MODULE 8 - THE ROLE OF CONNECTEDNESS AND POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY |
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Objectives:
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IMPORTANT TERMS
Flourishing
Hopelessness
Positive Psychology
- A combination of social, emotional and psychological well-being. Consistent with the WHO’s mental health description: “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stressors of life, and work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community” (WHO)
- “meaning and purpose, supportive and rewarding relationships, engaged and interested in contributing to the well-being of others, competency, self-acceptance, optimism and being respected.” (Diener, et.al) (Eraslan-Capan, 2016)
Hopelessness
- “Thought process that comprises a pessimistic way of ascribing the future, and one’s inability to change what the future brings. It is one’s thinking of adverse events and incapability of changing the future.”
- “The lesson is that in the pursuit of our best life, positive relationships and social support are absolutely necessary.” -Darren Morton
Positive Psychology
- Martin Seligman, father of positive psychology, is one of the leading researchers in the field of psychology . He worked for 14 years focusing on topics around positive psychology, resilience, optimism, learned helplessness, depression and pessimism. He defined optimism as “looking at misfortunes and defeat as a temporary setback or challenge.”
- During the world war II, psychology had been focused on fixing the negative aspects of behavior and experiences that contributed to mental health illnesses. Martin Seligman and his colleagues began to focus on what was good and pleasant. He found out that the most satisfied people are those that made use of their signature strengths that could enable them to one live a pleasant, good and meaningful life.
- “Use your signature strengths and virtues in the service of something much larger than you are.” -Martin Seligman (2002, p. 263) (Seligman, 2018)
positive psychology
Positive psychology focuses on one’s strength rather than one’s weakness and builds on the best things in life. It is the contentment and satisfaction of the past, the flow in the present and hope and optimism for the future. Mental health is much more than just the absence of mental illness and leads to greater achievement, lower depression rates and better physical health.
The use of positive psychology has a direct impact on the body’s emotional, physical, mental and social well-being and can indirectly influence how we maintain and sustain our healthy behaviors for good health.
Positive emotions create a non-conscious and increased motivation for wellness behavior and positivity lights the path to sustained behavior change. In order for one to flourish, the positive to negative ratio should be >3:1.
The pillars of positive psychology includes having 3 Components for Happiness
Additional Reference Video Review
The use of positive psychology has a direct impact on the body’s emotional, physical, mental and social well-being and can indirectly influence how we maintain and sustain our healthy behaviors for good health.
Positive emotions create a non-conscious and increased motivation for wellness behavior and positivity lights the path to sustained behavior change. In order for one to flourish, the positive to negative ratio should be >3:1.
The pillars of positive psychology includes having 3 Components for Happiness
- Positive emotions, “feeling good” the ability to be happy and optimistic of the past, present and future. It involves living a pleasant life with positive experiences that can help foster good relationships that help sustain a healthy habit. This is really crucial because it helps people go through life’s challenges by being optimistic about the eventual outcome of events. e.g. Joy, comfort, happiness
- Engagement, “finding flow”, fully aware of the present that stretches ones intelligence, skill or emotional capability. It refers to doing tasks at hand that one finds pleasurable while being absorbed to it using ones discovered unique signature strengths in their work or task, relationship and hobbies. What is flow? Being engaged in activities one finds enjoyable. It helps us to be in the present and in the process floods the body with positive neurotransmitters and hormones that elevate one’s sense of well-being. When time “flies by” during an activity, it is because the people involved were experiencing this sense of engagement. Examples include playing a musical instrument, doing a hobby like crocheting, painting, dancing, working on an interesting project, being creative, etc. Recraft your life, your love, your play, your friendship, your work to the best of its abilities so as to derive more flow and thus enhance ones intelligence, skills and emotional capabilities.
- Relationships “authentic connections” with family members, friends, colleagues, peers are important in fostering a meaningful life. Having positive connections with other human beings help one thrive emotionally and physically. We are social beings that need to bond and depend on other human beings. Having deep and meaningful relationships provide support in difficult times that require resilience. Social isolation and loneliness increases one’s risk in developing cardiovascular events including heart disease by 29% and 32% for stroke, and it is associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicide. (CDC, 2020)
- Meaning “purposeful existence” Having a purpose is a gateway to a life full of meaning and zest. If one is able to identify his highest signature strengths and use them to something larger than oneself, it can provide meaning to one’s life. It has shown to be more important for decreasing risk of death compared to drinking, smoking or having regular exercise. This is the “biggest driver for well-being,” according to Alan Rozanski. Religion and spirituality also play a big role in this aspect. People without a strong life purpose had 2x the risk of dying compared to those who have a strong life purpose. The relationship of having a low level of purpose in life and death was the same whether one is rich or poor, regardless of gender, race or educational level. (Gordon, 2019)
- Achievement “a sense of accomplishment” Working on something with realistic goals can give life satisfaction and something to look forward to that can give one a sense of pride, fulfillment and satisfaction. Having accomplishments in life is important to keep us going, thrive and eventually flourish.
