CAN A PERSON CHANGE?

Recently, in my practice, I often hear this question. Most people sooner or later face a certain internal conflict: on the one hand, changing for the better is great, but on the other hand, you want to remain yourself, not change yourself, not lose your own individuality.

The human psyche does not like to change at all. At the very least, she adapts to our world and seeks to keep herself in a state of this adaptation (including inferior one).

At first, she accepts many changes reluctantly or even resists them. The classic example is addicted people(from tobacco, computer games, alcohol or another person). It is very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to wean an addict from satisfying his needs in the chosen way (smoking, drinking alcohol, etc.), especially without his desire.

That is why there is a hypothesis that "people do not change."

If this were true, then psychotherapy and the profession of a practical psychologist would have died out, but at the present time they are only flourishing. Why? Because this hypothesis has long been disproved - people can change if they just want to ... I will say more - some can change very much, any psychotherapist and responsible client who has attended therapy will not only agree with this, but also be able to indicate where these changes have occurred.

DOES A PERSON NEED TO CHANGE?

No one is obliged to change himself and even want to change himself: the presence of psychological problems is the responsibility and choice of everyone. That is, each of us has the right to them. The only difficulty is that they make a person's life much less happy than it could be.

Conflicts with people, negative emotions, inappropriate behavior, unstable and low self-esteem - all this poisons life. A healthy person should not, but want to change what makes him unhappy. ... And this is not the world in which he lives, and not the people who surround him, but he himself - with his unresolved problems.

In my consultations, I sometimes meet people who want to become happier, but do not want to change something in themselves for this. Each such client believes that others should change - husband, children, boss at work, friend, etc. That is, he refuses to admit the fact that it was he who gave rise to his problems, shifting all responsibility for their occurrence onto the outside world.... Someone will find this position very convenient. In fact, it makes a person weak, a slave to external circumstances - after all, he admits that he cannot influence his fate and happiness to the extent he needs.

Any shifting of responsibility is an opportunity to do nothing to achieve our goal, but it deprives us of the opportunity to be the master of our destiny. It turns out that taking on a certain responsibility for the emergence of their problems is a strong position in which a person can determine his own destiny as much as possible and to a much lesser extent depend on external circumstances. Isn't that what we all strive for?

HOW TO CHANGE YOURSELF WITHOUT CHANGING YOURSELF?

So, we have already understood that the motto is "Accept me as I am!" not always justified. Sometimes it is really worth changing something in yourself if it creates certain problems. But how can you change and remain yourself?

In my practice, I discovered an interesting pattern - the more problems a person manages to solve, the more he becomes himself.

Let me explain with an example. Imagine that “I am real” is a certain core with which we are born and which we develop in the process of our life. However, over the years, our psychological problems (fears, complexes, difficulties in relations with others, difficulties in managing emotions, problems of self-esteem, etc.) are attached to this core, like in cabbage, over the years. And this changes our personality quite dramatically (the more, the more problems we have). Thus, most people, in fact, are not themselves, but contain a combination of "I am real + my problems."

You can change in different ways. Each of us can add problems to our personality or solve them. In the first case, the person will move farther and farther from the "I-present", and in the second, he will get closer and closer to him. So it turns out that you can simultaneously change for the better and become more and more yourself if you solve your psychological problems.

ON THE WAY TO YOURSELF

Problem # 1: dependence on the opinions of others

Nowadays, this problem in one way or another occurs in most people, which, however, does not in the least diminish its seriousness. Why? Because it gives rise to a significant part of all difficulties in relation to oneself, in particular - the problem of an unstable, or unstable, self-esteem when, under the pressure of outside opinion, its specific indicator, so to speak, is constantly changing: it goes up and down, not taking a stable position. But one of the main goals of each of us is to strive to increase our self-esteem and self-confidence, but this cannot be done if it is easily influenced by external circumstances.

Optimal solution
In this case, the main task facing a person is stabilize your self-esteem, reduce dependence on other people's opinions ... If you have such a problem, then the most important thing for you is to create and strengthen a certain "inner core" - your own idea of ​​yourself, stable and based on objective criteria. And, of course, learn to trust him. After all, it is precisely because of this mistrust that in the past you relied on the opinions of other people, and not on your own, considering it not sufficiently reliable.

