Positive Psychology The New Science of Happiness, Resilience and Well Being

1. Positive PsychologyThe New Science of Happiness, Resilience and Well Being

2. What is Positive Psychology? • The psychology of what makes life worth living. • Focuses on mental health rather than mental illness. • Empowering people to develop a positive state of mind – to live the most rewarding and happiest lives they can – is just as important as repairing weaknesses and healing pathologies.

3. "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise, which achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in individuals, families, and communities."Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHUFmBKeajM&feature=related

4. Psychologist Setting Martin Seligman University of Pennsylvania Sonja Lyubormirsky University of California Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Claremont University Michael Frisch Baylor University

5. Scientific Study of Resilience and Happiness What Qualities and Characteristics Contribute to Resilience, Happiness and Well Being?

6. GratitudeOptimismResilience

7. Practicing Gratitude and Positive Thinking Based on “The How of Happiness” by Sonja Lyubomirsky

8. Practicing Gratitude and Positive Thinking Expressing Gratitude Cultivating Optimism Avoiding Overthinking and Social Comparisons

10. What Determines Happiness?

11. This Means That… Up to 40% of your happiness is up to YOU!

12. The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire • This is a good way to get a snapshot of your current level of happiness. • Are you surprised by your score? • Is your score lower or higher than you expected?

13. Defining Gratitude What does it mean to be a grateful person? • Wonder • Appreciation • Positivity despite a major setback in life • Fathoming abundance • Thanking an important person in your life • Thanking God and counting your blessings • Recognizing the simple pleasures in life

14. Gratitude and Happiness • It can be an antidote to negative emotions • Robert Emmons, a psychologist primarily interested in the psychology of gratitude – “felt sense of wonder, thankfulness, and appreciation for life.” • Focusing on the present moment, on appreciating your life as it is today and what has made it so. • The more a person is grateful, the less likely he or she is to be depressed, lonely, envious, or neurotic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFc5-nEUdfs&feature=related

15. Eight Ways that Gratitude Boosts Happiness 1. Grateful thinking promotes the savoring of positive life experiences. - Live your life in the present moment - Take pleasure in some of the gifts of your life. - Don’t allow yourself to get lost in your thoughts throughout the day. - Try to really focus on what you’re doing each and every moment.

16. Eight Ways that Gratitude Boosts Happiness 2. Expressing gratitude encourages self-worth and self-esteem. - Don’t focus on the failures and disappointments in your life. - Think your accomplishments - Think of the people who genuinely value you and your presence. - Consider what you value about your current life - This mindset will lead you to higher self-esteem and more confidence.

17. Eight Ways that Gratitude Boosts Happiness 3. Gratitude helps people cope with stress and trauma. - Positively reinterpret stressful experiences. - Traumatic memories are less likely to occur and are less intense when they do. - People instinctively express gratitude when confronted with adversity. FACT: In the days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, gratitude was found to be the second most commonly experienced emotion (after sympathy).

18. Eight Ways that Gratitude Boosts Happiness 4. The expression of gratitude encourages moral behavior. Grateful people are more likely to help others. They become aware of kind and caring acts and feel compelled to reciprocate.

19. Eight Ways that Gratitude Boosts Happiness 5. Gratitude can help build social bonds, by strengthening existing relationships and nurturing new ones. - People who feel gratitude toward another person (even when they never directly express it) experience close and “high-quality” relationships with them. * Keep a gratitude journal! It can produce feelings of greater connectedness with others. *

20. Eight Ways that Gratitude Boosts Happiness 6. Expressing gratitude tends to inhibit undesirable comparisons with others. If you are genuinely thankful for what you have (e.g., family, health, home), you are less likely to pay close attention to or envy what others have.

21. Eight Ways that Gratitude Boosts Happiness 7. The practice of gratitude is incompatible with negative emotions - Diminishes feelings of: - anger - bitterness - greed

22. Eight Ways that Gratitude Boosts Happiness 8. Gratitude helps us to continually recognize the good things in our life. - As you accumulate more possessions and accomplishments, your expectations rise. - Gratitude helps you make a conscious effort to be grateful for all good things in your life, without becoming bored and unhappy with what you have. “Adaptation to all things positive is essentially the enemy of happiness…” argues Lyubomirsky

23. Practicing Gratitude • If you’ve learned throughout this lesson that the method of expressing gratitude fits you best, then select at least one activity from the options below.

24. Practicing Gratitude 1. Gratitude Journal • Take a few minutes to step outside your life and to reflect. • Think about 3-5 things for which you are currently grateful, little or big. Include specific people. • Do this once a week to boost happiness! • Determine the ideal timing to your lifestyle and disposition. • Once a day, twice a week, once every 2 weeks - it’s all effective, but you need to practice!

25. Practicing Gratitude 2. Paths to Gratitude • Expressing and practicing gratitude will depend on your individual personality, goals, and needs. • Choose a fixed time simply to contemplate each of your objects of gratitude and to reflect on why you are grateful and how your life has been enriched. • Prayer - thank God for the life He has given you.

26. Practicing Gratitude 2. Paths to Gratitude • Identify one thing each day that you usually take for granted and that ordinarily goes unappreciated. • Acknowledge one ungrateful thought per day and substitute it with a grateful one. • Have a gratitude partner with whom you can share your blessings list. Encourage each other!

27. Practicing Gratitude 3. Keep the Strategy Fresh • Whichever gratitude activity you choose to practice, be sure to keep it exciting and fresh by varying it and not over-practicing it. • When the strategy loses its freshness or meaningfulness, don’t hesitate to make a change in how, when, and how often you express yourself.

28. Practicing Gratitude 4. Express Gratitude Directly to Another • Express your appreciation for someone by phone, letter, or face-to-face. • Write him or her a letter, and if possible, visit and read the letter out loud in person, on either a special day (birthday, anniversary, holiday) or a random one. • Describe in detail what he or she did for you and exactly how it affected your life; mention how you often remember his or her efforts.

29. Recap • Up to 40% of your life happiness is determined by your intentional behavior. • Gratitude is one of many ways to boost your overall happiness