Additional Reference Video Review
- Seligman Discuss his PERMA model
APPLICATION OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Positive psychology is a key intervention in behavior change therapy. We screen, diagnose and refer to mental health when appropriate and employing positive psychology activities and behavioral change counselling in all stages of the transtheoretical model of change along with MI in the precontemplation and contemplation and CBT in the preparation, action and maintenance.
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is an approach for motivating change and enhancing well-being that focuses on exploring and amplifying the best in a person or situation. AI uses the patient’s strengths and imagine possibilities to go through and be above of their problem instead of looking at their weaknesses and trying to fix what is broken. This is a valuable coaching tool for discovering one’s best while building positive emotions. There are five principles of appreciative inquiry (Jung): (Arnold, 2017)
The Positive Principle
Positive emotions and positive energy propels one for transformational change by broadening one’s thinking, expanding awareness, increasing abilities, building resilience, generating new possibilities, and creating an upward spiral of learning and growth. If we identify, acknowledge and amplify ones strengths, individuals will be more creative and motivated to make solutions that propel them to make sustainable change.
The Constructionist Principle
Positive emotions and energy can be derived from positive conversations and interactions leading to positive actions and outcomes. Our interaction with other people make us create realities in the world we live in. We create the world we live in and we see it through our unique lenses based on our experience, beliefs, values, traditions and predictions. (reality is co-created). Not only do we construct our own reality but we can also reconstruct it. This principle invites us to grow self-awareness.
The Simultaneity Principle
This principle acknowledges that when we are genuinely curious, ask positive and powerful questions, the question themselves will set the direction and direct our thinking and action. "What is the best thing that happened to you today?" can be a useful question to ask. Positive conversations and interactions stem from positive questions that will allow one to have a positive conversation or tell a positive story.
The Anticipatory Principle
When we believe it, we see it. Positive questions and reflections stem from positive anticipation of the future.
The more positive and hopeful one see life is in the future, the more positive our present day action will be. Whatever we are anticipating, we are more likely to get it and our expectations could become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Having a clear image of success, the more likelihood that we are able to achieve it.
The Poetic Principle
What we focus on grows. Positive anticipation of the future stems from positive attention in the present.
This principle is about acknowledging that there are endless ways to interpret reality. Sometimes it is hard to identify what we want, instead of what we do not want. We tend to notice things that make us uncomfortable, then we know right away that we want less of it. But what we focus on, is our choice, and we should make the deliberate choice on the things we put our attention because that is what shapes our future.
Appreciative Inquiry is an important tool for energizing, motivating and mobilizing a client towards behavior change. It helps one envision that anything is possible and it can happen thereby increasing the patient’s self-esteem and self-efficacy making them think of the future, designing them in a positive way. Eliciting the patient’s best experiences, core values in the past and in the present increases the patient’s readiness, willingness and ability to move forward in the future.
This is a great place to start especially when the patient do not yet have a clear focus. We should know how to ask questions that will elicit positive visions that is related to their desired future. Such positive frame can dramatically accelerate the behavior change process. It is not enough to make SMART goals, but one should engage the patient’s desires and awaken one’s imagination in line with what they envision themselves to be.
The more creative their dreams are, the greater their energy for change will be. When they know what they want and can imagine their way of being in the world, they end up realizing that aspiration as they grow to be their best selves and making sustainable behavior change.
A powerful way to develop our AI muscle is to practice gratitude. This is not about ignoring challenges but trying to find lessons within them.
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is an approach for motivating change and enhancing well-being that focuses on exploring and amplifying the best in a person or situation. AI uses the patient’s strengths and imagine possibilities to go through and be above of their problem instead of looking at their weaknesses and trying to fix what is broken. This is a valuable coaching tool for discovering one’s best while building positive emotions. There are five principles of appreciative inquiry (Jung): (Arnold, 2017)
The Positive Principle
Positive emotions and positive energy propels one for transformational change by broadening one’s thinking, expanding awareness, increasing abilities, building resilience, generating new possibilities, and creating an upward spiral of learning and growth. If we identify, acknowledge and amplify ones strengths, individuals will be more creative and motivated to make solutions that propel them to make sustainable change.
The Constructionist Principle
Positive emotions and energy can be derived from positive conversations and interactions leading to positive actions and outcomes. Our interaction with other people make us create realities in the world we live in. We create the world we live in and we see it through our unique lenses based on our experience, beliefs, values, traditions and predictions. (reality is co-created). Not only do we construct our own reality but we can also reconstruct it. This principle invites us to grow self-awareness.
