NOTE: Scroll down the page to access the PRIME Character Strength Integration Strategies that can be used to teach the strengths to your students.

Overview of Character Strengths

Character Strengths are "a collection of morally valued, positive traits, essential to our wellbeing and associated with the good life." ¹ 

"Character strengths are the positive qualities individuals have—as reflected in their thoughts, feelings, and actions—that promote the well-being of themselves and others." (GGE)

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Dr. Martin Seligman and researchers at the University of Pennsylvania studied world religions and philosophies while also interviewing individuals from around the world, looking for commonalities in virtue and character. The research team developed a classification system organizing 24 Character Strengths within six universal values. 

Dr. Ryan Niemiec, the education director at the VIA Institute on Character, writes that Dr. Seligman "finalized his PERMA theory (Positive Psychology) by highlighting the most important part: the 24 Character Strengths underpin or serve as pathways to each area of wellbeing. Whereas any of the character strengths can conceivably serve as a route to any of the PERMA areas, some will be more dominant." ²

Many practitioners add an H for health to form PERMA(H).

Niemiec breaks down the strengths into three categories, pointing out that we exhibit a wide range of strengths, sometimes applying many in our daily lives.  

Signature Strengths> Usually five in number, these are the strengths that "relate most to who you are as a person.” ³ They are essential to the core of who you are. They are energizing, giving you a boost when in use. You find them effortless to use as they come to you naturally and with ease. 

Phasic Strengths> These non-signature strengths come into play when a specific situation arises to engage them. It is often the case that you exhibit a phasic strength in a pronounced fashion. 

Lower/Lessor Strengths> Do not let the tendency for negativity bias to affect how you view your lower VIA survey Character Strengths. See all 24 strengths as your own, with some presenting more frequently. 

You will notice that often, you will engage several character strengths simultaneously. Just as engaging your strengths supports you, they support each other! 

You can visit the VIA Institute of Character to take their character strength survey to learn how the Character Strengths are present within yourself.  

The image above represents the Character Lab organization of the strengths into the categories of heart, mind, and will. 

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118 Strengths as Skills, Abilities, Interests, Characteristics, Traits or Talents - Dr. Lea Waters put this extensive list of strengths together combining the VIA, Character Lab, StrengthsFinder, and other groupings of strengths. For our purposes, we are working with the growing number of VIA strengths being researched and adapted for K-12 education at Character Lab. Dr. Waters writes "It turns out that three elements come together to form a strength 

1. Performance (being good at something)

2. Energy (feeling good doing it)

3. High Use (choosing to do it)" ⁴

Continuum of Character Strength Application - At one end of the continuum we "underplay" our strengths and at the other end we "overplay" them. We should aim for the "golden mean" in the middle where we exercise our strengths appropriately for the situation to achieve the best results. Read more at the VIA Institute on Character. 

Formula for Strength Development - Dr. Lea Waters adapted the ideas of Scott Kaufman, Ph.D., and Angela Duckworth, Ph.D. to propose her formula for developing strengths> Strengths development = ability × effort ⁵ 

Know Your Character Strengths - A short video introduction to share with your students. 

Shadow Side of Character Strengths - Watch this video from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Strength Icons - Character Lab provides its strength icons for non-commercial use. You can download them from this folder to make cards, posters, badges, etc. They also provide posters for download for class use. 

The Strengths Spotlight Podcast Series - The Institute of Positive Education provides a series of short podcast episodes unpacking and explaining what each strength can look like in action. 

Thinking Routines - Review the Harvard Project Zero thinking routines section of this site in which the strategies are adapted for the teaching of the Character Strengths. 

• Agency - We use this term to describe the empowerment and self-confidence we want our students to experience as they make decisions in their lives. It connects to growing their sense of self-efficacy while understanding their locus of control. These two concepts connect to the self-talk in whether we see ourselves as internals or externals regarding our belief regarding whether we are in charge of how we affect our lives or if we see outside forces of life affecting us. There is no set strategy here other than to expand your students' vocabulary by adapting these psychological terms to their developmental levels. You can search the web for lots of resources offering strategies to support student agency. Agency is at the center of our effort to help our students understand that they have a lot of say in enhancing their wellness by exercising their Character Strengths with the PERMAH pillars. :) This strategy is specifically listed for the growth mindset and self-control Character Strengths. 

