I just wrote a biopsychosocial about myself. For those readers who don't know what that is, it's basically a report on a person. Their health (biology), mentality (psychology) and social aspects that make them who they are. My self-report was not an assignment. Nor was it for the purposes of this journal. It was for myself and I think everyone should do this every now and then.
It's interesting to identify things about yourself that you like. For one reason or another too often we focus on what we don't like about ourselves, myself included. I'm not really sure why, but self-talk really likes to put us down. However, in a biopsychosocial, you are forced to identify every aspect of your being. This is a weird and fun process.
I was having a crappy day, but one where I know that I have a lot of things going for me. The kind of day where life keeps handing you bigger boulders and you puff out your chest, scream "BRING IT ON"! then grab the keys to your bulldozer. It's not even that I feel that the world is my oyster, or something cliche. On this particular day, I just wasn't taking any more.
So I wrote. Because when life brings you down, make like Shakespeare and put ink to paper. Right? Not always. But I just felt like I needed to remind myself, about myself. I didn't consciously think about it as a therapeutic tool. Retrospectively, it sure was. I just needed to write and identify exactly what positive aspects of myself exist. There were a lot.
It's amazing what you can recognize about yourself if you stop focusing on what you don't have. I sound like a self-help book, and if you've met me, you'd know I'm not that personality type. However, I really had no idea that I knew and could identify some of the things I picked out.
So why am I writing about this? I think many of us forget our worth, our attribution to the world. Our talents go unrecognized because we don't see them as talents, we compare ourselves to the rest of the world in more ways than one. Taking a different perspective when looking at yourself can lead to looking at the world through a different perspective. This is something that I think everyone should try to do.
Believe me, I didn't just identify the butterflies and rainbows though. Part of being human is being able to own the not so great things. For example, I have a difficult time when driving and not yelling at someone for cutting me off. Not the greatest habit, and something I'll have to work on. However, I am appreciative of the fact that this fight response does occur. It's not manifesting in the most constructive way, but it's there.
Anyway, appreciate yourself. Observe who you are from an outside perspective, it's good stuff.