The best exercises for training personal growth. What personal growth courses are silent about Personal growth training from

Reading time: 2 min

training personal growth- this is a series of activities aimed at improving individual qualities that contribute to the success of a person. Thanks to exercises focused on personal growth, a person is able to change unwanted character traits for more positive ones, can get rid of a variety of negative thoughts and negative complexes.

Personal growth is a purposeful process of improving a person, the desire to become better. Personal growth is considered to be all situations, factors and opportunities that bring the individual closer to achieving the ideal.

Personal growth involves the formation of a person's potential. Potential - a set of characteristics that express its ability to build on internal stable reference points, to maintain the stability of activity under periodically changing environmental factors. This is a series of characteristic properties that help the individual become able to regulate behavior, make decisions according to personal ideas.

It is important for each potential member of the group to know how dangerous personal growth trainings are, so that instead of being useful, they do not get more damage and maintain mental health.

The basic goal of personal growth training is the internal growth of the individual, self-development and.

Psychological training for personal growth

The goal of personal growth training is to modify the worldview, change the stereotypes of activities that prevent the individual from being successful and happier.

A subject who wants to transform individual characteristics into more positive and qualitatively different characteristics must undergo personal growth training. An individual who has completed these classes will become more calm, confident, happy and spiritually free, regardless of the influence of circumstances and environmental factors. Thanks to special psychological techniques, a person is able to be programmed for success. This happens thanks to classes and special exercises that help a member of the group to comprehend his deep attitudes, which subconsciously most influence existence and provoke certain results of activity.

Purpose of Personal Growth Training- to know and realize the possibilities (potential) inherent in the personality, which involve qualitative changes. The goal can change depending on the characteristics of the group. Often, exercise goals cover some general aspects:

Formation of self-knowledge by reducing psychological barriers and eliminating the feeling of insincerity of the personality itself;

Development of conditions and factors that will make it difficult or easier for the group to function (membership or size of the group);

Studying the relations of group members;

Mastering the skills of diagnosing organizational, group, individual problems, such as solving group conflict situations, strengthening group ties, creating training conditions, achieving individual requests.

The goal of personal growth training is achieved when a member of the group can make an independent decision about how he should live. Participants themselves find how diversely one can perceive all life around, they can make valuable life discoveries regarding their closest people, close friends and themselves.

A person can experience intense emotional upheavals and shake-ups, which often leads to a loss of self-control, since he needs to perform all the exercises or instructions from the coach, which sometimes do not make obvious sense.

Everyone who wants to participate in such classes needs to think whether he is really going to change something or whether the current life suits him just fine. If a person is not ready for changes or they do not need them, then the coach will not allow him to the group.

Future members of the training should be willing to start new life, but still must be suitable for certain parameters. Those wishing to become participants in personal growth trainings must be mentally healthy, emotionally balanced, calm and without mental abnormalities.

The coach of the group should stimulate the process of making autonomous decisions by the individual, its ranking and structuring. life values, landmarks and goals. This is done through the application of various techniques, techniques and research approaches, such as gestalt, cognitive psychology, existential approach.

Types of personal growth trainings are psychological and esoteric.

Psychological training is performed under the guidance of a leader who has a completed psychological education, using psychological categories and definitions. In contrast to the esoteric ones, which are led by a person with knowledge of psychology at the everyday level and owning esoteric and mystical knowledge.

Types of personal growth trainings:

Personal development (used to master the general knowledge necessary for orientation in a wide range of potential situations). For example, a person learns effective interaction, he develops strong and good traits in himself, learns confident behavior, learns self-control;

Psychotherapeutic trainings (carried out with the aim of improving the quality of life, they contain special procedures, techniques, methods and exercises through which the assimilation of ways of behaving in life and personal difficulties is carried out);

Condition training (this is a special type, including methods for overcoming the condition and other internal barriers and various complexes that arise in a person);

Research trainings (help individuals who set goals to understand personal limitations and gain emotional experience, which often helps in understanding something);

Transformational (focused on the basic (deep) beliefs of a person, his values ​​and condition). An individual has very powerful internal spiritual transformations (enlightenment, breakthrough,), thanks to the occurrence of which he will be able to reveal something new in everyday habitual life or realize something differently.

Personal growth training for women involves dividing into groups that differ polarly. The first group consists of women subject to oppression by family members.

The purpose of personal growth training is to gain self-knowledge and develop fortitude, which helps to gain confidence and resist people who want to keep the female will from an independent, happy and self-sufficient life.

Training for women is in group form and in individual form. Participation in group trainings gives a woman a powerful impetus, because being among like-minded people, she feels confident.

The second group of personal growth training are women who work in large organizations and companies in leadership positions.

