Sunteți pe pagina 1din 7

The Temperament God Gave you

The concept of temperament has a long and venerable tradition within Catholic spirituality and moral theology. The temperamentscholeric, melancholic, sanguine, and phlegmaticwere originally proposed 350 years before Christ, to explain differences in personality according to the humors, or bodily fluids. And after more than two thousand years of intervening medical and psychological advancement, the concept of the classic four divisions itself is still referenced by contemporary psychologist, educators, and spiritual writers.

Why to know the temperaments?


Temperaments are part of our human nature and they can influence our personality, our motivations, our lives. It is important how our individual temperament affects us and how best to work with its particular strengths and weaknesses to form ourselves both humanly and spiritually.

Be Careful!
Remember that temperaments never tell the whole story. Understanding temperament does not mean we now have a handy label to slap on people and does not mean we now have a handy label to slap on others. Our temperament should never be used as an excuse for bad behavior.

Self-knowledge is a virtue that St. Teresa of Avila said must never be neglected: Selfknowledge is so important that, even if you were raised right up to the heavens, I should like you never to relax your cultivation of it. By better understanding ourselves and our loved ones, we will be able to improve ourselves and grow in our spiritual lives, and help our children and spouses to become successful and holy individuals as well.

What is Temperament?
Know thyself, and thy faults, and thus live. St. Augustine It is native personality, and that alone, that endows a man to stand before presidents of generals, or in any distinguished collection, with aplomband not culture, or any knowledge or intellect whatever. Walt Whitman

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have been born:
neat, while others leave a tornado in their wake? Upbeat and optimistic, their glass half full, wile others seem to be enveloped in a black cloud, their glass always half empty? For some, no passing thought goes unexpressed, while others need to weigh every word. Some people view every statement of opinion as a declaration of war, yet others seem to be able to shrug off major insults without skipping a beat?

Temperament is the answer


We are born with a basic temperament, which is the sum of our natural preferences; it shapes our thoughts, ideas, impressions, and the way we tend to react to our environment and to other people. It is our predisposition to react in certain ways, hardwired in us. It is not learned or acquired through contact with our environment. It is not a product of childhood trauma or repressed memories. In a word, it is nature, as distinguished from nurture.

S-ar putea să vă placă și