Strength of spirit and willpower concept. Strengthening fortitude: useful tips. Smart time management

1. The existence of hypnosis
2. The phenomenon of messing
3. Effect on the physical condition of the body
4. What is a negative hallucination
5. Through what channels does hypnosis work?
6. Can an ordinary person hypnotize another?
7. Death by hypnosis
8. How to resist hypnosis
9. When the trance sets in
10. What is freeway hypnosis
11. How a person under hypnosis remembers past lives
12. Perception of another reality
13. How to see the invisible
14. How to burn with suggestion
15. How to influence the body
16. How to change sexuality
17. Features of communication in trance
18. How to learn hypnosis
19. How hypnotists work on TV
20. How to convince a person that he is on LSD
21. Is it possible to harm yourself with self-hypnosis?
22. Example of mass hypnosis
23. What amazing things can you do with hypnosis?
24. How Gypsy Hypnosis Works
25. How to find a hypnotist
26. Post-hypnotic suggestion
27. Links

I warn you right away - this post is huge.

Does hypnosis even exist?

Complex issue. For two and a quarter centuries there has been such a cultural phenomenon; we talk about certain practices as “hypnosis.” On the other hand, for example, a purely biological concept still cannot be given an exact definition. I personally believe that the word is still justified, although, of course, it is possible to build a picture of the world in which there is no hypnosis. So, as you wish - assuming that there is - there will be tempting opportunities for psychotherapy, knowledge of the depths of the soul, and explanation of strange phenomena. If we assume that it is not, we can also live; moreover, then many old concepts such as consciousness or will will remain unshakable.

How to explain the Messing phenomenon?

The literary gift of the people who wrote about him. Indeed, Messing was a hypnotist, and knew quite subtle features of the functioning of the human body and psyche. Indeed, based on this knowledge and skills, he demonstrated wonderful shows in which to an unprepared viewer it seemed almost like miracles. However, there is no documentary evidence of any of his superpowers; there are only literary fictions about Hitler, Stalin and the bank. The reality is much more prosaic, although he was very talented.

How does hypnosis change the physical state of the body?

Hypnosis does not give you any superpowers, but some stage stunts look like magic. For example, there is nothing special about “stone muscles” - it’s just that in everyday life we ​​do not encounter full tension in most of the muscles of the body, but in hypnosis this is easy to achieve. The same thing happens with walking on coals, for example - active sweating begins, pain and temperature sensitivity is turned off - a person walks on hot coals. To date, there is no reliable evidence that hypnosis allows people to do something impossible.

As for the instillation of ideas, everything is also not very simple - in the end, nothing can be instilled unless the person himself wants it. Everything is decided by the desire of the subject, in the end.

There are a couple of hypotheses regarding how hypnosis affects metabolic processes in the body, but they are not very reliable and rather serve to calm the soul of researchers.

What is a “negative hallucination”?

There is a story of a hypnotist who, in the company of friends, hypnotized one of them, and convinced him that the girl who was present there would become invisible to him. So, not only did he not see the girl, but he also calmly said what kind of object was in the hands of another person who was hiding it behind the girl’s back.

This is a “negative hallucination” - a frequent and well-studied phenomenon. Just as the brain completes the perceived image at the point of a blind spot, a person in a deep trance may seem to not see someone or something. But at the same time he will bypass an “invisible object,” for example, which indicates that he actually perceives it. By the way, the example of hallucinations is one of the most powerful arguments against understanding the eyes as video cameras - it turns out that what is perceived is freely transformed under the influence of certain ideas.

As for seeing through objects, there is no such thing. Once, at the end of the first quarter of the 19th century, some magnetizer wanted to prove to the French Academy of Sciences that his somnambulist could read a book inside a box. The answer was immediate - magnetism was recognized as a pseudoscience, and it was rehabilitated only twenty years later on the other side of the English Channel, by Dr. James Braid.

Through what channels does hypnosis work? And what minimum impact is enough for hypnosis, for example, a glance, or necessarily words? And if words, does audio recording work?

Hypnosis is a natural mental phenomenon, and it cannot be caused by external influence. Few people understand this - they usually think that some actions can cause this condition. This is mainly the opinion of those who approach hypnosis as a physiological phenomenon, but the problem is that at the level of physiology, hypnosis is elusive, and there will be no progress in this problem in the coming decades, although researchers are happy to deceive themselves with unreliable explanations like “guard points” "and partial braking. I believe that it is possible to slightly speed up or slow down the natural process of the onset of hypnosis, but nothing more.

Is audio recording available? Yes, in a certain sense it works. But recordings cannot capture the nuances of a particular process, and because of this, recordings perform much worse than a real person.

Is it possible to make passes or look with an evil eye or swing a pendulum in front of the subject? It is possible, but this has nothing to do with the nature of hypnosis. With the same success, you can put a teddy bear on your hand or play a Kasparov-Karpov chess game - the nature of hypnosis is rather closer to linguistic.

Can an ordinary person learn hypnosis from books and hypnotize someone else?

Yes. 98% of the adult population are subject to hypnosis. It makes no sense to try with children under 3 years old, schizophrenics, paranoids and autists, they have different filters and submodalities. Works for everyone else.

Are suggestions that lead to negativity real? Suicide, causing harm.

In general, the answer is yes. You cannot suggest something that a person would never do on his own. For example, there are societies where murders do not occur, they do not exist as a cultural phenomenon - it is impossible to instill murder there. And with people of our culture there were experiments in which a hypnotized subject was given a revolver, prudently loaded with blanks, and was encouraged to shoot at the hypnotist - many fired the entire drum. There is a phenomenon of suggested death - when a person dies in less than a day from a suggestion made - this is a scientifically described fact.