Not everyone is a natural leader, but many have to work in an organization and hold a leadership position. The charismatic attractiveness of a person helps a person achieve significant results in career advancement. Those who do not have this characteristic need to work hard and cultivate discipline in themselves. However, hard work does not help a woman overcome such a problem as internal timidity in relations with the team she leads. More often, such timidity occurs if the team is made up of men.

Personal growth training for women is focused on the development and discovery of internal potential; recognizing fears that prevent you from living a full life; development of positive traits and qualities; search for resources to help development.

Not all classes in a row can be equally useful. Quite often they conclude a veiled threat and can only harm the personality itself. The group member must know the dangers of personal growth training and recognize this danger.

In destructive sessions, participants are encouraged to destroy their personality or part of themselves that they consider unworthy and do it extremely abruptly, as if cutting it off. Such training does not at all lead to the progress of personal growth, on the contrary, it only breaks the human psyche. Advice such as "give up the old self" or "kill your weakness" is very destructive, has nothing to do with professional psychotherapy, and does not promote personal growth.

The danger of these meetings lies in the personality of the leader of the group. After working with a true psychotherapist, a person begins to notice that his emotional state has improved, fundamental changes occur in his life, he becomes confident and successful.

As a result of communication with a destructive coach, a group member feels devastated and humiliated. Such a "guru" behaves with the members of the group arrogantly and cruelly. He offends, puts people in an uncomfortable position, reproaches them with weakness and ignorance. Such a leader seems to be deliberately trying to cause emotional suffering, explaining this as motivation and hardening.

Through emotional buildup, the facilitator tries to earn approval, he wants to assert himself, and not teach this to the participants in the personal growth training. He sees the ultimate goal of this training not to help others, but to subjugate their will to himself in order to force them to follow everything that the “trainer” says.

In order to understand the danger of such training in time, you need to listen to your feelings. If there is a feeling of emptiness and humiliation, you need to run away from this coach.

Destructive trainers teach that experiencing negative emotions, aggression, and suffering will only benefit the trainee for personal growth. Therefore, instructors often insult group members and try to provoke them into aggression. A person is forced to perform illogical actions: calling himself names, expressing joy for no reason, kissing or hugging strangers, declaring that this is “for their good.”

A destructive coach teaches participants to be rude and arrogant, since these qualities, in their opinion, characterize a person who is self-confident, which means successful.

First, pressure, then humiliation, then praise - this is a way of emotional swinging, which leads to the submission of participants to the coach.

A truly experienced, intelligent and conscientious psychotherapist, leading a group or personal counseling, will never humiliate a client in personal practice, will not force him to do what he categorically does not accept.

A smart and benevolent psychotherapist will teach individuals how to stand up for themselves without the use of rudeness and rudeness.

The danger of these activities may lie in the fact that members of the group are taught to actively and aggressively attack, and not defend themselves, thus, a substitution of concepts comes out when they are taught that attack is the best defense, or impudence is the second happiness.

If a person is taught to be aggressive and rude, then he ended up in a destructive training. After visiting such a training, a person feels guilty. Even when he is absolutely unwilling to step over himself in order to show aggression, he is forced to do so.

If a person nevertheless manages to “squeeze out” an impudent trick unusual for himself, then the leader and the group approve with admiration, although the person himself does not like it. Upon returning home, a person feels a sense of shame and considers himself guilty for what he did at the training. The condition is aggravated by the fact that an internal one is formed between what is imposed on him in training sessions and what he considers the norm for himself. It is these sensations that are considered signs of the danger of personal growth training. If, at the end of the training, a person feels guilt that was not there before, then there is no need to attend this training anymore.

Speaker of the Medical and Psychological Center "PsychoMed"

You are invited to visit wonderful courses of personal growth at every corner, promising a deep transformation of personality and pleasant changes in life in a short time. , success, love of the opposite sex, fulfillment of desires ... just come to the courses and a miracle will happen.

We will not argue that personal growth courses are completely useless. There are people whom they really helped (by the way, they are then stuck out as advertising), but there are not so many of them. Efficiency is determined by statistics, and if out of 100 students of personal growth courses, at least 50 would really succeed, then this article would be called differently, for example, "the phenomenon of the amazing effectiveness of personal growth courses."

Most of the clients of such courses really light up after the first visits, but then they are disappointed and return to their former lives. And all because the industry of "personal growth" resorts to typically marketing ploys in competition.

You can achieve anything you want if you believe in yourself!

People like to achieve their goals. Our hormonal system is seriously working on this feeling. The feeling of satisfaction when achieving a goal is due to a whole bunch of hormones, but it is believed that dopamine plays a major role here. The same hormone also stimulates the movement towards the goal, being a kind of dope.

