What do YOU need? - Part Two

“For each environment there is a best organism, for each organism there is a best environment."          

                                                                                                         Lee Cronbach (psychologist)                                               

In addition to the personality traits discussed previously, there are several other individual variables to consider when you try to enhance your well-being.

1) Signature Strengths

Although there is some overlap with personality traits, signature strengths are more detailed characteristics, which also resonate with your beliefs and values. There are 24 signature strengths falling into 6 broad categories:¹

•         Wisdom and Knowledge (e.g. Curiosity, Creativity, Emotional Intelligence)
•         Courage (e.g. Valor/Bravery, Integrity/Genuineness/Honesty)
•         Humanity and Love (e.g. Kindness/Generosity)
•        Justice (e.g. Fairness/Equity, Leadership)
•        Temperance (e.g. Self-Control, Prudence/Discretion/Caution)
•        Transcendence (e.g. Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, Gratitude, Spirituality)

You should aim to express or apply your greatest signature strengths every day. Because your core strengths are the qualities and virtues most important to you, choosing an activity resonating with these qualities increases your well-being.^2,3 For example, if you are a person with Curiosity/Interest in the World and Valor/Bravery belonging to your top strengths, you may feel under-challenged in a 9-5 office job and might be better off choosing a career, which allows you to travel and/or encounter unexpected situations. If your top strengths are Creativity and Appreciation of Beauty, you may choose an artistic profession or at least a hobby allowing you to apply these strengths. You can do a free signature strengths test at https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu or https://www.viacharacter.org (both free but registration required).

2) Maximizer vs Satisficer

When making decisions, there are two different styles:⁴

• Maximizers always try to get the very best when making a decisions. They spend a lot of time weighing up pro’s and con’s and examine each available choice in depth.
• Satisficers make decisions based on whether an available option satisfies their needs or not, and stop looking once they have found an acceptable solution.

Although maximisers often have an objectively better outcome than satisficers, e.g. getting jobs with a higher salary, or getting better value for money when making purchases, they are ironically often unhappy with their choices. They also tend to generally report a lower level of happiness and life satisfaction, and a higher level of depression and regret. If you are a maximiser, it may be helpful to review your decision-making style. There are many situations where maximizing the outcome is not really necessary, and you may not only save yourself some time but you might also increase your happiness, if you select the satisfying option.

3) Further differences

There are many other individual differences and preferences. For example people vary in the degree and type of physical activities they need for optimal well-being, general energy levels, and whether they prefer an urban or rural environment.

Some people can be particularly sensitive to external stimuli, and have a great depth of cognitive processing and high emotional reactivity. The life of these highly sensitive persons has its own challenges as they may need to limit their exposure to highly stimulating situations, but it can also be very rewarding, e.g. as they are often highly intuitive and find great pleasure in music, art and literature.⁵

We also vary in the degree of self-knowledge and in the degree that we act upon our personality and character differences. For example, although you might be a very agreeable person who avoids conflict, you can learn to be assertive in situations, which matter to you.

4) Influence of society

In the first post we mentioned that there may be some cultural differences, where in most European countries and the U.S. the majority of people seem to predominantly seek a high arousal-type of happiness (e.g. joy and excitement), whereas people in many Asian countries prefer a more low-arousal type of happiness (e.g. peace/harmony).⁴ Another aspect to consider is whether the society we live in (not only the country but also our immediate community- family, friends, colleagues etc) are predominantly ‘individualistic’ or ‘collectivistic’. Individualistic societies tend to value the individual freedom and the right to individual choice, whereas in collectivist societies the ‘greater good’ of the group is more important. Again, there is no right or wrong, but if you are a more ‘individualistically’ inclined person living in a collectivist society, you may find the personal sacrifices and limits of self-expression difficult to live with, whereas a more ‘collectivist’ person in an individualistic society may miss social support and a sense of common identity/belonging.⁴

  

5) Which aspect of well-being do you want to improve?

Because we all have different personalities, life circumstances, attitudes and degree of self-knowledge, we may also need to change different aspects of our well-being. For example, somebody may have a really high positivity ratio (positive vs negative emotions) but feel unfulfilled due to a lack of meaning in life. Somebody else may have a high sense of accomplishment and meaning but still feel 'down' a lot of the time because of a low positivity ratio. Yet another person may feel that there is a specific life situation causing problems for him/her, for example a difficult family member/friend or stress at work.

