Smart Guide – Use signature strengths in new ways each day to increase happiness and decrease depression

Introduction

Have you ever felt like you’re not quite tapping into your full potential or experiencing the happiness you deserve? Positive psychology tells us that using our unique character strengths—our “signature strengths”—in new and interesting ways each day can really boost our happiness and help combat feelings of depression. Let’s dive into how you can embrace this approach to feel more satisfied and fulfilled in your life.

Theoretical Background

What Are Signature Strengths?

Imagine the traits that make you feel most like yourself, the qualities that energize you and that you love to show off. These are your signature strengths. Unlike the skills you might acquire over time, signature strengths are more about your natural quirks and the ways you shine without much trying. Research shows that when we tap into these strengths regularly, we feel happier and more authentic.

How They Boost Well-being

When you’re using your signature strengths, you often experience flow—those magical moments when you’re completely absorbed and enjoying an activity so much that time flies by. Using these strengths in new ways keeps life exciting and helps avoid the dullness that comes from routine.

Approach

Your Path to Happiness

The goal of this approach is simple: to help you become more aware of your unique strengths and use them in fresh, diverse contexts every day. By doing so, you’ll find boosts in happiness and reductions in feelings of depression.

How Long and How Often?

For the best results, dedicate about 8 weeks to this journey, engaging in daily activities that highlight your strengths.

Tools to Get Started

• VIA Character Strengths Survey: This will help you identify your top five strengths.
• Daily Strengths Journal: A space to jot down your daily adventures in strength use.
• Weekly Workshops: Opportunities to connect with others, gain new insights, and share your progress.

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Discover Your Strengths

Kick things off by taking the VIA Character Strengths Survey. This is your chance to see what makes you uniquely special and set the foundation for this adventure.

The 24 character strengths are organized under six broad virtues according to the VIA Classification, which was developed by psychologists Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman. Here’s the list of character strengths grouped by their corresponding virtues:

1. Wisdom and Knowledge – Cognitive strengths that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge
   • Creativity: Thinking of novel and productive ways to conceptualize and do things.
   • Curiosity: Taking an interest in ongoing experience for its own sake.
   • Judgment: Thinking things through and examining them from all sides.
   • Love of Learning: Mastering new skills, topics, and bodies of knowledge.
   • Perspective: Being able to provide wise counsel to others.
2. Courage – Emotional strengths that involve the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of opposition, external or internal
   • Bravery: Not shrinking from threat, challenge, difficulty, or pain.
   • Perseverance: Finishing what one starts.
   • Honesty: Speaking the truth and presenting oneself in a genuine way.
   • Zest: Approaching life with excitement and energy.
3. Humanity – Interpersonal strengths that involve tending and befriending others
   • Love: Valuing close relations with others.
   • Kindness: Doing favors and good deeds for others.
   • Social Intelligence: Being aware of the motives and feelings of other people and oneself.
4. Justice – Civic strengths that underlie healthy community life
   • Teamwork: Working well as a member of a group or team.
   • Fairness: Treating all people the same according to notions of fairness and justice.
   • Leadership: Encouraging a group of which one is a member to get things done.
5. Temperance – Strengths that protect against excess
   • Forgiveness: Forgiving those who have done wrong.
   • Humility: Letting one’s accomplishments speak for themselves.
   • Prudence: Being careful about one’s choices; not taking undue risks.
   • Self-regulation: Regulating what one feels and does.
6. Transcendence – Strengths that forge connections to the larger universe and provide meaning
   • Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence: Noticing and appreciating beauty, excellence, and/or skilled performance.
   • Gratitude: Being aware of and thankful for the good things that happen.
   • Hope: Expecting the best in the future and working to achieve it.
   • Humor: Liking to laugh and tease; bringing smiles to other people.
   • Spirituality: Having coherent beliefs about the higher purpose and meaning of the universe.

Each of these strengths contributes to the individual’s ability to thrive and live a fulfilling and positive life. Your signature strengths are the top five strengths identified in your VIA Character Strengths Survey results.

Step 2: Learn and Plan

Start by attending a workshop to understand how these strengths work and brainstorm ways to integrate them into daily life. This is about setting the stage for creative strength use.

Step 3: Put Strengths to Work

Aim to engage your top strengths in new ways each day. It’s about mixing things up! If kindness is your strength, maybe today help a stranger, and tomorrow offer a listening ear to a friend. If creativity is your thing, explore different artistic outlets each week.

Step 4: Reflect and Write

Use your journal to note how you used your strengths each day, what you did, and how it made you feel. Reflecting helps cement the experience and keeps you motivated.

Step 5: Connect and Grow

Join weekly group meetings where you can share stories, tackle challenges, and refine your approaches. These gatherings are about building a community and learning from one another.

Evaluation

Measuring Success

We’ll see how this process is working through both emotional and practical lenses. Before and after the intervention, use well-being and depression scales to track progress. Additionally, your journal entries and participant feedback provide invaluable insights into your personal experience.

Anticipated Transformations

By diving into your strengths every day, you can look forward to more happiness, less depression, and an overall sense of purpose and engagement in what you do. Your daily routine should start feeling like something you look forward to rather than just get through.

Conclusion

This approach is all about positive change through personal strengths. By encouraging you to discover and stretch these unique aspects of yourself daily, you set off on a path toward greater happiness and life satisfaction. You’ve got the tools; now it’s time to explore and grow into the best version of yourself!