If you manage yourself, you manage your life! This is an immutable truth, which is relevant in our time as never before, because the modern world is not only a world of high speeds and a huge number of things to do and worries, but also a world of stress and emotional instability, in which even the calmest person can easily get out of myself.
And today we will talk about mental self-regulation, thanks to which a person can learn to control himself, his manifestations and mental states. If this topic seems interesting to you, we advise you to pay attention to our course “Mental Self-Regulation”.
What is mental self-regulation?
Mental self-regulation is a person’s control of his psycho-emotional state, which is achieved through a person’s influence on himself through the power of words (affirmations), mental images (visualization) and control of breathing and muscle tone (relaxation). Self-regulation methods are used in absolutely any situation, and they always produce the desired effect.
Thus, among the effects of mental self-regulation, three main ones can be distinguished:
- Activation associated with increased psychophysiological activity
- Recovery associated with reduced symptoms of fatigue
- Calmness associated with the elimination of emotional tension
In general, there are, of course, natural methods of mental self-regulation, including:
- Music
- Dancing
- Movement
- Massage
- Interaction with nature and animals
- Food
- Dream
However, these funds cannot be used in many situations, for example, during work, when a person feels tired and observes tension in his mental state.
But it is precisely timely mental self-regulation that can be perceived as a psychohygienic means that can prevent the accumulation of overstrain, restore strength, normalize the psycho-emotional state and mobilize the body's resources.
For this reason, the most accessible methods of natural self-regulation are also:
- Expressing compliments, praise, etc.
- Breathing fresh air
- Real or imagined bathing in the sun
- Concentrating on pleasant things, photographs and flowers
- Contemplation of landscapes and panoramas
- Muscle relaxation, stretching and other similar movements
- Reflections on the pleasant and good
- Humor, smile, laughter, etc.
But, in addition to natural ones, there are special methods of self-regulation, which in some cases are also called self-influence. It is about them that will be discussed further.
Psychotechnicians for behavior correction tasks
Decreased arousal
Effectively use:
- distraction and switching of attention;
- goal setting (consider different options);
- physical relaxation;
- psychomuscular and autogenic training;
- breathing exercises for relaxation.
Resource Activation
Effectively use:
- autogenic training for mobilization;
- increased motivation;
- breathing exercises for activity;
- plot performances;
- memories of active emotional states and the situations that caused them;
- mental and sensory stimulation;
- heterosuggestion.
Mental desensitization
Effective:
- presentation of successful behavior;
- self-hypnosis of confidence and neutral attitude towards harmful factors;
- deliberate passive attitude.
Relieving Emotional Stress
Effective:
- listening to music;
- relaxation;
- substitution;
- rationalization;
- fantasy.
Recuperation
Effective:
- meditation;
- suggested dream;
- self-hypnosis for quick recovery.
Regulation of the autonomic system
Effective:
- auto-training;
- heteroregulation;
- breathing exercises.
Methods of self-influence
So, methods of self-influence can be divided into:
- Related to verbal influence
- Movement related
- Breath-related
Let's look at each of them in more detail.
Methods of self-regulation associated with verbal influence
The impact of words is different in that it activates the conscious mechanisms of self-hypnosis. As a result, a direct effect on the psychophysiological functions performed by the body begins. As a rule, verbal self-suggestions are formulated through short and simple statements that do not use the particle “not.”
Verbal influence can be expressed in self-orders, self-programming and self-approval.
Self-orders
Self-orders are short and abrupt orders that a person gives to himself. A person should use self-orders when he is convinced that it is necessary to behave in a specific way, but there are some problems with organizing his behavior in this regard.
You should tell yourself something like: “Speak calmly!”, “Be silent, be silent!” or “This is just a provocation. Stop reacting!” - such self-importances will allow you to restrain your emotions and behave within the framework of decency, ethics and dignity.
You should work with self-orders like this:
- Self-order is formulated
- The self-command is repeated to oneself several times
- Self-order is pronounced out loud (if possible)
Self-programming
In some life situations a person needs to “look back”, i.e. Refresh your memory of past successes in similar situations. This can become an indicator that there are hidden volitional, intellectual, spiritual and even physical reserves in him, as well as indicate opportunities and give self-confidence.
You can set yourself up for success using self-programming. It is done like this:
- The person must remember a situation in which he has already successfully dealt with similar problems
- Then you need to use affirmation. To enhance the effect, you can give it the current tense, for example: “Now I can do this”, “Today I will be as confident as possible”, “Now I will be persistent as never before”, etc.
- After this, you should repeat the received affirmation several times (mentally, in front of a mirror, or simply out loud, if the situation allows)
Self-approval
Quite often, people cannot receive a positive assessment of themselves and their actions from the outside, which is very painful in situations with neuropsychic stress. A lack of positive evaluation can cause irritability, nervousness and even aggressiveness. For this reason, a person must encourage himself.
For self-approval or self-encouragement, you should simply say certain words to yourself, such as: “I’m super!”, “Well done!”, “Handsome!”, “Clever!”, “It worked,” etc.
Negative emotional states
Every person experiences emotions. They help us navigate the environment: positive emotions allow us to identify useful stimuli, and negative ones help us develop a defensive reaction in response to dangerous, harmful stimuli.
Negative emotional states include fear, sadness, resentment, anger, disgust, anxiety, guilt, etc.
Negative emotional states can be of two types:
- Adaptive when they are moderate, objectively arising, controlled and self-regulating.
- Maladaptive if they are disproportionate to the stimulus, are too intense, arise as a result of biased stressful situations, last too long, and are very difficult or impossible to control.
