Wisdom can protect us from loneliness, anxiety and depression.
Wisdom — a modifiable personality trait — is linked to greater happiness, resilience, and mental well-being.
It is also linked to less depression, anxiety and loneliness.
Here are seven signs that you are a wise person:
- You remain calm under pressure.
- You do not postpone making major decisions.
- You engage in self-reflection to understand myself.
- You approach situations where your help may be needed.
- You find it easy to give helpful advice to others.
- You enjoy being exposed to diverse viewpoints.
- Your spiritual beliefs give you inner strength.
Professor Dilip V. Jeste, study co-author, said:
“There are evidence-based interventions to increase levels of specific components of wisdom, which would help reduce loneliness and promote overall well-being.
Like the COVID-19 vaccine protects us from the novel coronavirus, wisdom can aid in protecting us from loneliness.
Thus, we can potentially help end a behavioral pandemic of loneliness, suicides and opioid abuse that has been going on for the last 20 years.”
The results come from a survey of over 2,000 people who were asked about seven major aspects of wisdom.
These are:
- self-reflection,
- pro-social behaviors (such as empathy, compassion and altruism),
- emotional regulation (understanding and controlling your emotions),
- acceptance of diverse perspectives,
- decisiveness,
- social advising (such as giving rational and helpful advice to others)
- and spirituality.
Increase your wisdom
Like many other personality traits, wisdom can be difficult to change, but not impossible.
Here are two examples of ways to increase components of wisdom.
1. Increase emotional control
One method that has been tested scientifically is to practice referring to yourself in the third-person (Weng et al., 2013).
Instead of saying “I feel hurt and angry,” a person might say to themselves, “He feels hurt and angry.”
The simple technique helps people distance themselves from the strong emotions they are feeling in the moment.
2. Increase compassion
Compassion, another component of wisdom, is also not something you either have or you don’t — it can (and should) be learned and nurtured.
Participants a one study took part in one-day course in loving kindness meditation to improve their self-compassion.
This helps foster benevolent and loving feelings towards the self and others.
After the self-compassion training, people felt better in themselves, were more compassionate towards others and there was more activation in the areas of the brain associated with love, affiliation and positive emotion.
→ Related: Decision-Making Skills: 16 Ways To Improve
The study was published in the journal International Psychogeriatrics (Thomas et al., 2021).
