Reflections from Egypt

Self-acceptance is rooted in feelings of self-confidence. Self-confidence is important for physiology and well-being in order to foster a willingness and ability to take on challenges. Interviews with retired people in Egypt support the need for self-confidence in order to accept themselves. They attribute the process of building self-confidence to their education. 

Adel Samhout:

"Education learn me [...] to be confident." 

"education [...] gave me more trust."

Adel Samhout, a retired engineer explains that he is able to feel more connected with others through his education. He explains that by finding his place in a class and negotiating with friends through discussion, he learned how to work with others which allowed him to find his strengths and weaknesses. From there, he was able to find confidence, and, ultimately self-confidence and self-acceptance. 

From a physiological perspective, a sense of community is important to well-being. Feelings of loneliness are associated with high blood pressure and increased cortisol levels (Cacioppo et al. 2005). Cortisol activates the sympathetic nervous system to increase heart rate, stroke volume, and peripheral resistance, increasing blood pressure. Increased blood pressure is unhealthy for a number of reasons relating to cardiovascular health. Adel's sense of community helped to keep his cardiovascular system healthy. 

Cacioppo, J. T., Cacioppo, S., Cole, S. W., Capitanio, J. P., Goossens, L., & Boomsma, D. I. (2015). Loneliness across phylogeny and a call for comparative studies and animal models. Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 10(2), 202–212. doi:10.1177/1745691614564876

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Mona Abadir:

"education it helps me to know myself [...] to know anything wrong with me" 

"Being challenged is one of my life characteristics [...] my education helped me in my challenge in life"

Adel Samhout studied social science, philosophy, and psychology. She describes how her parents wished she had been a boy and had to constantly prove herself to those who doubted her. Having the self-confidence and determination to defy expectations set out for her by her family prevented chronic feelings of loneliness and stress. This also helped Mona maintain good cardiovascular health. 

Additionally, stress can impact people's menstrual cycle, and can cause irregular or missed periods. Irregular periods can involve breakthrough bleeding which means the person is bleeding more than usual. This can lead to anemia and feelings of fatigue and muscle weakness.

Reflections from Egypt