Positive Psychology
What is Positive Psychology?
Positive psychology focuses on how to help human beings prosper and lead healthy, happy lives.
While most branches of psychology tend to focus on dysfunction and abnormal behaviour, positive psychology is centred on helping people become happier.
Positive psychology began as a new domain of psychology in 1998 when Martin Seligman chose it as the theme for his term as president of the American Psychological Association.
It is a reaction against past practises, which have tended to focus on mental illness and emphasized maladaptive behaviour and negative thinking.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi popularized the concept of positive psychology, an offshoot of clinical psychology that crafted new, positively focused interventions.
It emphasizes the positive influences in a person’s life.
Positive psychology represents a commitment to the sources of psychological wellness, such as positive emotions, positive experiences, positive environments, and human strengths and virtues (Lyubomirsky, 2007).
What is the focus of positive psychology?
Positive Psychology Interventions (PPIs) are intentional activities that aim to boost wellbeing, enhance positive feelings, behaviours, or cognitions, Sin and Lyubomirsky (2009).
These can include…
- Enhancing well-being and alleviating depressive symptoms with positive psychology interventions.
- Understanding positive individual traits consists of the study of the strengths and virtues, such as the capacity for love and work, courage, compassion, resilience, creativity, curiosity, integrity, self-knowledge, moderation, self-control, and wisdom.
- The aim is to focus, expand and leverage on positive (life) experiences, positive emotions, experiencing optimism as well as gratitude about your past, contentment in the present, and hope for the future.
- Engagement, or achieving flow with enjoyable activities and hobbies. Relationship, or forming social connections with family and friends.
Find out how Satori Self Development can help you overcome internal conflicts with Positive Psychology. Call now to find out more – Vittoria 0407 906 999 or Achim 0473 913 873
How Satori Self Development helps you with positive psychology
At Satori Self Development, we believe that despite a great deal of adversity and a multitude of demands in everyday living, the use of positive psychology as a support mechanism can be considered. It is critical to point out to our clients that they have qualities, abilities they may have forgotten about while being caught up in overwhelm or confusion.
The more positive aspects might include character strengths, optimistic emotions, and constructive qualities such as: strengths, resilience, motivation for example.
Positive psychology caters to the strengths of the individual which may be underutilised because of having spent prolonged periods of time in a state of subdued engagement, frustration, helplessness, and lacking confidence.
Positive psychology is used to remind our clients to regain and revisit their beneficial quality traits. The focus is to bring forward the positives (character strengths) of our lived (past) experience.
Such qualities are still in our memory and available to us.
It allows for more optimistic views and a brighter outlook about life. This lays the foundation for a future path with choices and possibilities.
Rigidity and limitations are left behind, flexibility and adaptability open the doors to creativity, curiosity, engagement which promotes a state of well-being, and emotional resilience.
It is a reminder that positive, lived experiences can promote greater resilience and an openness toward ongoing future changes which leaves you better equipped to:
- Face life’s obstacles, making the best of setbacks and hardship.
- Engage with and relate to others.
- Discover fulfilment in creativity and productivity.
- Positive thinking, positive emotions, and positive behaviours.
I truly believe that mental health is the key to living your life to its fullest. I had however always placed the skill of ‘practicing meditation’ in my too hard basket.
After participating in the workshop with Achim and Vittoria, I now have the confidence to use at any time the gift of using my own breath to take me to a place of calm & clarity.
My preconception of a skill that was too hard is now simplified into a few simple steps to set myself up both before during and then after meditation to ensure I reap the benefits.
It is a relief to know that by using my own breath I can unclutter my mind creating space and energy for me to make good choices for a healthy & happy life.
I have always appreciated what I have, however I could never draw on this to bounce back quickly from life’s setbacks.
After the discussions with Achim & Vittoria about the history of Buddhism, and meditation along with the science of how the mind works. I now get the connection between gratitude and resilience. I enjoy using the strength I receive from being grateful to enjoy all that my life is including all the messy bits.
Enjoy your time with such lovely people with great gifts to share. Ann