positive psychology

Good morning! I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday. I know we did, lot's of family and friends and child avarice. Good times were had all around.

Today I thought I would talk a bit about the new and exciting field of Positive Psychology. It's sort of the core behind everything I've been researching and writing about. Psychology has been around for, what, a couple hundred years? And in that time therapists and counselors have had many hits and misses, but overall, have become very adept at helping people with emotional problems. However, emotional researchers have noticed that psychologists had sort of created a disease model.

Let's say that you are rating your happiness level on a scale of 1-10. 1 being very unhappy, and 10 being over joyed. Now, a clinically depressed person is probably somewhere in the negatives. Traditional psychology can help people go from, let's say a -7 to a 1. That's a vast improvement! But who would say they are cured by being a 1? Positive psychology centers on bringing people from a 1 up to a 9 or even a 10.

Martin Seligman is considered to be the "father" of positive psychology, and it's very new. Pioneered in the mid 90's, it's mission is to help clinical psychologists make the world a happier place, parallel to the way they have been making the world a less unhappy place. So here's the exciting part; because it's so new, we can all hitch a ride on the train as it's pulling out of the station. Cheesy metaphor, I know, but the first try was worse so be patient with me here. These emotional researchers are still fumbling in the dark a bit. Like a heat seeking missile, that continually targets mistakes and continually corrects itself until it finds the true target. We all can help them along. You can actually sign up to be in a clinical trial or just do your own experiments and chart for yourself how it makes you feel. You have nothing to lose and only happiness to gain.

http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx

I haven't signed up to be in any professional trials, I like to stay on the side of doing experiments on myself, but I have definitely seen improvements, both in myself, and how I interact with people. Sometimes those changes are so small and gradual I don't see them for a long time but it's comforting to know that any change at all towards more happiness is possible!

So try some of these experiments with me. You and I will be at the for-front of a completely new field of research. You don't need a fancy PhD., or a white lab coat to help, you just need your feelings and an intention to turn the volume up on your own life. Many of the things I suggest to try come from positive psychology's research "hits", which have been thoroughly analyzed and studied through many trials and re-trials. These next few posts are the "cream of the crop" from research so far, that has found the most vast improvements in people.

I'll talk to you next year!

Janae