Understanding the Self

Physical
Self
Presented by:
Macalanag | Vingco | Julian | Amar
Clamor | Montaño | Mondia
 Physical Self

Total Self

Academic Social Emotional Physical

Self Self Self Self

Figure 1. The Scheme of Self Image Hierarchy by Shavelson et al. (Schwarzer 1986)
 Shavelson described the total self or general self as being
made up of academic self and non-academic self.
Academic self is influenced by the learning process and
the individual’s emotions, behavior, and experiences
during the learning process. Non-academic self is shaped
by an individual’s social self, emotional self ad physical
self. The social self is greatly influenced by parents,
colleagues, friends, and acquaintances among others.
Emotional self is the person’s experiences of joy, anger,
fear, anxiety, and other emotions. On the other hand,
physical self is affected by involvement in sports, exercise,
and other activities that enhance the physical body.
(Medišauskaite 2009)
K. R. Fox (2000) emphasized that the factors hat encompass
physical self-esteem, which include sport competence,
attractive body, physical power, and physical condition, and
how they actually shape the global self-esteem.

Physical self is the amazing vessel, complex, woven and

knitted, finely tuned creature with which we interact with our
environment and fellow beings. The physical self is the
concrete dimension, the tangible aspect of the person that can
be directly observed and examined. It is composed of systems
that receive and respond to various external and internal
stimuli.
 Sigmund Freud’s concept of self and personality makes the physical
body the core of human experience. Freud stated that ego is the first
and foremost a body ego. Moreover, Wilhelm Reich emphasized the
unity of the mind and body. The body is central to all dynamic
psychological functioning and it plays a very important role in storing
and channeling the bioenergy, which is considered as the basis of
human existence and experience (Singh 2020)
Meanwhile, Erik Erikson considered experience as firmly associated
on the ground-plan of the body. He stated that the organs of the body
are essential during the early developmental stages of a person. The
formation and development of physical and intellectual skills greatly
influence the ability of the individual to choose his role in the society
and be fulfilled. Physical health is directly correlated to the
competence of children. Healthy children are more competent and
therefore, will become more capable of acquiring complex skills than
children who are undernourished and sickly. Erikson also highlighted
the incessant interplay of the body, psychological processes, and social
forces (Singh 2020)
 Maslow provided a very important lesson about our physical bodies
when he laid down Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Once the
physiological needs are met, the person becomes more dedicated to
attaining the higher-order needs. That is why he emphasized that we
give due attention to all the needs of the body. A well-nourished, loved,
respected individual experiences fulfillment. On the other hand,
deliberate self-denial and rejection of the body’s basic needs will result
to an inactive, crippled organism.

Psychologists have their own views of the physical body. But one thing
is common and that is the important role the physical body plays for
the totality of our being. Without the tangible, responsive physical body,
we could mot enjoy the pleasures of the world.
 Religious groups around the world also have varying concepts
regarding the physical body. One that draws attention is the
varying idea from the Indian tradition. Some showed outright
rejection of the body, because they consider it as the source of
desires and attachments, while others give due respect and
importance to the physical body, because they attribute it as the
main instrument for spiritual growth and self-realization. Indian
tradition also appraised growth and enlightenment as the whole-
body event, which is only possible if one has a pure and strong
body.

Furthermore, the concept of the Middle path from the Buddhist

tradition is vital in one’s attitude toward the body. They believe
that the body deserves love and respect, so there should be neither
full indulgence of one’s desires nor extreme asceticism or self-
denial.
 Taking care of our
Physical Body
The physical body has been considered as the “real home,”
“temple,” or “vehicle.” It is the only one that we have
throughout our entire lives and is also the one most
intimate to us.