Problem # 2: Fear of Failure

You've probably heard that fear of failure is one of the main fears that prevents a person from realizing himself the way he would like, prevents him from achieving goals, being successful, understanding his own capabilities and limits. This fear is a very striking example of a problem that interferes with being yourself. I think this is already clear. But how do you defeat him?

Optimal solution
When working on your own with fears, you can harm yourself without knowing the general laws of the functioning of the psyche (for example, the fact that many fears cannot be completely removed, since they perform a protective function). A psychologist can offer dozens of ways to work with fears, each of which is in no way inferior to the other.

This is work with the image of fear, and the study of the causes of its occurrence, and drawing techniques, and rational techniques, and behavioral techniques (using positive and negative reinforcement - "stick" or "carrot"), and work with fear through the body, and development general skills for managing negative emotions, etc. A specialist will help you choose exactly those working methods that will be most effective for you.

Problem # 3: depression

Interestingly, the main psychological cause of depression is that a person cannot do what he wants, or something happens in his life that he does not want, but he is not able to change it.

For example, a woman forced to sit at an unloved job due to a mortgage, or a musician who has not found application for her talent in life. Why is this reason common to all depression? Because it is connected with the very essence of understanding this term. A person gradually loses interest in life, in which there is no place for what he wants, instead, circumstances "force" him to do something else. It turns out that depression is a reaction to the inability to be yourself to the required extent.

Optimal solution
To get out of depression, you need, first of all, to help yourself find strength and motivation to move on.

Then you must realize that many of the obstacles invented for yourself, they actually do not exist, because there are hundreds and thousands of different ways to achieve the same goal, you just need to find your own. And it really is possible.

Of course, not all cases are listed when it is time to rebuild the path to your true self. However, I hope that the examples given in the article will help you realize the whole need for active actions to solve your psychological difficulties.

I wish you success on the way to your present self!

When people suddenly begin to behave strangely, this is a sure sign that something is wrong with them. Remember: we behave depending on how we feel at the moment. Potential suicides are usually sad, thoughtful, or overwhelmed, embittered, and often self-hating. In the behavior and appearance of those who are hatching plans of suicide, their negative emotions are manifested.

If the habitual behavior of your friend for some reason suddenly changed, if several weeks have passed, and you do not recognize him, then something has happened to him. The main words "changed" and "for some reason suddenly"; what matters in this case is not that he does not behave as it should, but that he behaves not the same as before. For example, you may not like that your friend loves to sleep and never gets up before noon, but this kind of habits is not at all evidence that he will stop sleeping at night, for no reason at all will turn into a nervous, irascible fidget, who does not find a place for himself - you will have every reason to worry.

Pay attention to the change in the behavior of your relatives and friends in the following parameters.

Nutrition. Teens with a good appetite become picky, and those who ate little are lashing out on food. Accordingly, thin teenagers get fat, and well-fed, on the contrary, lose weight.

Dream. Most suicidal adolescents sleep all day; some, on the contrary, lose sleep and turn into "owls"; until late they walk up and down their room, some go to bed only in the morning, awake for no apparent reason.

School. Many students who previously studied at "good" and "excellent" begin to skip, their academic performance drops sharply. Those who used to be among the laggards are now often expelled from school.

Appearance. There are cases when suicidal adolescents cease to monitor their appearance. They don't brush their hair, dress sloppily, and even stop taking showers in the morning. Teenagers in crisis are unkempt, wrinkled and dirty, and seem to be completely indifferent to the impression they make.

Activity. Teenagers in crisis lose interest in everything they used to love. Athletes leave their teams, musicians stop playing musical instruments, those who did a jog every morning cool down for this activity. Many people stop meeting friends, avoid old companies, and keep apart.