• Badging - Use an online or analog badging system with strengths as categories. Students can help design the strength badges and the criteria they use to attain each badge. The folks at Growing With Gratitude offer a badge system to give you some ideas on approaching this activity. One could incorporate a badge system into the student portfolios and a certificate program (see below). Note that there could be a shadow side to this strategy, with some students becoming externally and competitively motivated to earn badges.

• Brain Breaks - The following two PDFs loaded with brain breaks from the Institute of Positive Education provides less to teach Character Strengths. They apply during any instruction to pause and energize. Brain Breaks Energizing Exercises | Brain Breaks Zoom 

• Branding/Communication - Design posters with icons for each of the Character Strengths and the PERMAH pillars to help students make visual and text-based (i.e., definitions and applications) connections. Use the same designs in the game cards (secondary strategy listed on individual strength pages). The same goes for using the icons and text in the student planners. Another option is to have a printout of the strengths and PERMAH to tape onto student desktops. A starting place for the design work is the Character Lab icon listing for application under their terms of use. Do note that your school could design and publish a Wellness@nameofyourschool app that includes the icons, definitions, research background, application, etc. Another youth-orientated copyright-protected resource is from the VIA Institute on Character. The layout offers a model for one variation of poster formatting. The icons are less elementary student-friendly than the ones from Character Lab. And don't forget bulletin boards highlighting the "strength of the week," student standouts in their living the strengths, etc.

• Certificate Program - Design a self-directed certification program continuum that starts with younger children receiving teacher-directed lessons on PERMAH and the Character Strengths with older students working independently. Connect to your badge system (see above) for students to learn/earn badges to eventually receive certificates of learning for PERMAH, the strengths, and other categories of your wellness program. Build out learning modules for older students (further to the right on the self-directed continuum) who can work independently, extending the learning from teacher-directed and integration experiences to learn and earn badges on their own. Set the criteria for earning certification within each of your wellness categories. 

• Character and Role Models - Design a series of short activities to introduce the terms "character" and "role model" to your students. Edutopia offers a helpful overview. They use the term "life skill," which you can replace with "Character Strength(s)." When understanding is in place, you can offer opportunities to have students share about role models in their lives. Look to have your students use the language of Character Strengths specifying the ones they see in their role models. 

• Character Cards - There are multiple pathways to follow in creating and using Character Strength cards in your classroom. A starter set could be the definition cards you purchase or create for instructional use. You could also try ways to "exercise" the strengths. Another approach is, over time to have students make their thinking visible for each strength by creating their collection of cards. They could draw a picture of the strength on one side and write their definition on the other. An additional portion of each card could be to list ways to "exercise" the strength in one's life. 

An upcoming whole-class activity can be an opportunity to use the cards in preparation for the event. Examples could be a field trip, sports day, etc., to pull a few cards from the deck. The teacher could say, "let's pull some Character Strength cards to see if they can help us make the most of the upcoming presentation to parents (for example)." The next step will be to discuss if the cards are applicable for students to flourish in the upcoming activity. If the strengths work, then students can discuss how to exercise each strength. A follow-up step would be to brainstorm which other Character Strengths would be best to engage during the activity and how to do so. The Institute of Positive Education provides cards with activities that students can try. 

• Characters in Reading - Whether fiction or non-fiction, use questions and language around how individuals and characters exhibited their strengths in action or inaction. 

• Class Code - We regularly start the school year by working as a class to set the norms for how community members will treat each other. One approach to setting the "class code" is to list all the expected behaviors in one column while also using a second column to record the Character Strengths that will support the behaviors. 

