Consciously choosing not to hide emotions.Freely expressing thoughts, desires, feelings, and opinions.The path to true human connection.Connecting with others through vulnerability will result in the best interactions and relationships.

Vulnerability Is...

<ul><li>Admit "you suck" at something--accepting your faults. People will see confidence in you for admitting weaknesses.</li><li>Take Responsibility Instead of Blaming Others: Taking responsibility is powerful because it puts you in control; An excellent example of vulnerability because you're saying "I have a problem. I’m not perfect, but that’s okay. I can deal with it, and I will deal with it."</li></ul>

Ways To Be More Vulnerable

<ul><li>Let people know if they are being hurtful or insensitive.</li><li>Informing people of your feelings and opinions is being vulnerable.</li><li>Standing up for yourself is powerful vulnerability.</li><li>Telling someone you admire, respect, appreciate, and/or love them.</li><li>The ultimate form of vulnerability--tell a friend you admire them, tell family members you love and respect them; confessing undying love without knowing how the other person feels.</li></ul>

More Ways To Be Vulnerable

A tactic to manipulate.The intention behind behavior that makes it genuine or not.

Vulnerability Is Not...

Emotional vomit is when you suddenly unload an inappropriate amount of emotions and personal history onto a conversation, usually to the utter horror of the person listening.In effect, you’re being open and authentic about how needy and pathetic you are. And whether hidden or apparent, neediness is never attractive.

Emotional Vomit

"It’s the backwards law in action: in order to become more resilient, more formidable, you must first bare your flaws and weaknesses for the world to see. In doing so, they lose their power over you, allowing you to live your life with more honesty and intention."

Power Of Vulnerability

Vulnerability helps us work through our emotions and process them more effectively. It fosters improved emotional and mental health while living an authentic life bravely and resilient.

Find out what vulnerability it really is—and what it can and can't do for you.

Vulnerability: The Key to Better Relationships

Your sense of self refers to your perception of the collection of characteristics that define you. <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/big-five-personality-traits">Personality traits </a>, abilities, likes and dislikes, your belief system or moral code, and the things that <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-get-motivated">motivate </a>you — these all contribute to self-image or your unique identity as a person.

Sense Of Self

“Having a well-developed sense of self is hugely beneficial in helping us make choices in life. From something as small as favorite foods to larger concerns like personal values, knowing what comes from our own self versus what comes from others allows us to live authentically.”

STRENGTHS: recognize your strengths and believe in your ability to use strengths to achieve goalsHAPPINESS: What brings you joy?VALUES: traits you prioritize and live by (ex. Empathy, Trustworthiness, Kindness,etc.)CHOICES: Making choices based on your desires and goals indicates strong sense of self.

Checking Your Sense Of Self

<ul><li>Individuation: starts in childhood; unique self develops through exploration, learning, and expressing needs and desires</li><li>Attachment: relationship with parents/guardians; insecure attachment can affect identity and future relationships</li><li>Desire to fit in socially</li></ul>

Factors That Influence Sense Of Self

<ul><li>Defining values and personal beliefs are important to identity development because they can help you see what matters most in your life</li><li>Make your own choices</li><li>Spend time alone</li></ul>

Building A Strong Sense Of Se

I personally feel a little lost when it comes to identity and sense of self. Here's some basic information if anyone else feels unsteady!

What does "sense of self" actually mean? And it is really that big of a deal?

Sense of Self: What It Is and How to Build It

Distorting Mirrors<ul><li>Ignoring flaws and blaming issues on someone else</li></ul>Cost of Self Judgment<ul><li>Can't always feel good about ourselves so we are hard on ourselves leading to emotional pain</li></ul>Another Way<ul><li>Stop judging and evaluating ourselves all together</li><li>Stop labeling as good or bad and instead treat ourselves with kindness and compassion</li></ul>

Discovering Self Compassion

I realized that self-compassion was the perfect alternative to the relentless pursuit of self-esteem. Why? Because it offers the same protection against harsh self-criticism as self-esteem, but without the need to see ourselves as perfect or as better than others. In other words, self-compassion provides the same benefits as high self-esteem without its drawbacks.

<ol><li>Self-Kindness: be gentle and understanding with ourselves</li><li>Common Humanity: feeling connected with others</li><li>Mindfulness: hold our experience in balanced awareness</li></ol>

Three Components Of Self Compassion

<ul><li>Emotional resilience</li><li>Higher self compassion leads to less feelings of anxiety and depression</li><li>"Mindfulness allows us to see that our negative thoughts and emotions are just that—thoughts and emotions—not necessarily reality. They are therefore given less weight—they are observed, but not necessarily believed."</li></ul>

Benefits Of Self Compassion

"Research shows that people with higher levels of self-compassion are significantly less likely to suppress unwanted thoughts and emotions than those who lack self-compassion. They’re more willing to experience their difficult feelings and to acknowledge that their emotions are valid and important.""The beauty of self-compassion is that instead of replacing negative feelings with positive ones, new positive emotions are generated by embracing the negative ones. The positive emotions of care and connectedness are felt alongside our painful feelings."

Recognizing Emotions

This is a moment of suffering. Suffering is part of life. May I be kind to myself in this moment. May I give myself the compassion I need.MANTRA FOR NEGATIVE EMOTIONS

Mantra For Negative Emotions

Research on motivation consistently found that self-confidence directly impacts our abilities to reach our goals.Self-criticism can harm abilities to do our best. When we put ourselves down, we lose faith in ourselves.Self compassion is more effective a motivator than criticism because it comes from love, not fear.

