How to Have Good Mental Health II: What Are Your Strengths?

Katrina Miller

The human ego is like a chained up dog.  It is always

hungry, and it depends on others to feed it. Go a day
without social validation and you will feel deep pains of
starvation in your soul. It’s as though the little man or
woman inside encounters others with a silent plea, “Tell
me I’m okay.” Not receiving the desired affirmation is
painful enough.  But what happens when we receive subtle
or not-so-subtle indicators that someone thinks we are not
okay—that we are not enough? The chained up dog will
start to growl, bite, or hang its head in silent shame.

It is easy for our egos to become so embroiled in defending a little bit of honor that we forget
those ordinary parts of ourselves that receive little public comment: Our inner strengths. Others
are sometimes able to detach the chain from their own egos long enough to notice our strengths
out loud. But to get adequate nourishment of the soul, we need to learn to go inside and notice
those inner strengths ourselves.  We need to be able to tell ourselves that we are okay.  Katherine
Dunham, a great American dancer and activist counseled, “Go inside everyday and find your
inner strength, so that the world will not blow your candle out.”

What Can We Do With Knowing Our Strengths?

In the early 1990s, the President of the American Psychological Association, Martin Seligman,
observed that, as a profession, psychologists had become experts at identifying “what’s wrong”
with people. The effort to identify and fix “what’s wrong” with people had resulted in a large
volume book that mental health experts use to communicate to each other and the insurance
companies how they are trying to help people. This book is known as The Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM IV-TR (more commonly referred to as the “DSM
IV”). The information in the DSM IV is arranged so that when people consult with a mental
health professional, that professional is able to look at the person’s symptoms and match the
symptoms with a “disorder”.  For example, if you have been feeling worthless and have not been
able to find much pleasure in your life and have difficulty sleeping, the mental health
professional might tell you that you have the condition called “Major Depression”.

Dr. Seligman and his colleagues noticed that treating “what is wrong” with people, or making
them “not anxious” or “not depressed” did not increase positive emotion.  It only made them less
miserable.  He and his colleagues reasoned that psychology could do better than that.  They
began a process of researching what characteristics could make people happy, give their lives
more meaningful, and improve their ability to impact the world in powerfully positive ways.   A
few years later, they published their results in the book, Character Strengths and Virtues: A
Handbook and Classification (more commonly referred to as “The CSV”).  A new field of
psychology, called “Positive Psychology” emerged, spawning new interventions to teach people
skills that would put the acquisition of happiness and finding meaning in life help with the realm
of personal control.  No longer would people have to go to bed at night, praying for a good day
or hoping magic would bring a good day into their lives—they could make that good day happen
with the tools of Positive Psychology.

What are My Strengths?

Would understanding more about your strengths give you a new direction? You could, like the
field of psychology, allow this vision to expand your personal experience beyond just “not being
miserable”.  Would you like to teach your children the skills to be happy, find life meaningful; to
savor their strengths and share them with others; to possess a powerful sense of the worth of self
and other people? Why not start this minute, by considering which of these strengths are in your
toolbox?

Wisdom and Knowledge (Cognitive strengths that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge)

 Creativity
 Curiosity
 Open-Mindedness
 Love of Learning
 Perspective

Courage (Emotional strengths that involve the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of
opposition)

 Bravery
 Perseverance
 Honesty
 Zest

Justice (Civic strengths underlying healthy community life)

 Teamwork
 Fairness
 Leadership

Humanity (Interpersonal strengths that involve tending and befriending others)

 The Capacity to Love and Be Loved

 Kindness
 Social Intelligence

Temperance (Strengths that protect against excess)

  Forgiveness and Mercy
 Modesty and Humility
 Prudence
 Self-Regulation

Transcendence (Strengths that forge connections to the larger universe and provide meaning)

 Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence

 Gratitude
 Hope
 Humor
 Religiousness and Spirituality

Would you like to know more about your strengths and how to develop them?  Stay tuned to
Moxie Mental Health—we have a lot more to say!

Katrina

Katrina Holgate Miller, PhD, MFT is a freelance medical journalist specializing in mental health.

Her professional experience has encompassed many facets of mental health care, including mental health
assessment and treatment, substance abuse, domestic violence, sexual abuse (victims and perpetrators),
couples counseling, and adolescent group counseling. For the past five years, Katrina has worked with
patients across the country to help them resolve their barriers to adequate and effective mental healthcare
and chemical dependency/addiction treatment.

Her writing tells the stories of the patients who used their moxie to overcome their distress.