• Community Meetings - Bring in practices from the Responsive Classroom and other approaches to class meetings to help your students better understand and engage their strengths. Meeting at regular times structured into the schedule offers a venue to further engage PRIME and secondary integration strategies, as provided on this website. 

• Exercising Strengths - Yes, most of these PRIME Character Strength Integration Strategies give students opportunities to recognize, learn and exercise the strengths in their lives. Go one more step in building on student agency by working with students to create new strategies where they further exercise the Character Strengths within their lives. Look to list the student-created activities on a poster or whiteboard to celebrate their strength of creativity while reminding them of ways to engage their strengths further. 

• Game Cards - There are multiple pathways to follow in creating your cards to employ them in various activities. A starter set could be your Character Strength definition cards. The Institute of Positive Education provides cards with activities that students can try. 

• Goal Setting - Use the WOOP technique to help your students set goals to "exercise" and grow some of their Character Strengths. Character Lab provides a worksheet and other information to help you teach the WOOP approach to your students. 

• Guiding Question - Look to develop a question that helps the class look through a "wellness lens" as you plan for everyday and upcoming special events. You can adapt "how can our wellness be supported?" to your needs as you prepare for recess, lunch, and going to specials and special events like assemblies and field trips. 

• Important Figures in Social Studies, Math, and Science - All Disciplines - Analyze the strengths of the individuals in your study of these various subjects. Create a strength profile for each of them. Use language around how those people exercised their strengths and, in some cases, could have used other strengths to improve their lives and affect others. 

• Inquiry - Build on your school's efforts to incorporate inquiry into STEAM and other disciplines to embed inquiry into your wellness program. Design an inquiry construct that involves questions around identity, self-understanding, connection to others and the greater community, etc.  Guide students to engage specific Character Strengths to exercise in answering the questions. 

• Journal - The teacher provides prompts, and students independently write about personal wellness, including strength stories in which students write stories of their strengths in action. These stories can include drawings and photos of the strengths. Check out a series of blog posts on the commercial planner/journal providers for in-school and at-home use.  

• Know Your Character Strengths - One of our goals is to move our students from being literate in their strengths to being fluent in their understanding and application of them. This process involves the direct teaching of each Character Strength. Watch this video to introduce the idea of Character Strengths to your students. Here are two videos introducing the 24 Via Character Strengths and what integration into the classroom culture can look like: 24 Character Strengths Explained | Positive Education with Character Strengths. Here are some sample lessons to adapt to your needs> Kindergarten Intro | Grade 2 - Creativity | Grade 4 - EI & Gratitude

• Mentoring/Buddy Program - Many schools have buddy programs in which middle and high school students are mentors to students in the elementary division. As this website focuses on elementary students, think about having your upper elementary students be buddies for your younger students. When your students gain some degree of fluency in their understanding and application of the Character Strengths, start designing a curriculum as a class. Before and after each mentoring session, make time to plan for and reflect on the interactions. One source for lesson ideas is the Wellness @ ES website. :)

• Mind Maps - Students work to build their understanding by first listing all of the strengths as nodes. They then add branches to add notes, images, videos, etc., that offer examples of their understanding of each strength. Besides building an understanding of each strength, students can also construct a mind map that shows their application of the strengths. They can add branches describing the ways they engage each strength. You can create mind maps through mind-mapping apps, websites, or paper. At the end of the school year, students can review their understanding of the strengths and examples of engagement for self-reflection and possibly create a project to communicate their "living" of the strengths.  