Is it possible to hypnotize a person if he internally resists?

The problem is that the state of hypnosis occurs by itself, about once every 90 minutes, it is natural. It’s not really clear why exactly the body needs it - either for rest, or for some restructuring of information, or to combat stress - there are different versions. In this regard, the question: “can I be hypnotized?” boils down to “when will I go into hypnosis, now or a little later?” An experienced hypnotist will not rush things, he will simply wait. But, in principle, there are techniques for working with “resistance” that personally do not seem preferable to me, because the person understands that he has been deceived.

In psychotherapy, everything is simple - if you want to change something, then you have to compromise with the hypnotist. Well, imagine - your finger was torn off by a circular saw, and there are no painkillers nearby. And then the hypnotist says: “Let me give you anesthesia using hypnosis?” You can tell him to fuck off, of course, but agreeing to cooperate is more profitable. Psychological problems are no less acute than a severed finger - it’s just not obvious to many. Hypnosis is primarily a therapeutic tool.

If you come to a session, then no one will tell you from the threshold “close your eyes,” etc. - before the trance there is a long preparatory work, almost more important than the trance itself. Problems with resistance are partly resolved at this stage, but if this is not possible, then therapy is not needed. This means that the client is satisfied that his finger is torn off - well, let him go in peace.

Why once every 90 minutes? And how is this condition different? What are the signs and limitations? How long does it last? Is it possible to prevent this condition by effort of will?

This condition is difficult to strictly define - it varies significantly from person to person, and from one person to another at different times. However, there are a number of signs that can guide you. Classic signs of a hypnotic state indicate, first of all, a state of relaxation, which they usually try to induce at the beginning of hypnosis: tonic immobility, smoothing of the facial muscles, drooping eyelids, slowing of breathing, psychomotor retardation, slowing of reflexes (blinking, swallowing, etc.), muscle twitching , the slightest movements of the head, a seeming lack of initiative... These include those states when our gaze stops, and we look at one point, but think about something completely different. These are lapses in memory when we forget what we just said or did, or cannot find the thing in front of our nose.
The appearance of so-called specific phenomena, such as catalepsy or the ability to control pain, is rather impressive, but in no way specific.

A typical hypnotic response is one that occurs unexpectedly, mainly in response to a message from the operator, and is considered involuntary by the patient. This contains a significant nuance - hypnosis calls into question many concepts from other areas of knowledge, including will, for example. It turns out that a person is unable to enter into a trance; that part of his soul that has nothing to do with the will is responsible for this.

The peculiarity of trance is its invisibility. That is, if you don’t specifically want to notice it, then in most cases it is elusive. Human consciousness in general is all woven together from scraps and shreds of experience, and glues them together with trance and similar states.

It’s worth mentioning here that trance is not a state of meditation, nor is it a state that occurs after taking psychoactive substances.

What is freeway hypnosis?

This is generally a common thing when you’re driving a car - you look at these stripes, stripes, stripes on gray - and you fly away... It’s impossible to fight this (unless you become schizophrenic - they don’t have a trance), but you can use it.

Trance opens up wide opportunities for transforming life - you should use them, and not try to refuse. It is in these moments that you are sincere and at peace with yourself, everything feels as it really is. At the same time, negative experiences also manifest themselves in trance: for example, those who have been in war know that terrible moments sometimes suddenly appear before your eyes, this is an eerie feeling, although everything around is normal. Well, as an example. You can work with this, you can change it, both with a psychotherapist and in self-hypnosis, to a certain extent. There are some things that a person himself fundamentally cannot resolve, but basically everything is within your power.

How does a person under hypnosis begin to speak in an unknown or even ancient language?

No real regression occurs in a state of hypnosis - neither to infant reflexes, nor to past lives - this is a proven fact many times over. These experiences are taken to be quite realistic hallucinations, which are identified through detailed comparison with real reflexes, for example. About languages ​​- also a typical example - we hear several dozen languages ​​in our lives, and under hypnosis from you personally, for example, it is realistic to hear Latin and Aramaic (have you seen the Passion of Christ? Wow) and Middle Elamite, not to mention more familiar languages , such as German or French. But this is nothing more than a reproduction of what was once heard: human memory is truly enormous, and in hypnosis even very old and insignificant memories become accessible.

A serious specialist will not guess about these examples - experiments have been conducted in both directions for a little more than two hundred years, and there is not a single one in which something radically different from what was said above was shown.

But there is a much more difficult question - why do people have very similar images when there is no likelihood that they were familiar with the original source. For example, a delirious peasant in the Alps sees the sun waving a phallus - and we find very similar descriptions in Arabic manuscripts of the 14th century. Obviously the peasant did not read them. But there is no mysticism here either - at least two schools - K.G. Jung and C. Levi-Strauss showed how this is possible without any paranormal phenomena, that all these phenomena have a strict materialistic determination in the end.

Are there any reliable cases of hypnosis that force a person to perceive another objectively existing slice of reality?

Well, unless by this you mean the logic of the unconscious. By and large, these things always accompany us, but are noticeable only in hypnosis and similar states. Well, for example, the unconscious does not know the word “no”, or radically opposite things coexist in it at the same time. There are effects in perception, memory, body capabilities, but nothing supernatural. No past lives, no divine revelations.

