psychology
3 key traits that balanced people have in common
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Some people seem unbalanced by anything. A research team from Switzerland has used a new approach to investigate what connects them.
Life is sometimes haywire and many people find it difficult to always maintain their inner balance. Basically, it can happen quickly and easily at any time that we are carried away by external influences and incidents and driven away from our inner soul. For example, it can be enough that five different people want something from us at the same time and make their concerns appear urgent in order to give us the feeling of being overwhelmed and not having our lives under control. At the same time, it cannot be expected that the world around us will become quieter and more relaxed in the foreseeable future, on the contrary: pandemics and floods will probably not remain the only crises that we have to overcome together.
Now some people succeed better in getting through the small and big challenges of life in a reasonably stable manner, with a healthy pulse rate, reasonably clear thoughts and feelings – and others worse. Why is that? What distinguishes the personalities of mentally stable people from less balanced people? Numerous psychologists deal with this question every day and many of them have already found useful answers. A research team from Switzerland has now in Frontiers in Psychology presented a new approach that can supplement previous theories about resilience, mental wellness, positive psychology and psychological stability.
10 fundamental values influence our psychological balance
Based on their own surveys of more than 900 people and analyzes of further research data, the scientists, under the direction of Anastasia Besika, determined a set of fundamental values that seem to have a significant influence on our psychological balance. These are:
- Self-determination: I decide how my life goes.
- stimulation: I am open to discover new things in life.
- hedonism: I can enjoy life.
- success: I try to do my best and be successful in what I do.
- Power: I try to gain resources and influence.
- safety: I basically feel safe no matter where I am.
- conformity: I stick to social rules out of respect for other people.
- tradition: I believe in the values and ideas of my culture or religion.
- Benevolence: My family, friends and other people close to me are important to me and keep me busy.
- Universalism: Everything that happens on this planet means something to me.
“All ten of these universal values are important and affect our psychological balance to different degrees,” said the head of the study in Psychology Today quoted. “We have several values and can adapt our priorities to different situations. Even if we always prioritize our values differently, lower-priority values as part of our value system are always just as important as the others.”
3 key qualities of balanced people
In people who tend to go through their lives in a psychologically stable and balanced way, the researchers recognized the following characteristics in relation to the values mentioned as particularly decisive.
1. They have values that hold them back.
In the case of mentally balanced people, the researchers found that they had some particularly strong values through which they identified themselves as a person and which gave them fundamental support. For some it may be their religious belief, others may focus more on independence, others on enjoyment of life or the relationship with their loved ones. It is crucial that the respective core values can provide stability and, if necessary, consolation, so that we feel more comfortable and relieved when we concentrate on them.
2. You are flexible in how you prioritize your values.
At the same time, mentally balanced people are adaptable and flexible with regard to the prioritization of their values. For example, even if it is very important for them personally to be successful, ideally they will shift down a gear and, for example, focus more on enjoying life as soon as their body signals that it needs rest. And even the most self-determined person, provided he has a good psychological balance, will be able to discover and prioritize his conformity during a pandemic without getting into a personality crisis.
3. You invest roughly the same amount in yourself and in other people.
Another point that the researchers from Zurich consider to be central: people with a good inner balance invest about as much time and energy for themselves as they do for others. The time invested in others can be an evening with friends, volunteering for charitable purposes, being with the family. Investing time in yourself, on the other hand, means pursuing your own hobbies, resting on your own or relaxing. If both are balanced, this obviously has a positive effect on the psychological balance, if there is an excess on one side, this obviously makes us more vulnerable to attack.
We cannot practice crises
Ultimately, we never know one hundred percent in advance how a certain person will deal with a certain crisis until they experience it. We cannot prepare for some challenges, we can only let them come to us and then improvise. In every conceivable situation, personal relationships will certainly help us, as they can give us stability and support when our inner balance is shaken. Prioritizing them is therefore never wrong, even when preparing for a crisis.
Sources used: frontiersin.org, psychologytoday.com