Our physical body is our instrument so we can perform

our daily tasks. It is through this body that we interact with
other people, with other living organisms, and with the
rest of our surroundings. It is jusr vital that we take good
care of every single structure that makes up our bodies.
We have to make sure that it can function well. When we
take good care of it, we are not only referring to the
external part, but even the internal components of the
body.
 Taking care of our
Physical Body
Self-care is the intentional , planned, and actual act of taking the time
to attend to our basic physical, mental, and emotional needs (Brzosko
2018). It is quality rest that we offer to our bodies in order to
replenish the lost energy utilized in performing daily activities. It is
an act of love and kindness for ourselves.
Self-care occurs in three levels: physical, mental and emotional.
Taking care of the physical body also entails taking care of our
mental and emotional lives. They should go hand in hand. We cannot
be physically fit and healthy, yet emotionally unstable and mentally
disturbed. We should be healthy in all the three aspects. In fact,
health starts from within and it manifests outside. Our good health
springs from the mind, which stimulates the heart, and the heart
energizes the physical body.
Physical Self-Care
This aspect of self-care is the simplest one and is
very common nowadays. There are three basic
aspects of physical self-care, and these include
good nutrition, sufficient amount of recovery
time (rest and sleep). and necessary exercise.
Others might have other ways to care for their
body depending on the specific need and
preferences, like breathing exercises, massages,
long baths, saunas, physiotherapy, biking, hiking,
skin care, and more.
Teenagers and adults nowadays are becoming
fond of doing some special skin care sessions or
they are using special skin care products to
improve the quality of their skin. Others also have
to change hairstyle from time to time to follow
the trend. Consequently, we have our own ways to
take care of our physical bodies. but let us make
sure that they are really beneficial and they will
not cause us to suffer unnecessary problems later
in life.
 Mental Self-Care

Our thoughts can be confusing and complex sometimes. You were so

happy for a while, and then a certain memory popped up and your happy
thoughts suddenly drifted. The memory caused you to be anxious and
become worried at something, and most of the time, it may be
unintentional and we cannot explain such phenomenon.
Mental self-care is a two-fold process, according to Brzosko (2018). The
first step is taking time to consistently break down what you are thinking
and why you are thinking that, because the moment you manage to notice
your thoughts, they will not have the power to direct your life without you
even noticing. As we become conscious of our own thinking, we can
actually choose where to focus our thinking. We can choose to center our
thoughts to something positive. We can think of an idea, an activity, or a
place that energizes us the most.
 Mental Self-Care
The second step is to cultivate those mental habits
and thoughts that benefit us. As what has been
mentioned previously, keep those thoughts that
improve our well-being. It is not helpful if we will
meditate on negative words, negative experiences,
and negative people that we have encountered. We
are just wasting our precious time with those
negative thoughts.
here are other tips for improving our mental health
habits suggested by Brzosko (2018):
> Focus your attention to present moment.
>Practice gratitude
>Exercise patience
>Learn to accept what is already happening

Moreover, our relationship with others can also be

improved if we keep in mind that it is actually
better to give something to others than to receive.
As the golden rule teaches us, let us do to others
what we want others to do to us. If these thoughts
will be engraved in our minds, our lives will be a lot
better.
Emotional Self-Care

In his book, The Presence Process, Michael Brown stated that

all emotions are essentially “energy in motion.” They are not
good nor bad. They are just energy (Brzosko 2018).

We have come up with the standardized names for those

emotions of energies in motion, such as fear, anger, anxiety,
sadness, happiness, excitement, and thrill among others. We
also classified them as “desired” for the positive emotions
and “unwanted” for the negative ones. Because we can feel
or experience all these kinds of emotions, it is unfair to be
“right” or “wrong” based on the way we feel.
Emotional Self-Care

A very important step in dealing with our emotional self is

to recognize the validity of our emotional state. We will
surely benefit from this initial step, because it is something
that is already happening. An attempt to hide or disregard
the current emotional state will just bring additional tension.
It is, of course, easier to accept feelings over others. Most of
the time, it is easy for us to recognize and embrace emotions
like peace, love, excitement, happiness, gratitude, and hope.
However, it takes more time and effort to accept fear, regret,
sadness, anxiety and the like.
Emotional Self-Care
After recognizing the emotion, we can either alter the
emotional state or we do not. For example, you might
be feeling sad or lonely because an unexpected event
just happened. Because you do not want to say sad,
you changed your circumstance, so you can also
change the emotion and decided to invite your friends
for a movie or dinner, take a stroll in the park, or eat
your favorite dish.
On the other hand, the second options tells us that we
can actually detach the mental interpretation from the
emotion itself (for example, it is my friend’s fault why
I feel angry today, because she did not join me in the
party), we can gradually get to the root of the feeling.
Consequently, we integrate the emotions as a valid
part of our experience. not being worse nor better than
others. With these, we will no longer seek some
feelings over others. We simply believe that all their
emotions have their root cause and that they are valid.
Sometimes we just need to be cautious and mindful of
these emotions, so that they will not cause negative
impact to our daily activities and to the way we
interrelate with other people around us.
Thank
You!