Promoting Healthy Personality Development & Well-being

     "the absence of symptoms of mental disorders does not assure the presence of positive emotions, life satisfaction or other indicators of well-being. ... An adequate model of well-being will require a better understanding of the role of self-transcendence. In contrast to defensiveness and effortful control, an outlook of unity is expressed in activities such as fluidity in athletic performance, improvisation in musical composition, trustful perception of social support, and generosity in charitable donations, which each activate the most recently evolved parts of the brain, particularly prefrontal poles. Activation of the anterior prefrontal cortex produces feelings of satisfaction even when anticipating adversity or when making meaningful personal sacrifices. ...

     Much more work is needed to develop empirical measures that are able to reliably distinguish the different processes that promote healthy personality development and well-being. We need to better understand the crucial role of self-transcendence along with other dimensions of personality in the development of health and happiness. The great deficiency of emerging classifications of mental disorders is that they embody little or no understanding of the science of well-being."

       Cloninger CR. Healthy personality development and well-being. World Psychiatry 2012; 11(2): 103-4.
 
     "The goal of meditation at its deepest level has been liberation from the egoic self; developing a sense of harmony with the universe; and the ability to increase one's compassion, sensitivity, and service to others. These goals may include, but go beyond, personal self-regulation or self-exploration."

       Shapiro DH. Examining the content and context of meditation; A challenge for psychology in the areas of stress management, psychotherapy, and religion/values. Journal of Humanistic Psychology 1994; 34(4): 101-135.