What Are Intrapersonal Skills?

Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images

Intrapersonal skills are those skills and communications that occur within a person's own mind, and are not to be confused with interpersonal skills, which refer to interactions with other people or personalities. Intrapersonal skills initiate an appropriate reaction and attitude because of positive internal dialogue, occurring within the mind. Meditation, prayer, visualization and affirmations are amongst the intrapersonal techniques that people use to sort out and evaluate situations and proposals. Awareness of your personal inner dialogue is the first step to improving your intrapersonal skills.

Visualization

Visualization is an intrapersonal skill used by athletes, actors and musical performers to prep themselves to give the best performance they are capable of before they embark on an event. Mental preparation skills are considered as important as physical skills in overall performance assessment. After all, it is the mental skills that drive the physical ones and attitude and confidence are considered crucial for a top performance. Visualization techniques are taught in special workshops and courses and develop naturally over time once the basic techniques are mastered.

Recognizing Negativity

It is quite natural to have occasional negative thoughts, but an excess of negative thinking can reproduce negativity in your life. It is important to be aware of your intrapersonal negatives and to correct patterns of negative thought as they occur. Skilled intrapersonal communicators can turn around a negative thought pattern and use it to bring fresh and inspiring ideas into their day. Attitude is everything when dealing with negativity and with practice, you can banish negative thoughts from your mind, brightening up your days and providing a fresh way of looking at things.

Compassion

Having compassion for others is an intrapersonal skill that allows you to see things from the perspective of others, and is important for teachers, team leaders and anyone working closely with other people. Your personal views can sometimes taint your attitude toward others unconsciously, but with a measure of compassion, you can see things in a different light. Some people have a natural ability for compassion, while others need some guidance and tutoring to acquire intrapersonal compassion.

Positive Affirmations

Using positive affirmations is similar to using visualization for changing intrapersonal dialogue patterns occurring within. After recognizing that some negative inner dialogue is occurring, the best way to reverse this is to include some positive affirmations, which can automatically reverse the effect of the negative thought. A positive affirmation changes your inner dialogue and allows you to see things differently.

Positive Decision Making

Positive decision making is a necessary intrapersonal skill required for many professions as well as for a healthy, happy personal life. Well-developed intrapersonal decision-making skills can be achieved with practice. When faced with the decision-making process, you must be able to scan through the available choices in your mind, consider each alternative and come to a practical decision without inner conflict and confusion.