Looking at it from the essential needs level, people may have real or perceived unfulfilled needs. For example they may lack safety, satisfaction or connection with others.    

A truly amazing person- What can we learn from…:⁷

Gino Strada is an Italian surgeon, who initially specialized on heart-lung transplant surgery. In 1989 he left his lucrative career to work as a trauma surgeon for the Red Cross in war zones. Realizing that in the current conflicts of the world the vast majority (approx. 90%) of injured are civilians, he founded the charity Emergency together with his wife Teresa in 1994.

Emergency provides specialized medical and surgical treatment to civil victims of war and poverty in countries such as Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Iraq and Sudan, but also has clinics in Italy. The ethos of Emergency is to deliver high quality treatment to the civilian population, as well as the transfer of medical knowledge and expertise to local health service professionals.

In addition to clearly being a very dedicated surgeon, Gino Strada has been an outspoken campaigner against war, human suffering, and against the production and use of antipersonnel landmines. In 2015, he has been awarded for his work with the prestigious Right Livelihood Award. He has featured in the Oscar nominated documentary Open Heart and has written several books about his work, including Green Parrots.

Gino Strada says of himself that he is happiest when he is operating. Talking about his challenging work he said: ‘Yes, but I always find it very interesting. When I wake up in the morning I am happy to go to the hospital. When I worked in Milan and I woke up in Italy, I was not that excited; it was more like a routine.’

Of course we cannot all be like Gino Strada- he is undoubtedly an extraordinary person. However, what we can learn from him is that while we all have our own individual ‘comfort zone’ (or a ‘best environment’) regarding the degree of adversity and stress we can cope with, it is possible to push our own personal boundaries if it is for a purpose that we passionately believe in.

To find out more about the amazing work of Gino Strada and Emergency, go to Emergency or have a look on his Laureate Webpage of the Right Livelihood Award.

Preview: Now that we have been through most of the basics, you can look at how to practically improve your well-being. Over the next months we will go through many aspects and strategies to increase our well-being step-by-step. As mentioned in the last two weeks, the degree to which each different strategy can help you may depend on your individual personality and situation. There are some things though, which apply to almost all of us- one of them is something called the negativity bias, and the other is our physiological (natural) response to stress and negative emotions. This important topic will be discussed in the next post.  

References and further evidence-based reading:

1. Seligman MEP. Flourish: A New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being- and How to Achieve Them. Nicholas Brealey Publishing; London, UK. 2011.

2. Lyubomirsky S, Sheldon KM, Schkade D. Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change. Review of General Psychology. 2005;9(2):111-131.

3. Fredrickson B. Positivity: Groundbreaking Research to Release Your Inner Optimist and Thrive. Oneworld Publications; Oxford, England. 2010.

4. Diener E, Biswas-Diener R. Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth. Blackwell Publishing; Oxford, UK. 2008

5. Aron E N: The Highly Sensitive Person. HarperCollins Publishers; London. 1999.

6. Hanson R: Hardwiring Happiness: How to reshape your brain and your life. Rider Ebury Publishing, Random House, UK. 2013.

7. References for the section truly amazing person: http://www.rightlivelihoodaward.org/laureates/gino-strada-emergency/, http://www.emergency.it/resources.html, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/jul/14/gino-strada-emergency-giles-duley

If you found this information helpful, please consider supporting the campaign under Just Giving. Of course it is also great if you choose to support another charity or do a practical good deed, but it would be nice if you could let me know that you have done this because you felt inspired by this campaign. Please also feel free to share this post and let me know if you have any constructive feedback- good or bad!

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Donations are in aid of the International Rescue Committee and the World Veterinary Service

Just a Quote for the Week

The quotes from blog readers are still coming so here is another thought-provoking quote that I have been sent:

'Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones, because regret is stronger than gratitude.'

Anne Frank

Unfortunately it is very true that regret is often stronger than gratitude, because negative emotions and thoughts tend to have a greater impact for us than positive ones. This is scientifically known as the negativity bias. Luckily there are some strategies we can use to antagonise this tendency towards negativity- like more often consciously appreciating things that we are grateful for. More on this will follow end of next week.

