Promoting Resilience and Well-being with Wisdom and Wisdom Therapy

Abstract

It is part of every human existence since ancient times, that life is full of burdens and negative events, be it hunger, poverty, illness, war, death of beloved ones, marital discord, or failure in one's aspirations. And human beings are well equipped to cope with such negative events. They live in the face of all miseries, they marry or bring forth children during war times, they revel and strive for a better life. It can even be argued that hardship is in fact to some degree needed for psychological well-being, similar to physical challenges and exercise for somatic health. The psychological properties which help to cope with adversities are called "coping repertoire" or "resilience" (Lazarus 1999; Johnson and Baker 2004; Kalra et al. 2012; PejuSkovic et al. 2011; Herrman et al. 2011). People who are confronted with burdens and are able to master them experience eustress. Only if somebody cannot cope with his or her environment distress develops leading to psychological problems and maladjustment. Whether one or the other happens is depending on the degree of resilience of a person. Resilience can be defined as the ability to stand up against burdens in life and to make a positive development in spite of a negative environment. It is a multidimensional construct including personality, environmental support, or coping repertoire (Herrman et al. 2011). One psychological dimension of special interest for the mastery of life and managing adversities is wisdom, which has found much scientific attention in recent years. This chapter discusses wisdom and wisdom therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved). (chapter)