The Simultaneity Principle
This principle acknowledges that when we are genuinely curious, ask positive and powerful questions, the question themselves will set the direction and direct our thinking and action. "What is the best thing that happened to you today?" can be a useful question to ask. Positive conversations and interactions stem from positive questions that will allow one to have a positive conversation or tell a positive story.
The Anticipatory Principle
When we believe it, we see it. Positive questions and reflections stem from positive anticipation of the future.
The more positive and hopeful one see life is in the future, the more positive our present day action will be. Whatever we are anticipating, we are more likely to get it and our expectations could become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Having a clear image of success, the more likelihood that we are able to achieve it.
The Poetic Principle
What we focus on grows. Positive anticipation of the future stems from positive attention in the present.
This principle is about acknowledging that there are endless ways to interpret reality. Sometimes it is hard to identify what we want, instead of what we do not want. We tend to notice things that make us uncomfortable, then we know right away that we want less of it. But what we focus on, is our choice, and we should make the deliberate choice on the things we put our attention because that is what shapes our future.
Appreciative Inquiry is an important tool for energizing, motivating and mobilizing a client towards behavior change. It helps one envision that anything is possible and it can happen thereby increasing the patient’s self-esteem and self-efficacy making them think of the future, designing them in a positive way. Eliciting the patient’s best experiences, core values in the past and in the present increases the patient’s readiness, willingness and ability to move forward in the future.
This is a great place to start especially when the patient do not yet have a clear focus. We should know how to ask questions that will elicit positive visions that is related to their desired future. Such positive frame can dramatically accelerate the behavior change process. It is not enough to make SMART goals, but one should engage the patient’s desires and awaken one’s imagination in line with what they envision themselves to be.
The more creative their dreams are, the greater their energy for change will be. When they know what they want and can imagine their way of being in the world, they end up realizing that aspiration as they grow to be their best selves and making sustainable behavior change.
A powerful way to develop our AI muscle is to practice gratitude. This is not about ignoring challenges but trying to find lessons within them.
gratitude
Doing daily acts of gratitude can have a big impact on one's health and happiness. These effects are seen when daily practice of gratitude journaling is done. It only takes a few minutes each day but feeling good will give a lasting mood boost. A gratitude journal is a tool to keep track of the good things that is happening in your life. Even though how hard one’s life is, there is always something to be grateful for. This will also help recognize what they already have and illuminate it to help them make the most of it.
The benefits of a gratitude journal includes: (Courtney Ackerman, n.d.)
GRATITUDE JOURNAL PRESCRIPTION
The benefits of a gratitude journal includes: (Courtney Ackerman, n.d.)
- It makes you feel more balanced thus lower your stress levels.
- It makes you feel calmer especially at night because you now tend to notice that there are a lot of small good things that are already happening.
- It gives you a new perspective on what is important to you and what you truly appreciate in life.
- It make you see the good things in people, drawing you to the positivity of life.
- It clarifies what you want... what to have more in life, and what you can do without. It highlights your accomplishments no matter how small it is.
- It helps you find focus on what truly matters to by making you be more mindful.
- It helps you learn more about yourself and be more self-aware.
- It reminds you how things in life are interconnected and realize that the world is so much bigger, and you are grateful just to be a small part of it.
- It makes you write anything you feel without worrying about judgement from others.
- It reminds you of the good things in life when life becomes hard for you.
GRATITUDE JOURNAL PRESCRIPTION
- Write in your gratitude journal 5-10 things you are grateful for, every night 15 minutes at bedtime for 1 month.
- Tips: Starting this new practice may be difficult to do at first especially if you are not used to journaling lest trying to see the good things. It can be overwhelming or be a highly emotional experience but as you go along, you will see how the above will benefit your life.
- Task: Tell someone something that you are truly thankful for and excited about.
- Write a gratitude journal for a month and record your experience.
HAPPINES
“Happiness does not heal, but happiness protects against falling ill. As a result, happy people live longer. One mechanism to this is that chronic unhappiness causes stress, which in turn reduces the immune system.” (Veenhoven, 2008)
In a study done by a researcher and psychiatrist Robert Waldinger on one of the longest studies of adult life, it showed that having good relationships keep us happier and healthier while loneliness kills. It also concluded that:
Studies done by Cohen showed that there is a clear link between mood and health. The immune system functions more effectively in happy people than when they are depressed due to higher levels of natural killer cells. Happier people tend to get less sick and complain less when they are sick. They resist infection better due to their stronger immune response. Many health behaviors are related to happiness, hope and optimism.
Happier people tend to eat healthier, exercise more and develop healthy habits, while unhappy people are more likely to die from lung cancer and liver disease because because of the tendency to smoke and drink alcohol. Stress and unhappiness age our telomeres, caps of DNA that protect the ends of our chromosomes, faster.