Motiv

There’s also evidence that having compassion for yourself is related to having compassion for others in certain contexts. For instance, a recent study found that self-compassionate individuals have different goals in their friendships than those who lack self-compassion. They are more likely to focus on helping and encouraging their friends, as well as being compassionate toward their friends’ mistakes and weaknesses. They are also more willing to admit their own mistakes and weaknesses to their friends.

Discovering self-compassion and actively practicing it leads to healthier lifestyles with less symptoms of depression and anxiety. This book is very informative and inspires to start living a self compassionate way of life.

Kristin Neff, Ph.D., says that it’s time to “stop beating yourself up and leave insecurity behind.” Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind offers expert advice on how to limit self-criticism and offset its negative effects, enabling you to achieve your highest potential and a more contented, fulfilled life. More and more, psychologists are turning away from an emphasis on self-esteem and moving toward self-compassion in the treatment of their patients—and Dr. Neff’s extraordinary book offers exercises and action plans for dealing with every emotionally debilitating struggle, be it parenting, weight loss, or any of the numerous trials of everyday living.

Self-Compassion

The first purpose of sleep is restoration. Every day, your brain accumulates metabolic waste during normal neural activities.Recent research suggests sleep plays crucial role in cleaning out the brain each night. While these toxins can be flushed out during waking hours, sleep flushes these toxins out twice as fast.

Purpose Of Sleep

The second purpose of sleep is memory consolidation, the process that maintains and strengthens long term memory. Insufficient or fragmented sleep can hamper your ability to form both concrete memories (facts and figures) and emotional memories.Finally, sleep is paramount for metabolic health. Studies<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2951287/"> </a>have shown that when you sleep 5.5 hours per night instead of 8.5 hours per night, a lower proportion of the energy you burn comes from fat, while more comes from carbohydrate and protein. Insufficient sleep can lead to heart disease and diabetes.

More Purposes Of Sleep

Intensity refers to how well you sleep. The percentage of sleeping time you spend in slow wave sleep and REM sleep largely determine the quality of your sleep each night.Timing refers to when you go to sleep.Duration is how long you sleep.Intensity of your sleep is managed automatically by your body. The duration of your sleep is largely dependent on when you get into bed (. And that means getting to bed at an earlier, more consistent time is critical for improving the quality and duration of your sleep.

Improve Sleep Quality

As a person suffering from severe insomnia, sleep hygiene and importance of proper sleep are important to me. Understanding the negative consequences of lack of sleep are also imperative.

Want to learn how to sleep better? Look no further. This guide walks you through everything you need to know to learn how to sleep better every night.

Betterment, Growth, Positivity, Faith in Oneself

Personal Development

The Science of Sleep: A Brief Guide on How to Sleep Better Every Night

<ul><li class="ql-align-center">Abstract goals.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Outcomes that are far in the future.</li><li class="ql-align-center">A disconnect from our future self.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Feeling overwhelmed.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Anxiety.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Task aversion.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Perfectionism.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Fear of evaluation or negative feedback.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Fear of failure.</li><li class="ql-align-center">A perceived lack of control.</li><li class="ql-align-center">ADHD.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Depression.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Lack of motivation.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Lack of energy.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Sensation seeking.</li></ul>

Reasons For

Understanding why others procrastinate can help you figure out why you procrastinate. Sometimes figuring out other's issues make ours clearer and help us figure out how to overcome whatever is holding us back.

Understanding Procrastination

<ol><li>Establish clear, precise goals based in actuality.</li><li>Identify the when, how, and why of past procrastination to get a clearer picture of why you put things off.</li><li>Create a plan of action with anti-procrastination techniques.</li><li>Put plan of action into effect. Monitor progress as well as which techniques are working and others you could try.</li></ol>

Overcoming Procrastination

<ul><li>Prioritize tasks.</li><li>Break large, overwhelming tasks into small, actionable parts.</li><li>Remove distractions.</li><li>Set small deadlines throughout the project's progress.</li><li>Reward yourself as you go.</li><li>Visualize yourself experiencing the outcome of your work.</li><li>Believe in yourself and that you can stop procrastinating.</li></ul>

Anti-procrastination Techniques

Understanding why people procrastinate is beneficial, since it can help you figure out why you yourself procrastinate, which in turn can help you figure out how to solve your procrastination problem. To learn more about this, and to understand how you can implement this knowledge in practice, read the follow-up guide on <a href="https://solvingprocrastination.com/how-to-stop-procrastinating/">how to stop procrastinating</a>.

Understanding And More Information

I am a queen at putting things off until the last minute! This article is full of great information on breaking procrastination!

Learn why you procrastinate, so you can understand what you need to do in order to change.

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Virginia Hodges
@vrhodges12

Vulnerability: The Key to Better Relationships

Sense of Self: What It Is and How to Build It

Self-Compassion

The Science of Sleep: A Brief Guide on How to Sleep Better Every Night

The Psychology and Causes of Procrastination – Solving Procrastination

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Virginia Hodges@vrhodges12

Vulnerability: The Key to Better Relationships

Sense of Self: What It Is and How to Build It

Self-Compassion

The Science of Sleep: A Brief Guide on How to Sleep Better Every Night

The Psychology and Causes of Procrastination – Solving Procrastination

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Virginia Hodges
@vrhodges12