Positive Psychology
Positive Psychology (PP)
The TED talk is by Martin Seligman the main founder of the positive psychology movement in the 1990′s. The roots of psychology can be traced back to the observations and analyses of human thought and behaviour made by the philosophers of ancient China, India, Egypt and Greece. Its current manifestation, Positive Psychology, is a comparatively recent development. By the early 20th century much of the psychological focus and science was on the conditions of mental malfunction and illness and the development of therapies to treat such conditions. It was only in the second half of the century that some psychologists began to take the profession from studies of the troubled, the anxious, the depressed, the neurotic into a new world of the study of the psychology of fully functioning, mentally healthy, happy, thriving human beings. The switch was from ‘what is wrong and how do we fix it?’ to ‘what is working, who are the best examples of achieving, happy, successful, people and what can the rest of us learn from them?’
It was almost at the end of the century (in 1998) that Martin Seligman pointed out that the profession had spent many decades striving to get patients ‘from -5 to zero’ (from unhappy to merely miserable?) in terms of their mental well-being, rather than, he suggested, ‘from zero to +5’ (from miserable to happy?’).
Seligman and colleagues of like-mind formed the Positive Psychology movement whose work would seek to reveal to the rest of us what are the components of lives that are achieving, creative, flourishing, fruitful, joyful, generous, virtuous and examples of the highest achievements of human potential. The work of sociologist Aaron Antonovsky, based on his research into ‘Salutogenesis’ (the origins of health), was highly influential. He had said lets study the highest functioning, healthiest, people, groups, organisations, societies, populations, let’s learn from them and apply that learning to expand healthy living. The work and the PP movement has blossomed and expanded and has given us much evidence about the attitudes, the attributes, the skills, the habits, the beliefs, the values, the contexts, the practices that we can acquire and apply to enable us to ‘live happier’ more of the time.
The section ‘’The Live Happier Toolkit’ , provides an opportunity to work with key findings from the research world of positive psychology and its studies of individuals, groups, and organisations who have and are living effective, successful, flourishing lives. We can take the information on what it is they are, or do, that makes them like that. We can use that knowledge to assess our own approach to life, affirm the strengths we have and use our new awareness to add to what we have already. Those who get most from applying the evidence and wisdom there will be those who are open to a belief in lifelong learning, to an acceptance that our development is never over, to a readiness never to ‘put a full stop’ after ourselves, with an ambition to realise some more of the vast potential in each of us that goes untapped in one lifetime. Let us use the wisdom from the lives of so many others to expand our own capacity to ‘Live happier’!
‘I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment and life’s greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve. This level of resolve can move mountains, but it must be constant and consistent. As simplistic as this may sound, it is still the common denominator separating those who live their dreams from those who live with regret.’
Anthony Robbins
Each of us unique, with a unique ‘take’ on the world, what do you think?
Think about how your own readiness to explore ‘The Live Happier Toolkit’. What benefits might there be in appreciating more the basis for your own level of happiness and testing out ideas and ‘tools’ that might just enable you to increase that at times when you might need or wish to?
