Quality patient relationships, awareness of character strengths key for well-being
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Key takeaways:
- Daniel Lerner offered insights into improving physicians’ well-being.
- Using character strengths and having quality patient relationships can improve well-being.
SAN DIEGO — Using character strengths in a new way each day outside of the workplace is an effective way to increase well-being, according to a speaker here.
“It might not make you happy, but it changes our level of well-being, and that is what matters,” keynote speaker Daniel Lerner, a positive psychologist, said at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting.
Lerner discussed techniques for physicians to make the most of their success and happiness. Citing Martin Seligman, PhD, Lerner explained that the acronym PERMA can be used as a guide to improve well-being: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment.
“I want you to think about this matrix like buckets. Each of them must have a drop in them if you’re going to have well-being in your life,” he said.
Keeping a gratitude journal and taking time to “just breathe” for 3 minutes two times a day can help bring out positive emotions, Lerner said. In addition, to improve relationships, physicians should strive to reach out every day to those that they value and not be afraid to ask for help or feedback. If physicians assess how their work helps other people and makes the world a better place overall, it can add meaning to their lives.
Quality relationships with patients are important to well-being, Lerner said, in addition to being fully engaged at work.
“Accomplishment is essential — we are evolving,” he said. “We all want to be happy, and we all want to have positive emotions. What I’m showing you here is not just happiness. We tend to strive for this idea of this hedonic happiness — I need to have a smile on my face, I need to be happy all the time. What we’re looking at here is a very different concept.”
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Lerner D. Goodness, greatness and grit. Presented at: American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting; May 5-8, 2023; San Diego.
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