On Friday we will first continue to look into how our personalities and individual mindsets influence what we need for our well-being.

Have a great wee until then,
Petra

What do YOU need? – Part One

“Style is a reflection of your attitude and your personality."

                                                Shawn Ashmore (actor)

How to find your own way to well-being

As previously mentioned, there are some things which we all need, including the physiological needs, a sense of safety, belonging, esteem and self-actualisation.¹ For a high level of well-being we also need positive emotions (high positivity ratio), engagement, good relationships with others, and meaning/purpose and accomplishment in life.² However, to which degree we need all these things and in which way we can achieve them depends somewhat on individual factors, such as our personality traits and signature strengths, our beliefs/values, but also the societies we live in.^2,4,5,7 Today, we are going to initially look at different personality traits but to avoid any misunderstandings, just a few comments in advance:

• There is no such thing as a good or bad personality or character trait. All traits come with advantages and disadvantages, and it is up to us to make the best out of them!
• These traits are sliding scales and most of us are somewhere between the two extremes.
• There is evidence that genes strongly influence our personality, but of course our upbringing and life experiences also play a part. Furthermore, our brain allows us to make free, conscious choices. We can either fully behave within our character traits or we can adapt our behaviour, for example if we find that one of our traits is problematic for us in certain situations.³ Adapting behaviours and habits which go ‘against’ our character traits may not be easy, but can be very important as it gives us some flexibility when interacting with the world.
• Today’s post can only give a short introduction and broad summary into personality and character traits. If you are interested into this topic in more detail, you can learn more from great books and websites listed below.

Personality

There are different personality theories around. The scientifically most accepted theory differentiates between 5 different personality traits (also known as the Big Five)³:

• Extraversion: Extraverts are highly responsive to external rewards and generally enjoy receiving social attention and status- however, it does not mean that extraverts are always sociable (in the sense of friendly/amiable), as this also depends on their Agreeableness (see below). Extraverts tend to have a higher level of positive emotions (e.g. joy, excitement).⁴ So if you are an extravert you may find it naturally easier to experience hedonic happiness, which makes you feel good. However, some people may find that they always need a ‘new buzz’ and chase from one pleasure to the next. It may therefore be helpful to consciously seek activities, which create a more eudaimonic type of well-being. Of course introverts also experience positive emotions, but generally not as intensely and frequently; also, they may find situations, which are highly valued by extraverts (e.g. parties) more exhausting. On the other hand, being an introvert also makes you somewhat more independent of external rewards, which can be a strength.⁴ To increase your well-being as an introvert, you may consciously choose to take part in more hedonic activities, but you may also find that you need some time to rest after these activities.

• Neuroticism: People who score high on the trait 'neuroticism' tend to experience more negative emotions (e.g. anxiety, sadness, guilt), and are more prone to depression, anxiety disorders and stress, particularly when suffering negative life events. ^3,6 Although it is quite normal to experience negative emotions from time to time, an excessive amount of negative emotions obviously decreases our well-being. However, a higher neuroticism tendency also makes you more sensitive to real hazards and risks in your private life as well as at work, and can motivate you to high achievements. So if you score high on neuroticism, you may find that you have to work harder for your well-being than others, but if you learn to live with it and harness this trait it can also be rewarding in the long run.³ The trick is not to eliminate all negative emotions, but to learn and manage your tendency towards negativity by minimizing unhelpful and unnecessary negative emotions. There will be several posts in the next weeks explaining how this can be achieved.

• Conscientiousness: This trait reflects our degree of self-control and discipline. If you score high on conscientiousness, you are likely to plan ahead and be highly organized. If your score low on conscientiousness you are more likely to be spontaneous and act on impulse.³ Importantly, this trait influences how easy it is for us to forgo or give up an immediate pleasure for a more distant goal. It has also been shown that extraverts which score low on conscientiousness are more likely to develop addictions.³ On the other hand, if you are on the high end of conscientiousness, the fixation on rules, lists and schedules to achieve the distant goal may make you less flexible and lose out on unexpected opportunities. You may also find it more difficult to adapt to quickly changing situations, particularly if these collide with your original plans. So you may want to work on your self-discipline if you know that you are low on conscientiousness, whereas those of us who are on the higher end, may benefit from allowing ourselves some more spontaneity and freedom from time to time.

