far as possible, as only then does one become valuable to the community, valuable to others. It is wrong to hold people back to remain on the level with the herd. We need explorers, adventurers, pathfinders, models, inventors. The real democracy is to develop yourself as much as possible, for then you can teach and help others."

So, be an explorer. Ask "Why?" Get out of the box, and look somewhere else. Dig deeper. Look at things from a different perspective. Look at the forest instead of the trees. Just try one of your ideas, and see where it goes. Challenge assumptions and rules. Ask, how would Anais approach this?

Spring, 1972: Turn the Negative into Positve

Anais Nin writes in a letter that she has known anxiety, depression, and discouragement - haven't we all? - but she is somehow able to transform these feelings into something positive, something others can use to heal and restore their life by reading her diary.

She writes in another letter: "I have the happy faculty of tuning in to only the positive or creative side of people and totally disregarding the hostile, the fake, and the hypocritical. It is my formula for not despairing." She further states, "my whole effort has been to turn the negative into positive."

How does she does this? By developing her interior being. By engaging in a life-long quest for self-awareness and identity. By being in tune with other people, listening to them, and actually hearing what they have to say. By connecting with people.

Can we also do what Anais has done?