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Are you aware of the role that your character strengths play in your life?

According to research*, everyone in the world has 24 character strengths. These are different from our unique skills, interests, and talents because they reflect the real “you”. And each of us possesses all of these 24 strengths but in varying degrees and combinations.

The scientific VIA survey reveals your strengths from the highest to the lowest rank for you. However, irrespective of the ranking, each strength is positive and can be used in a meaningful manner, and can have important consequences in your life.

Character strengths : a common language

These 24 character strengths are a common language that makes up what’s best about our personality. Everyone possesses all 24 character strengths to different degrees, so each person has a truly unique character strengths profile.

Knowing what your character strengths can help you in many different ways, such as

-allowing you to amplify the good in yourself, your life and those around you

– helping you become more confident as you appreciate the wonderful qualities you bring to the world on a daily basis and how you contribute to it in a meaningful manner

-spotting strengths in others, thus making you appreciate them and improving the relationship

And our signature strengths are the ones that define our uniqueness. They come to us naturally and we feel energised and excited when we express them.

However, character strengths are expressed not in isolation but in combination with each other. This is a powerful tool that I teach my clients to use in my own health coaching practice. It has been very effective in not only helping my clients get well but also to stay well long after they have stopped working with me.

If you would like to know more about how this could help you, you can schedule a call by clicking here.

Character strengths in real life

Let me share a story to show how this can play out in real life.

When my daughter was about 8 years old, I had to take her off gluten, dairy and a few other foods. This was to help heal her severe and chronic eczema. Foods play an important role in our body’s healing process and removing foods that are inflammatory is a necessary step.

I was following a Functional Medicine principle of focusing on her gut health to improve her eczema. It took a couple of years but finally, her eczema came under control. You can read our story here.

However, she was having trouble staying off gluten (wheat, rye, barley, maida, suji, rava and all products with these ingredients) in particular. Once or twice she had given in to temptation and had a few bites of a sandwich and her skin flared up as a result.

The first time I didn’t connect the dots but when it happened a second and a third time, I realised what was going on when I dug deeper with her in a compassionate and loving way.

You see, she had herself realised what was causing the flare up but was finding it difficult to resist the temptation. She was only 9 at that time.

We sat down with her list of character strengths (I had made her complete the youth survey as best as she could). We reflected on her top strengths and I asked her to choose the 2 or 3 of the top strengths that she felt would be most helpful to stay off gluten.

She identified the strengths of love, forgiveness and kindness. These strengths helped her not only stay off gluten but also move past any mistakes she made in the future.

She has not looked back since.

Laying the foundations for health creation

When you are trying to heal from any chronic condition, one of the most important things you need to do first is to lay a proper foundation for creating good health.

Rather than jumping straight into things like removing triggers, changing the diet, or getting a lab test done, focus on laying the foundations first.

This means that you do these 3 things consistently

Maximise

Minimise 

Prioritise

What you need to focus on in each of these areas is shared below.

Maximize

Put in what’s needed for this unique person

Raw materials your body needs to function and heal

Oxygen, Water, Vitamins, Minerals, Antioxidants, Protein, Healthy Fats

Minimize

Take out what’s harmful to this unique person

Toxins, Infections, Allergens, Stress, Trauma

Prioritize

Create an environment for healing for this unique person

Sleep, Rest, Laughter, Stress Reduction

Exercise, Stretching, Breathing

Meaningful Relationships

Belief in one’s ability to be well

Once you are able to do this on a consistent basis, your body will naturally seek wellness and eventually heal itself. And your character strengths can play a significant role in helping you stay on track.

Putting it all together

Once you know what your strengths are, ask yourself

• which strengths are most authentically you, come naturally to you, and give you energy when you practice using your strengths?
• When you use your top strengths, does it feel authentic?
• Do the top strengths seem like the “real you” – the core of who you are?

Knowing what your top strengths are can help you in dealing with your health issues by creating an environment that supports healing. Pick 2 or 3 strengths that you think would be the easiest to use as you work on any specific wellness goal.

Practice using them for a week or more and since how it helps.

You will find that knowing your strengths will help you uncover your intrinsic motivation and give you the most effective results. When you care about why you are making certain changes, you are more likely to stick to it when things are difficult.

Character strengths are an amazing and powerful tool that can help you support your body’s healing process, learn to use them for creating a beautiful, healing environment.

*Research

The Impact of Signature Character Strengths Interventions: A Meta-analysis

VIA Research projects