• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Start Here
  • Blog
    • Podcast
    • Watch
    • Subliminals
  • Coaching
  • Shop
  • Free Manifestation Planner!

The Aligned Life

Jenn Stevens | Spiritual Life + Business Coach

Why Self Work Is The Most Important Work

by: Jenn

Why Self Work Is The Most Important Work

There’s only one you.

And you only have one life.

No one else is going to make you a better person or to give you a better life. It’s all up to you.

That’s why, to me, self-work (otherwise known as personal development) is all about self-love.

The route to happiness is not through external objects, events or people.

It’s already deep down there somewhere inside you and it’s your job to uncover it.

Everything else is just an illusion.

Self-knowledge is power.

And the truth is we’ve all been programmed to dull our shine.

Think about it: if we were all free, confident, happy people, we couldn’t be so easily manipulated into consumer culture.

We wouldn’t be buying new clothes year after year, buying that expensive gym membership, signing up for plastic surgery. We wouldn’t be okay with working a soulless 9-5 (where we’re not really unhappy but not really happy either).

And we definitely wouldn’t accept the reality of being tired and exhausted and therefore happy enough to spend our off time on the sofa soaking up even more of the programming that encourages us to just keep on shopping.

In contrast, self-work should never be about fixing ourselves because we’re not perfect or deserving just as we are.

It should never be about attempting to fill an internal need with something outside of ourselves. It should never about choosing things in life because we think we have to or because we see no other option.

It’s about freeing ourselves from old programming, limiting beliefs and empty attachments.


The path to true happiness doesn’t lie through our accomplishments or titles or from things you can buy at the mall. It only comes from inside of us.



And our magic will always be the strongest when we have true autonomy over ourselves.

I was inspired to write this post because, while I’m a huge believer in the power of self-work, I do see it used in some unethical ways. It’s all too easy for something that’s supposed to be empowering to be used destructively.

Being able to see what kind of work is helpful and what is potentially damaging is the first step to freedom.

This manifesto is far from complete but hopefully it gives you some solid ideas for navigating the personal development highway.


Why Self-Work Is Important For Your Magic

There are five major aims of enlightened (aka guilt-free) self-work.


Self-Work Is Important Reason #1:

Remove Limiting Beliefs



Your expectations about yourself create your reality. But unfortunately, for most people that means we’re selling ourselves short, without even noticing it. Bottom line: if you don’t believe in it, it’s never going to happen.

There’s a whole world of wonderful things out there that you can have if only you’d let yourself. Your limiting beliefs means you don’t even see those possibilities! They’ve closed up your eyes and boxed in your world and you’re the only one who can set yourself free. Attitude is everything. Expect more shittiness and that’s exactly what’s going to show up. But if you can train yourself to open your mind to new (better!) things and see what’s going to happen.


Self-Work Is Important Reason #2:

Eliminate Old Programming



We’re all taught to value certain things in life, by our parents, teachers and society. But sometimes those values create a conflict with our own true beliefs. If you’ve been programmed to become a lawyer and focus on making tons of money, it might come as a shock to you to discover that you’d really be much happier giving everything up to teach yoga in Costa Rica!

Everyone has a different path but many of us are taught to reach for the same, standardized goals in life. (How boring!) Self-work and personal development offers a way for you to free yourself from that old programming and to figure out what truly matters for you.

This programming is dangerous because it’s not yours. These are external messages and beliefs that we’ve internalized to the point that we believe they are our own. Without examining our beliefs and figuring out where they came from, we run the risk of living our entire life in accordance with someone else’s ideals.


Self-Work Is Important Reason #3:

Know Your Why



Without knowing your why, you’re in danger of living unconsciously. Our why in life is the rudder to the ship. You can be, do and have anything you want but it’s important to figure out where your desires came from. Because if you’re looking to fill a deep hole inside of you, you’ll one day be surprised to discover that no matter how much money you make, accolades you receive or goals you surpass, the gaping hole is still there.

