A Call to Action - Gandhi's Seven Laws of Society for Today

Mansukh Patel, Savitri MacCuish & Andrew Wells

Background articles

Believe... in Yourself - Mansukh Patel Ph.D.

In Manuskh Patel’s encouraging book, Believe in Yourself, the reader is taken through Manukh’s remarkable success formula for overcoming self-imposed limitations and developing a natural and irrepressible confidence.

The book is based on Mansukh Patel’s best-selling audio tape –now a CD –which contains a distillation of the most powerful techniques for developing self worth provided by the Dru tradition. Many people refer back to their first encounter with this assembly of Mansukh’s approaches to believing in yourself as a turning point in their lives.

Introduction

In the Introduction to Believe in Yourself, Mansukh recalls his childhood in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya. There, the young Mansukh Patel often encountered the Maasai tribes people, and their natural self-belief formed a powerful influence on his life. Mansukh’s father, Chhaganbhai Patel, allowed Mansukh as a child to spend many hours with the Maasai elders, knowing the benefits their immense wisdom and confidence would bring to his child.

Begin with yourself

Mansukh Patel encourages us to begin with the person we can influence most –ourselves. You can be your own best friend or your own worst enemy, according to Patel, depending on the decisions you are making on a moment to moment basis.

Decide now, Mansukh encourages the reader, to take control of yourself and your life and to give up the notion that you are an unwilling player in someone else’s film. As he says, this is your life, your film and you are the director and producer!

Mansukh Patel’s engaging style encourages us to ask a variety of questions in this section: Can you imagine being completely happy with yourself just as you are now? Can you imagine looking in the mirror in the morning and feeling in love with yourself? And how many people do you know who do?

For Mansukh, these are very important questions, because true happiness depends upon just how much at ease we are with ourselves and who we are –and how much love we feel for ourselves.

In contrast, he points out, people with low self-confidence feel vulnerable and limited, not liking to take any kind of risk. Their ways are often counterproductive to both themselves and their families. Mansukh refers the reader to think more about what confidence means, and suggests that confident people are endlessly enthusiastic with an attitude that says, ‘I have been honest with myself and my potential, so that only good will come out of this.’

Mansukh Patel’s long experience in empowering people leads to a variety of conclusions. One useful observation is that this kind of positive attitude prevents any deflation of self-confidence and self-esteem should the results not meet expectations.

He concludes his discussion on Self Awareness with the affirmation:

Affirm: I am honest with myself and my potential so that only good will come out of everything I do.

Self Awareness

A key characteristic Mansukh Patel learnt from the Maasai warriors was that those who are self aware are totally present, honest and open, trusting themselves and others. They are confident about their ambitions and goals and take responsibility to always project the very best out of themselves.

When we have real awareness, Mansukh says, we can make our life into something, accepting our self responsibility and thereby implementing changes in our life.

Resistance and patterns

Mansukh’s father was an expert in understanding the nature of the mind, its limiting patterns…and also it’s potential for greatness. He recounts in the book how we often do not recognise our hesitation and resistance for what it is. Developing our powers of self-awareness we start to see our patterns of thought and inner behaviour very clearly. From Mansukh’s point of view, this means that the absence of self-confidence is often betrayed by our actions, avoiding the issues in question or using a whole range of delaying tactics. Better to wait until tomorrow, we think, until the mind is clearer. Better not to bother people etc.,

Therefore, according to Mansukh Patel, lack of self confidence can prevent all our moves on the way to establishing a more satisfying life.

Self Awareness Exercises

To intensify your self-awareness, Mansukh invites you to try doing something different every day which heightens your awareness to the world around you.

Go for a walk each day and learn to become aware of the world around you. This appreciation of the outside will also make you into a more sensitive human being.
Remind yourself of all the wonderful things that have happened to you throughout the day.
Decide to do a different sport, read a book, or write in a journal any inspiring things that have happened to you.
Make an appointment with yourself each day and enjoy the best of yourself in this appointment.
Decide not to take the easy route out of life but instead try to find the fun and excitement in life. Surprise yourself every day.
Be spontaneous in some act of generosity and kindness.
Learn to ride the waves of life with dignity, agility and courage. This is what life is all about.

Three stages to complete confidence in yourself

Mansukh Patel’s Believe In Yourself has three sections designed to progressively take you from self limiting behaviours and beliefs into a firm, stable, passionate enthusiasm for life and for the gifts it can offer us.

The second section gives us techniques to establish the groundwork for achieving real self-belief. Mansukh’s suggestions are:
1. Gratitude - The foundation of self-love.
2. Self Love and Self Empowerment.
3. Making the necessary changes.
4. The Mind - The source of all our power.
5. Introspection - A way to inner harmony.

In the third section, Mansukh Patel goes further, and discusses the conditions that will conclude your acceleration to full self-belief:
1. Actualisation - making yoru dreams a reality.
2. Goal Setting - The power of actualisation.
3. Perseverance - The means to self-confidence.

These are potent formulations, each one giving the advice and techniques that Mansukh Patel learned from his parents and which have helped thousands of people. Drawn from the Dru background, the techniques Mansukh offers in these stages have the capacity to change your attitude about yourself into a natural, effortless faith in your capability and your inner strengths –for years to come.

You will find Believe in Yourself by Mansukh Patel to be an invaluable investment in your future.