Is it possible, for example, to make a person under hypnosis “see” that part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is inaccessible to us in a normal state (radiation, radio emission, etc.)?

Oh, no, it’s not possible. The maximum that is possible is sometimes to perceive very weak stimuli, for example, moving your fingers over lines of text, to feel the difference in the absorption of heat by the material and thus to read the letters. It is possible to subtly diagnose pathological processes in the body in the early stages - again due to increased sensitivity.

How then does the mechanism of formation of hypnotic burns work?

A hallucination is caused in which a person thinks that he is being burned, for example, with a soldering iron. The brain perceives this as truth, simply due to the fact that our everyday perception is a hallucination close to reality. Accordingly, a protective reaction begins, completely similar to that which accompanies a real burn, including the processes of apoptosis, destruction of connective tissue structures, release of moisture, a primary immune response - the result is a burn, sometimes quite severe.

From a neurophysiological point of view, a hallucination in the secondary visual cortex causes a reaction from the limbic system, which entails a reaction from the hypothalamic-pituitary system, which already affects the immune, endocrine, connective tissue and autonomic nervous systems. In fact, the process is not linear, but with feedback loops, so for a good burn you need to maintain a hallucinatory perception of tissue destruction.

Can all low-level systems be controlled? For example, endocrine, to produce horse doses of dopamine?

You can control both the immune and endocrine systems - they are closely related to the nervous system, but no one really knows the limits. Apparently it can also be connective tissue, if considered as a separate system. It seems that these are the mechanisms that make it possible to restrain the growth of tumors or even reverse it. We recently published a monograph, “Psychogenic Factor of Carcinogenesis,” which describes the effectiveness of using hypnosis as an adjuvant in the treatment of a number of malignant tumors.

It is difficult to find an area of ​​therapy that does not have positive results using hypnosis. What is it worth just to control pain - without any drugs, and it works even when the most powerful anesthetics are not effective enough, even in cases of phantom pain. Although, of course, usually hypnosis is only an auxiliary tool.

There are a number of difficulties with the use of hypnosis for operations: the patient imagines the surface of the skin, or, say, his own anus, but he can usually imagine some kind of adrenal gland or hippocampus only speculatively. An important factor in the success of a therapeutic hallucination is its realism in terms of the body diagram and the patient’s understanding of the world around him. This can also be overcome, but research is needed, and enthusiasts can be counted on one hand.

There are a number of reasons for this - the bad reputation of hypnosis after Kashpirovsky and all sorts of cases of “coding” of drunkards, and the apparent complexity of the approach. Indeed, it is easier for a psychiatrist to prescribe pills than to think about a specific case and build a complex interaction with the patient... The same goes for a therapist - he does not want to teach the patient self-hypnosis - after all, you can prescribe injections and receive a bonus from the pharmaceutical manufacturer for this.

Is it possible to change the body and improve sexuality with the help of hypnosis?

It is possible, but within certain limits. Girls' breasts can be enlarged by an average size in about six months, but no more than that. As for muscles, you don’t have to think that doing imaginary exercises every day in hypnosis is easier than going to the gym. It is impossible to enlarge a member - a group of processes is responsible for this, which are activated only a few times in life, and the last time - in adolescence.

Do people in trance have the ability to communicate with each other?

Of course have. But this communication is specific - in trance a different logic operates, including incompatible thoughts easily coexisting, the unimportant sometimes acquires great significance, and the significant seems trivial. It's hard to lie in a trance - paradoxically, liars in a trance often give themselves away without noticing it. The saying “what’s on the mind is on the tongue” well characterizes trance communication - there is a constant feeling that you blurted out something inappropriate and cannot control it in any way. In trance, metaphorical images play a special role - much more so than in everyday communication, therefore what is said should often be taken not literally, but in a figurative meaning. Well, there are other features.

How to learn hypnosis?

If you want to master hypnosis professionally, then first you need to get the appropriate basic education - for example, study to become a psychologist, psychiatrist, dentist or obstetrician, because hypnosis is a method, but not a paradigm. Then you should decide what style of work suits you - directive, instructive, or maybe it will be working with metaphors and fairy tales, or, for example, hypnoanalysis. When the direction is chosen, you begin to practice in collaboration with your colleagues - at first as a training, but after a year or two, most cases will not cause difficulties for you. At this point, you can say that you have become a specialist in hypnosis within your profession - for example, psychotherapy or anesthesiology.

And, yes, the key to success is practice, practice and practice.

How do hypnotists on TV work? They don’t do any “tuning” to the patient, they put their hand on the head - “SPA!” and that’s it - a person turns into a vegetable.

Throughout the history of hypnosis, there have been people who do it in public for fun. However, serious practitioners never allow themselves to do this. For these demonstrations, people are either selected from the audience, behaving specifically - they are ready to be “hypnotized”, or specially trained somnambulists - professional patients - are simply taken.

It looks very impressive - a person eats a dirty potato, thinking that it is a mango, or is afraid of a trouser belt, because he was told that it is a python. But these are just tricks - they are useless.

Is it possible to hypnotize a person so that he thinks he is on LSD?

The effect will not be exactly the same, although it will seem to some extent realistic. You can have hallucinations and a feeling of inexpressible meaning - but not as strong and vivid as under chemistry. And, of course, to obtain these effects you need practice - a person on the street won’t be able to suddenly see colored triangles flying around - you need several sessions to get comfortable in the world of hypnotic trance before you can talk about getting this kind of effect. And if, having injected a hallucinogen, you just need to wait until the effect occurs, then in hypnosis you need to do hard work in order for something to happen - yes, hallucinations occur, but for them to arise, very fragile conditions must be observed.

