BetterME
Model
(BMM)
BetterME Model (BMM) was designed by Ping Ping Worakate, co-founder and CEO of WPI, in 2019 under the notion of “Being a BETTER VERSION of yourself every single day”. With her direct experience working as a volunteer for over 30 years in different settings and her leading role in the international organization for more than 10 years, Ping Ping provides her insight from knowledge to practice to make this model applicable to everyone who loves to grow together.
BMM starts with self-reflection by asking about your self-image (or Present ME) and your self-ideal (Future ME). By doing so, you will realize that you may have self-limiting beliefs (SLB) that you have accumulated in your subconscious level since childhood, mainly negative ones, that block you from success. Once it is overcome, it can arise from different experiences as well.
Self-reflection can be done by yourself and people in six directions you interact with. People who are good at or enjoy doing self-reflection are mostly the ones who have a growth mindset. However, there are some obstacles such as bias and ego that make your self-reflection unclear or incorrect which mislead you.
After doing self-reflection, you will reach the state of self-discovery and can go on to the next state of self-awareness. Sometimes we stop at self-awareness and can not continue to the next state of self-acceptance. People can reach a state of self-acceptance only when they realize the negative consequences and prefer to do something to fix it. Therefore, they will go to self-development. Still, taking action needs the willpower to start the first step then the next steps can be followed. Sometimes, we think or know about how to do it but we hesitate to really start, so nothing happens and time goes by like water of no return.
Once you are in the state of self-development, habit modification or lifestyle change is needed. You need to identify what you need to learn and unlearn until you reach the state of self-esteem and you will reach your destination or your self-ideal at last.
Nevertheless, this process will never end. It is a life-long process. When you are proud of yourself, you will go back to self-reflection again as you can set a new goal to accomplish. Then you will discover something new, be aware of something differently, accept with a different attitude, and develop in a more creative way because your level of self-development is now better than before. The more self-reflection you are doing, the better person you will become. And the more value you see in yourself, the more self-love you will have.
However, without a growth mindset and willpower, it will be hard to realize about yourself and take action to change. The best tool to support you to have a positive mindset and endless willpower is Meditation and Mindfulness.
As human beings, we consist of body and mind.
What is the connection between body and mind?
Does the mind control the body? Or the body controls the mind? Or is it duality? Thinking makes things happen, right? Have you ever heard of “mind moves matter”? Napoleon Hill said the body achieves what the mind believes. Comparing the body to computer hardware, the mind will be software. Software controls hardware. Anything behind the mind? Our habits or behaviors! Because habits make us react automatically without thinking. Assuming we have some bad or negative habits, what will happen to us? Can we win in this game somehow? Yes, still possible if the mind is under our control. Can it be under control? With the use of our own consciousness and mindfulness, we can. However; it may not be that easy. The mind needs a process of meditation to make this miracle happen.
The mind can be cleaned to be less toxic.
The mind can be purified to have better decisions.
The mind can be trained to be more focused.
The mind can be empowered to have willpower.
Meditation is to give the mind time to rest so it regains its power to function properly and effectively by stopping the process of thinking, detoxifying negative emotions, and cultivating positive energy from within.
Meditation can help clean the mind so that we see things clearly. We fear or hesitate in doing something because we are not sure about it or we do not know the consequences. What if you have a clear vision about it, will you have the courage to do it?
Meditation makes us aware and lives in the present moment by stopping regretting the past or worrying about the future. With confidence and strong determination, we can control our lives.
Meditation is an exercise of the mind so the mind becomes stronger and healthier to deal with sudden or unexpected situations we are facing every day.
Meditation can destress and refresh you from exhaustion or fatigue physically, mentally, and emotionally once you connect with the source of wisdom inside.
Meditation enhances our ability to release and let go so we can move on in a creative way.
Learn how to meditate with us via EM app
To only practice meditation is not enough in the BetterME Model. If meditation is a vitamin, habit would-be a mineral. We need both vitamins and minerals to balance our health same as we need meditation and habit development to make our lives better and happier.
From the above TREE diagram, ME or Mind Empowerment (by meditation) is the root of the tree while habit development (HD) or habit modification is a trunk with four branches – physical, social, financial, and mental aspects.
Life begins with body and health (physical aspect). Humans are social animals by nature as Aristotle said. We can not live alone so our interaction starts with parents (social aspect). When it is time for school, we communicate with more people such as teachers and friends. Once we become teens, love comes into play and we may have puppy loves. After graduation, work tends to be our concern and priority because we have to make a living (financial aspect). Later, success and recognition are what we strive for at a certain point in time1. Finally, we end up aging with health issues again either sickness or death (physical aspect).
When do we think about the mental aspect or happiness? Are we in search of it since our birth? Why is happiness easier to find when we were young? When was the last time you really felt happy? Have you ever taken care of the mind?
If you take into account the mind every time, happiness can be found in every stage and in all aspects of life.