The pursuit of solitude. Suicidal adolescents are often immersed in themselves, stay away from others, withdrawn, and do not leave their corner for a long time. They put on headphones, turn on music, and turn off from life. Sometimes they try to leave unnoticed so that no one will pay attention to their absence. Sometimes they behave demonstratively: as if life is sick of them, and with all their appearance they make it clear that they are tired of everything and everything. If your quite sociable friend unexpectedly, for some reason, becomes withdrawn and uncommunicative, refuses to meet with peers, then he could have thoughts of death.

Bereavement. The death of loved ones: parents or brothers and sisters can push adolescents to thoughts of suicide. After such a loss, the life of a teenager changes in the most decisive way, now he has to not only come to terms with the loss of a loved one, but also to close the gap that this loss made in his life. Some adolescents cannot imagine at all how they will continue to live without a father or mother, brother or sister.

The losses your friend suffers from is not limited to the death of loved ones. Some adolescents begin to contemplate suicide after a fight with their girlfriend or after having gone through their parents' divorce.

Sometimes young people do not want to live anymore if they have suffered a serious illness or if they had an accident that disfigured them.

Remember, everyone has their own way of dealing with loss. A loss that may seem insignificant to you will be irreparable for your friend; changing his entire subsequent life, such a loss can push him to commit suicide.

Distribution of valuables. People who are about to die often give out things that mean a lot to them. If your friend is thinking about committing suicide, he may start handing out his favorite CDs, videotapes, posters.

Teenagers are known for their generosity, but if you are given something for no reason, and if you donate things that are dear to your friend, it should make you suspicious. Be on the lookout if at the same time your friend says: "I won't need this thing anymore" or "I want you to have something left of me as a keepsake."

Putting things in order. Some suicidal teenagers will distribute their favorite things, others will find it necessary to "put their affairs in order" before they die. Some will rush to clean the house, others will rush to pay off their debts, sit down for a letter to which they should have answered a long time ago, or they will want to return the thing they took from a friend, wash the floor in the room, disassemble the drawers of the writing desk. There is nothing suspicious about all these actions; on the contrary, in itself each of them is completely normal and regular. However, in combination with other "warning signs", such a sudden desire for order may mean that your friend is not going to stay in this world for a long time.

Be especially wary if your friend starts a conversation with you about wills, morgues, crematoria and funerals; if he becomes interested in funeral rituals, funeral music, wreaths, tombstones, etc.

Aggression, rebellion and disobedience. Teenagers who want to give up their lives are often oppressed and embittered: they are angry at parents, teachers or friends who did not please them in some way, offended them, did not live up to expectations. Sometimes they get angry with themselves, and their anger manifests itself in aggression, rebellion and disobedience. Like any change in mood, such "explosions" should be alarming. They can irritate not only those against whom the aggression is directed, but also everyone around. After all, no one wants to deal with an embittered, hot-tempered, unpredictable person - and as a result, your friend will inevitably find himself isolated, just those people who could, if necessary, provide him with real help, will turn their backs on him. Loneliness only "sets you up for a suicidal mood", which is why your friend is in considerable danger of falling into the zone of suicidal risk.

If you find yourself avoiding a friend just because it suddenly becomes difficult to deal with him, think about what is happening to him. Has your friend been aggressive and quarrelsome before? Has he been rude to parents, teachers, friends before? Is it usually, when something is done against his will, to him "for evil", he is rude? Can you imagine why your friend is so annoyed? If the answers to all these questions are negative, then he is in trouble, thinking about suicide, waiting for help.

Self-destructive and risky behavior. Some suicidal adolescents constantly seek to harm themselves, behave "on the brink of risk." Wherever they are - at busy intersections, on a winding mountain road, on a narrow bridge, or on railroad tracks - they travel at the limit of speed and risk. Bravado and efforts to convince everyone that they do not care about anything, sound in their every word.

Some young people at risk of suicide stop caring for their health. They may start to smoke and drink a lot, use drugs, or combine drugs with alcohol.

It happens that suicidal adolescents, especially girls, start to starve. Those who suffer from anorexia (this is a painful lack of appetite) stop eating altogether or eat very little, to the limit of their ability. Those with bulimia (this is an unhealthy appetite of the wolf) vomit after every meal. There is an opinion that these girls are starving and bringing themselves to exhaustion, as they strive to maintain their figure at any cost, but many psychologists and psychotherapists see in these eating disorders not so much a desire to lose weight as a cry for help.