Actually, Stanislav Grof at one time came up with holotropic techniques specifically to replace LSD-25 in psychotherapy. Although they are not very similar to hypnosis, but still.

What about curing cancer through self-hypnosis and other “miracles”? Does this really exist, or are these all stories for the newspapers?

If hypnosis is used in addition to modern treatment regimens, then in some cases of cancer there is a several percent increase in patient survival.

Well, for example, for melanoma, from a recent domestic study: a year after the start of immunocorrection (cytokine therapy, extracorporeal immunotherapy) in patients at different stages of the process, mainly at III–IV, to whom hypnotherapy was applied, the survival rate was 0.8, after two years 0.7, then gradually decreased to 0.6 after five years. At the same time, in the control group, at the time of the start of hypnotherapy in the experimental group (that is, a year after the start of immunotherapy), the survival rate was also approximately 0.8, but already a year and a half after the start of immunotherapy, the survival rate dropped to less than 0.5. As you can see, there is some statistical difference.

As for the case of healing entirely by self-hypnosis - there are several documented cases, this really happens, but extremely rare. For the most part, all such cases turn out to be hoaxes - either they are simply lies, or errors in diagnosis, or distortion of facts.

Is there any danger in self-hypnosis? Can you cause yourself trouble?

Psychotics, for example, should not try self-hypnosis - this may cause the disease to manifest. There are few such people - only a percentage or two of the population.

And for everyone else, there is no particular danger, with the exception that you can remember a lot of unpleasant truths about your life, understand about some people around you that they are not what they seemed - in short, you can be afraid of yourself, the real one.

In addition, there is a risk that the goals that a person sets for himself in self-hypnosis will have bad consequences for his life and the lives of those around him - therefore, you need to carefully judge what you want to achieve.

In addition, there is a danger in the case of somatic diseases - you cannot, for example, give yourself pain relief in self-hypnosis for acute pain in the abdominal cavity - you can get appendicitis or something even worse.

An ordinary person with a neurotic type of mental structure has established relationships between signifieds and signifiers. That is, for example, you think about a piece of sugar, and say “sugar”, “white”, “cube”, “piece”, where your imaginary sugar, its meaning is the signified, and the words are the signifiers. When I say “lump of sugar”, a lump of sugar will appear in your imagination, this is the basis of language and communication.

With a dream it’s about the same thing, but a little more complicated - all its contents are distorted and metaphorical, but the essence is the same - by what you dreamed, you can always determine what the dream was about. Let me give you an example. I once dreamed that I was seven years old, and my grandmother and I were running to the clinic with a jar of urine, and we encountered some difficulties along the way. This is a dream. The next morning I had to take a calculus exam - it was a reality. The dream speaks in a metaphorical form about the difficulties associated with “passing the analysis.”

But in a psychotic, these relationships that are familiar to us are disrupted. When he hears the word “piece of sugar,” for example, he has hallucinations of pieces of sugar - instead of appearing in the imagination, they take on the character of reality. Or, for example, for psychotics, things that are meaningless in themselves suddenly begin to make sense: “The car is red because it belongs to the KGB, which is hunting for me” - this is called nonsense. For psychotics, everything is quite confused, which is why their dreams are different - they themselves say about them that they are very similar to reality. Of course, if their reality is filled with hallucinations and delusions!

The story is similar with neologisms - in psychotics, the usual connection between signifieds and signifiers is destroyed, and speech is filled with signifiers with the character of neologisms. Their difference from all other signifiers is that they refer not just to the signified meaning, but to something else, to the core of psychosis, if you like.

Are there cases of mass hypnosis? To inspire, for example, people that they are strong, capable, talented, healthy, etc.?

It is used only for slightly different purposes - to fit a person into a consumer society, for example. Nobody in the modern world really needs free and happy people; they need people who are dissatisfied with themselves and tied up in various social relationships.

And what are the most amazing things you can do with the help of hypnosis?

The most amazing thing is that without which we cannot exist. Apparently, without natural trance states, human existence is very difficult, if not impossible, therefore the fact that they exist at all and are almost not noticed by us is a miracle.

And if we talk about tricks, then these are hypnotic anesthesia, massive amnesia and distortion of memories, cases of restoration of split personalities. Perhaps these are the most effective tricks using hypnosis

How does gypsy hypnosis work?

The point is that the man “swimmed” even before she approached him. Trance occurs many times throughout the day - this can be easily noticed from the outside if you know what to pay attention to. Regarding the introduction to trance in seconds - there is nothing surprising here either. Trance is a psychological phenomenon first of all, and only then physiological. Therefore, you can do without sensory overload, for example. Life is full of examples of this - when something happens! and captures your attention completely. Well, for example, a beautiful girl with high breasts walks nearby, and she has an extra button undone - that’s an instant trance

How much does it cost to experiment in hypnosis with a person who will do no harm and will be professional enough to help evaluate the experience?

It may not cost anything - the question is where you will find a professional who will agree to practice with you in order to try a new experience. The point here is this - hypnosis is a type of treatment. It would be quite strange to come, for example, to an ENT specialist and say: “Doctor, shine a flashlight in my ear - I want to evaluate the experience” - here we are dealing with something similar.

What's stopping you from trying to start with self-hypnosis? Here's a good tutorial - maybe you find it interesting

What can be said about post-hypnotic suggestions?

