There are times when we just feel flat – perhaps not dejected, disillusioned or depressed, just lifeless, energy-less and disinterested. And although I’ve been teaching my many personal development clients how they should start each day by focusing their minds – and I do the same myself – sometimes, within no time at all, one ends up feeling, well, ‘I wish I was somewhere else!’ or ‘I don’t feel like doing this!’ I’m not talking about things going wrong during the day, I’m simply talking about what one client described this way: ‘I get into my office, full of the joys of spring, I sit down at my desk, start going through my emails and, suddenly, it’s like I’m in a kind of daze.’

I talk with quite a number of people – clients and readers of my Personal Development Ezine – who explain to me that they have become far calmer, more aware and focused as a consequence of the various little “mental exercises” that they practice to banish stress and move themselves in the direction that they want their life to go. I often receive feedback from people who tell me that their lives have been transformed and that they have seen many of their goals achieved almost effortlessly. But others wonder why, if they are developing calm, clarity and presence of mind, nothing new and exciting seems to be happening in their lives.

I spent some time with a business owner recently who talked of his fears for the future of his business, how he was afraid of what others would think of him if his business collapsed and, as a result, how he feared for his marriage too. Although he believed his problems to be unique (don’t we all), the conversation reminded me of many that I have had over the years. It reminded me of all the media stories – that “markets are gripped by fear”, people are “fearful for their jobs” and that people are “afraid they will lose their homes”. At times like this, perhaps it’s more than Personal Development that we need!