Resources From PositivePsychology.com
We have many resources available for therapists and coaches, encouraging individuals and groups to be more strengths-focused.
For additional reading, we recommend this article on altruism which is a light read.
Our Maximizing Strengths Masterclass© offers a comprehensive coaching package for helping clients unlock their potential. It includes presentations, exercises, and videos to develop yourself and help others perform at their best.
Our free resources include:
- Overuse of Character Strengths
Using signature strengths can be empowering. However, learning a balanced approach is vital.
- What Strengths Do Others See?
Identifying and understanding our strengths can be helped by gaining the perspective of others.
More extensive versions of the following tools are available with a subscription to the Positive Psychology Toolkit©, but they are described briefly below:
We can boost personal strengths by identifying and attending to them. Journaling can help.
Reflect on and write down the answers to the following questions daily:
What went well today?
Which of my strengths contributed to the outcome?
How did I use it to create a positive moment?
At the end of each week, take time to reflect on which strengths are helping you the most and how you could create opportunities to use them more.
- Strength collisions
Sometimes, we consider our strengths as being superior to others. When it causes conflict, it may be necessary to dial down their use.
Try out the following steps:
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- Step 1 – Identify and describe a conflict with another person.
- Step 2 – Write down what you want and why. Repeat for the other person.
- Step 3 – Consider what you may be doing too much of (how you may be overusing a strength).
- Step 4 – Can either or both of you dial down the strength you are using?
If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others develop their strengths, this collection contains 17 strength-finding tools for practitioners. Use them to help others better understand and harness their strengths in life-enhancing ways.
A Take-Home Message
For centuries, philosophers, theologians, and psychologists have explored what it means to live a good life.
While many theories and models exist, thinkers and researchers typically agree on a key insight: Our character strengths shape who we are and how we flourish (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).
Our signature strengths paint a picture of what is best about us. They identify those traits that empower us, support us as we navigate our most demanding challenges, help us find meaning, and positively contribute to our world and those around us.
Once we can identify and harness our strengths, we can increase our capacity for individual resilience, engagement, and wellbeing (Niemiec, 2018).
Crucially, strengths do not exist in isolation. They are dynamic, shaped by context, and best expressed in balance. Courage without wisdom becomes recklessness. Honesty without kindness can turn into bluntness. The goal is not just to use our strengths but to use them well. Balancing our strengths is vital.
As practitioners, educators, and individuals committed to growth, we can build awareness of our strengths and those of others. By doing so, we move beyond focusing on what’s wrong and instead leverage what’s strong, helping ourselves and those we support find fulfillment and meaning.
We can all benefit from taking a moment to pause and reflect on our strengths regularly, asking ourselves how our signature strengths show up in our day-to-day lives. And, perhaps most importantly, how do we use them daily to be the best versions of ourselves?
We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Strengths Exercises for free.
ED: Updated April 2025
As a psychologist interested in exploring what drives human potential, I regularly return to one key insight: Our character strengths shape who we are and how we flourish (Niemiec, 2018).
Ultimately, being aware of our character strengths and virtues and knowing how to use them “can help us notice the good things around us; discover how we can do better; and catalyze positive, virtuous, healthy, or more balanced behavior” (Niemiec & McGrath, 2019, p. 16).
While research is still identifying and confirming the exact mechanisms involved in how children develop their character strengths and virtues, the following factors are likely to be significant (Kretzschmar et al., 2022; Niemiec & McGrath, 2019):
Awareness begins by identifying character strengths or signature strengths.
What our readers think
Super informative and useful!
Very interesting article – and I love that children are learning this information now. Hoping that while they learn more about their own strengths and weaknesses, they will not only develop their own character but be understanding and accepting of others as well.
Very useful article, i know only basic English. But your sentences are easily understandable. This way i can improve my English skills. Thank you all.
I have studied positive psychology and received a cerificate of positive psychcotherapy therapy. Some of the resources indicates “Open-mindedness” under knowldge and wisdon. However, the VIA institute test listed “Judgement” instead of “Open-mindedness”. Both meanings and concepts are quite different from each other for me. Which one should we use for consistency?
Hi Yuri,
Thanks for your question! I definitely understand your confusion 🙂
At the surface level, open-mindedness and judgment may seem relatively unrelated. However, if you read the official definitions outlined by the VIA Institute and UPenn, you will notice evident similarities. Here you can find the definition of judgment and here you can find the definition of open-mindedness.
As you can see, both construct definitions carry facets of weighing evidence fairly, avoiding pre-disposed biases, and considering alternatives. Per definition, these constructs are quite similar, which is why some resources may use them interchangeably.
I hope this helped!
