Rewire your personality to make healthier choices

Who is your ideal version of you? ✨ 

You may be living it—or maybe not. For better or worse, life experiences and behaviors have shaped who you are right now. This version of you is not etched in stone though. A growing body of research suggests that personality can be intentionally shaped to have more of your desired character traits. Doing so could improve your health and well-being.

Takeaways: The ‘Big Five,’ Happiness, Physical health, Rewiring your personality

The ‘Big Five’ personality traits

We tend to view personality as the foundation for major life decisions—like who to date or what job to pursue, etc… writes personality change researcher and clinical psychologist Shannon Sauer-Zavala in The Conversation.

Personality describes how a person thinks, feels and behaves. Psychologists have created a framework based on five character traits that allow them to study differences in personality.

This framework is called the OCEAN (five-factor) model:

• Openness to experience: imagination, creativity, and intellectual curiosity

• Conscientiousness: organization, productiveness, and responsibility

• Agreeableness: compassion, respect, cooperativeness

• Extraversion: sociability, enthusiasm, assertiveness

• Neuroticism: tendency toward negative emotions like anxiety and depression

Each character trait exists on a continuum between two extremes.

For instance:

• 😛 Extraversion: ranges from extremely outgoing to highly introverted (low extroversion)

• 🌧️ Neuroticism: ranges from very high to very low (emotional volatility vs emotional stability)

Your character is shaped by where you fall on each of these trait spectrums, according to an article published in Katie Couric Media. It may slightly change throughout your life, but larger changes are less common.

Certain character traits are associated with better health outcomes based on varying factors.

Who are you?

“About 40 to 60 percent of our personalities are inherited,” says journalist Olga Khazan, author of the new book Me, But Better, in an interview with Katie Couric Media. Everything else is experience. This ultimately means that you have a lot of control over your personality.

The impact of personality on happiness

Personality influences how happy you are. A 2024 study in BMC Nursing suggests that agreeableness and extraversion significantly impact happiness, with conscientousness having a modest effect. Happiness goes beyond mere content or joy–it is a key factor of longevity.

• 😌 Biological effects: Happier people experience less inflammation, lower blood pressure, and better emotional well-being

• 🧑‍⚖️ Decision making: Happiness promotes healthy life choices

A study of middle-aged and older adults in Singapore reveals that happier individuals make healthier lifestyle decisions too, like:

• Moderating diet

• Exercising regularly

• Getting quality sleep

• Making room for leisure 

Other studies link high conscientousness and low neuroticism to healthier decision-making, writes Verywellmind.

Personality influences physical and emotional well-being 

As you may have gathered, happiness, physical health, and personality all influence one another—in fact, lifestyle can prevent 80% of chronic diseases and death. Higher agreeableness and extraversion also have other advantages over introversion, writes verywellmind:

• Better communication with doctors

• Stronger support networks

Neuroticism and health outcomes

High neuroticism is linked to negative long-term health outcomes, including increased risk of cardiovascular disease and a shorter lifespan. . Neuroticism is characterized by negative emotions, anxiety, and mood swings.

As major life events shape personality, traumatic events (especially in childhood) may be a particular trigger for developing high neuroticism, according to a paper in Psychiatry Research. But increasing agreeableness may reduce neuroticism in these individuals.

Life Satisfaction and personality 

The greater your life satisfaction, the longer you can expect to live. That’s what the science tells us. It turns out that intentionally shifting your personality improves life satisfaction—thereby, it can extend longevity.

The magazine Psyche discusses a study which used a smartphone app called PEACH (PErsonality coACH) to demonstrate this effect. 🍑 The app provided users with guidance for positive behavior changes, self-reflection, and psychoeducational content to understand personality traits. 

The tools not only helped users develop their desired character traits (primarily less neuroticism, greater extraversion, or more conscientiousness), but led to changes that last months after the intervention.

Purposefully shifts in personality also increased overall life satisfaction, and this was the ultimate goal of the study.

• High conscientiousness improves satisfaction with work and health

• Less neuroticism improves emotional health

The Livelong Experience is 10 days away

With only a few tickets remaining, use code ‘LIVELONG’ to get $100 off at checkout.

Get ready for:

✅ Breakthroughs in longevity from accredited experts

✅ Actionable health strategies that are easy to achieve

✅ Luxury wellness and oceanside living

Can’t make it in person? No worries! For a limited time, we are offering a virtual pass to livestream the event.

Want to align your brand with the future of longevity? Contact [email protected] for sponsorship opportunities.

Consider traits you want more (or less) of

Conscientiousness is particularly associated with a long life, as highly conscious people have less job strain, more resilience against stress, better emotional regulation during stressful events, and lower risk of death. But all OCEA traits are associated with better health to varying degrees.

Increase OCEA

Journalist and Me, But Better author Olga Khazan did the following to increase OCEA:

• 🧳 Openness: Travel

• 🧹 Conscientiousness: Declutter

• 🎾 Extroversion: Sign up for weekly social groups/activities

• ⛑️ Agreeableness: Volunteer

Reduce Neuroticism

This trait causes intense and long-lasting negative emotions and physical symptoms in response to stress, and it is associated with illness and increased risk of mortality, according to Psychological Science.

• Meditation or other well-researched mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques can promote better emotional health.

• They calm the nervous system, increase awareness around stress, and can help you change your response to stressful situations.

Change your thinking

Be aware of thoughts and limiting beliefs that are holding you back, according to The Conversation. When these thoughts appear, it’s helpful to gently shift your mind to more productive thoughts. 

How to choose productive thoughts?

• Think solutions-oriented

• Ask “what” questions

• Create distance from thoughts → you are NOT your thoughts

Change your behavior

Actively try to behave differently in situations, says Sauer-Zavala. For instance, she says practicing openness is a good way to overcome defensiveness at work. This can be as simple as asking a colleague for help.

Emotional regulation

Emotional regulation is one of the ultimate influences on happiness for anyone, based on findings from the BMC Nursing study.

• Emotional regulation: describes managing emotions in a healthy way. Mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal (adopting different perspectives to solve problems), and accepting your emotions are simple but effective tools to improve emotional regulation, according to Positive Psychology.🧘

The conversation

Personality is not the core of who you are—it does not encompass your values, preferences, likes, and dislikes says Sauer-Zavala. What does this mean? Changing your personality is not changing what makes you ‘you.’ Rather, this idea asks you to consider your thoughts and actions in situations, and consider how adapting them can benefit of your relationships, health, and lifespan.

QUIZ: What is my personality? PersonalityAssessor.com has a science-backed test

YOU SEEM DIFFERENT: Poor sleep can change your personality

CONSCIENTIOUSLY IN LOVE: Conscientiousness = relationship satisfaction

SINGLES: These Big Five traits are linked to lifelong singlehood

Until next time,

Erin

Longevity Media LLC

Look good, feel better, live longer.