ONE of the most powerful skills a human being can develop is the ability to remain in a positive emotional state without relying on external circumstances.
To be in a great mood when there is nothing obvious to justify it is not denial of reality; rather, it is mastery over it.
This skill represents emotional independence, that is, the capacity to generate inner stability instead of waiting for life to co-operate.
Most people live reactively, allowing their mood, energy and motivation to be dictated by events, people or environments. Growth begins when we reverse that relationship.
The human brain is, by nature, a recorder of the environment. From childhood onwards, it absorbs patterns, behaviours, emotional reactions and beliefs based on what it repeatedly experiences.
Over time, these patterns become automatic. The brain begins to operate on autopilot, replaying familiar emotional responses even when they no longer serve us.
When this happens, the environment controls the brain instead of the brain shaping the environment. Transformation requires us to make the decision to think greater than our surroundings.
Personality plays a central role in this process.
- Love for the ghetto lands Chinese national in soup
- Love for the ghetto lands Chinese national in soup
- Letter from America: Trump’s revenge: Supreme Court bans abortion
- Letter from America: Trump’s revenge: Supreme Court bans abortion
Keep Reading
Our personality is not something mystical; it is simply the sum of our habitual thoughts, emotional reactions and behaviours. In other words, our personality is our redundant actions.
These repeated patterns form what we call our personal reality. If nothing changes internally, the same outcomes will continue to manifest externally.
This is why knowledge is essential. Knowledge introduces awareness and awareness allows patterns to be questioned, interrupted and rewritten. Over time, this restructuring leads to a new state of being.
However, change requires movement beyond the familiar. To evolve, we must step outside the personal reality that our old personality created. This is uncomfortable, especially because stress often pushes us into survival mode.
In survival, the brain seeks familiarity, not growth. It clings to the past because it feels predictable, even when it is painful. This is why understanding a situation does not automatically equip a person to move beyond it. Insight alone does not produce change.
Knowledge must precede action. One must know not only what to do, but why it must be done. Without clarity of purpose, effort becomes inconsistent. At the same time, growth demands patience. Deeply ingrained mind-sets and emotional patterns cannot be dismantled in a week. The brain requires time and repetition to form new neural pathways. Expecting instant transformation only leads to frustration and self-blame.
If we continue to listen to the same internal voice, the one shaped by past experiences, we allow old programming to dominate the future. As the Nobel prize-winning author André Gide observed, “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
This is why intentional practices such as meditation are vital. Meditation, when done intentionally trains the mind to disengage from habitual emotional reactions and observe thoughts without becoming them. It creates the mental space necessary for choice.
To achieve new results, a new personal identity must be formed. Change is not about forcing different behaviours while maintaining the same self-concept. It is about becoming someone who naturally thinks, feels and acts differently. A crucial question then arises: how long do we want to remain in negative emotional states? Every moment spent reliving the past reinforces it.
True transformation occurs when we stop being defined by what has happened and start creating from what is possible. When the future becomes more emotionally real than the past, the brain reorganises itself accordingly. This shift from reacting to creating is the essence of personal evolution.
- Rutendo Kureya is a medical student at Saint Petersburg State Paediatric Medical University, Russia. She is passionate about issues concerning the state and welfare of fellow Zimbabweans. She can be reached at [email protected]. Mobile: +7 996 274 9866 Facebook: Rutendo Kureya. She writes here in her personal capacity.