Their essence is that at a certain moment a person enters a trance state, he carries out the suggestion and returns to his ordinary state. By and large, they are one of the most revealing hypnotic phenomena, since for the person who performs them, there is no other rational explanation for his actions. Post-hypnotic suggestions, by the way, include not only what the therapist suggests to a person in hypnosis, but also what was suggested in stressful situations. At the same time, suggestions can be of very different depths - sometimes it is even possible to induce hallucinations with a post-hypnotic suggestion, and sometimes the suggestion simply sets the course of action, but does not strictly determine it.

Which can be formed through perseverance in overcoming difficulties. Only thanks to the strength of spirit a person has the opportunity to achieve his goals and overcome the most difficult obstacles.

The Divine in Man

Much has been said about what fortitude is. This quality is often compared to willpower, or it is said that these two qualities go hand in hand. Human will is the ability to make decisions and strictly follow them. Fortitude is directly related to will, but it is more of an ideological concept.

The Slavic Magi of antiquity have a prayer. One of the quotes in it is about the strength of the spirit: “My body is a sheath for the blade of my spirit.” In many religious, as well as esoteric treatises, one and the same idea can be traced: the spirit is endowed with the nature of fire, or ether - that is, that place of the universe where the gods live. Regardless of concepts, this part of a person is considered to be given to him from above.

Some psychologists believe that alcoholics and drug addicts do not know what fortitude is. This is why the most expensive treatments are powerless against these addictions. From this follows the well-known principle that addiction cannot be cured - it only passes from one form to another. Therefore, a person can change as a person only by strengthening his spirit. Willpower is just one of the tools on the path to personal change.

Strength of spirit: definitions

The phrase “strength of spirit” has several definitions. Firstly, this is a quality that makes a person more courageous. It consists of several components: perseverance, willpower, perseverance. People who have this quality are metaphorically said to be made of iron. In this regard, we can quote about the strength of spirit of the poet N. Tikhonov: “If we could make nails out of these people, there would be no stronger nails in the world.” The poet said this about sailors who are ready to accept death. However, the development of inner strength is possible for every person; this process does not necessarily occur in the conditions of military service.

There is another definition of fortitude: it is a person’s ability to endure discomfort and unpleasant conditions in order to achieve a future goal. From this point of view, fortitude can be developed when a person knows how to say to himself: “Today I will tolerate discomfort so that tomorrow my desired goal will be achieved.”

What does fortitude give?

Firstly, a strong person is faster able to disarm his inner critic. After all, on the way to any goal you cannot avoid obstacles. And at some point there is a risk of giving up, deciding that there is not enough strength to reach the end. Only those whose spirit is strong will have a chance of defeating this negative inner voice and further moving towards their goal.

This quality also allows you to draw the right conclusions from mistakes made and not get stuck in self-accusation. A strong person will not waste his life energy on unnecessary repentance. Nor will he ignore his mistakes. His strategy is responsibility for the actions taken. Therefore, the strength of spirit allows you to consider every step as an acquisition of new experience.

In addition, this quality allows a person to honestly face his fears. Leaving your “comfort zone” is never easy. However, if a person is strong, he knows that he will be able to cope with stress and move forward no matter what.

Examples

One example of fortitude is Pasha Pasynkov from the work of the same name by K. Chukovsky. At the cost of his own life, he decides to take the fire of all enemy anti-aircraft guns on himself. Pasynkov's plane burns and becomes uncontrollable, but he still manages to land on the Neva. So the hero managed to keep intact not only houses and several bridges, but also many human lives. All this is thanks to the willpower of the protagonist.

Also, an example of firmness of spirit can be found in the texts of L. Ovchinnikova. They talk about the children of besieged Leningrad. Many of them were left without parents; before their eyes, houses collapsed and people died of hunger. Children gathered at the first call in the Palace of Pioneers, despite hunger, cold and deprivation. There they practiced knitting, sewing, drawing, dancing and singing. Then they did not yet know about the power that art has. The kids came to perform on a military cruiser. Adults who had to deal with death every day were amazed at the strength of the children’s spirit.

V. P. Astafiev: an example of spiritual power

Also, an example of the strength of a person’s spirit can be found in the text of journalist G.K. Sapronov, who is also a member of the Association of Book Publishers of Russia. The author reveals this topic using the example of the biography of Viktor Petrovich Astafiev. He was able to go through many hardships in life - orphanhood, homelessness, the war years, as well as post-war poverty and devastation. However, he managed to cope with all the troubles and remain himself. At the same time, Astafiev worked tirelessly. Every day he sat down at his desk and completed the stories he created in order to feed his family. Despite all the hardships, he did not give up and continued to work for himself and his family. The author is confident that only a strong-willed person is able to endure all the trials of life, overcome obstacles along the way and at the same time preserve his best personal qualities. One cannot but agree with this position.

The story of the pilot Maresyev

The story of pilot Alexei Maresyev also tells us what fortitude is. His plane crashed behind enemy lines. After that, he crawled to his home for 18 days, as his legs were damaged. After the pilot's limbs were amputated, he began to learn to walk on prosthetics, and then to fly the plane again. Maresyev’s overcoming of all difficulties speaks of his unbending will and courage. This is a true example of perseverance and fortitude that has gone down in history.

The best way to learn about fortitude is from quotes from great people. This is what Lucretius said about this: “The spirit is strong with joy.” One cannot but agree with this statement. After all, it is thanks to internal psychological resources that a person can be strong. Vitality, love and energy reserves allow you to move on, despite any obstacles. Joyful events of the past may be forgotten, but they continue to exist in the unconscious memory, giving strength to overcome obstacles and new achievements. When your soul becomes sad, there is no faith in your own strength, you are overcome by anxiety or fatigue, it is important to remember the words of Lucretius. By reflecting on good events, a person has the opportunity to strengthen his spirit.

