What are the traits of psychologically healthy people?

Mental health affects each and every area of ​​our life.

It allows us to establish healthy and functional affective bonds with others, it allows us to interact appropriately with other people, we makes it possible to have a good work performance, and even allows us to enjoy the day to day and be able to achieve the long-awaited concept of "happiness". However... What are the characteristics of psychologically healthy people? This is the topic that we will deal with next.

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The traits of psychologically healthy people

The psychologist of the Malaga cabinet of Psychologists Málaga PsicoAbreu proposes a series of traits that people who we consider to be psychologically healthy must have. They are as follows.

1. Good self-esteem

A person with adequate self-esteem and a good self-concept knows himself and sees himself in a realistic way. She does not look down on herself, does not overdo herself, does not underestimate or overvalue her abilities or abilities, does not see herself as inferior to other people, does not compare herself to Furthermore, she has confidence in herself in most of the decisions that she makes, she is satisfied with herself (although she knows that she still has to improve), she is sure of her own abilities, she feels good being alone (she has no fear or anxiety of loneliness), she knows her strengths and weaknesses, she respects herself herself, she knows what she is good at and what is not, she is capable of accepting criticism from others, she knows how to ask for forgiveness, she knows how to criticize herself in a healthy way in order to to get better…

We can also closely associate the concept of self-esteem the concept of emotional independence, which allows you to consider another person and any relationship as one more part of your day-to-day life, which allows the consolidation of healthy relationships with others.

2. Emotional intelligence

A person with adequate emotional intelligence is capable of feeling, experiencing and expressing her positive and negative emotions. An emotionally intelligent person is capable of self-regulation and control over their own emotions and feelings.

The identification, analysis, communication and management of one's own emotions It is crucial to be able to achieve a more adaptive final behavior in the future. People with emotional intelligence are not overwhelmed by their own emotions (fear, anger, anger, guilt, anxiety, jealousy ...), since they are able to feel and process them adaptively, so as not to remain anchored to them for a long time.

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3. Resilience

Resilience is a positive skill that allows us to go through an adverse, traumatic or extreme situation with our own coping skills, and even allows us to come out of it strengthened. Resilience allows us to adaptively go through an adverse event, although this does not imply that negative emotions are not felt or expressed during the process of illness, death, duel…

4. Internal locus of control

People with an internal locus of control are characterized by think that there is a close relationship between their behaviors or behaviors and the consequences of them.

A person with an internal locus of control has the perception that he himself is capable of controlling her life, and that he is not controlled by luck, fate, karma, or the decisions of others. The internal locus of control facilitates traits such as responsibility, effort, perseverance, positive self-criticism... For example, a person with internal locus of control attributes his successes and failures to his own actions, and not to forces external.

On the contrary, people with external locus of control attribute their merits, failures and responsibilities to external events or other people, which leads to low self-esteem, a passive attitude to adversity and does not facilitate growth personal.

5. Assertiveness

Assertive communication with others consists of expressing one's opinions, emotions, feelings, needs and desires, in a timely and direct manner.

Assertiveness entails, therefore, respect for one's own rights and those of others, without falling into passive or aggressive communication. In addition, it allows healthier, deeper and more adaptive relationships with others and facilitates interaction with the environment.

On the other hand, assertiveness is closely related to good self-esteem, since if I consider that my needs, opinions and feelings are just as important as those of others I will have more facility to express them and be able to defend them.

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6. Frustration tolerance

Frustration is an unpleasant secondary emotion that has components of anger, sadness, and helplessness, and that is experienced by not being able to have what we thought or expected (plan, project illusion, material object ...).

Every day we experience many events and situations that cause us frustration: missing the bus, being told off at work, not The shoes that you liked in your size remain, that a friend cancels your weekend plan, that they steal you, that they fire you from the work... Frustration is a very frequent emotion in our daily lives, so it is essential to know how to control it and handle it.

7. Patience and self-control

Patience is a skill that allows us to endure and deal with difficulties and setbacks to achieve some goal or good. We all know that what is valuable or what is worth achieving requires patience and effort (having a professional career, or specialization in something, having a romantic relationship with someone ...), so the development of patience is essential in our day to day to not abandon what we have proposed.

Self-control is a skill that is related to patience and the ability to delay gratification immediate to the achievement of a goal that is considered much more important. For example, if I am not able to have self-control and say no to a trip with a friend the weekend before exams (postponement of the immediate gratification), I will not be able to study and I will not get those subjects, which allow me to reach my proposed objective "get my race".

8. Adaptive capacity and coping skills

Changes are frequent in our lives and in our day to day, so the ability to adapt to them is essential. People with good adaptability are able to adapt to new situations: to a new life in another city, a new environment, a death of a relative, a duel, a disappointment in a relationship loving ...

The coping skills that each person develops throughout their lives help to accept and cope with these new situations as well as possible, to be able to regain the emotional and psychological well-being that was had prior to the event. These coping skills can be the positive restructuring of negative thoughts or dysfunctional, the search for social support, the positive reassessment of the event... among many other

9. Empathy

Empathy is a skill that allows us to know how other people feel or what they are thinking, in order to understand their emotions, feelings and intentions. This ability to put ourselves in the other person's shoes makes it easier for us to have an adaptive and effective interaction with your closest social environment.

10. Social skills

Social skills are the tools that allow you to socialize with others. Mentally healthy people generally have satisfactory social relationships, and are able to maintain strong bonds with othersThey communicate adequately with strangers and acquaintances, they tend to maintain a pleasant relationship with others in their day-to-day lives, they maintain links. Psychologically healthy people enjoy social relationships and usually feel good in the company of others, so social relationships are satisfactory for them.

How to enhance these characteristics?

It is possible to work on all these characteristics with the help of psychological therapy, to be a psychologically healthier person and achieve greater psychological well-being on a day-to-day basis. As patients, this will allow us to have more adaptive and healthy relationships with the people around us, feel better about ourselves and enjoy more on a daily basis.

If you do not have any of these skills well developed, it would be a good idea to go to the psychologist to have good psychological health and achieve greater personal and mental well-being.