There are many people that you will encounter in your lifetime. Some will change your outlook on life. Some will make you feel like you have the whole world in the palm of your hands. And others will shatter your hopes and dreams. Those people, are ones you will never forget. They are the ones who have brought you to the world's knees. For most of us, we've become stronger since then. Others have become emotionless. As I matured, I realized that the ones that hurt us the most are the one that we would do anything for. The people we love with all our heart. They are the ones that hold the most power against us.

When we are young, it's easy to give our love to someone because we are naive. We believe this person would never hurt us, but when they do, it becomes our first affliction.The first cut is always the deepest. It might not have been necessarily a lover. It could have been a close friend that we confided in.

As we continue to experience distress, we become more accustomed to heartache. Later on, we begin to focus more on who's really important which is ourselves. If we can't make ourselves happy, how do we expect someone else to make us happy? Discovering one's self is the most rewarding thing that can ever be done. Self-awareness is what helps us grow into our ideal self. The ideal self is the person we aspire to be. It is said that most people become their ideal self in their mid-adult life. Once a person acquires self-awareness, they have a clear understanding of who they are. Then they will move onto self-transcendence. Self-transcendence is when a person has the ability to go beyond their own spirituality and feel one with a greater whole. This is the greatest state of body and mind one can reach.

It might seem impossible to reach, and some may never get to experience self-transcendence. I believe everyone is capable of achieving great things, it's just a matter of a person's will to go get them. The journey will be anything but easy. You will face hardships, but it's the faith you have within yourself that will get you through the hardest of times.