Strengthening inner resilience

And here is what the French writer and entomologist J. Fabre said about this: “Happy, thrice happy is the man who is tempered by the adversities of life.” It is believed that by going through life's difficulties, a person becomes stronger. After all, a crisis is a turning point when previous actions turn out to be ineffective, and a person has not yet come up with new ways of behavior.

A mentally strong person is one who knows how to invent these ways of coping with a difficult life situation. Anyone who does not know what fortitude is has every chance of finding it in difficult circumstances. It is the positive experience of meeting difficult situations that strengthens a person. After all, this knowledge will give him confidence in the future. If he was able to deal with problems before, he will know that he is capable of solving these problems.

Circumstances in which a person has a chance to become stronger

Sometimes it happens that a difficult situation in a person’s life does not find a solution for a long time. In this case, the human spirit does not become stronger. One does not lose hope that everything can change for the better. The other simply adapts to new living conditions. In the latter case, the person does not become stronger, his spirit remains weak. After all, avoiding a difficult situation is not a way to overcome life’s obstacles.

For example, a person may quit a job where he is having problems. And at his next workplace a similar situation will await him. Or he cannot build good relationships and strives to find a new husband or wife. In this case, he will also face similar problems. After all, in the previous situation he did not learn a valuable lesson, which means that life will continue to confront him with similar circumstances until he learns to strengthen his spirit and overcome the obstacles facing him.

- What is spiritual power?

Spiritual strength is the strength of the spirit. According to the teachings of the Church, a person consists of spirit, soul and body. Man is built according to a hierarchical principle, according to which there is a main thing, there is a subordinate, and there is a subordinate to a subordinate. In other words, there is lower and higher.

Man was designed by God to be dominated by the spirit. So that the spirit rules over the soul, the soul over the body. The highest is the spirit, the lowest is the flesh. In fact, after the Fall everything became the other way around: man ceased to be spiritual, man became carnal. Very often in modern man the flesh dictates to the spirit, suppresses the spirit and controls it. That is, voluptuousness, lust and other passions often guide our actions.

I think spiritual strength is when the spirit comes into its own, when it dictates to the body and soul what to do and what not to do.

- Spirit, soul are subtle matters invisible to the eye. In order for people to understand what this means, let's look at an example. A person has some choice. Feelings and emotions lead him to one decision. And with his mind he understands that it is better to do differently. Here is the mind, consciousness - what does it refer to, the soul or the spirit?

I think to the spirit, of course.

In general, it’s really difficult to understand what is from the heart and what is from the spirit. This is how I define it for myself. Now, I have various thoughts and feelings that constantly fill me: memories, thoughts, feelings, desires, emotions. And among them there are, relatively speaking, good ones and some unkind ones. But in me there is a certain part of my “I” that evaluates this. She tells me: “I want bad things now. It would be disgusting if I did that." That part of my “I” that can evaluate what is happening in my heart and mind, this is the spirit. The spirit knows good and evil, knows a certain value system and lives in them.

The soul is like this: “I want this,” or vice versa, I don’t want something. In general, there are “want” and “need”. “I need” is from the realm of the spirit, and “I want” is from the realm of the soul. And when a person acts precisely from the “need” and not from the “want,” he is a spiritually strong person. When “I want” prevails over “I must,” it means that spiritual strength is not at its best.

- Is the concept of “willpower” identical to “strength of spirit”?

In the world, outside the Church, these concepts are almost identical. In my opinion, spiritual strength and willpower are very close concepts. Willpower is the ability to force yourself to do something you don't want. But I would say that fortitude is greater than willpower, because I would also include the ability for courage as fortitude - this is still not quite willpower. I would classify strength of spirit as patience, perseverance in suffering, in sorrow - this is still not quite willpower. Strength of spirit is when a person rejoices in sorrows...

Therefore, I believe that where there is spiritual strength, there is usually willpower, but where there is willpower, there is not always spiritual strength. For me, fortitude is always a positive characteristic, it is a focus on the positive, on the good. And willpower... There were many scoundrels, terrible villains, who achieved great results in their atrocities precisely because they were very strong-willed people. But to say about some Stalin, although he was strong-willed and purposeful in his own way, went towards his goal, that he was a strong-willed man, I wouldn’t dare.

There are exceptions when there is strength of spirit, but there is no special willpower. So I read about a priest who was unworthy of holy orders - before the revolution he served in a small town. He was susceptible to the disease of drunkenness, and he drank so much that it was obvious to everyone around him; he was often found on the street in a state of “rest position,” as they say. People somehow tolerated him, but, nevertheless, no one respected him either as a priest or as a person. He served himself, he served when he was able, he was on the verge of being banned from serving... And then the revolution happened, and he ended up in the Cheka. He was tortured and forced to renounce his beliefs. They beat him, then threw him into a cell, and the prisoners asked: “Father, what do they demand from you?” - “They demand from me that I confirm that Christ stood for the same thing that the Bolsheviks stand for - that there be equality everywhere, etc. But I cannot confirm this, because Christ said “Give it!” they say “Take it!” “It’s a big difference.” In the end he was shot... Was he a strong-willed man? I think - strong. But is he strong-willed... If these persecutions had not happened at that time, perhaps the man would have died drunk somewhere under the fence and no one would have ever said a kind word about him. But when he had to stand up for his own faith, I think his strength of spirit manifested itself.

