The Benefits of Mindfulness for Neuroticism
I’m going to be trying out some exercises to improve my most problematic Big Five trait
I recently read an article by Olga Khazan in which she conducted an experiment to see if she could alter her personality in three months. The experiment involved engaging in a series of exercises over a 3-month span to move the scale on four of her Big Five traits (if you’re not yet familiar with the Big Five, check out my post here for an explanation on what it is and what it’s for). The traits she targeted in her experiment were Openness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (in other words, all but Conscientiousness, which she was already high in). Her aim was to increase the first three, and lower the last one: Neuroticism.
What Are the Ideal Traits To Have?
In her article, she mentions the ideal “success traits” (i.e. the traits that tend to lead to higher job and career success) are being high in Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, and low in Agreeableness and Neuroticism.
On the other hand, the ideal “happiness traits” (i.e. the traits that tend to lead to higher life satisfaction in general) are being high in the first four traits and low in Neuroticism.