Kind regards,
-Caroline | Community Manager
I would like to know what the professional adherents of Positive Psychology think about the practice of permanent or prolonged restraint from any sexual activity (that is, chastity). Because most other of the psychologists (and psychiatrists) are holding to ideas about sexual activity that are contrary, in direct opposition, to the teachings of many a major religion – for example, of (Catholic and Orthodox) Christianity or (Theravada) Buddhism.
Annex:
On Chastity | The Catholic Encyclopedia | New Advent
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03637d.htm
“Chastity is the virtue which excludes or moderates the indulgence of the sexual appetite. It is a form of the virtue of temperance, which controls according to right reason the desire for and use of those things which afford the greatest sensual pleasures. The sources of such delectation are food and drink, by means of which the life of the individual is conserved, and the union of the sexes, by means of which the permanence of the species is secured. Chastity, therefore, is allied to abstinence and sobriety; for, as by these latter the pleasures of the nutritive functions are rightly regulated, so by chastity the procreative appetite is duly restricted. . . . According as chastity would exclude all voluntary carnal [sexual] pleasures, or allow this gratification only within prescribed limits, it is known as absolute or relative. The former is enjoined upon the unmarried, the latter is incumbent upon those within the marriage state. . . . Besides the classification already given, there is another, according to which chastity is distinguished as perfect, or imperfect. The first-mentioned is the virtue of those who, in order to devote themselves more unreservedly to God and their spiritual interests, resolve to refrain perpetually from even the licit pleasures of the marital state.”
Hi Andreas,
You raise a very interesting question! One perspective comes from the ‘father’ of Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman. In a recent review (2019) describing the development of the 24 VIA Character Strengths, which is in some ways at the center of positive psychology, he notes that in order for something to meet the classification of a character strength, it must be universally valued and endorsed (e.g., kindness).
People’s attitudes toward chastity differ depending on beliefs (often stemming from religion), so this is a virtue that does not typically appear within positive psychology strength classification schemes.
Likewise, a review of research on positive psychology’s positive vs. negative effects on modern sexuality research suggests that our field has had little impact on research trends within this space (Arakawa et al., 2012).
All in all, I think a positive psychologist is likely to take a fairly neutral stance to the notion of chastity, asking where the practice sits within a person’s make-up of values and beliefs. If the virtues associated with the practice of chastity are important to the individual and their belief system, they would then likely encourage the person to act in ways that are consistent with that value.
I hope that answers your question!
– Nicole | Community Manager
Yes, thank you, that has mostly answered my question about Positive Psychology.
But I will mention, at the risk of upsetting you and your colleagues (and some other people who might read this comment), that I consider that with the ‘neutral’ stance to be an unscientific ‘the customer is always right’ (even if he/she errs) approach. Why aren’t the psychologists who are formed in the school of Positive Psychology interested to actually study the psychological effects of the wilful and prolonged practice of chastity? (For example: Are the people who practice chastity perhaps better able to concentrate upon tasks? Are they more patient?)
Apropos, have found these:
Carr, D. (2007). “On the prospects of chastity as a contemporary virtue”. In R. Halwani’s (ed.) “Sex and ethics: Essays on sexuality, virtue, and the good life” (pp. 89–100).
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2007-00397-013
Schnitker, S.A. & Emmons, R.A. (2017). “The psychology of virtue: Integrating Positive Psychology and the psychology of religion”. In “Psychology of Religion and Spirituality” vol.9, no.3 (pp. 239-41).
https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2017-35611-001.pdf
“Another strong case for an understudied virtue could be made for chastity. Chastity, or sexual restraint, is a moral virtue because it maximizes individual and relational well-being when practiced. Yet historically it fell on hard times, even in Christendom, where C.S. Lewis considered it ‘the most unpopular of the Christian virtues’ [it’s also the most unpopular of the Buddhist virtues], or when St. Augustine prayed ambivalently for it: ‘Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.’ In a hypersexualized culture [or society, as are the modernized societies,] it is bound to be seen as quaint at best, and overly repressive, restrictive, and even pathological at worst. What do the data say? Hardy and Willoughby (2017) explore the theological, philosophical, and psychological/public-health perspectives on chastity. They present data from several thousand adults on the connection between religiousness, [sexual] abstinence, sexual behaviors, sexual satisfaction, unhappiness and make a case for the place of religious communities to promote sexual chastity and positive psychosocial functioning through teachings about chastity and providing structures to motivate and enable people to live consistently with them.”
Hi,
I would suggest you to go through the documentations of KUNDALINI AWAKENING or Chakra Activation. I hope you will get your answer.
Curious, as to why this response?
What an excellent summary. Thank you.