Motivations that are based on competition, getting even or validation are not ultimately serving you because you’re ultimately taking someone else’s opinion on your life more seriously than you own! You’re giving your own power away, without realizing it.

But when you find inner clarity, those distinctions become clear. You’ll be able to see what’s real and what isn’t.


Self-Work Is Important Reason #4:

Change Old Habits



Habits, whether “good” or “bad” are a form of unconscious behavior– and that’s exactly why they’re so difficult to change! We do these things without even thinking. They’ve become part of our autopilot. Using self-improvement techniques to change habits is necessary because those type of deeply-ingrained behaviors are not easy to shift! They’ve become embedded into the very fabric of our daily life.

If a habit is no longer serving you, it will definitely take some concerted effort and attention to make a change. It’s a matter of moving things from the unconscious to the conscious and back again. We need to pay attention to our actions for a while instead of operating on auto-pilot before we’ll be able to see success by making a shift.


Self-Work Is Important Reason #5:

Find True Self-Acceptance


Self-love is the magical missing tonic for so many people in the world. In general, we’re not taught to love ourselves. If you don’t get the message at home, you definitely won’t get it from your friends, from school or from TV. We all stretch ourselves to try to meet an invisible yardstick of perfection and we all inevitably miss.

But we’re not all taught that our imperfection is inevitable, acceptable and even lovable.

To take it a step farther, through media programming, we’ve actually all been taught the opposite: how not to love ourselves! Advertising and marketing usually work by making us feel somehow inadequate. (And the self-help and New Thought worlds are by no means immune!) Learning how to truly love ourselves is the most important form of self-work of all, freeing you from the shackles of external validation.




You should never embark on the personal development path because of what one “guru” says or because you feel somehow incomplete or unworthy. That will only set you up for disappointment. There will always be more gurus claiming to have all the answers (and who are sometimes operating from a place of darkness.) There will always be something being presented to as the magical missing link. And it’s mostly an illusion.

Don’t fall for it. You and your happiness are far too important. Grow and expand to find your own joy, don’t just to become enslaved by another doctrine.

We only get to do this once.

Let’s do it the best possible way we can, for us.




I hope this helps you take an enlightened and loving approach to your own personal development! It’s all a journey, not a destination.

(I will be launching my coaching practice soon, based upon these principles! If you’re interested, please drop me a line!)

Thank you so much for reading today & I wish you a beautiful week. ????


Jenn Stevens The Aligned Life




PS Looking for more? You might also want to check out this post about how to use visualization or this one about how to develop your intuition.




Love This Post? Then Pin It For Later!

Why Self Work Is The Most Important Work

Why Self Work Is The Most Important Work

Filed Under: Self Work Tagged With: importance of self work, personal development

Primary Sidebar

Hey there Goalgetter! I’m Jenn – Bestselling Author | Spiritual Life & Business Coach | Creator of The Aligned Life and I teach you how to mind hack your way to your manifestation dreams!

 

Footer

Hey Jenn! Do you have any advice about…

Even More Magic

Business Coaching
Glossary
Inspiration
Terms & Conditions
Impressum/Privacy
Contact
Member Login

The Aligned Life

How To Manifest
How To Manifest Love
How To Manifest Money
Mindset Magic

Come Find Me:

Apple Podcasts
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
Pinterest
Spotify
TikTok