Can you achieve anything you want if you believe in yourself? In general, yes. Many talented people really do not have enough faith in themselves to make a breakthrough to success. But more often than not, just magical faith in yourself is not enough. It sounds too boring for magic courses, so they try not to talk about it too much, but .. you need to work. Work on your goal.

In addition, self-belief of a near-religious nature borders on destructive self-confidence, and self-confidence is blinding. As a result, you cannot reasonably assess your strengths and abilities, and therefore you begin to do something that, if not doomed to failure in advance, then has very little chance of success. So, for example, at the age of 30 it’s too late to do rhythmic gymnastics at a professional level, and you can’t conquer Everest if you have a bad one. And no amount of faith in yourself will change that.

It's easy to change!

Change is easy with just words. It is so difficult for people to change that many people use the saying "people don't change". And probably in 95% of cases this is true. No positive change comes easy. Often you have to give up something and sacrifice something. For example, if you want a good figure, then you have to give up cheap fats and fast carbohydrates(no! just not pies and cakes!), and if you want to make good money, you will have to give up evening beer and TV and finally do something so as not to go to your low-paying job anymore, but to earn decent ones.

They really work, but somewhere on the upper layers of the subconscious. Any serious stressful situation will bring you face to face with everything that is repressed into the unconscious - fears, phobias, self-doubt, etc.

You can't just say to yourself "I'm confident" a thousand times and become confident. It doesn't work like that. Harzima and confidence, just like spiritual weakness and self-doubt, come from deep, poorly conscious layers of the psyche. Making an insecure person into a strong charismatic personality is a serious challenge for any professional psychologist. This includes working with childhood traumas and introspection, and re-experiencing the repressed content, and much more. Such a transformation is a serious spiritual and emotional experience, and everything that happens on the surface, like affirmations and self-hypnosis, remains there.

Do you know why the first rule of a psychologist is not to give advice? Because if advice helps, a person becomes dependent on the adviser, and if it does not help, then the adviser will share part of the responsibility (and in the mind of the one who is advised, sometimes all) for failure. In the end, everyone loses: both the one who gives advice and the one who listens to them. Never give advice and do not listen to other people's advice, and if you come to personal growth courses where you are given advice, know that the value of such courses is equivalent to the teachings of grandmothers near the entrance, but grandmothers near the entrance, at least they don’t try to weld on you.

“We were allowed to do everything”

“You didn’t earn a dime? All in your hands! Take our training and tomorrow you will be a millionaire.”

“Discord in the family? After our course, you will find love and peace again.”

"You can't find friends? Not confident? We will solve these problems! In a week you will believe that miracles happen because your life will change, you will become a leader.”

It is human nature to believe in something. If not in God, then in a miracle.

How personal growth trainings lead a person to a dead end, how breakdown occurs, why graduates of such courses end up in psychiatric clinics, what final goal leaders of such events - in a frank interview with a woman who spent about five years at trainings.

“In the classroom, we put on diapers and sang the national anthem together.”

Personal growth trainings. Advertising of such services looks tempting - for a minimal fee, people are guaranteed to gain self-confidence, freedom, learn how to earn money, establish own business, to be a desirable partner in love and a lot of other delights of life.

38-year-old Ksenia Epikhina from Volgograd naively bought into the tempting promises. And hung on training for 4.5 years.

During this time, she lost all her friends, almost destroyed her own family, and forgot about her son.

The tale of lost time ended for her with a protracted depression, from which she got out for a year.

Today, a woman, together with her husband, is trying to pull out of the maelstrom of delusions those who have been sucked into the training swamp.

One of the exercises in the personal growth training - people tried on the image of a prostitute, homeless person, alcoholic.

"We were inspired - we are gods"

I started training in 2010. It was a difficult period of my life - I got divorced, left with two children, besides, my teenage son got into a bad company, - Ksenia Epikhina began the story. - I was in confusion, did not understand where to look for help. And at that time, a friend with “practical” advice turned out to be next to me: “I go through trainings where chic psychologists work who will help you - and relations with your son will even out, and you will find peace of mind.” Well, I bought it.

The training about which in question is divided into three main courses. Each is paid separately.

The first course - designing - lasted for 4 days. The cost of the event was 6 thousand rubles, now the leaders have raised the price to 8 thousand. I confess that after completing this course, I had no doubts that they would help me here. Psychologists during the lecture explained some correct positions in life, gave certain knowledge, classes were held on one solid positive. It was later that I realized that in this way people were simply lured into the network.

The woman continued her studies. For the second course - modeling - she paid 9 thousand (today the cost has risen to 11 thousand rubles). The duration of the course was 5 days.

And here programming began, breaking a person into certain things, not always positive. We were given strange priorities. For example, they were convinced that living “at the family level” is bad. This is the lowest level of existence.