• Mission Statements - We work to embed our school mission statement and core values into the culture of our classrooms. There are a few ways to bring Character Strengths into this process. One is to do your regular school mission/values integration activities to add the prompt, "how can we exercise/practice our Character Strengths to help us further live the mission and core values?". The class can brainstorm supporting actions and strengths to post them in the classroom. A second approach could be to develop a class mission statement. You can design how this process would work depending on the age of your students. Here is a Family Mission Statement development document that you can adapt to your needs. Hopefully, it can provide some strategies to design your step-by-step process for introducing the term "values" to provide guidance, help build understanding, and write your mission statement. It is one thing to come up with class community values, but the main objective is to have our students live them. Thus, take a close look at the Meeting Three> Values to Actions of the Family Mission Statement document to work with the guiding question of "What do we do that shows we are living these values?". The students can further unpack which actions they can take to live the mission and values. Character Strengths come into play when students see how they can exercise specific ones in support of the class mission and values. Another approach is to have students create their personal mission statements. Draw on the activities you use for your class mission statement to apply them on an individual level. A further integration approach is to have the students periodically reflect and record their efforts via their portfolios (e.g., SeeSaw with written or audio recording reflections along with photos and drawings of the supporting actions). This process offers the opportunity to introduce the term "personal code" to your students (i.e., what is the personal code that you live by?). The themes running through these activities are self-reflection and self-understanding, agency, and follow-through as individuals and as a community. 

• "Painting the Picture" - Draw on the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to give your students opportunities to visualize (i.e., make their thinking and experiences visible) their understanding of the Character Strengths and to show examples of how they are currently exercising them. Give them choices in how they want to represent their understanding and descriptions (e.g., drawing, story-telling, skits, etc.)

• Personal Planner - Read a blog post outlining some ideas on how student planners can support learning not only around the strengths but also in other areas. 

• Personal Wellness Plan - Adapt this wellness plan template with language and strategies that work best for your students. Look to have your students connect their plans to their portfolios. Then use the portfolio during the school year to build in self-reflection writing times for the students to report on how they are doing in implementing their plan.

• Professional Learning Communities (PLC) - Just as teaching teams share new learning and strategies that work regarding teaching reading, writing, math, etc., look to schedule time in team meetings to share what is working regarding wellness instruction. Also, periodically structure meetings for grade-level teams to share their wellness integration strategies that work well with other grade levels. Your Wellness Team Lead can plan for and facilitate these sharing sessions. 

• Podcasts - There are a few approaches to using podcasts as a learning tool for your students. One approach is for the teachers to design and record a full menu of short recordings to build a foundational understanding of PERMAH, the Character Strengths, and other aspects of your wellness program (i.e., sleep hygiene, healthy diet, exercise...). Take a listen to the Strengths Spotlight series from the Institute of Positive Education as a model directed at educators that you can refine for younger students (i.e., think "junior version"). Then look to offer short episodes on activities, hacks, and other application strategies to help students apply their learning. Another source of podcast creation can be high school students. Teachers can connect with older students to draw on their engagement with the high school wellness program to collaborate in designing and producing podcasts for our elementary students. This project-based learning opportunity puts our high schools in multiple roles drawing on various skills to produce the podcast learning projects. Students need to complete projects for their Creativity - Activity - Service (CAS) requirements. Once your students have the foundational and application knowledge, a second approach is to give them the real-world opportunity to design and create their own wellness podcast recordings. This shift to students as teachers is a prime learning strategy across all subject areas. 

• Portfolios - Portfolios can be leveraged to support the delivery of wellness (healthy living) guidelines, learning activities and responses, reflection opportunities, goal-setting, etc. Prompt parents to interact with their child's portfolio wellness posts to deepen their engagement in their child's wellness and potentially the entire family's wellness. Students add entries and artifacts of living their strengths. A vital component of the portfolio can be the "strength profile" section. The strength profile is where students have a graphic organizer listing their signature, phasic, and lesser strengths. A helpful connection is to bring in the WOOP goal-setting tool for students to plan how they will engage with their strengths during the coming school year. Students can use a tagging system when they add artifacts and reflections to their portfolio (ex., #creativity #curiosity #permahaccomplishment). Tagging allows for easy access to see specific strength entries over time. Portfolios also provide a natural formative and summative assessment tool. 

• Role Plays for Collaborative Synergy - Teacher and student created scenarios of the strengths and PERMAH pillars in action to be acted out. The class can work from "just in time" scenarios when students bring them to the class (e.g., feeling frustrated about grades, wanting to move further into their stretch zone, wanting to strengthen friendships, etc.) The class can develop a list of topics and situations to synergize together as to which strengths and PERMAH pillars to engage within to best handle each scenario.  