Footer Widget Header

Reminder: THIS ISN'T YOUR FOREVER PLACEMeaning: Reminder: THIS ISN'T YOUR FOREVER PLACEMeaning: whether good OR bad, this moment is only temporary.And even when the sh*t is hitting the fan, there's so MORE to your story than what's on the surface.Let me get personal for a moment.I've been pretty open here about my dark night of the soul story.(Basically, going from being married, living in a beautiful loft apartment, having a successful business with my partner to getting dumped, business dissolving & living in my parents basement. Overnight!)Way back then I was FIRMLY stuck on what was happening to me.The worst part was really the fact that I was telling myself I would never be happy again. I lost & game over.Looking back now, I can see how it was THAT particular story of mine that was the most painful and damaging.Feeling hopeless fed my depression and really made me feel like there wouldn't even be a point in TRYING to do anything great ever again.But I'm happy to say I was SO wrong about that!Back then I firmly FELT like I was in my forever place--even though it WASN'T.Bit by bit, I healed myself. I got stronger. I started listening to my soul desires and got busy with manifesting them all into reality.NOW I know that the lessons I learned back then have been my most valuable.They led me to TRUST myself and in the journey, even through fear, self-doubt and not always knowing WHERE I was going next.Without that moment, I'm sure I would NOT be here: with a book and business I'm so proud of, living out my dreams in Europe.So today I just want to REMIND you: there's more to your story only always.I know 2020 was tough for so many of us (Corona, BLM & more)And maybe you needed to read this today.So please know: you might not be able to see how it's all coming together right now.But trust that one day down the road, you'll look back and see:That THIS exact, with all the suffering and hardship WASN'T all in vain.It actually all came together to make me who I was ALWAYS meant to be.
————————————————————————
with love + miracles ✨
~ Jenn
Oh hey there friend! 💗There are lots of new f Oh hey there friend! 💗There are lots of new faces here & it's been a little while since I last introduced myself.So hello! My name is Jenn & I'm on a mission to connect you to your MAGIC.I teach you how to create the life you want by using your MIND.You might have heard that you can use the Law of Attraction to attract what you want through your emotional states.Which IS true.But most of us don't realize that our THOUGHTS create our emotional state.Repeated thoughts become beliefs.And those beliefs create our MINDSET.So when you have a low sense worthiness around ANYTHING you happen to want to manifest, you WILL see only lack and limitation.You WILL buy into the old programming that tells you you could never do/be/have that.You WILL secretly self-sabotage and get in the way of the very things you want so much.I used to feel lost and down on myself. And I used to HATE what my life was like.But something inside of me was pointing me in the direction of learning more about spirituality and personal development.The more I learned about manifestation + the brain, the moer the pieces began to click together.And the faster my life began to RAPIDLY change!(Check out my story on how I manifested my book deal for example.)I'm telling you this because I KNOW you can create so many of those dreams of yours, if you JUST learn how to get out of your own way.And that's what I'm on a mission to do, every single day.Want to work with me? You can get started with manifestation with my Manifestation Journaling Workshop.Or if you're ready to go deeper in a private setting, drop me a DM to learn more about my hypno-coaching program!AND PS - I'm also about to launch my Recode membership site (which I'm SOOO excited about). So stay tuned for that!But I'm SO DAMN EXCITED to have you here for this journey! And I thank you so much for being part of my little manifestation community. Now--let's TRANSFORM!
Getting on the manifestation train, who's coming? Getting on the manifestation train, who's coming?Emoji me below if you're part of Team Manifestation! 👇👇
What do YOU need to believe to create your next le What do YOU need to believe to create your next level-reality?Remember: your old beliefs created the life you're living now.But instead of getting upset about that, it's SO much more useful to think on where we want to go next.So what do YOU want to create?And what do YOU need to believe in order to get there?This is the CREATION part of being a Conscious Creator: meaning that YOU get to decide on what your life looks like. But you also have to do the work to CREATE it, starting from the inside out.So get excited about what YOU are going to start believing in next! &  happy weekend to you #teammanifestation !
————————————————————————
with love + miracles ✨
~ Jenn
You're never lost, my darling!And things have ne You're never lost, my darling!And things have never gone wrong.Even when things don't LOOK the way you want them to, always remember:There is magic in this moment--and EVERY moment.So lock it in & double tap to AFFIRM it:I trust that I am right where I am mean to be! ✨✨

© 2021 · The Aligned Life