- Why was this power given to man - the power of the spirit? Everything that is given to us is given for a purpose.

On this occasion, I would like to recall a passage from the Gospel that we read on the days of the memory of John the Baptist. Jesus Christ says the following words about John the Baptist: “What did you go out into the desert to see—was it a reed shaken by the wind?” These words always touch me. Indeed, a person is very often “a reed (that is, a reed) shaken by the wind.” While there is no wind, this reed stands upright, but as soon as the wind begins to blow, the reed sways. And this is precisely the strength of spirit - this is the ability of a reed not to sway under the influence of the wind. When a man like John the Baptist appears, a reed that is not shaken by the wind, he conquers everyone around him with his power, because power attracts. Why did people go to John the Baptist - because they felt: “I am a wavering reed, but he is not, he has a steadfast and direct spirit that is not shaken by the wind.”

I think that being a reed shaken by the wind is a pitiful and unworthy fate for a person. A person must strive to gain firmness, without which there will be no joy. The stronger the spirit of a person following the path of good, the more joyful and cheerful the person’s soul. And weakness always entails a lack of joy in the heart, despondency, melancholy, sadness...

- How to strengthen the strength of spirit?

Just like body strength. Body strength is strengthened by proper nutrition and exercise, gymnastics. It’s the same with the spirit - proper nutrition and gymnastics. Only nutrition and exercise of the spirit and soul are still another nutrition and exercise...

A person who wants to be strong in spirit usually knows what role the people with whom you communicate play. It affects us. The kind of person I become myself largely depends on what kind of people I communicate with - “be with the venerable reverend,” as it says in the Psalter. “Whoever you mess with, that’s how you’ll gain.” Communication with spiritually strong people is also nourishment for the soul.

It is very important what books a person reads. Vysotsky has a wonderful song, it contains the words:

If the path is cut by your father's sword,

You've wrapped salty tears around your mustache

If in a hot battle I experienced what it costs,

So, you read the right books as a child...

I will paraphrase: “If you have become a worthy person, it means that you read the right books in childhood.” This is true - I am sure that a lot depends on what a person reads as a child. Reading is also an exercise, of course, at any age...

And church people still know the word “ascetic”. What is asceticism? Its meaning, of course, is not to deny yourself everything. This is a system of exercises aimed at subjugating the soul and flesh to the spirit. That is, just for the development of fortitude. A person consciously makes certain efforts that strengthen his spirit. For Orthodox people, the main exercise is fasting. This is a very strong, serious exercise. Anyone who has experience of fasting knows that you usually come out of fasting feeling much less like a reed blown by the wind than before it.

For believers, I want to especially say: the main source of spiritual strength is participation in the Holy Spirit. Today, I think, it is no coincidence that we are talking about this topic on the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, when they received power from above. Look - the apostles - can we call these people strong in spirit before Pentecost? Hardly: we see that the people who abandoned their Teacher fled in horror - they were very good, kind, pure - but they were not strong people. And when the power from above descended on them at Pentecost, they became completely different people. Therefore, we Orthodox believe that the most important means of becoming a spiritually strong person is to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit. How? Everything that happens in the Church, the entire mode of life of a church person - fasting, prayer, Divine services, the Sacraments - all this is aimed at acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit. And then - according to the extent to which I am filled with this grace - to the extent I become a spiritually strong person.

- Many people believe that playing sports also strengthens the strength of the spirit, since sports also require discipline, a regime - that’s how you say, subordination of the lower to the higher, you have to endure fatigue and pain, overcome your body weaknesses...

I completely agree with this. Some Orthodox authors are critical of sports. Usually in their books the emphasis is placed on the fact that sport is a competition, that competition is always a desire to be first, and where there is a desire to be first, there is always vanity, and we, on the contrary, must be humble... I’ll be honest with you I’ll say - I don’t share this point of view and I think it’s no problem to strive to be the first. Being first is not bad, but being proud of those who are not first is bad.

Of course, sport mainly develops willpower. But, as we said, fortitude and willpower are not opposite concepts. Willpower is a wonderful quality.

In general, I am convinced that who a person will become in this life, what he will achieve, to what level of perfection he will rise, largely depends on willpower. A strong-willed person swims against the tide in this life. Victory always comes through effort. There are so many beautiful, wonderful, kind, but weak-willed people who could not become what they were called to become because they did not have the will...

That's why I have a positive attitude towards sports. I’ve never played sports myself, but I enjoy watching those young people who are seriously involved in it. When I watch a girl go to figure skating practice every morning, at 4 or 5 am, before school... What an effort you need to make on yourself - I think it’s very good.

- You spoke about the importance of willpower and fortitude for success. In principle, for all people who consider themselves losers, who can’t do anything, for them the topic of fortitude should apparently be a very important topic. They should pay attention to this so they can stop being losers.

Certainly. Most of my friends who turned out to be “losers”, as a rule, believe that the reason for their failure is not in them, but in the fact that they are not cunning enough, not adapted enough... I had one friend who studied with me at the institute. When you meet him, there is always some kind of caustic sarcasm: “Well, of course, everyone has settled down, but I can’t adapt, I can’t do this, I can’t do that...” And he simply cannot pull himself together and really force himself to work. Of course, the easiest way to find the cause of failure is in circumstances. There are also unfortunate circumstances, but still I think that 90% of success is always in inner strength, which we call fortitude.