• Self-Assessment/Personal Profile - We teach our students to pause and reflect when they are in difficult situations that sometimes include uncomfortable feelings. We teach them to apply the RULER Approach to emotional regulation (see Emotional Intelligence strength for more information). We can also teach them in a Positive Psychology fashion to stop from time to time to reflect on how they are doing and which Character Strengths they are engaging. They can, of course, use this protocol when things are not going well. In any case, the point is for the student to understand which strengths are in play and, in some cases, which other strengths they can exercise to enhance the situation. One way to support self-reflection and understanding is to use the Personal Profile - All About Me worksheet. Students can work on it independently with their parents, or you can follow the directions to start the process by having partners interview each other. 

• Self-Esteem - So where does helping our students grow their self-esteem fit in with their Character Strengths? Broadly speaking, when children (and adults) engage their strengths, they can feel the agency of action and the confidence that comes with applying their strengths. Feeling nurtured with a positive self-image furthers one's self-understanding and confidence. Here is an in-depth article including strategies that you can adapt into your classroom practices and set lessons to support the growth of self-esteem in your students. 

• Shadow Side - There are times when we can overuse our strengths. Using the term "shadow side" can help students deepen their understanding of the strengths and how to apply them. There are also not-so-great times and places for engaging some of our strengths. An example of overuse is when one can be too proactive, always thinking about and planning for the future. This can lead to being less present, leading to missing out on opportunities for spontaneity. Humor can be tricky, especially when emotional and social intelligence strengths are also in play. This concept needs discussion fitting the developmental stage of understanding for your students. Learn more from this video from the University of Pennsylvania. 

• Strength Unpacking Questions - Adapt this list of questions to help your students deepen their understanding of the Character Strengths.

• Strength of the Day - At the start of the day, students choose one Character Strength they want to focus on to use throughout the day. Students choose a partner or two who check in on each other's efforts during the day. Provide time for students to reflect on their efforts and learning with their partner(s). An additional reflection activity could be to have students add a journal entry to the wellness section of their portfolio or standalone journal.  

• Strength Spotting - Students, teachers, and parents look for strengths in those around them. Design a protocol or two for students to report their sightings with an explanation of their analysis. You could have a "strengths wall" with icons and definitions of each strength. To the side could be a tray of student photos and note cards. When students spot strengths in their classmates, they go to the wall to pin a photo of the student with the strength. They then write a sentence or two on the card describing the strength in action to pin it under the photo. 

Three steps to make the most of your strength spotting> (Source)

• Label - Name the strength you notice. * What do you observe?

• Explain - Explain your observation. * What were they doing when you noticed the strength?

• Appreciate - Express appreciation/affirmation. * Why do you value that strength's expression?

One tool for sharing not only about strengths is to designate a place for students to share. Think about designing a sharing spot in the front of the class or having a raised chair labeled "the sharing chair." You can build in the ritual of good listening skills, using the SLANT technique to reinforce attentive listening and good speaking skills. 

The See-Think-Wonder thinking routine can help in introducing individual Character Strengths. Load up a slideshow with images of the strengths in action. Have your students go through the process of first describing the image to then share the ideas that come into their minds as they point out the strength. Apply the wonder step by asking questions such as "where might we see this strength in action...how might this strength connect to other strengths? Which PERMAH pillar might this strength support?". Here is a sample STW lesson for K-1. 

Support strength awareness with the term "strength blocking," as in what might prevent the students from fully engaging in some of their strengths. Dr. Lea Waters says, "A blocked strength can cause a strong emotional response. When we can't live a way that feels wrong, and we get angry." ⁶ Use a mind map approach for older students to list the blocked strength at the center node of the diagram. Then prompt them with questions to brainstorm possible causes for the blockage. The next step might be to analyze each barrier to list ways they can overcome them. 