•  Agreeableness: Agreeable people tend to highly empathize with others. If you are high in agreeableness, you are likely to have good social relationships with others (particularly if you are also an extravert), and you may chose to sacrifice some of your interests for the benefits of people who you care about. On the plus side, this can give you a strong sense of identity and connection with others, and it may make your group as a whole (e.g. family, team at work) more successful. On the other hand, putting others first can make you less successful as an individual, particularly in a competitive work environment, and you need to be careful not to overlook your own needs.^3,7

• Openness: This category is difficult to characterize but can probably be best explained to represent openness to experience. People high in openness are likely to feel the need to participate in artistic/creative, cultural or spiritual activities, whereas low scorers may be more pragmatic and find practical/factual problem solving more rewarding.³  

Importantly, our personalities are not completely fixed, and they tend to shift over time; we may also think and behave differently in different environments (e.g. at home vs at work). As a general rule, people tend to get a bit higher on Agreeableness and Conscientiousness and tend to become slightly lower on Extraversion, Openness and Neuroticism as they become older.³

I have found the whole topic of personality theory extremely interesting and helpful. It helps not only to understand why you think and behave in certain ways yourself, but it also helps to have a better understanding and acceptance of other people. They may not do something to wind you up- they may just simply do things differently because this is who they are!

On the other hand, I think that we have to be careful not to use our personalities as excuses. Yes, certain traits will make you more likely to behave in certain ways, but we still have a huge conscious influence on our choices. For a long time it was assumed that the neural connections in our brains are essentially fixed once reaching adulthood, but this assumption has been revised. Instead, it has been shown that as we explore new ways of thinking, create new habits and experience events differently, the connections in our brain are 're-wired'.⁵ This process of physical re-organisation of the brain is called neuroplasticity. This can even be visualised on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): When examining the brain of people who regularly meditate, MRI scans show that certain brain areas increase in size, including the prefrontal cortex, the insula and the hippocampus.⁸  We will come back to the importance of these brain areas at another time, but the important point for today is that neuroplasticity allows us to gradually change our thoughts and behaviour until they become a habit. This means that we have the power to change ourselves in small steps if we feel that it would help us to enhance our well-being. 

How to get to know yourself?

• A great book on the topic is Personality from Daniel Nettle (see also references below).
• You can find a free ‘Great Five’ personality test at http://www.personal.psu.edu/~j5j/IPIP/
• A helpful website with free personality tests and further information is https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu (registration required).
• Another interesting website is https://www.16personalities.com. This uses a slightly different theory and different personality trait categories, but I found it still very informative. 

Preview: Next time you can find out about some further individual differences, which may influence your preferences and life-style choices.

References and further evidence-based reading:

1. Maslow AH. A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review. 1943;50(4):370-96.

2. Lyubomirsky S, Sheldon KM, Schkade D. Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change. Review of General Psychology. 2005;9(2):111-131.

3. Nettle D. Personality: What makes you the way you are. Oxford University Press; New York. 2007.

4. Seligman MEP. Flourish: A New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being- and How to Achieve Them. Nicholas Brealey Publishing; London, UK. 2011.

5. Fredrickson B. Positivity: Groundbreaking Research to Release Your Inner Optimist and Thrive. Oneworld Publications; Oxford, England. 2010.

6. Seligman MEP. What you Can Change and What you Can’t: The Complete Guide to Successful Self-Improvement. Nicholas Brealey Publishing; London, UK. 2010.

7. Diener E, Biswas-Diener R. Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth. Blackwell Publishing; Oxford, UK. 2008
8. Hanson R: Hardwiring Happiness: How to reshape your brain and your life. Rider Ebury Publishing, Random House, UK. 2013. 

If you found this information helpful, please consider supporting the campaign under Just Giving. Of course it is also great if you choose to support another charity or do a practical good deed, but it would be nice if you could let me know that you have done this because you felt inspired by this campaign. Please also feel free to share this post and let me know if you have any constructive feedback- good or bad!

View and Save as PDF

Follow the Blog- https://followthegoodlifecampaign.blogspot.co.uk

Donations- https://www.justgiving.com/teams/thegoodlifecampaign

Donations are in aid of the International Rescue Committee and the World Veterinary Service