Why Wisdom?
Did you know that people who are wise often experience moments of happiness, and generally enjoy overall positive wellbeing?
Investing in your wellbeing is vital in order to live a healthy happy life. Being able to maintain high levels of well-being while experiencing negative circumstances is called wisdom. Research suggests wisdom positively influences experiences of happiness. When you increase is wisdom, mental and physical health also improve. Wisdom also positively influences on the experience of ageing, with an association found between wisdom and self-rated successful ageing.
The good news is that wisdom is potentially a learned character trait. You can increase your overall wisdom by exploring the concept within the counselling room.
Wisdom consists of 7 components and with intentionality, you can start to develop in the elements that are not your strongest.
- Pro-social behaviours: This component is my favourite. Pro-social behaviours place value on empathy, compassion, altruism and having a sense of fairness. Just imagine if everyone in your neighbourhood acted with compassion and were conscientious? Wouldn’t the world be a safer place for everyone.
- Emotional regulation: In the counselling sphere there is an emphasis on teaching skills that focus on regulating feelings. This is because it is easy for emotions to influence decision making. A wise person can favour positive emotions and manage the negative feelings.
- Self-reflection: This refers to the ability to admit fault. It is easy to blame others or the situation but to sit and reflect on the role you played requires a certain amount of wisdom.
- Acceptance of divergent perspectives: This element focuses two things. The ability to accept that other people can have different opinions and the capacity in which you can show interest in learning the other people’s perspectives.
- Decisiveness: It refers to the ability to give rational thought to each decision. Whether it is a quick, lifesaving decision or a long, deliberated decision is irrelevant, the importance is on the ability to make the decision based on rational thought processes.
- Social advising: Social advising focuses on the ability to give advice to others rather than stay quiet, with the goal to benefit society, no matter how small the matter is.
- Spirituality: This element has been added to the components of wisdom in recent years. Spirituality in regard to an element of wisdom refers to the continuous connection to something other than ourselves.
A trained counsellor understands how to apply biopsychosocial theories to equip you with the skills needed to grow in wisdom. Is your area for growth emotional regulation? We could develop your skills by using DBT principles. Or you might want to focus on social advising. Together, we could find your voice to speak into situations by exploring communication skills or confidence issues. The goal of increasing in wisdom is to increase your overall satisfaction in life. It’s worth investing in! 
Get in touch if you are interested in exploring how you can grow in wisdom and ultimately enjoy life to the fullest.
To make an appointment with Cassia, you can Book Online. Alternatively, you can call Vision Psychology Brisbane on (07) 3088 5422.
References
Ardelt, M. (2019). Wisdom and well-being. In R. J. Sternberg & J. Glück (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of wisdom (pp. 602–625). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108568272.028
Daly, R., Jeste, D. V., Lee, E. E., Liu, J., Palmer, B. W., Thomas, M. L., & Tu, X. M. (2022). Abbreviated San Diego wisdom scale (SD-WISE-7) and Jeste-Thomas wisdom index (JTWI). Internation Psychogeriatrics. 34(7). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1041610221002684
Haran, U., Hurwitz, M., Mazar, A., & Moran, S. (2022). Confidently at your service: advisors alter their stated confidence to be helpful. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 171. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2022.104154
Linehan, M. M. (2015). DBT Skills Training Manual. (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.