What was considered the highest level?

mission level. Each person must come into the world with a certain high mission. If one of those present dropped a phrase like “my husband didn’t allow me” or “I’ll ask my mother” - such people became the subject of ridicule. They immediately flew to their address: “Do you live at the family level? Ha ha ha! You are nothing." The teachers literally deleted the family from our lives. Naturally, numerous divorces followed from here. Although, advertising the trainings, the leaders assured: "Among our clients there are a lot of people who are getting married." Do you know how it happened? First, they broke up existing couples, and then brought the students together. As a rule, if one of the family members got into the courses, and the second did not want to go, then he automatically became an enemy. But among themselves, the participants in the psychological process said this about each other: "He (she) supports me, he (she) grows with me."

- Is it really possible to completely reprogram a person in a week?

The second course lasted five days. During this time, our teachers managed to turn our minds upside down. Imagine we were indoors from 10 am to 10 pm. The organizers of the training made several short coffee breaks. The rest of the time we were forced to do exercises, constantly think. There was no time to stop and even think: “Am I doing the right thing? Why do I need it?". We did our daily homework at night.

- What exercises did you do?

Here is an example of one of the tasks. The whole group sat in a circle around one person, and each said what he thought about the center. For example, such characteristics were poured: "modest, shy, quiet." After that, the trainers told us to select the opposite meanings of the definitions that we made earlier. It turned out - not modest, but liberated, not kind, but evil. The next question was: “Who has a set of such qualities?” And the answer is: "Prostitute, gay, gopnik, bum, drunk." The next day, the subject had to get used to the role of the character assigned to him for three hours.

- Did you also have your own role?

I got the role of a sadist. I had to change into an appropriate outfit, take a whip and express aggression towards people for three hours. We have all become members of the lower strata of society for a while. Now I understand what these games were for. Thus, we erased the line between good and bad, what is impossible - what is possible. We were allowed to do everything. We were told that we are almost gods and everything is allowed to us. It became very easy to manipulate such people who had no brakes. This is what our teachers strive for.

Ksenia's wife, Dmitry Epikhin, was expelled from the training for disobeying the leaders.

- Is it possible that after three hours of "acting" a person erased all the facets of reason?

It seemed to us that our consciousness was expanding - and we are capable of any action. I note that in the new image we did not go out into the street, passers-by were not shocked. All actions were carried out within the team. Actually, we were limited as much as we could in communicating with people from outside. We cooked exclusively in our own juice.

- And a lot of people gathered at one training?

A whole commune - about sixty people.

We count other people's money with the interlocutor - the proceeds of the training leaders.

Now the second stage of the training costs 11 thousand rubles for 5 days. Pupils less than 60 were not recruited. It turns out that our teachers received more than half a million rubles a week.

- Well, you were fed and watered there. Did you provide any brochures or books? Another item of expenditure.

Of the five days of the training, we were fed only three times, and even then very modestly. Managers spent only on pens and notebooks. If someone was indignant: “What did we give money for?” - the critic was immediately attacked with accusations: “Don't you support other people? You count money, you are so self-serving! After all, we are engaged in charity, making the world, the Universe cleaner.”

Ksenia Epikhina: "They made me a zombie."

- It seems to me that 60 people in a group is too much for psychological training?

60 people is the minimum number of people in a group. Sometimes up to a hundred people gathered in the hall. Of course, with such a crowd of people, the trainer-psychologist could not trace the dynamics of each person present. But some exercises caused ambiguous reactions and emotions in different people. Some laughed, others sobbed, fought in hysterics, the third became ill.

- If a person became ill during the training, how did the leaders of the training act in this case?

They didn’t particularly react, they always had one excuse: “He’s a fool himself, he didn’t do what he was told.” As a rule, after suffering stress, people then turned to normal psychologists who pulled them out of this state.

- Did those who worked with you have a psychological education?

At the time when I was studying, not all of our teachers had special education. Now, when we raised a wave of indignation, everyone quickly got the necessary crusts.

“We put on diapers, flippers, went out into the street and sang the anthem of the Russian Federation”

According to the interlocutor, the first two courses of the training are flowers compared to how the training program developed in the future.

The third course is implementation. Leaders were trained here. The term of study is three months.

The program of the third training included three-day trips for the weekend. On these trips, the coaches built the program on blaming their students. For example, if a plane crashed somewhere, we were told: “It is you who are to blame for the tragedy. Planes crash because of your thoughts.” If a person drowned, again we were guilty: “You drowned a person with your thoughts.” If there was a terrorist attack - again because of our thoughts. For three days, a feeling of guilt was aroused in us, which weighed terribly on us. One girl had a nervous breakdown on this basis. She took full responsibility for the major plane crash.