Let’s grow our TREE to have beautiful branches so they can give shade to you and people around you.
Comparing these 5 characteristics to a human body, discipline (or self-discipline in this context) is the head or the most important part because it helps us do what we want to and do not want to. After the head comes to the arms, respect is the right arm while patience is the left one. To be able to develop respect after discipline, you will develop patience after respect as well. Respect in this context means you see the values, goodnesses, or benefits of someone or something which make you feel good towards that person or thing; therefore, you will show your gratitude in one way or another. As a result, you are willing to be patient with that person or thing you respect. To have DRP (or discipline, respect, and patience) is like you have half of the body and for health issue, it is enough.
For example, if you want to start doing workouts, of course, you need to have self-discipline first. But just self-discipline is not enough because you can give up easily especially at the beginning. Therefore, you need to see the benefits of exercising, such as it keeps you healthy, so you can cultivate patience while doing it.
Anyway to have a whole perfect body with two legs is much better, right? Humility, your right leg, is a by-product of respect and it is interdependent. Being respectful and humble, you are willing to lower yourself to learn something from someone as you realize the value or knowledge that person has. By doing so, you gain wisdom faster and easier as you can see values in almost everything around you. Now it is your left leg, empathy. Patience with understanding leads to empathy. At the end, you will have DRPHE (or doctor phe) which is like a doctor yourself who can take good care of yourself the best. And you will be fascinating once you cultivate these basic qualities that will change your life forever.
GAS stands for goal-achieving steps.
Whatever your goal is, using this magical tool will certainly make you achieve it. It starts with passion or love what you do, not only do what you love. Passion gives you joy which leads to diligence that makes you acquire expertise in doing it. Adding focus into it, you will be more thorough in the thing you are working on. And if you do not forget to reflect on your work or even open for comments, you can improve or find even more creative way to do it in the future. You will not be stuck with something or repeat the same mistakes.
Everyone loves his/ her life so we have no right to kill or harm anyone including animals and small insects. We should live in harmony together.
Everyone has the right to own his/ her belongings, assets, or properties so no one has the right to steal or cheat on anyone. This includes bribery and corruption.
Everyone loves his/ her partners so no one has the right to cheat on the other which can lead to family or marriage breakdown.
Everyone wants to hear nice and kind speech so avoiding harsh speech, lying, and gossiping makes our lives more pleasant.
With addiction to alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, and more, he/ she loses consciousness and conscience and the above 4 acts can be violated easily.
A clean mind leads to keeping an environment clean and a clean environment can be a good reflection of the quality of mind of the people living in that area. Undeniably, keeping the body, house, and surroundings clean is the way for healthy living. And the one who is not clean, in terms of body or house, will not care for the cleanliness of others and environment and tend to make it dirty and messy as well.
After being cleaned, things can be kept tidily and orderly easier and that creates a positive atmosphere for at least yourself. The more we are organized, the more effective and efficient we can be and the less emotional we will be.
After being cleaned and tidy, you will be more calm and peaceful with yourself which leads to politeness from speech to action to the manner or even to clothing. This means you can control your emotion better so you will do things logically and with more disciplined.
The one who has all the qualities mentioned will have an unworried mind as they can do things in a more timely basis and can avoid procrastination because things are under control. Time management is not a big deal.
Together with meditation practice, your clean mind will become less clouded so your toxic ego can be reduced. Also, you will have less stress, less anger, and less anxiety as a result of a sabai mind, a softened mind, and an unworried mind respectively.
If you feel overwhelmed with all these insights, let’s focus only on two things which are Mindset & Discipline. Why? A positive or growth mindset guides us to the bright side of our lives where we want to make ourselves and everything better every day and it can derive from regular mediation practice while discipline enforces us from within to do things we want or do not want to do and that leads to love in whatever you do, so-called passion.
Remember once we have passion in what we do, diligence will be followed, and so on. And with discipline, respect and patience can arise as well as humility and empathy as explained earlier. Once we have empathy or being in someones’ shoes, we do not want to take but rather give. We do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings with our words or speeches. We would like to support that person or offer help as we understand more what they need or want.
Finally, we will be consistent with our relationships and try not to disappoint anyone as we understand we do not want to be treated that way too. This means to have only two things, you will get almost everything. Check in our Resources section where we have exercises and games to support self-reflection as well as a how-to-do list.
Social Aspect (CORE)
CORE stands for the cornerstone of relationships.
Giving is the first element we need to take into consideration for better relationships; however, knowing what to give is also very important to create a good or bad impression. No one loves to hear harsh, hateful, or false speeches so pleasant, positive, or true speech with kindness leads to more effective communication. Offering help is to support someone before he or she ask for and it can incredibly make someone’s day, believe it or not, even a small act! And the key to any long-lasting relationship is consistency. If you are loyal to someone for your whole life, cheating only once can destroy everything you have created.