As part of aging, old cells die and are replaced by new cells and when cells divide to produce new cells, we lose some portion of the telomeres thus its length shortens as we age. When we lose our telomeres our old cells age and eventually die. Shorter telomeres are associated with death at a younger age and are greater risk for cardiovascular diseases and serious infections. Obesity and smoking may also shorten our telomeres.
In a study done by a researcher and psychiatrist Robert Waldinger on one of the longest studies of adult life, it showed that having good relationships keep us happier and healthier while loneliness kills. It also concluded that:
- A happy childhood has very, very long-lasting effect. Having warm family relation (parents and siblings) is a good predictor of a more secure relationship during adulthood. It extends across decades and predicts more secure relationships with their spouses too.
- In case one has had a difficult childhood, they can make up for them in midlife. Forming close relationship with your kids as you rear them can help. Psychologists call this “generativity” or an interest in establishing and guiding the next generation. People who cultivated their relationships when they could were found to be happier and better adjusted later in life than those who didn’t.
- Individuals who knows cope with stress have a more adaptive attitude and better relationships with other people. They are easier to manage that makes others want to support them in the later years. Their brains stayed sharper while aging gracefully in their 60’s and 70’s.
- Being with others protects us from life’s treacherous challenges. People who spend quality time with others are happier in a daily basis. Having quality relationship matters. (Chen, 2017) A good marriage can help buffer against stresses from work and can be protective against cardiovascular problems.
Studies done by Cohen showed that there is a clear link between mood and health. The immune system functions more effectively in happy people than when they are depressed due to higher levels of natural killer cells. Happier people tend to get less sick and complain less when they are sick. They resist infection better due to their stronger immune response. Many health behaviors are related to happiness, hope and optimism.
Happier people tend to eat healthier, exercise more and develop healthy habits, while unhappy people are more likely to die from lung cancer and liver disease because because of the tendency to smoke and drink alcohol. Stress and unhappiness age our telomeres, caps of DNA that protect the ends of our chromosomes, faster.
As part of aging, old cells die and are replaced by new cells and when cells divide to produce new cells, we lose some portion of the telomeres thus its length shortens as we age. When we lose our telomeres our old cells age and eventually die. Shorter telomeres are associated with death at a younger age and are greater risk for cardiovascular diseases and serious infections. Obesity and smoking may also shorten our telomeres.
EUDAIMONIA AND HEDONIA
Eudaimonia (Feel-Purpose)
It is important for us to understand well-being and human flourishing. Eudaimonia: an objective standard of happiness based on what it means to live a human life well. It is the pursuit of the virtue of excellence, and cultivating the best within us. (Moore, 2020) This is associated with values and ideals, care for others, what feels right, giving, building for something -long term.
4 elements of eudaimonia
Hedonia (Feel good)
Hedonia is about pleasure, enjoyment, and satisfaction and the absence of distress and is associated with ones physical and emotional needs, desire, rights, self-care and self-nourishing.
Elements of hedonia:
It is more fundamental but eudaimonia has a higher value, but the combination of this is linked to higher well-being, and this will help keep each other in check. We both need to pursue eudaimonia and hedonia to achieve the greatest and most well-rounded personal well-being than pursuing only one of these.
It is important to note that both pathways to happiness should go hand in hand. Meaningful experiences can certainly bring pleasure and taking care of ourselves can certainly add more meaning to our lives. We need to grow both dimensions in order to live a truly fulfilling life.
Article Review
Video Review
It is important for us to understand well-being and human flourishing. Eudaimonia: an objective standard of happiness based on what it means to live a human life well. It is the pursuit of the virtue of excellence, and cultivating the best within us. (Moore, 2020) This is associated with values and ideals, care for others, what feels right, giving, building for something -long term.
- Additional Reference:
4 elements of eudaimonia
- Growth: self-actualization, learning, maturing as a human being
- Authenticity: being honest to one's self, integrity
- Meaning: understanding and caring for the big picture
- Excellence: virtue, quality performance
Hedonia (Feel good)
Hedonia is about pleasure, enjoyment, and satisfaction and the absence of distress and is associated with ones physical and emotional needs, desire, rights, self-care and self-nourishing.
Elements of hedonia:
- Pleasure: feeling good, joy, fun, happiness
- Comfort: relaxation, ease, absence of pain
It is more fundamental but eudaimonia has a higher value, but the combination of this is linked to higher well-being, and this will help keep each other in check. We both need to pursue eudaimonia and hedonia to achieve the greatest and most well-rounded personal well-being than pursuing only one of these.
It is important to note that both pathways to happiness should go hand in hand. Meaningful experiences can certainly bring pleasure and taking care of ourselves can certainly add more meaning to our lives. We need to grow both dimensions in order to live a truly fulfilling life.
Article Review
Video Review
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TASK - Reflective Journal |
Topics covered:
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