• Strength Coaching - Use this planning template to coach students to exercise their strengths in new ways. The class comes together to list potential Character Strengths and how to employ them within specific PERMAH pillars to help the students prepare for and fully engage in their tryout effort. Students can work with a partner to complete the template, sharing ideas on how each partner can exercise their Character Strengths. An example might be a couple of students trying out for the school play or an athletic team. An offshoot of this can be a "just in time" whole-class approach to coach each other, whether in overcoming a present struggle or opportunity or in reaching long-term personal growth goals. 

• Thinking Routines - Go to the Thinking Routines page of this site dedicated to applying the routines as prime integration strategies. You can also find some of the thinking routines as integration strategies on this site's individual Character Strength pages. 

• Wellness App - Go to town to work with your MS/HS coding students to design your very own school wellness app that supports your wellness mission and learning outcomes. Here is a bare-bones prototype example that I worked with a student to develop. And here is a mock-up of a health app designed by a university student to paint the picture a bit more. Working with MS/HS students to design and create a school wellness app is a significant ask. Still, the provided scaffolding for learning, community building (i.e., having wellness partners), and personal growth opportunities of having an app are immense. Talk about a real-world project-based learning opportunity for your student coders - wow!

• WELL Class - We often start the year by having students set personal goals around academics, health, interests, etc. One can engage WOOP to help with the goal-setting process. To go the next step on wellness, the class can use PERMAH to list strategies and Character Strengths within each pillar that they will "exercise" throughout the year to be more "well" as a class. 

• Wellness Lead - Designate a member of your grade level or specialist team as the Team Wellness Lead. The team lead collaborates with the wellness coach to review and further develop the activities offered on this website to choose the most applicable ones for micro (i.e., everyday class culture) and macro (i.e., unit of study) integration. If there is interest by the team, the team lead can also work with the wellness coach to individualize the team building activities at the Team Wellness page of this website to best meet the needs of the grade level and specialist teams. 

• Wellness Partners - How about introducing the term "wellness partnering" (i.e., coaching) as a technique that students can apply to support each other using their knowledge of the Character Strengths? In applying this strategy, students will need lots of time and practice with their strengths of Emotional and social intelligence strengths to be helpful partners. Active listening lessons can be a good starting place to help students see themselves as coaches. As you design and implement this strategy, one helpful approach can be the act of students partnering to complete the Self-Assessment/Personal Profile strategy. Partners can engage their creativity, emotional and social intelligences strengths to write wellness prescriptions together for each other at the moment with responsive needs and long-term goals. They can also collaborate to help write a specific wellness prescription to be proactive in preparation for upcoming events. (see below for more information).  

• Wellness Prescription Writing - Your students probably don't know what a doctor's prescription pad is, so the first step will be to teach them what it is. The next step for classroom integration is to develop ways to have students write wellness prescriptions for themselves, possibly their wellness partners, and the class as a whole when they see a need. You can print out your class-designed wellness prescription pad that can be as simple as just having "Wellness Prescription" at the top, or you can build in some scaffolding with PERMAH and Character Strengths listed with check boxes that need to be applied. Depending upon the age of your students, you might include a checkbox that includes consultation with you. Prescription writing can be a very sticky tool/idea in your student's minds as they can call out responsively to just-in-time/need class events to state, "we need to write a wellness prescription for this!". 

• Wellness Profile - We often start the school year with students completing an "All About Me" graphic profile organizer (see the Self-Assessment/Personal Profile strategy in this list) to help build foundational self-understanding. Once you feel your students have a good understanding of PERMAH and the Character Strengths, you can go the next step by adapting this organizer for the age of your students. Whatever wellness profile organizer you develop can be embedded into student portfolios or as a part of a school wellness app. The app could offer a documentation tool for students to add artifacts of their wellness efforts. An end-of-the-year reflection activity is to have your students rewrite their wellness profiles. Include a written reflection section in which they explain how their profile changed over the school year. They should include specific examples of actions taken on their part. Consider including time for students to choose one or more PERMAH pillars they are engaged to share with the class. You can pass this information on to the following year's teachers to further their understanding of their new students. 