If your calm and self-possessed friend suddenly takes risks or deliberately harms his health, it is possible that he is planning to commit suicide.

Loss of self-esteem. There are days when any teenager feels like the ugliest, most awkward and dumbest creature in the world. However, such "self-flagellation" usually does not last long. Some pleasant surprise occurs, and self-flagellation is replaced by narcissism, everything falls into place. Typically, young people have enough self-esteem and self-confidence to cope with the tough times and mood swings they are exposed to.

It is quite another matter for adolescents who have lost their self-esteem. They look as if they have lost something. The back is a question mark. They do not look into the eyes of the interlocutor. They say phrases like: "Nothing works for me", or "What a fool I am!", Or "Nobody needs me!" The worst thing is that they themselves believe these words. The impression is that they cannot even imagine that someone treats them differently.

Low self-esteem makes teenagers treat themselves without any respect. They consider themselves worthless, unnecessary and unloved, it seems to them that they are outsiders and losers, that they are failing and that no one loves them.

In this case, they may think that it would be better if they die.

Remember these warning signs!

If your friend:

Threatens to commit suicide;

Demonstrates unexpected mood swings;

Recently suffered a bereavement;

Distributes favorite things;

Brings things in order;

Becomes aggressive, rebel, does not want to listen to anyone;

Lives on the brink of risk, does not take care of himself at all;

Lost my self-respect

then, perhaps, he is considering the idea of ​​committing a suicide attempt.

This work will consider what changes occur in the behavior of people and what they are caused by.

Recently, the tendency of discrepancy between the set of rules developed by society on the behavior of people and the behavior of a significant part of society, when they are outside the field of vision of the same society, has become more and more pronounced. Every year, more and more laws are being developed and adopted that toughen the punishment for crimes, both against humanity in general and against a person in particular. In society, the bar for the norms of human morality is being raised higher and higher. Public opinion is becoming more and more irreconcilable to the manifestation of violence against a person. Moreover, the degree of intransigence increases not in arithmetic, but in geometric progression. On the other hand, through the media, and some of them personally, we observe an ever-increasing number of cases of unmotivated cruelty, mockery of a person "for fun," mockery for nothing. For example, the case is quite memorable when schoolchildren in a physical education lesson dragged an elderly, plump teacher of retirement age by the hand on the parquet only because she looked ridiculous and ridiculous at the same time. Even 100 years ago, it was impossible to imagine that a hardened criminal who shot more than one person could mock an elderly weak woman in such a way. Or when teenagers, for fun, throw off a heavy tire from a lorry from the roof of a tall building onto a person passing by. Naturally, a person dies on the spot from such a strong blow. Moreover, a teenager who has thrown off the tire, in the eyes of his friends, who look at him with admiration, acquires the halo of a hero. Like, he could, but we could not. This means that the teenager who committed this murder is not a black sheep among the young people around him, he is just a little more determined among them. At the same rate, another type of unmotivated crime is growing - crimes associated with the increasing irritability of people. For example, there are cases when an inadequate motorist kills another car owner just because he accidentally touched his car. Or a passenger on public transport injures another passenger for pushing him accidentally.

So what is the recent boom in unmotivated crimes? The reasons for this can be divided into two parts. First. This is a change in physiological factors, which is expressed, first of all, in the variability of the central nervous system, which is fixed in the human genome. Second. This is what, how and how a person learns from the moment of his birth. If the first is a layer of knowledge, which includes fundamentally different explanations of both cortical formations: new cortex, old cortex, ancient cortex, and subcortical nuclei: amygdala, caudate nucleus, etc., and nuclei of the midbrain, pons, oblong brain. Even very briefly, it will take up a very large volume and will be covered later. But we will now stop at the second one.

