1. HEALTHY (NORMAL) cont.
Theresa Lowry-Lehnen, Health Psychology lecturer, said:
“Emotional stability refers to the level of control a person has over their own emotions. A healthy personality does not have unreasonable & unwanted negative thoughts & feelings towards others, nor indulges in self-loathing. They can be spontaneous but not impulsive, can make rational, well-judged decisions, & are able to protect their health, self-esteem & well-being – despite any problems in their life.”

TOOLs that improve Mental Health
• Value yourself     – • Take care of your body (food, rest, exercise, sleep…)
• Learn how to deal with stress     – • Quiet your mind  – • Practice gratitude
• Surround yourself with good (healthy) people
• Set realistic goals   – • Look for ways to change routines (travel, learn….)
• Express kindness to some else (but NOT at your one expense!)
• Practice saying NO!   – • Get help when you need it!    (MORE ideas….)

DEFENSES
Our coping mechanisms develop organically in response to frustrating, difficult & painful situations / experiences. They function like a human firewall, a psychological immune system needed to defend against hurtful & abusive relationships, while hopefully allowing healthy / nurturing relationships to pass thru’ the protective walls. (Posts: Boundaries .… weak, rigid, healthy)

At their best: Defenses are important to know about because they strongly influence how easily people can form & maintain healthy relationships, while being able to reject unhealthy relationships. Knowing when to be defensive & when not to be – is key for health.
We need them to keep us safe from people who mess with us, but also need to be able to relax & let the wall open up, to keep the capacity for innocence, availability & healthy connections. (Posts: Trust …. over. under, healthy)

At worst: Defenses are harmful & debilitating when they turn into psychological armor solidified into stone or iron, not allowing trust & spontaneous interactions with positive PPT (people, places, things) in our life.

 MATURE Defenses (Healthy)
• Altruism = You feel true pleasure from helping other people, & if you couldn’t, you’d sense something’s missing in your life & feel sad or get depressed
• Anticipation = When you know you’ll be faced with a challenging situation, you try to plan ahead so you won’t be overwhelmed
• Distraction = When something upsetting happens or has already happened, consciously decide to put off negative thoughts (which add anxiety) by temporarily focusing your attention on something less threatening
• Humor (not humiliating, mean, sarcastic….) = You look for the funny side of situations, even when they’re stressful or potentially upsetting (watch a comedy show on TV)
• Identification (healthy version) = When in new or scary situation, you temporarily use a characteristic – that you don’t automatically / naturally have – of an admired & respected person  (“What would ____ do or say right now?”)
EXP from the Enneagram :  Picking up positive qualities of the Number at the end of your type’s “Security Point” arrow (direction of growth)

• Introjection (healthy version) = You admit not having a skill or trait that you value – so you copy examples from the environment & with practice – make them part of yourself
• Sublimation = when you’re feeling anxious, you do something constructive that soothe you ,such as cooking, reading, woodworking….
• Suppression – When bothered by something or someone, you keep the lid on your thoughts & emotions, if letting them show would interfere with your goals or well-being

HERITABILITY = is a statistic which assesses the amount of variation in the population one can attribute to the likelihood of inheriting a trait by genetic variation. While it’s a population-wide statistic, it can be informative on an individual level.
— If heritability is 1.0, all is genetic – offspring are a direct combination of their parents
— If heritability is ~0.0, then there’s no correlation between parents & offspring.

EXP: the heritability of height is ~0.90 in the Western world. (More….)
See Survey CHART  re.Genetic influence on human psychological Traits – which can give a rough sense of the “pull” that biological inheritance will have on an individual. Biology may not be destiny, but it is definitely probability.