Self-Knowledge
Self-knowledge is the process of self-awareness, understanding your deep essence, the meaning of life and your physical and mental capabilities. This need was originally laid in a person, as opposed to animals. A human makes almost everything in his life himself: selects the target, makes and corrects his mistakes, builds relationships with other people. Having come to an understanding of the meaning of his abilities, he becomes interesting not only to others, but also to himself, his personal self-esteem, quality and fullness of life increase.
“I” concept is an individual's perception of himself and his role in the world. It may not reflect actual state of affairs and lead to the conflicts with reality. But if it is adequate to the reality, a person happily adapts to the world and achieves some success in it.
With the help of self-knowledge a person finally understands that the main goal is to learn to live and enjoy his life. This understanding may come not immediately, but only after suffering or a long life path which allowed getting the necessary experience. Or it can occur instantly, like an inspiration. If a person starts a path of self-knowledge, it will inevitably happen (Beginner’s Guide).
How to Get Out of Stress?
A stressful condition often occurs in our life, it is not so easy to fight with it; sometimes we need help of a good psychologist, but it is not always easy to find him. So what should we do in order to get out of stress?
During stress some mixed feelings overcome us; we have a storm of emotions that requires some kind of splash. Most of us have several close people near us, so we often pour out our negative emotions on them. Perfectly understanding that we may hurt our family and friends, we are not always able to control the flow of emotions. Therefore, it is important not to keep the state of stress, but to find a way out of a stressful situation immediately after its occurrence.
How to get out of stress without help?
1. Do not live with your past
2. Breathe deeply. Breathe properly, deeply and after a few minutes of such breathing you will really feel much calmer and the stress will go away.
3. Joyful emotions. Happiness and positive emotions will help you to get out of stress faster than you think. Try to do something you love as quickly as possible during a stressful situation.
4. Talk to someone. It is difficult to experience stress alone, so to get out of a stressful situation people need to communicate.
5. Go in for sports. Physical activity is the best medicine for the nerves (WebMD).
Positive Emotions
Emotions are the reflection of the processes which occur in the body. It should be noted that positive emotions can occur not only because of the present situation, but also due to the events that have occurred in the past or, conversely, which are only planned for the nearest future.
The impact of emotions on a human is large enough because various feelings can lead to mental exhaustion of the nervous system and body as a whole, premature aging and the appearance of serious illnesses.
Positive emotions lead to the normalization of blood pressure, stable flow of chronic diseases, increase of life expectancy and reduction of the number of wrinkles. The method of obtaining them is specific for each person because all people react on the same event differently.
How to become a positive person?
• Upgrade your appearance
• Change your way of thinking
• Create your day. Stop going with the flow, it is dangerous because you do not know what waits for you. To become more positive you need to create your day and your life by yourself.
• Start each morning with gratitude
• Appreciate every year, day, hour, minute and moment. To become incredibly happy, positive and cheerful you need to start enjoying life because you have only one chance for it
• Surround yourself only with useful and positive information
• Surround yourself with cheerful people
• Smile more often, feel yourself as a cheerful person (even if you are not yet). Positive thoughts create positive life, so start filling your mind and life only with some good thoughts and circumstances (Sasson).
The Role of Optimism and Hope
Hope, optimism, self-confidence and enthusiasm provide the positive energy which brings happiness and success. Optimism prolongs life, contributes to the development of positive emotions and gives an opportunity to fully enjoy life and the events that happen to a person.
Optimism is a flexible installation of the mind which gives us the opportunity to stop responding and acting in the direction of the beneficial transformation. Pessimism leads us to a vicious circle of responding. An optimist, seeing the bottle half full, can make a choice to enjoy it. A pessimist cannot enjoy it even if he decided to drink because he will think of an empty half and about the thing that the beverage will soon be over. In one and the same situation a pessimist sees the flaws and obstacles, while the optimist sees the opportunity of self-development and challenges which allow checking himself and his strength (Morrow).
Strengths of Character and Their Use
Human strengths are based on talents. Each of us knows what he can do successfully. If you are a wonderful cook, your talent is a cuisine. If your friends like when you start to sing, your talent is singing. And so on. A talent can be not only creative. For example, some people are able to skillfully communicate with others. This means that their talent is negotiations. You just need to think about what is your niche. This will be your strength. The next stage will be the sharpening of skills in the chosen business. Nobody can achieve perfection, but to essentially improve the skills - easily.
How to use the strengths at the maximum efficiency?
• Identify the strengths which you have
• Develop them in any possible way
• Find yourself in that area of life which best matches your strengths. It will help to succeed there and will be pleasant for you because each person is proud of his strong qualities (Dean).
Benefits of Relaxation
Relaxation is a fairly widespread phenomenon and is understood differently by everyone. Therefore, you can get different effect from it: from passive relaxation with meditative music to the treatment of serious illness.
Purpose of Relaxation
• It is used as a mean of removing the muscle "clamps", accompanied by pain, local fatigue and restriction of movements. The emergence of painful feelings in the neck and limbs may be related to psychological causes (chronic stress) and the bodily causes, disorders of the peripheral nervous system.
• It is used as a way to restore the energy balance of the body. Good relaxation helps to restore the body's energy and give a complete relaxation to all the muscles and joints.
• It is used as a mean of improvement of the emotional state.
• It is used as a way of health recovery. All the above mentioned relaxation functions in their totality lead to the fact that the body gets rid of chronic stress and gets access to some new resources for survival (Klein).
Practical Methods of Improvement of Mood and Well-Being
Start your day with a smile. It not only cheers you up, but also strengthens the immune system
Walk in the fresh air, because it is useful not only for a good mood, but also for your health
Vitamins and minerals play a major role when we are talking about positive attitude and joyful outlook. The main way to improve mood and well-being is a sufficient amount of these substances in the body
It is easy to create good mood with the help of your favorite music, movies, books
Be engaged in something what you really enjoy (Tartakovsky).
Works Cited
Beginner’s Guide. “Self-Knowledge for Humans”. Self-knowledgeforhumans. N.d. Web. 21 May 2016. Retrieved from http://www.self-knowledgeforhumans.com/beginners-guide.html
Dr. Dean, Jeremy. “How to Use Your Character Strengths”. Spring. N.d. Web. 21 May 2016. Retrieved from http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/01/how-to-use-your-character-strengths.php
Klein, Sarah. “10 Health Benefits Of Relaxation”. Huffingtonpost. N.d. Web. 21 May 2016. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/14/stress-awareness-day-relaxation-benefits_n_1424820.html
Morrow, Rowena. “From Optimism to Hope”. Pspl. August 2006. Web. 21 May 2016. Retrieved from http://www.pspl.com.au/ideas-written-down/hope-theory/from-optimism-to-hope/
Sasson, Remez. “How to Be Positive in Thoughts and Actions”. Successconsciousness. N.d. Web. 21 May 2016. Retrieved from http://www.successconsciousness.com/how-to-be-positive.htm
Tartakovsky, Margarita. “15 Tips to Boost Your Well-Being and Happiness”. Psychcentral. N.d. Web. 21 May 2016. Retrieved from http://psychcentral.com/lib/15-tips-to-boost-your-well-being-and-happiness/
WebMD. “10 Relaxation Techniques That Zap Stress Fast”. Webmd. 14 September 2015. Web. 21 May 2016. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/blissing-out-10-relaxation-techniques-reduce-stress-spot