- Did everyone who was at the training really believe that this or that tragedy happened through their fault?

I don't know how it happened, but we all became very suggestible at some point. And for a very long time we did not let go of the feeling of guilt for every tragedy that occurred in the world. True, according to statistics, out of 100 percent of people, only 70 percent are amenable to such processing. So it was in our case. There were people who tried to argue with the teachers, for which they were expelled from the lessons, and the rest were forbidden to communicate with them under the pretext: "They prevent you from developing."

- What other features were in this leadership program?

We were divided into groups of 5-6 people. Each group had its own captain - a man who went through all the trainings, but did not have a psychological education, taught us life. Every day at exactly 6 in the morning we had to call the captain and report on how our past day went.

- Did you have any responsibilities, for which you reported?

The leadership program consisted of two aspects. The first included various charitable programs. We worked as volunteers, beautifying parks, planting trees, painting houses. But that was not our main occupation. The second aspect, the most important one, is that we had to involve as many new people as possible in the training. If a person during the trainings did not volunteer, but involved at least one person, he became a leader. And it was the limit of our dreams. Every morning the captains asked us: “What have you done to involve the people? How many people managed to call to us? If on some day it was not possible to bring a newcomer, the pressure began: “You are not a leader! You are a dying bastard, do not allow people to develop. You are a victim. You won’t succeed in life if you don’t involve yourself in training.” And so it was every morning. For most people, this pressure was depressing. For example, I was very worried that I would not become a leader. I sincerely believed that I would only benefit the world when I brought a lot of people to these courses.

- Did you bring it?

Yes. I involved 50 people. Among them are my relatives and friends. Now I repent very much, because I involved the people closest to me there. They stuck there. Now I can't get them out of there. And when I myself finally got out, they stopped communicating with me, I became their enemy.

- Are those who leave the training automatically classified as enemies?

The red line is the idea, as in fascism: the training leaders are the nation of Aryans. Everyone else is an inferior race, nobody. Teachers constantly drew a line, divided people into the strong and the fallen.

Have you reached the rank of captain?

Yes, I was motivated to do this: “Come on, you will become even cooler, even higher. The more people you involve, the faster your son will return to the family.” While I was there, it really seemed to me that this was the salvation of the family. It's like I've been programmed.

- And if it was not possible to involve anyone in the training, what then?

Such a person was declared a loser and was not honored to take on the most important, third weekend. Getting there seemed like the ultimate dream of everyone.

- What did they promise you this weekend?

The fact of the matter is that what is happening at this event was kept in the strictest secrecy. We were told that miracles happen there and only there people get an understanding of why they live, they find out their purpose. Before leaving for the most important event, we were asked to warn relatives that we would not be contacting for three days. Excuses like “if my husband doesn’t let me go” were taken with hostility: “So you live at the family level, since you can’t leave your husband.”

- And what was the mysterious weekend?

We were taken out of town, to a camp site. Phones were taken away. For three days we danced there, sang, listened to lectures, energy was literally pumped out of us. They woke up at dawn, forced to play jumpers, stretch. If someone failed to make the necessary “pas”, he was publicly ridiculed, called a weakling. At night, for some reason, they were raised and forced to stay awake. By the end of the third day we were physically exhausted. In addition to the captains on that weekend, new positions were introduced - angels. It was these angels that brought a person to such a state when he became completely suggestible. A well-known technique, if people do not sleep for a long time and are in an excited state all the time, then they become zombies. In this state, they can inspire anything.

- And what did they suggest to you?

On the third day, hard meditation began. We were told about our destiny, convinced that we came to this earth to captain, to angelize. It was said that our most important mission is to involve all our friends and relatives in the training. Of the 60 people who went that weekend, half went on to captains and angels. Our happiness knew no bounds. We believed that if we deserve the title of captain, then miracles will begin in life, we will be lucky in everything. Now I cannot explain how adults in their 30s, 40s, 50s so blindly believed in our guru. Some things I still feel ashamed of. For example, on the third weekend we put on diapers, flippers, went out into the street in this form and sang the Russian anthem. For what? It felt like everyone was under hypnosis. At that time, I could fulfill any wish of the mentor. Moreover, no one understood what this exercise developed, but everyone obeyed in unison. Also in the morning, each of us received a certain task. For example, organize a playboy party. Moreover, such tasks fell out to very modest, squeezed people who were breaking themselves at that moment.

“Maybe something was mixed into your tea, since you did such strange things?” Did you drink alcohol?

The fact of the matter is that there was nothing of the kind. There was a powerful effect on the subconscious. A strict ban was imposed on alcohol and smoking. If someone admitted that he knocked over a glass of cognac for the holiday, it immediately began: “Because of you, everyone is drinking himself, look how many drunks are because of you.” And again evoked a sense of guilt in a person.

