What is a good life, what is the meaning and purpose of life? Questions like these are questions that human beings have sought answers to from past to present; These are questions that various theorists, economists, scientists, philosophers and religious scholars try to answer according to their own perspectives. For example, Socrates, one of the ancient Greek philosophers, evaluates well-being as happiness and equates being happy with being knowledgeable and virtuous. Aristotle defines happiness as the highest level of well-being that a person can reach. Jung, Rogers and Maslow, who contributed to the formation of the Positive Psychology approach, emphasize positive concepts such as mental health, life satisfaction and happiness when explaining psychological well-being. Considering the relationship between basic questions such as a good life and the meaning of life and psychological well-being, it can be said that there are many explanations from past to present about what well-being is within this framework.
Psychological well-being, expresses whether the individual is aware of his or her goals in life, his awareness of his potential, and the quality of his relationship with other individuals. From another perspective, psychological well-being is also defined as managing a person's ability to maintain meaningful goals in life, his personal development, and his quality relationships with his environment. As the level of psychological well-being increases, a person's positive evaluation of his own life may also increase. Increasing the level of psychological well-being depends on the increase in positive emotions, the decrease in negative emotions, and the individual's positive thoughts about the quality of his life.
At the same time, the concept of psychological well-being is also considered as a type of happiness. Psychologically, it can be seen that happiness is examined in two parts. The first type of happiness is hedonic happiness, which is based on pleasure and emotions, and the second type of happiness is psychological well-being. Psychological well-being is an understanding of happiness based on values and finding the meaning and purpose of life. People with high psychological well-being have meaning and purpose in their lives. They accept every aspect of themselves and their self-esteem is high. They have good relationships with both themselves and other people, and are able to cope with the stress and anxiety of daily life. They can deal with it in a positive way. In addition, while these individuals see life as a process of development and learning, they also attract attention with their autonomous and independent personalities.
Psychological Well-Being and Psychological Counseling
Considering that experts providing psychological counseling services provide preventive and protective mental health services, it is important to understand the individual's well-being as well as psychological problems. It is also important for them to be informed. Although psychological well-being helps clients find unity of meaning and purpose; They serve as a guide for psychological counselors by enabling them to intervene and set goals.
Increasing people's psychological well-being levels also means solving their psychological problems. The aim of psychological counseling and psychotherapy is; is to increase the client's awareness and help him/her in solving his/her problem. For this reason, psychological well-being attracts attention as a very important concept. In fact, according to Seligman, in the psychotherapy process, not only the problem should be resolved, but also what is best for the individual should be revealed. In this respect, even if psychotherapy is terminated, positive change and development continues. As a result, the ultimate goal of psychological counseling should be for the client to feel satisfied and happy with his/her own life, as well as to solve a psychological problem.
To Increase Psychological Well-Being in the Psychological Counseling Process. What Can Be Done?
Many methods can be shared to increase the psychological well-being level of individuals. These methods do not have the same effect on every individual and may have different effects. We can generally use some of the methods expressed by experts who research the concept of well-being during the counseling process.
The first of these methods is to find the meaning of life
Finding a meaning and purpose for our existence in the world is important for a satisfying and happy life. Having a meaningful life reflects the most basic human need for order, relationships and hope. It is said that there are two most important moments in life. The moment you are born, the moment you find your why.
Consider the following questions. knows.
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What has a deep meaning for you?
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Do you know the reason?
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How do you apply this reason to your personal and business life?
The second is to be optimistic.
Seligman states that optimism can be learned. To do this, a thought exercise about optimism can be done and started by looking for answers to the following questions.
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Write a sentence about the most beautiful event of that day every evening
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What are your strengths and positive aspects?
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What have you achieved so far?
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What may be difficult for others but easy for you What are the situations?
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What are the things that are good for your life, even a little?
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What are the things you want to remain in your life as they are?
Answers to these questions will lead you to optimism.
Third, gratitude exercise
In a study, the happiness levels of people who wrote down things they were grateful for on a weekly basis were found to be 25 percent higher than those who wrote down their complaints or wrote down daily events. A few of these exercises are;
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Keeping a gratitude journal, you can write down the things you are grateful for every day.
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Making a gratitude visit is about the kindness he has done to you. You can visit someone who changed your life in a positive way.
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Writing a thank you note
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Giving thanks for ordinary and extraordinary things
Fourthly, acquiring positive emotions
A happy life involves positive emotions (interest, compassion, joy, happiness, peace, love, relaxation). , satisfaction) is about feeling. For this, some studies can be done?
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What makes you happy? Asking the question and making a list of the answers you receive, repeating one or more of the answers you have chosen daily.
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Making a positive inspiration board. Identifying and visualizing situations that can inspire you.
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Thinking of positive propositions about yourself. For example; "This is um an opportunity to learn new things; I will try a different way; Like I have to set my priorities.
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Smile more
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Look at the green
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Plants, flowers or adopt a pet.
Fifthly, performing acts of kindness
You can set five goals in which you will perform acts of kindness one day a week for six weeks. For example,
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Helping your spouse with the housework,
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Doing the grocery shopping for your neighbor who has walking problems
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Like donating blood.
Make sure that the acts of kindness you choose will make a difference and include something from you.
Apart from these, establishing satisfying and healthy relationships, being forgiving, and never losing hope are factors that will increase the level of psychological well-being.
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