Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis.
Self-help basically has to do with an individual striving to better their lives by themselves with little or no assistance from someone else.
There are several different topics within the personal development world, but they all seem to fall under five major categories.
Selfhelp categories
- Mental
- Social
- Spiritual
- Emotional
- Physical
Mental
The first of the five areas of personal development is all about growing your mind. You can partake in many mental personal development activities. Some examples are taking a class, reading a book, or watching an informational YouTube video to improve your skills. By setting aside some time each day, or each week, you can see growth in your career, increased productivity, and so much more.
My favorite activities to do in this personal development category are reading books on my industry, listening to podcasts, and taking courses.
Social
This category is all about improving your communication. In my opinion, this category is the most overlooked. However, social personal development is an important activity to practice. Learning a new language, practicing your public speaking skills, and committing to doing more active listening are all activities that can help with social personal development.
Spiritual
Spiritual personal development can mean something different for each person. The best way that I know how to describe it is anything that brings you peace and helps you connect to your true self. The activities that fall under this category can be anything from spending time in prayer and reading your Bible, to taking a nature walk or meditating. For more examples check out this article.
Emotional
Emotional personal development can be, well, emotional. Because of this, it can be easy to brush it off. I’ve done my share of doing this. I have realized that it wasn’t healthy behavior. The reality is that holding in your emotions, and brushing them off, only makes it worse when they finally do come out. Some examples of what you can do here are journaling, tracking your mood, talking to a friend, or even a counselor.
Physical
We’ve made it to the last of five categories! By now I hope you are seeing that personal development, practiced right, is all about the whole self. We aren’t only focusing on one aspect of you here. That will be important to note when it comes time to choose your personal development activities.
Physical personal development is about a lot more than exercise. You’ll also want to consider eating and sleeping habits, to name a few, to get the full picture of this category. Some activity examples include working out, getting 7-9 hours of sleep each night, meal prepping, and going to regular checkups at your doctor’s office.
By creating healthier habits around exercise, healthy eating, and sleep you will be on your way to being your best physical self.
There is no better way to make the best use of 2023 than by being intentional about improving your life through self-help. I hope you live a more improved life this year. Do leave a comment if you found this post helpful.
PPBlessing 