“When I was expelled from the group, I thought about suicide”

- You have passed three main stages of the training, which lasted for 4 months. But what did you do there for almost five years?

People who didn't move much in critical thinking really limited themselves to this time and left. My mind has turned off. I began to go to various volunteer programs, it was called “serving people”, where we advertised our training all the time. If our chief said that a branch was opening in another city and the support of those who had completed all the trainings was needed, we all quit our jobs, left our families and went for a couple of days to get our mentor.

- Did you get paid for it? Have you become one team with the coaches?

No, they didn't. Moreover, they could easily be fired. This is what I was terribly afraid of. And everyone was afraid. At that time, I became a captain. And the captains were required to involve twice as many people in the training as the average student. Also, the captain had to put pressure on new participants in the program so that they also involved people. I was specially taught how to put pressure on people, how to correctly persuade a person to come to the training. If I failed to find new victims for a certain period of time, they threatened to expel me from the community, and forbid the rest to communicate with me.

- People in all seriousness were afraid of being expelled?

Many psychologically broke down when they were kicked out. I was also terribly worried that I would not justify the title of leader, that they would think badly of me. Towards the end of my captaining career, I couldn't get enough people to train. I got depressed. Lost interest in life. The head coach constantly rotted me: “You are a bad mother, you are bad, bad ...”. I lived with a deep sense of guilt for six months. As a result, my psyche failed. By that time, my leaders realized that I was already used material, they couldn’t get more from me, and they excluded me from their ranks. And then hell came. For two months I plunged into a severe depression, thought about suicide. My husband, two friends and doctors pulled me out of this state.

- You lived in the training for 4.5 years. There are those who sit there even longer?

I know a man who has been hanging out there for eight years. Indeed, in addition to personal growth training, there are still a bunch of different courses. For example, after personal growth, everyone is offered: “As a person, you have grown, now attend the “money-money” course, you don’t know how to make money, do you? And then sign up for the “family workshop”, and so on down the list. As a result, people hang out there on long years and leave huge amounts - up to 100 thousand a year comes. Many lost their jobs because of the training, they lost their businesses because they were constantly hanging out at lectures. The teachers didn't let me work, didn't let me go.

- Are the main part of those present at the trainings people with serious problems?

Units come from curiosity, from having nothing to do. Mostly wealthy people go there, not everyone is ready to pay a tidy sum at a time. Most of these people had financial problems, with friendship, love. After all, at these trainings they promise to figure it out on all fronts - to raise a business, to create a family, and to improve their studies. All in one go. Whatever you want, it will be. Magic wand effect.

- Did you communicate with those who ended up in a psychiatric clinic after completing the training?

I know one girl who was taken straight from the lecture to a psychiatric hospital. But what covered her because of the training is unprovable.

- By the way, did you try to involve your husband in this sect?

Certainly. But he was quickly kicked out. The thing is, my husband is a believer. When I went to the training, we were not yet scheduled, we just met. At some point, I told him: “I refuse to live without a leader. Therefore, you must develop and go to training. You will be taught to love people, earn money. Otherwise, we will part ways." To save our relationship, he got involved in this adventure. But he does not regret, because he saw the whole process from the inside, and now we are fighting together against former mentors. He didn't last long there. Constantly argued with the coaches. As a result, he was expelled very rudely, they announced to everyone that he was an adversary, carrying heresy, it was impossible to talk with him, he was mentally deranged. And everyone nodded their heads. Even me. After that, I came home and threw from the threshold: "We will not live together." But I have known this man for 20 years, we have known each other since childhood.

“For a year I moved away from the stereotypes that were imposed on me in the courses”

- When did you leave the training?

At the beginning of 2014. Then in March-April she fell into a protracted depression. Ripe only in May. It felt like I woke up from a bad dream. A bunch of thoughts formed in my head - how did I live, why did I do it, how did I trust strangers? But I moved away for another year from those stereotypes that were imposed on me. For example, we were taught that each person creates in life what surrounds him, he himself is the source of all troubles. I still sit in a minibus, look at men and think: “Oh, I create men around me, I will get married soon.” Or recently I dropped a pot of hot water, immediately flashed through my head: “I deceived someone.” Imagine how much all this nonsense vtemyashilas me in the head.

Has your relationship with your son improved?

While I was in training, I finally lost my son. Relations deteriorated further than ever. I didn't have time for him. While I was “saving the world”, running, involving people in training, I abandoned my son. Since I was always busy looking for new adherents, I had no time to waste time on him. And now he found a job, got married, my grandson was born. Only now my son and I found mutual language.

Has anyone else benefited from these trainings?