To understand what the child learns from the moment of his birth, one must compare what the child absorbs now and 100 years ago. 100 years ago, as well as 200 years ago, as well as 300 years ago, in a family, usually with many children, it was mainly grandmothers and nannies who were entirely involved in upbringing. The child received only positive, correct explanations for any situation. In all the old tales that the child learned about, good always wins. The child saw with his own eyes how the father is gallant in relation to the mother, how the younger obey the elders. And by the time when grown-up children fell into society, they had already firmly formed their own worldview, which was based on the optimal judgments and principles of morality developed by mankind over a long time.

And what is happening to the child now, how is his formation taking place? For a number of reasons, a child is brought up only by parents, more often by one. The time that parents now devote to raising a child is an order of magnitude less than 100 years ago, not to mention earlier times, because parents are busy all day, first with work, then taking care of the household. And in the evening, when parents are left alone with their children, they simply do not have the strength and desire to engage in upbringing. If we add to this the fact that modern people are much more irritable than, for example, at the beginning of the last century, then the result of all these reasons will be the minimum time devoted to raising a child over the past many hundreds of years. Moreover, with each decade, this time will decrease, tending to zero. And here we come to the question: how does the child fill the vacant niche of correct, positive upbringing? This niche will be filled in three ways:

1. First. These are nursery and kindergarten teachers and school teachers. According to the original plan, they should positively sanctify the entire path of human development and the structure of modern society, in addition to knowledge on specific disciplines that are studied later. This path is the only positive of the three, and the positive effect of this path is rapidly decreasing every decade. And this will happen not because modern educators and teachers have little knowledge, but because modern people are becoming more irritable. This irritability of educators and teachers will manifest itself in the form of a shout, a raised tone, insults, and physical pressure on children. And this, in turn, will lead to a decrease in the effectiveness of training and education.
2. Second. These are the media (television, radio, Internet, etc.) with which the child is left alone, left to himself. Consider television. Every year it becomes more and more vulgar, more scandalous, more and more crimes are shown on the screen. And the level of morality and spirituality is constantly falling. It is clear that TV channels are fiercely fighting for each viewer, because their material well-being depends on this. And a person will be most interested not in what a person should be like, how he should behave in a given situation, but in what fundamentally contradicts this, the so-called "strawberry", cruelty, violence, etc. Therefore, we are not interested in how everything happens predictably on the plane, but in how some drunken passenger makes a scandal and swearing. Therefore, humorous programs are becoming more and more vulgar, and more and more people are being killed in action films, and the number of scandalous programs is growing every year. And how a small child with no life experience and with little mental development will react to these same action movies. If an adult, as it were, understands that the main character, killing dozens of bandits, administers fair justice, then a child, who is not yet versed in justice, takes out of this film, only that by killing right and left, you will have the most glory and universal respect. Cartoons are evolving in a similar vein. And as a result, television, not to mention the Internet, has a negative impact on an unprepared child.
3. Third. This is the path of spontaneous unification of different individuals of the same species. Any species of animals that live in packs will always have a male or female at the head, for any reason letting in fangs or claws to conquer or maintain leadership. So it is with a person. As soon as children begin to unite from a very early age, and this is a nursery, a kindergarten, etc., an explicit and implicit struggle for leadership immediately begins. And the victory here will always be won by a stronger boy who, without hesitation, uses his fists. And so he subjugates everyone else. And this is usually the strongest and not the most intelligent child. His inclinations are usually the lowest at this age. And he usually strengthens his authority by doing negative actions, showing what a universal subverter he is, how tough he is. The rest of the children begin to imitate him, trying to adopt what was completely unusual for them. More reasonable children become quiet people who do not show universal heroism, and therefore are usually despised by leaders and a larger mass of children. And this happens from the moment different unformed children are placed in one enclosed space. And therefore, parents are sometimes shocked by those phrases or actions of their children who came from a nursery, kindergarten or school. It's just that a child imitates his idol from the same institution. In a similar way, the child is affected by the yard in which he lives. It is clear that this has an extremely negative effect on the formation of the moral foundations and everyday behavior of children.

Of course, not all children are affected by these factors. Much depends on the genetic and physiological parameters of the child himself, which will be revealed in other works.

