Nechema Tec’s Character Traits of Heroes
Nechema Tec was a Holocaust survivor who spent her career studying why people had helped others during the Holocaust despite the risk to themselves and their families.
Her focus was on altruism. Altruism is an act that we choose despite the risk to ourselves in order to promote someone else’s welfare.
These are the Five Qualities of Altruism (AKA: The Stuff that Makes Heroes)
Individuality - they felt unique and seperate from others
Independence - comfortable with acting alone, strong self reliance, deep need to follow their personal beliefs and values (acting on the values, instead of spouting as proof of goodness)
History of Altruism - strong values and a history of acting on them, with a focus on the idea of protecting the needy
Modesty about Acts of Rescue - they view helping others as a natural thing to do. (As opposed to turning away and ignoring the issue.)
Spontaneity - when confronted with an opportunity to take action against an unjust status quo, they choose to take actoin
Unversalism/Empathy - the need to act against the evil and the unjust treatment
So how does dealing with trauma and healing through trauma grow these traits?
Again - we are not saying trauma was good, and we are not saying that character growth was why you needed to go through a bad thing.
But using the monomyth’s journey you should be able to see a pattern. And I’ll go through that pattern next week.
Mostly I just want you to be familiar with the character traits of heroes.
For more details, see my original post: Character Traits of Hero
You may not feel like a hero, but your empathy, healing skills and leadership in the aftermath and process of healing from whatever injured you, mark you as a person who has these capabilities and there will come a point when you will find your people and your cause, teaming up to do great things.
Perpetual Disclaimer for this series:
I am not a counselor or a mental health professional. I am going to attempt to avoid things which will cause alarm or harm, but I can't know what will trigger each individual. If you need to speak to a mental health professional please know that there are resources available.
Your stories are amazing!
Chronic Writer