If you don’t go deep and jump off the program in time, then such courses probably help someone. Notorious people open up there, I heard that someone solved their personal problems, found a common language with loved ones. But this is not my story. I crumbled. Only when she freed herself from the shackles of the training did she find a common language with her parents and son. While I lived in the training, we were constantly convinced: "You are doing well." And if something bad happened, we were told: “Erased, erased, erased, this is not with us.” We were taught not to accept negativity, to renounce troubles. But as soon as a person was left out of the training, problems rolled in like a snowball. The people who left the courses started again with the same problems that they tried to get away from. Yes, while you are there, you are supported by the whole group, they talk about love, constant hugs and kisses, but in real life everything starts anew.

- Do you keep in touch with your training buddies?

No. While I was in training, I cut ties with all my old friends. I considered myself a pure race, and they did not reach me. I told them so: “If you don’t go to the training, you and I are on the wrong path.” And I made new friends on the courses. They seemed wonderful to me, we supported each other, celebrated holidays together. When they declared me persona non grata, they all turned their backs on me. Now they don't even say hello. I became not from their caste.

- Who is the organizer of this project?

These are two siblings. One of them went through a similar training 10 years ago, when it was in its infancy. Then she dragged her second sister there. And they started doing business. At first, they hired psychologists, then they themselves began to conduct courses, having neither education nor a license at that time. These women got rich in a few years. For the year they earned more than 8 million rubles. Their main office is in Volgograd. Branches are scattered throughout the country - Astrakhan, Rostov, Saratov, Krasnodar, Voronezh.

- Are the teachers who work for them also rich people?

Only the leaders of the company earn money. The rest of the workers receive a pittance. As a rule, they do not have a permanent job, some do not even have a family. For example, my husband was "broken" by a 23-year-old guy who did not have the slightest life experience behind him. There, those who have never stood on them are taught to skate.

- According to your information, are there many victims of such events in the country?

Many, some are just afraid to talk about it. I was also silent for six months. It was terrible. I started talking to get my relative out of there. She has been there for 5 and a half years. Now he is a coach. The training took a loved one away from me. It hurts me a lot for this. Her training absorbed completely.

A new section has recently appeared on the training website - trainings for children and teenagers.

The slogan is still the same - "Miracles are where they believe in them."

Knowledge is a contribution to human capital, another successfully overcome step in self-development, enrichment of the inner world and expansion of the range of competencies. But in addition to purely professional education, which is necessary for work, a modern, promising person seeks to obtain resource information that will allow him to stand out among others. Time management, oratory, emotion management, interpersonal relationships, effective communications - these and many other knowledge are extremely important for the development of the individual and her full existence in society. The most useful practical courses of this kind are collected on the educational portal SmotriUchis.ru. Online lectures from the section "Personal Development Distance Learning" will tell you how to get rid of the fear of public speaking, develop the technique of speech, master the art of self-presentation and telephone conversations, explain how to get along with others. You can learn all this on your own - at a convenient time for yourself and with the necessary intensity, but under the supervision of an experienced teacher. Many video courses in the section can be taken for free, the price of others is more than affordable. Lessons from the best teachers of SmotriUchis.ru will be useful both for those who study the issue from scratch, and for those who are planning retraining or retraining. If you are a professional in these matters, we will be glad to see you among our teachers. Choose a topic from the Personal Development section online courses”, record your own training loop and get stable income from his sales.

Self-development. Everyone understands this word differently. For someone it is to master new profession and start earning big paychecks. Someone will consider it self-development that they read several books in one week. The third will be proud that he was able to reach a new level in computer game and brag about the fact that he is engaged in his self-development.

BroDude has its own opinion on this matter, which is not surprising, because every day we are engaged in our self-development, work on ourselves, improve ourselves and develop new personal qualities. In the bottom line, self-development is filling your consciousness with new knowledge and skills, and the prefix itself means that you achieve this yourself, without the help of experts. This, by the way, is much more productive, because you have to delve into the essence and thereby get more information. It's not for you to sit in a lecture playing on your phone. Self-development is impossible without your desire, which means it allows you to concentrate on gaining knowledge.

Where to start? Of course with online courses to improve your skills. Luckily there are a lot of them now. We have selected a few, which we will now discuss.

1. Fundamentals of programming

It is easy to predict what the future of programming will be. It has already arrived. Now it is impossible to imagine an advanced personality without a smartphone or computer. Social media, numerous useful services, even the coffee maker is programmed for the morning and will make a cup of coffee at exactly 7:00.

Even if you are a humanist and decided to hastily skip this item, then take your time. Of course, programming requires knowledge in mathematics and even in physics. But now there is no longer the way of writing programs that people used ten years ago. Now there are a huge number of handy tools that highlight, suggest or even correct your inaccuracies in real time.

