Holistic Growth or Holistic Development is a way of ensuring that learning occurs on all sides of the human brain. Traditional learning systems and education systems have the intention to develop only the intellectual side of the brain. However, holistic growth aims to develop the physical, emotional, social, mental, and spiritual abilities of the brain. While it becomes important for parents and teachers alike to develop skills of the intellectual side of a child during his or her early years, it is extremely and equally vital for a child to work on learning these skills such as confidence, compassion, empathy, emotional intelligence, social abilities, creativity, responsibility, and various other abilities.
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Let us understand how holistic growth can help individuals in every phase of their lives. Maya, a school student was quite an introvert in her early years of education. Hardly having any friends in school to speak to, Maya’s parents were quite worried about her future. Even Maya’s teachers wanted her to express herself through verbal communication. But Maya lived in her own world. She liked writing, reading, and watching movies and television serials since her childhood.
Maya liked to be herself and had the ability to work independently even in group assignments where there were quite many other team members as well. It was Maya’s unique ideas that made her get good marks in group and individual project work. Maya liked to write and she wasn’t aware that this skill of hers was her strength until she got rejected during her company job interviews. Maya expressed very well about her thoughts, ideas, and understanding of a particular subject through written communication. However, when it came to attending meetings where team members would be involved, she would keep her ideas to herself and hardly find a way to share her work.
This attitude of Maya was noticed by her hiring manager who asked to learn more about holistic growth. Maya was given different assignments on developing public speaking skills, doing physical exercises like a walk or yoga during her weekends, and taking part in online and offline contests to express herself in different ways. Maya was resistant to coming out of her comfort zone but however, but the push by her manager made her speak to people around her in the company as well in her personal life. She started opening up and making different moves in her personal and professional life.
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Maya started gaining confidence in her abilities and even decided to take part in spiritual and religious gatherings where her work started getting noticed. Her ability to work on her own without having someone to monitor the same made her win accolades on all fronts. Maya’s nature from being shy and reserved to being expressive and open about her feelings began to change. This eventually helped her find the right career path in writing and entrepreneurship along with a good life partner that she always dreamed of.
Maya’s holistic growth helped her achieve success on all fronts. There were difficulties and roadblocks but Maya’s holistic thinking made her more mature and understanding of others’ viewpoints and thus helping her win in all phases of her life.
