The Importance of Self-help
Everybody has something about themselves and their lives they would like to change. I'm not talking about, "Gee, I need to loose a few pounds," or, "One of these days I really should start going to the gym." I'm talking about things that would change the fundamentals of the person's life.
There are books and specialists and therapy groups and medications for virtually everything that ails us these days, emotionally or physically. But there are also people who have 'tried everything,' and still never achieve the change they're after. These people are missing one thing: self-help.
Not the kind of self-help the gurus say you will master in the course of their 'intensive three-day workshops' (that usually cost three months' wages). I mean the simple moment in a changed persons' life when they decide, once and for all, to take control of their lives. Maybe they decide they need help to do it, and they go to meetings or read books and take pills. But the fundamental difference between the person who changes and the person who always seems to be running in place is the realization that they, themselves, are responsible for the change. These are the people who can look in the mirror, and give a harsh appraisal of their own weaknesses, and walk away feeling better, and stronger, for having done so. People who can face their fears, and move beyond them.
Fear is usually the only thing stopping a person from changing. Whether it's fear of ridicule or judgment (usually from well meaning relatives who say things like, "Oh, what a nice idea, but you've never been much good at that sort of thing, dear"), or fear of failure (Why leave your boring steady job to start a business that might leave you bankrupt?), or simple fear of change itself (Things might be hard now, but at least you've learned to cope with this problem... a new problem would require painful adaptation.), people are afraid of achieving the very things they swear they want.
Then there are those who seem to genuinely fear success... if they really do change their lives, they will lose the support of everyone who offers them pity and sympathy for their horrible lot in life now.
How do we know when or how to change ourselves as people? Sometimes, we all need a shove from something or someone to help us better ourselves. The most dominant factors are kindness, fear, and regret. These three things can make us willing to go through the hassle and hard work of breaking out of a habit, whether it be putting your feet on the couch, or your attitude.
The world’s coral reefs are quintessential to global biodiversity, so much so that they are often referred to as the "rainforests of the sea". Although their actual space occupied by reefs is relatively small, constituting less than 0.1% of the world's ocean surface, they support over 25% of all marine species on earth. They provide complex and varied marine habitats that support a wide range of other organisms including, but not limited to, fish, mollusks, worms, crustaceans, echinoderms, sponges, tunicates and other cnidarians. Some of these animals feed directly on the corals, while others graze on algae on the reef. The reef also provides a protective habitat for many of these animals.
Coral reefs, which are underwater structures created by calcium carbonate secretions, are some of the richest interdependent ecosystems on Earth. According to Wikipedia, coral reefs occupy less than 0.1% of Earth’s ocean surface, yet they provide a home for 25% of all marine species. Often referred to as the “rainforests of the ocean,” coral reefs are home to thousands upon thousands of species of plants and animals (“Coral Reef”). Not only are they an important part of ocean environments, but coral reefs are also extremely important and beneficial to humans; these reefs protect shorelines and provide countless people with food, jobs, and income sources. However, coral reefs are disappearing at an extremely alarming rate. From overfishing to pollution to sedimentation, the world’s coral reefs are in grave danger and humans must actively work to protect and restore these oceanic rainforests.
A coral reef is a ridge formed in shallow ocean water by accumulated calcium-containing exoskeletons of coral animals, certain red algae, and mollusks. Coral reefs are tropical, forming only where surface waters are never cooler than 20° C (68° F).
What if your future child could be engineered to avoid the risk of cancer that runs in your family? What if your fetus' DNA could vaccinate her against Herpes or AIDS? Would you be willing to take the chance to help your child?
Around the world, their are beautiful places called “the seven wonders of the natural world”. These sites are fantastic because of there fascinating views and the fact that they were naturally made, not by humans. One of these seven natural wonders of the natural world is the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef is located off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The Great Barrier Reef was formed by corals growing on submerged islands. The sea level then continued to rise, “leading to more corals growing and forming.” (Zimmerman). The Great Barrier Reef is “a mosaic of 2,900 individual reefs” and can be “seen from space and is not only the world's largest coral reef system but also the largest structure
The coral reefs on our planet are sorted into three categories; the fringing reefs, the barrier reefs and the atolls. A fringing reef is a reef that grows directly from the shore and towards the sea with no water between the sand and the reef at all. These reefs create borders around islands and shores, and boats often destroy them because they are in the shore’s way. Barrier reefs border shorelines a...
...p their own solutions to problems. Clients may need some guidance, education, or direction depending on their abilities and how the therapy is going. It is then that I want to be able to help them feel more empowered and recognize that they can make changes with effort on their part.
Many people are resistant to change. They become comfortable with their lives and don’t dare to venture outside of the box.
Humans naturally do not feel comfortable with change happening in their lives and it is their
The counseling approach I most identify with is Cognitive Therapy (CT) by Aaron Beck. It concentrates on the part a person’s thought process has in dysfunction and intervention. I agree with Albert Ellis 's Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) and some aspects of the existential approach to counseling, but CT is my choice therapy. One of the primary beliefs in cognitive therapy is that a person 's perspective can influence emotional and behavioral reactions. I believe that if a person is able to reevaluate attitude and beliefs about a situation, the person can improve wellbeing. The person 's wellbeing can improve by altering the reactions he or she has to the situation and learning more
One of the hardest things to do in life is to realize that something needs to be changed and to complete the change. It is difficult to understand sometimes, that there is need for change; many people will not even know that they are wrong and need changing or be against change completely. But it is important to continuously create change and understand why change is important. There are three reasons that I believe would cause someone to struggle to create change: The environment around the person changes, they become more educated, and they can no longer suffer in their position.
This leads to the question of, “How do people change?” Self-awareness of one’s current plight, whether it is internally or externally, and an intense desire to discover new ways of living are two main ingredients to spur change. People must be fully aware that their current behavior is causing more harm than good in their lives. And on the same token, discovering that there are alternative ways of living can also make people change. However, in order for change to actually occur, people must be willing to live out new ways of behaving and thinking. For people who want to make changes, but find it difficult to make a step, a counselor can help facilitate change through encouragement and various self-empowering
For obvious reasons, people reject change. Especially people who are close to each other because they feel that this change is going to seperate them and make them not as close as they used to be. They fight the change until they force the person to change. It's sad how this works, but in reality, it's probably the single most reason why people change. The people we love, love us so much that they want us to remain the way we are forever. Forever is a long time and not one person can always stay the same. Sometimes if the people we love would just accept the change and go with it, they would understand where the change was origianlly coming from.
Self-awareness is the first step in doing this. Where we apply our focus, emotions, reactions, personality, and behaviour determines our direction in life. If we’re self-aware, we can see where our thoughts and emotions are taking us and apply some control allowing us to change them as we go. Until we’re self-aware, we’ll struggle to make positive changes in the direction of our life. When we become self-aware, we understand all the judgments, opinions, thoughts, and beliefs that our mind deals with. We can then see how much this influences our emotions, though not always in a positive way. These emotional reactions are the things we can most easily change. Once we take fear out of the equation, and hence a lot of negative emotional baggage it becomes