One of the most useful courses on this subject is from Geekbrains. This is exactly what you need at the initial stage of acquaintance with this profession. Even a beginner can find a lot of interesting things for himself. If you doubt that you will succeed in the end, then do not worry, everything is free. It will be more offensive not to try and regret it for the rest of your life.

The course lasts one and a half weeks and includes 3 lessons of 2 hours, each of which talks about the specifics of various nuances. After completing the course, you will receive a coveted certificate with a seal. As a bonus, you will have access to all the videos of this course, and you will also write your first program, which you can show off among your friends!

2. Marketing basics

All the products that surround us will not be sold and make a profit without a properly built marketing plan. Cannot be created New Product without thinking about its promotion and advertising.
If you create the new kind chocolate that will be of high quality, and at the same time cost 10 times cheaper, then you will not sell it if no one knows about it. Without proper advertising, you can burn out even with a brilliant idea. In the market, it is important to present your product correctly, and that is why marketers are now worth their weight in gold. Good specialists generally priceless.

It is safe to say that these courses will not be in vain for you, and you will not waste your time. Marketing is not all the knowledge that you will receive if you want to develop yourself. There is programming, design, and project management.

By the way, when we went to the Netology website, we found a nice promotion. Its meaning lies in the fact that when passing one course - you will receive the second as a gift. The promotion is valid until August 15th. Really nice. If you don't like marketing, learn design. The meaning of self-development lies in this - the constant search for new knowledge.

3. Basics of Speed ​​Reading

The flow of information that now surrounds us is truly enormous. Often our brains can't even handle the mass of text that enters your brain during the day. If you calculate the time it takes just to read the information, then you will understand that it is spent on a huge scale. Considering that time is the most valuable resource that we possess, it is necessary to protect it with special care. That's what speed reading courses are for. They are aimed at the thesis study of information and the selection of the most important points, discarding the so-called "water", which just takes your precious time.

An average person reads at a speed of 200-250 words per minute on average, while the brain is able to perceive about 500 words in the same period of time. As a result, we spend almost 2 times more time on the assimilation of information than we could.

Courses on accelerating the perception of information are very popular lately. One of these is Legentas. After passing it, you will be able to increase the speed of your reading in those same two times and work several times faster. More precisely, spend twice as little time perceiving information. What is this, if not self-development?

The freed up time can be easily spent on improving more necessary skills. Think about how much you spend reading a typical article and divide that time by two. Now calculate how much time during the day you can save. You can spend it with benefit and self-development will be much more productive.

4. English course in real life

Globalization is in full swing. One of the connecting components of this very process is the English language. It will allow you to get more high paying job, go on vacation to any European country and just understand this world a little more than others.
There are a huge number of methods by which people learn English. Some claim that all you need is a desire, while others that you need to go to an English-speaking country and live there for at least six months. We are sure that before rushing to extremes, you need to prepare yourself and acquire the basics. Without them, you will not be able to master any business. First you need to determine your level of language proficiency. To do this, there are many tests that will determine your knowledge and give you a characteristic. Next, you need to decide on the method of study. The right thing to do is to try several at once - audiobooks may not suit you, but you will learn English easily by watching series with subtitles or in another interesting way. You need to start somewhere. No other way.

One of the more interesting courses is RealStudy. Here you can get training exactly at the level that corresponds to your knowledge. Simply put, if you are just starting to learn a language, then you will start from the very basics. If you have determined that your level corresponds to a higher one, then you can start training immediately from the third or fourth level. Luckily there are six of them.

There is nothing wrong with starting with the first, to understand that you have outgrown it and move on to the second right away. This will not only help you repeat the knowledge you already have, but also amuse your pride, which is directly related to inspiration for conquering new knowledge. This course has many advantages - more than 230 video lessons, more than 300 dialogues for speaking practice and more than 1000 useful tasks.

5.TED

Nothing so inspires self-development as a good example of a person who has achieved considerable heights in life. We're looking at successful people and try to come up with excuses. We assure ourselves that they did not achieve their success themselves, they were helped, they were promoted. And you, without connections and funds, are not able to invent something or come up with a new product. It's all nonsense. Numerous life stories prove that more than half of successful and famous people have achieved success through self-development. Indeed, when you listen to or watch the performances of successful people, you want to believe that you are no worse, you just need to believe in yourself. It's inspiring, trust me.

If you know at least the basics in English or have completed the course we suggested above, then you need to go to the world-famous TED project for inspiration. Here you can watch the performances of people who have something to tell. You won't copy a single success story. You don't think new iPhone and you won't create a new TESLA. But this does not mean that you cannot be inspired by the stories of people who were able to achieve certain heights.
At TED almost every day there are interesting and instructive lectures.