• Wellness Time - Like Google, 20% time, have a wellness-oriented independent research project creation time for students to learn more about some of the Character Strengths of their choice to then have some finishing artifact/project to share with the class. 

• Wellness Toolkit - Build lessons to introduce and embed this toolkit symbol of wellness into your class culture. Use phrases such as "there are times when we need to reach into our wellness toolkit to find tools to repair our wellness or to keep growing our wellness even when we are fine. We want to be using tools from our wellness toolkit to consistently build wellness into our lives. Each of the Character Strengths represents the tools in our wellness toolkit ". One ongoing lesson could be to have an image of a toolkit on the wall. As you teach lessons introducing each of the Character Strengths, you assign a student or two to draw their rendition of the Character Strength tool, which they would put on the wall beside the toolkit. When there are future teachable moments with struggles or growth opportunities for your class, you could ask your students which tools would be most helpful to best handle the current situation. Once the students choose the tools, you could take them off the wall and place them on your whiteboard to begin the brainstorming session on how to use them for the situation. Remember that a primary focus of Positive Psychology is to help us thrive, moving us forward from our present state. Thus, look to access the class wellness toolkit, not just when there are problems. Look to engage with it proactively when there are opportunities to maximize upcoming activities such as field trips, celebrations, unit project work, etc. And, of course, engage the toolkit for everyday activities like lining up to transition to specialist classes, making the most of recess, working with a partner and a group, etc. 

• Working with Weakness Using the Three Ps - This strategy comes directly from the Strength Switch book (pp. 269 - 274) by Dr. Lea Waters. The previous prime strategies follow a more constructive engagement of the strengths approach. Yet, as Dr. Waters points out, there are times when we need to coach our students "to confront weaknesses head-on." (p. 269) The Three Ps are Priming - Present Moment - Postmortem. 

  • Priming> You communicate with your students that they are about to face a situation when their weaknesses will come into play. Your discussion involves asking them to reflect and consider which Character Strengths they can apply while simultaneously acknowledging potentially uncomfortable feelings that may arise (e.g., anxiety, nervousness, fear). Emotion Coaching can be an additional strategy to engage. Dr. Waters advises the parent/teacher to go for some easy win practice situations to give the student experience dealing with their weakness(es).  

  • Present Moment> Two Levels- Level One of mindfulness is being ready in the moment to cite the possibility of the weakness(es) coming into play. Level Two is jumping right into the moment of potential weakness to coach the student through it. 

  • Postmortem> Take time after the event to help the student analyze what happened and devise steps and strategies to practice in preparation for the next time. Over time, the student builds the habit of exercising their emotional intelligence, proactivity, and self-control strengths to the point that the weakness(es) are no longer in play. :)

¹ Pang, D., & Ruch, W. (2019). Fusing character strengths and mindfulness interventions: Benefits for job satisfaction and performance. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 24(1), 150–162.

² “Chapter 2: Assess Your Strengths.” The Strengths-Based Workbook for Stress Relief: a Character Strengths Approach to Finding Calm in the Chaos of Daily Life, by Ryan M. Niemiec and Neal H. Mayerson, New Harbinger Publications, Inc., 2019, p. 29. 

³ “Chapter 2: Assess Your Strengths.” The Strengths-Based Workbook for Stress Relief: a Character Strengths Approach to Finding Calm in the Chaos of Daily Life, by Ryan M. Niemiec and Neal H. Mayerson, New Harbinger Publications, Inc., 2019, p. 45.

⁴ The Strength Switch: How the New Science of Strength-Based Parenting Helps Your Child and Your Teen Flourish, by Lea Waters, Scribe Publications, 2018, p. 65.

⁵ The Strength Switch: How the New Science of Strength-Based Parenting Helps Your Child and Your Teen Flourish, by Lea Waters, Scribe Publications, 2018, p. 88.

⁶ Character Lab

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