And in conclusion, we can say that the gap between what, from our point of view, a person should be and what he really is, is growing every year. And every year we will be more and more shocked by the kind of bullying and cruelty a modern person can come to in a seemingly civilized society.

Why do successful, prosperous people in the middle of their life begin to make “sharp turns”: they leave the family, change the sphere of their professional activity, completely devote themselves to an unusual hobby? Our expert will help us to understand the problem, psychologist Leonid Vasilenko.

Only mountains can be better than mountains

The plane from Nalchik landed at Moscow's Vnukovo airport strictly on schedule. Pavel grabbed the suitcase of his wife Galina, who had flown in from a ten-day vacation at a ski resort in the Elbrus region, and immediately asked: “Well, how have you rested? How did you ride? "

Galina absent-mindedly replied: “I had a good rest! Even very good ... Pasha, I have a serious conversation with you. " Immediately upon arrival home, the vacationer told her faithful that she had decided to part with him ...

However, the 40-year-old lady decided to change not only her marital status, but also her occupation, and at the same time her place of residence. The deputy general director for strategic planning of a large metropolitan pharmaceutical company has traded her managerial position for the modest position of a coach-instructor in alpine skiing and mountain tourism in the Elbrus village of Terskol. During her student years, Galina was actively engaged in mountain skiing and mountaineering and even fulfilled the standard of a candidate for master of sports in both sports disciplines.

Loneliness in the family

“Almost all my relatives and even most of my friends condemned me in unison,” says Galina. - How so? Leave a decent, reliable husband with whom you have lived for twenty years in peace and harmony ... Leave your nineteen-year-old son ... ”However, Galina herself does not think that she has betrayed anyone and committed an unseemly act. She got married at twenty. Soon, a son, Denis, was born ... In the first years of marriage, the relationship between the young was sincere and warm, but gradually they were increasingly moving away from each other. “Recently, my husband and I have lived as neighbors - each in his own world ... Intimate contacts have practically ceased with us,” says Galina. - And my son no longer needed my daily care. Deniska spent all his free time with his college friend Nastya ... In the family I felt lonely and unnecessary. "

The goal is lost

Problems at work were added to family troubles. Galina long and stubbornly climbed the career ladder. But it was not easy to “keep” in a high position: the work took away all mental strength, did not leave time for rest and personal life. “The saddest thing is that in the bustle of Moscow I lost my life purpose. I was spinning like a squirrel in a wheel and did not understand for whom and for what I live, ”the woman explains her condition.

The Muscovite has not been on vacation for three years. A trip to the Elbrus region dramatically changed her life: “On the mountain slope, for the first time in many years, I felt happy and free. The wind blew in my face, I caught the admiring glances of the surrounding men ... I had a desire to stay forever in the Elbrus region, ski, enjoy the enchanting mountain panoramas and newfound freedom. "

The owner of the tourist hotel where Galina was staying made her an unexpected offer. The Caucasian entrepreneur knew that in her youth, a Moscow top manager was seriously involved in sports, and offered her the position of a sports instructor. True, the woman's salary turned out to be exactly ten times less than the Moscow one. But it didn't matter to her.

Routine stuck

“The midlife crisis primarily overtakes successful, outwardly prosperous people of both sexes,” says psychologist Leonid Vasilenko. “When a person does not have to fight every day for existence, he begins to think about the meaning of his life and life goals.”

At the age of thirty-five - forty-five years, a person has usually already achieved a certain level of material well-being. But many people, like Galina, begin to feel burdened by their daily routine: work does not bring pleasure, family life lacks warmth ... In this situation, men and women have a desire to drastically, radically change the course of their own lives. But will these changes bring happiness and peace of mind?

Appreciate what you have

Does a person have a chance to avoid crises? Psychologist Leonid Vasilenko calls for a deliberate approach to any possible life changes. “Middle-aged men and women often have enviable tenacity in achieving their goals. But they have not learned to enjoy the results obtained, to appreciate what they have ... "

In youth, a person's energy, as a rule, is aimed at achieving specific results: you need to find a decent job, you want to start a family, gain a high social status ... In middle age, a person continues to be energetic and strong, but he often does not know in what direction his energy: the life goals set in his youth have already been achieved or have ceased to seem interesting and tempting, and new goals have not appeared.

