Interesting article about character strengths and Well Being

Hi @chookmojo thank you for sharing, that is a fascinating read... I love this area of research 🙂

Great article @chookmojo. It's great to focus on strenghts rather than illness. I think it's important to remind ourselves our our postivie qualities and areas that we can improve.

@Former-Member is pretty interested in positive psychology. I wonder if she has any thoughts on this?

Thanks for article.. it was interesting

But in the intersts of "balance" can I have a grump too .. I can see why kindness is not a predictor as it too often leads to others taking advantage .. and re gratitude .. I have been accused of being too nice .. and sometimes think it is just a new form of preaching .. be grateful.

Sample size was a bit small to get real results for such sophisticated traits.

Still, I agree it is good to focus on strengths

Thanks for much @chookmojo for posting this research. It's always good to be reminded of the things within our control that can move us towards wellness. We can get a little fixated and frustrated at times on the stuff beyond our control.

I take @Appleblossom's point though. We need to bring balance to all these strategies. Could 'extreme gratitude' have any negative consequences? Maybe reduce our drive to change what needs to be changed? I don't know the answer as I've never met anyone that grateful or managed it myself

It's like mindfulness. IMO spending the majority of our time thinking about the present supports wellness. But there is a time and a place for thinking about the future (planning holidays, careers, what's for lunch) and the past (sharing and enjoying memories, flipping through photo albums).

So...balance. In all things. It's not a particulary exciting idea but I think it's important.

What I liked about it is that Gratitude, while being a character strength that varies in expresion from person to person, is something that you can very easily learn how to do. It has to be one of the easiest character strengths to leverage, and (apparently) gives you quite a bit of bang for your buck in the well being department.

For a lot of the other character strengths, if I go through the list and identify those that are lower for me, it is very hard for me to see how I would start to build them up. Whereas Gratitude is a snap.

Though it might just be that as I already have a decent level of grattitude I find that easier to see....

Not that I especially want to build up any of the areas - the whole point of classifications like this is to identify your stengths, not to suggest that you should be strong in every area, or to direct your focus to your 'weaker strengths'...

I just had to laugh at your gratitude is great "bang for your buck'. Bloody economic rationalists

tee hee hee