Are there any benefits of self-help? Are you able to find solutions that would improve the health of your mind, body, and spirit? The answer is yes. You just have to know what works for you and what doesn’t!
Remember Stuart Smalley who was on Saturday Night Live? His character took the notion of self-help and made fun of it.
One of the things Stuart would do was to look in the mirror and tell himself he was special. He would tell himself that he was smart. These were just a few of the daily affirmations he would repeat while looking in the mirror.
One of his famous quotes was, “… [B]ecause I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggonit, people like me!”
One of the most fascinating ideas behind the skit was that although the writers tried to make fun of the total self-help movement, there was a fair bit of truth in what they did.
It is true that the more you can talk to yourself in a positive way, the more positive your life is going to turn out. That is one of the benefits of self-help.
In fact, positive people are often more successful in life than negative people. The main reason is that positive people tend to believe they deserve to be successful.
Nobody Knows You Better Than You Do Yourself
It is a fact that we tend to be more judgmental of ourselves. It is truly sad that the one person you should be able to count on often turns out to be the one you can’t trust.
The one that treats you worse than anyone else in your life. Why do we do that to ourselves?
The one way to turn this around is to engage in some self-help techniques and accept that self-help is not a comedy skit.
It is true that engaging in self-help can actually help build our body, mind, and spirit. Just another one of the many benefits of self-help.
Believing in Self-Help
You will find that for the most part people who engage in self-help are often the most open-minded.
They believe that they have some control as to what happens to them in life. They believe anything is possible.
They are also willing to try out the various self-help techniques and as a result, they often see a lot of success as a result of what they learn.
Building Self-Confidence with Self-Help
Positive things can happen in your mind when you have confidence in yourself and your abilities.
Perhaps in the past, you thought you would not be able to do something.
Then you picked up a self-help book and learned some ways to get outside of your comfort zone and you experienced success in an area of your life.
Perhaps the self-confidence you experienced made it more possible to try new things.
The more confidence we have in ourselves, the more confidence builds and makes another one of the many benefits of self-help.
Reducing Anxiety with Self-Help
It is important to remember that you are not helpless when it comes to your feelings and emotions. In fact, you can make some big changes in your life if you just know what you need to do.
In fact, when you are able to manage or even overcome any social anxiety by taking actions that you picked up in self-help books, you have taken the steps to get rid of anxiety.
Your life will be easier and you will be able to enjoy more experiences.
It doesn’t mean that you might not still need medical support for social anxiety, but you might not as well. You and your doctor can make that decision together.
Self-Help Might be the Way to Get Healthier
People are often not successful in changing their bodies just from diet and exercise. The reason: because they don’t believe they can or they don’t have a plan in place to be successful.
Self-help books can help. When you find stories of other people’s success you are more inclined to accomplish your goal.
When you realize that it is possible to be successful then you are more likely to be able to do it as well.
Even if you don’t actually make your goal or you only get halfway there, you are still going to be healthier as a result.
Embrace the Spiritual with Self-Help
Unfortunately, we live in a world these days where it is hard to be spiritual. Hard to feel the love.
With the help of some self-help books, you can start to practice acceptance and self-love. You may even start to embrace the love that having a spiritual point of view can give you.
By making it a priority, you will find your life will be more successful.
When you treat self-help like a joke, you are actually denying yourself a better life. Most people find that when they learn through self-help, they have more success and they are changed forever.
So, taking the time to learn how to improve aspects of your life is always going to be a good thing.
How to Make a Selection for a Good Self-Help Book
There are many times in our life when we need some help. You may need to turn to the people around you. Perhaps you realize that the type of help you actually need isn’t going to come from your friends or family members.
This is the time you might want to consider reading and learning from a good self-help book. You should find a book that can provide you with the kind of help you need in order to realize the benefits of self-help.
There are going to be a lot of books to choose from for your particular situation to help improve your life.
This is a list of what you will want to look for in a self-help book. Then you will be able to choose the best book for you.
- First, you will want to look for a book that focuses on a limited range of problems or one problem in particular. Problems that relate to the issue you are wanting to learn more about or overcome. The books that will offer you the solution you are looking for are the ones that focus on a specific issue.
- Always look at the credentials of the author. It is a good idea to get a self-help book that is well backed with research and knowledge. Perhaps these are books that are written by accredited professionals or doctors.
- Remember the old adage: that if it looks too good to be true it probably is. If you see claims that fall into this category, then maybe these books are to be avoided. If you see a book that claims to cure a problem, then maybe it should be avoided. Books that guarantee something are to be avoided. There are no guarantees.
- Check to see if the self-help book is based on scientific research and has lots of evidence to back it up. It may take you some research to be able to find out if the data and information are really backed up with credibility.
- Another good idea is to make sure the book can help you monitor your progress. With this type of guidance, you will be able to measure how successful you are being in overcoming your issue. You will be able to see and realize how far you have come. You will be able to see how much you have changed from the beginning of your self-help journey.
- It is important to look through the self-help book and see if it ever talks about the possibility of relapse or any setbacks you might experience. You will find that maybe half of all self-help books that have been published allude to the possibility of setbacks or relapses and how you can bounce back from them.
- Another important topic to look for in these books is do they suggest seeking professional help? You may be able to help yourself but sometimes you need professional help. It is important that if you need more help with your issue that you can turn to a professional. There is no shame in that!
Books with flashy covers and overly positive wording may be more flash than substance. It is important that if you are going to purchase self-help courses or books, that they are going to actually help you overcome your issues.
There are a large variety of self-help books out there to help you along your journey of helping yourself. It’s key though that you purchase a book that can provide you with the most help and guidance you can get.
There are many opportunities and benefits of self-help, but one needs to make sure that you are choosing courses and books that are really going to help!