As the soul commands

“I think that in middle age it is especially important to listen to the voice of your own heart, to act as your soul tells you,” says Anastasia, a process engineer from Nalchik. - In this regard, I fully understand the heroine of the article, Galina, who exchanged the vain Moscow life for work in the Elbrus region, for a stay in the mountains. The man has made his dream come true! "

Her former colleague Larisa assesses the woman’s act differently: “Galka is an impulsive person, but she still did not expect such a turn from her. She succumbed to a momentary emotional impulse and did not think at all what would happen next. This can lead to new frustrations. "

- The most effective way for a woman to overcome a crisis is to take care of herself. Health, appearance, figure - everything should be under control and at the top. It is not for nothing that they say that in a healthy body there is a healthy mind. A well-groomed woman is able to overcome any crisis.

Knowing about its extraordinary properties, many are wondering how to use incense at home.

The oldest incense is frankincense, traditionally used in divine services in churches. Previously, this incense was valued even higher than gold.

Let's talk more about the properties of incense and how to use it at home.

How to use church incense at home

Frankincense is a fragrant resin that the wise men brought as a gift to the newborn Jesus Christ. The oldest recipe was received from God by the Prophet Moses (the book of Exodus, chapter 30, verses 30-38). It is used in churches for worship.

Priests kindle incense on burning coals in a censer. When burned, incense is formed - fragrant smoke.

However, you can also light incense at home. In addition, incense has not only sacred properties that help us turn to God, but also heals many diseases, and generally improves the state of human health.

The most common way to burn incense is with censers. But for their use, coal is needed, which makes this process a little difficult at home. It is easier to use a lamp with a spider, a special metal device.

At home, incense should be kindled during prayer or to strengthen the general state of mind and maintain health. If you have a difficult state of mind, then, having walked around the house with a censer, you will cleanse your home and fill it with a light and favorable scent.

How to light incense at home

Heated charcoal is placed in the censer; the easiest way is to heat it on a gas burner. Pieces of resin are placed on the side or on top of the hot coals, which heats up and begins to release fragrant smoke.

Be very careful with the coals so that they do not fall apart, and you should not use paper or plastic covers.

To use the lamp, you need oil and a wick, the wick should be dipped in oil, threaded through a specially designed hole and set on fire.

The fire will heat up the metal spider, on which incense will be located. The incense will heat up and release fragrant smoke.

What are incense candles for at home?

Using censer candles at home is much easier than using a censer or a lamp.

You just need to take a censer candle (it can be divided into parts if you do not want too strong a smell), set it on fire, after a few seconds blow out the fire so that the candle smolders.

With the help of smoke, a pleasant aroma of incense will spread throughout the room, the candle in the delivery can also be carried throughout the apartment.

The healing properties of church incense

First of all, incense has specific properties based on religious belief. But it also has medicinal properties that are widely used in medicine, for example, it strengthens memory, soothes well.

In addition, the scent of this resin rejuvenates the body, heals old scars, improves brain and gastrointestinal tract activity, has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects. Therefore, in Russia, even in ancient times, incense was a folk remedy for all diseases.

Incense incense has a healing effect on demon-possessed patients. Like prayer, incense is more medicine for the soul than for the body.

What to do with used incense

In no case should the pieces of incense and coals left after combustion be simply thrown away, since not a single sanctified thing should be trampled underfoot.

Remains of candles, shells from consecrated eggs, paper from cakes, etc. - the priests of Orthodox churches recommend burying these remains in a clean place where people do not walk with their feet, or pouring them out into the river. You can also burn.

Proceed in the same way with pieces of used incense. It would be most correct to lower the remnants of tar and coal into a channel or river and let them float away. You can also put them in a special inviolable, revered place like a special casket.

Conclusion

If you are puzzling over where to get incense, then the answer is very simple. In any Orthodox church there is a church shop where you can buy incense and the corresponding accessories for its use.