© website

To the decision to figure out what it is strength of mind How to develop and strengthen the will, ultimately comes to every person - after all, it is almost impossible to achieve success, learn to withstand the blows of fate without perseverance and fortitude.

Only a spiritually strong person can control thoughts and desires - the inner core will always help you withstand a difficult situation and ultimately achieve your goal. It is necessary to constantly cultivate the ability to self-control, since every manifestation of self-control depletes our energy resources.

But you shouldn’t think that you can develop and strengthen your fortitude solely at the cost of difficult trials - developing an individual style of behavior without effort, of course, won’t work, but such work on yourself will give you considerable satisfaction, and soon the fight against your weaknesses will begin to bring it's a real pleasure for you.

See also How to develop willpower and how to strengthen it - undoubtedly, this question is relevant at all times. It’s fortunate that modern people have the Internet, where they can read this article (it’s even easier for you - you’ve already found it). All the advice collected here deserves to be called effective, since by following them, many people got rid of unnecessary impulses and finally began to achieve the desired results in life.

Fighting spirit is what makes us truly strong. It is very difficult to manage your mood, especially if you are in difficult circumstances. Internal strength is activated when all other resources (mental and physical) have already been exhausted - at this moment you need to find a supporting stimulus within yourself and try in no case to lose emotional motivation.

A strong will works in spite of everything - even when the desire or ability to carry out your plans completely disappears. Thanks to spiritual strength, we overcome life’s difficulties, cope with mental trauma and fears, and endure discomfort in order to achieve our goals.

A person who does not strive to develop and strengthen strong-willed qualities is uninteresting to others, he simply ceases to exist as a person. It is difficult for weak-willed people to cope not only with their weaknesses and bad habits, they do not know how to win and are in eternal slavery to lower desires and fears.

Many thinkers compare fortitude to muscle mass - our will, like muscles, can be developed or strengthened with the help of special exercises and techniques. It is very difficult to gain power over your desires, as well as over your body; to do this, you first need to overcome laziness.

• Start with some easy self-control exercise, then you can select several such tasks and increase their complexity. Try, for example, to always monitor your posture - determine a time interval, and then simply make sure that the position of your body is always correct. Be consistent and attentive - if you want to accustom yourself to morning exercises, do it gradually, increasing the number of exercises at least once a week.
• Change your thinking style - your morale is directly related to your mood. To develop and strengthen your will, think positively, look at all failures philosophically, and treat your own shortcomings with humor.
• Positive emotions can make you stronger - to strengthen your spirit, make a list of things that make you feel better; developing willpower is not difficult for a harmonious person. If you don’t have time to find time for your favorite hobby, at least watch positive films more often or listen to relaxing music.
• To strengthen your fortitude and develop resilience, go in for sports - be sure to start running in the morning. Getting up early is very disciplined, and running will develop the qualities that underlie a strong will - it perfectly trains perseverance and endurance.
• Practice meditation - it expands self-awareness, improves concentration, and most importantly, promotes more active functioning of the brain, where all the centers for controlling volitional processes are located.
• Be in the fresh air more often - as doctors say, walks can solve any health problem, they will strengthen the body, and you will become stronger and more confident.
• Reconsider your outlook on life - realize that no one but you can control your life, take personal responsibility for your own destiny and development.
• Don’t be suspicious, learn to love yourself - respect your choice and your position in life. This will give you a sense of pride, which is a very powerful source of inner strength.

Worldview determines your reality. By changing it you will reach unprecedented heights, and “The Magic of Achievement” will tell you how to do this.

You've probably noticed that when your body is weakened from fatigue, it becomes more difficult to resist circumstances. Tired people find it much more difficult to refuse someone, even if the request is inconvenient or difficult for them to fulfill - by the way, this factor is often used by experienced manipulators.

Please note that resourceful energy vampires generally try to influence a potential victim in the afternoon, since by this time the effectiveness of self-control gradually begins to decline.

To develop fortitude and strengthen your character, start leading a healthy lifestyle, and especially try to get enough sleep and rest more often. Sound sleep and hours of relaxation will lift your spirit, restore vigor, as well as the ability to express strong-willed qualities.

If some task has begun to seem incredibly difficult to you, or the situation is hopeless, pay attention to your physical condition, remember whether you have been sleeping enough in recent days - perhaps it’s just time to rest.

You can develop and strengthen willpower through the ability to control your stress - this is one of the main steps towards achieving harmony of spirit. Volitional qualities and stress are incompatible even biologically - when a person is in the grip of nervous tension, he uses his energy potential absolutely irrationally, especially the emotion of fear contradicts the state of self-control.

In a stressful situation, you have to act at the level of instincts, and decisions are made very quickly, often based on lightning-fast conclusions; self-discipline, on the contrary, implies a deep approach to the analysis of a non-standard situation.

To develop and strengthen your strong-willed qualities, you need to learn to achieve self-control under stressful circumstances. It won't be easy to calm down, but if you take a few deep breaths and then try to somehow distract your thoughts, you can bring the situation back under control - this tactic will be the beginning of the fight against chronic overexertion.

Strength of spirit means, first of all, the absence of fear and fear of the future - work on your attitude towards the world, do not exhaust your body with unnecessary fears and anxieties. A strong-willed character can only be developed with the help of an integrated approach - changes should affect all areas of your life.

There are many ways to make yourself stronger: engage in physical exercise, breathing practices, expand your horizons and social circle, walk in the fresh air and try by any means to get as many beneficial endorphins for your body as possible. The degree of our spiritual strength determines our future destiny - work on yourself and choose your own path in life.