What are existential questions?

Everyone at least once in his life was worried. Absolutely everyone is tormented by eternal existential questions. What it is? Fear of eternity, caused by sad reflections on the decay of being, fear of premature death ... Everyone suffers this suffering: someone more, and some less. The lion's share of such experiences, according to experts (psychologists and psychotherapists), goes to people who are used to pass before life's difficulties, which no one has taught to assert their rights and express emotions. This category includes round orphans or those who were left without parents early.

The essence of existentialism

Someone acquires the meaning of being, believing in the existence of God. Someone finds a different way to find themselves beyond the bounding thoughts and factors. One of the ways to alleviate human suffering is psychotherapy.

Existential questions, in the opinion of practicing specialists in the field of psychotherapy, in order to exist one-on-one with their problem, the person thought: "How can I help myself?". In order to find answers, the individual sought means and found ways to fill his life with meaning: he was engaged in creativity, cared for others, devoted himself to the struggle for what he considered important, learned to love and be loved.

The task of psychotherapy is not to be content with quoting the ideas and principles of the great earthlings. The purpose of this discipline is to help a person master the basic rules of communication and build relationships with other members of society.

Epicurus of Samos

Self-improvement through the search for answers to existential questions is a topic that excites not only modern specialists. The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus, for example, believed that the main human fear was the fear of losing his life. It was to this topic that he devoted most of his work, pursuing a noble goal: to help ordinary mortals survive their main fear.

His task was seen by Epicurus of Samos in assisting his neighbors, striving to attain the supreme goal of life-to be happy. Considering the main condition for gaining happiness receiving pleasure, the great philosopher of antiquity put into this concept a completely unconventional meaning for modern man. The pleasure in understanding Epicurus is the absence of bodily and mental suffering, that is, has nothing to do with debauchery, gluttony and satisfaction of ambition.

The task of an existential psychologist

An ordinary person is unlikely to begin to think about what existential questions of human existence are. However, having felt that his life, figuratively speaking, "flowed in a distorted channel", "stands still" or "rushes past", asks them to himself. Frightened by the absence of any events, the individual, linking this emptiness with the presence of his bad habits or with the underdevelopment of some of his personal qualities, addresses the relevant question to the existential psychologist. In his eyes, a specialist psychologist is a person who can change his life, help him discover a new, interesting side of life.

Understanding that events that fill life - it's just a reflection of their own way of existence and not related to personal qualities, does not come immediately. Thus, existential questions are related to the life of the individual, and not to his personal qualities. The existential psychologist does not search for the unique and real "I" of the client, but offers the latter to pay attention to the created life situation and do everything possible to get out of the tangled situation with the least losses.

Life difficulties are natural

Life difficulties are a natural phenomenon, and a person who does not know how to see the troubles that throws his life, new opportunities, "stumbles on the spot," not knowing in which direction to move. The feeling of personal competence and a sense of freedom of choice comes with the realization that every person is the builder of his life. The task of the psychologist - considering the existential questions of the individual experiencing another life tragedy, help her to come closer to realizing that current events are a consequence of actions committed in the past.

According to the professor, the doctor of medicine and practicing existential psychotherapist Emmy Van Dortzen, each person should decide for himself whether he should change and how much to feel happy and free. A woman scientist admits that some people who have felt the significance of their own life may have a desire to give up change, and they will do the right thing, because this is their choice.

The supporter of group psychotherapy Irvin David Yalom, like colleagues, expressed confidence that life situations in which the individual is involved, most often reflect his personal difficulties. It is impossible to get answers to existential questions, as well as to key issues related to birth and death, free choice and necessity, loneliness and dependence, meaning and emptiness. But due to the fact that a person can not feel the fullness of life until he comes to the only right conclusion, he pays special attention to the study of universal human questions by existential psychologists.

How to get rid of feelings of meaninglessness?

Existential themes have worried humanity at all times. The most widespread of them sounds approximately so: "How to get rid of sense of senselessness of terrestrial existence?". A visit to the psychotherapist's office is, firstly, an analysis of past life experience, secondly, a discussion of the current state of affairs and, thirdly, discussions about the desired and possible future.

Awareness of the usefulness of experience gained in the past reinforces the feeling of fullness of being, the discussion of the current situation allows one to look at one's own life as something of value, and the identification of consequences and the search for new opportunities multiplies the feeling of freedom of choice.

Specialist mission

Existential questions are a chance, using which a person understands what he is trying to do in his life, what he limits himself and how he overcomes discomfort. The mission of the existential psychotherapist is considered fulfilled when the client himself will feel the benefit of this enterprise when, in the course of a scrupulous revision of his life, he will discover new opportunities for interaction with the world around him and, embodying his own values, will experience inspiration.