Thus, negative emotional states in themselves are not pathological. However, if they become maladaptive, this indicates that the body’s natural mental self-regulation is not sufficiently developed.
Methods of self-regulation associated with movement
Mental stress initiates muscle tension – muscle tension. However, the ability to relax muscles can relieve neuropsychic tension and restore strength reserves in the shortest possible time.
In most cases, a person cannot relax all the muscles overnight, so it is recommended to focus attention on the most tense areas of the body.
The technique for effective muscle relaxation is as follows:
- You need to sit down and take a comfortable body position
- Then you should close your eyes and begin to breathe slowly and deeply.
- After this, you need to take an internal look at your entire body, starting from the top of your head and ending with your toes or vice versa, thus finding the most tense places (usually the stomach, shoulders, back of the head, neck, jaw, lips or mouth)
- The next step will be even stronger tension in the places of muscle clamps, up to trembling (you need to tense while inhaling)
- Now we need to try to feel the new tension
- And at the end you need to sharply relax (you need to relax while exhaling)
*This procedure must be repeated several times
If the muscle is relaxed really well, it will feel warm and pleasantly heavy. In the same case, if you can’t remove the clamp, you can try giving yourself a light massage on the tense area.
"Anchoring" method
A self-regulation technique associated with conditioned reflexes, that is, the “stimulus-reinforcement” scheme. Surely it has happened to you that a song or smell evoked specific memories and emotions. This is your “anchor”, which can be positive or negative. Someone's voice or gesture can also be an anchor.
Self-regulation in the form of anchoring involves the conscious setting of “anchors” and their reasonable use, that is, the release of the necessary resource in a stressful situation.
- Identify a situation in which you need resources.
- Determine specifically what resource is needed (confidence, courage, determination, etc.).
- Ask yourself: “If I had this resource now, would I really use it?” If the answer is yes, then you made the right choice and you can move on. If you make a mistake, then select a new resource.
- Remember a situation when you had this resource.
- Choose three “anchors”: what you hear, what you feel, what you see.
- Change your position in space, reproduce in your memory the situation when you had the resource, achieve a peak state.
- Exit it and return to your original place.
- Recreate the situation again and attach three “anchors”. Hold them as long as needed.
- Check the success of the operation: “turn on the anchors”. Are you getting into the desired state? If yes, then everything is fine. If not, repeat the previous point.
- Determine the signal that will hint to you in a difficult situation that it is time to “drop anchor.”
- If necessary, immediately create a complex of evoked states, emotions, and feelings.
Methods of self-regulation associated with breathing
Breath control is a very effective means of influencing muscle tone and emotional brain centers. If you breathe slowly and deeply (abdominal breathing), the excitability of the nerve centers decreases, and a state of relaxation occurs. If you breathe exclusively through the chest, then the highest degree of activity of the body is ensured and neuropsychic tension is maintained.
Next, we present one of the simplest and most effective methods of respiratory self-regulation:
- You need to sit down, take a comfortable body position and focus on breathing
- While counting to four, you should take a deep and slow breath (use abdominal breathing)
- Then you need to hold your breath and also count to four.
- After this, you need to exhale smoothly, counting to six.
- Next, you need to hold your breath again, counting to four.
After just five minutes of doing this breathing exercise, you will notice that your state has become more balanced and calm.
Methods of mental self-regulation can and should be used daily at any moment when you begin to feel fatigue, tension, irritability, loss of strength, emotional decline and other similar conditions. In fact, such methods of influencing a person on himself are an excellent way to always be in a cheerful state and in a good mood, regardless of the characteristics of current situations.
YOUR WAYS OF SELF-REGULATION: Among other things, it is very interesting that each person has his own methods of mental self-regulation, i.e. those methods that suit him best. However, finding out which ones are effective and which ones are not very effective can be quite difficult - this requires a lot of practice and knowledge of the characteristics of one’s personality. But today we offer you an excellent opportunity to go through the first stage in a very short time and learn enough information about yourself to develop the most effective method of self-regulation for yourself, the use of which will serve you very well in life. This way is our course on self-knowledge, which you can find here.
Start self-knowledge, and we wish you good luck and always be in the best condition for yourself!
We also recommend reading:
- Storytelling
- Common complexes and overcoming them. Part 2
- Surprising facts about stress
- Emotional Intelligence in Leadership
- Psychic reflection
- Anger management: a selection of useful materials
- Anger: causes and overcoming
- The art of managing yourself
- Eight Strategies to Improve Self-Regulation
- Methods of mental self-regulation: save yourself
- Systematic desensitization of Joseph Wolpe
Key words:1Psychoregulation
Direct and indirect methods
Direct methods
Direct methods of influencing the psyche include music. Yes, its effectiveness was experimentally proven back in the 19th century by V. M. Bekhterev, although intuitively music has been used for treatment purposes since ancient times.
The second method is libropsychotherapy, or treatment with special literature. Books draw a person into a fictional world, make them experience the emotions of the characters and distract them from their own experiences.
Indirect methods
- Work and sports are the most effective indirect methods. They provide relaxation, charge with positivity and distract from worries.
- Imagotherapy, or role-playing games, is a method of correcting a condition through personal changes. In the process, new character traits are formed, the personality structure and the experience of problems change.
- Suggestion and self-hypnosis. The spoken words are not criticized, but are accepted by default and become a person’s internal attitude, which corrects his activity.
As you may have noticed, these methods do not necessarily relate to self-regulation, but there are methods exclusively for independent use that develop the ability to self-government. For example, autogenic training. You will also learn about this from the article, but a little later.
