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Best Character Strengths

Best Character Strengths

 

There are 24 universal character strengths found across cultures and time. You can find out more about each of them here… which ones are the “best” though if we want to grow toward wellbeing?

 

Insights

 

  • The 24 Character Strengths:
    • Developing your character strengths (any of them) is predictive of well-being. It is also more effective to grow signature strengths (your top 5 found here) over the long term.

 

  • Humility is not individually correlated with well being. This does not mean humility does not have importance or a role to play, so far research has not shown it will increase well-being on its own.

 

  • Hope, gratitude, and love are the most correlated with well-being.
    • Prudence, judgment, and self regulation are the least correlated with well-being. 

 

  • Zest is the  strength with the strongest ties to overall life satisfaction and a life of engagement.

 

  • Developing gratitude most increases development in the other 24 character strengths. 
    • Love, honesty, hope, and humor were close

 

  • Gratitude is the best predictor of well being
    • Research in gratitude research tells us:
      • Gratitude is easily contrasted to catastrophizing. Catastrophizing focuses on danger, gratitude focuses on what you are receiving 
      • Decreases depression
      • Improves sleep hygiene
      • Helps form stronger relationships
      • Helps from stronger spirituality
      • Lessens materialism
      • Increases humility, a feeling of being open to and touched by the world
        • So here is CS Lewis’ quote, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.”
      • Increases physical health
      • In relationships gratitude:
        • Counters Contempt
        • Increases Commitment
  • Gratitude Skills, aka, Hunt for the good stuff!
    • Every day write about things you’re grateful for, and then reflect on why you are grateful for that.
    • Challenge yourself to think about, in a negative situation, is there anything from that negative situation that you’re grateful for? Was there any benefit that came from that negative experience?
  • Gratitude is the unifier that connects any other information with everybody else.
    • ex. “Being grateful for the fact, that we work with great team members, and how that can make a difference with engagement, and folks being successful, and happy at work.”

Have any thoughts, questions, suggestions, or comments on this article? Wondering how to this can be applied, modified, or adapted to your polyamorous, swinging, kink/ BDSM, or otherwise interesting relationship? Feel free to reach out to me here.