What is Positive Psychology and How Can It Help?

1. What is Positive Psychology and How Can It Help?

2. One of the most important questions of the age and of any age is: How can you be truly happy? This is the question that positive psychology and related research aims to answer. • The never-ending pursuit of happiness and the tireless quest to live a fulfilling life has led to the growth of an entire industry dedicated to putting our well-being first by providing countless programs, guides, remedies, and advice on how to live a positive and optimistic life. • Recent world events, including the coronavirus pandemic and witnessing the slaughter of unarmed blacks at the hands of the police, have driven many of us into a state of misery and despair. Many of us who feel the weight of these events seek to focus on ways we can emphasize positivity in our communities and ourselves, highlighting the very things that give life more meaning. This is where positive psychology can play a role in your mental well-being.

3. What is positive psychology? • Positive psychology is the science and study of the positive qualities of life: well-being, happiness, satisfaction, and the ability to thrive in our everyday lives. The field studies what it takes to build a life with purpose, rich in meaning that allows the individual to prosper. • In his TED talk on positive psychology, Martin Seligman, a leading authority in the field, highlighted three goals of psychology and noted the importance of them for the general study of happiness. • "Psychology should be concerned with both human strength and weakness," he said. "He should also be as interested in building the best things in life as he is in fixing the worst, and he should be as interested in making normal people's lives satisfying and nurturing high talent as in curing pathology," he added . Generally, these goals form the foundation of positive psychology.

4. Christopher Peterson, another renowned psychologist, defined positive psychology simply as the scientific study of what makes life worth living. It is a scientific approach to studying human thoughts, feelings, and behaviours while emphasizing strengths rather than weaknesses, building the good in life while fixing the bad, and making people's lives great rather than adequate. • Positive psychology focuses on influences such as optimism, hope, happiness, and joy, but it is more than just dealing with positive emotions. This field of psychology also covers traits such as character strengths, self-esteem, and well-being, how those traits can be applied to our life, work, and interpersonal relationships, and how all of these aspects come together to contribute to the achievement of a meaningful life.

5. What are the three levels of positive psychology? • Positive psychology is not limited to feeling a sense of individual well-being per se, but advocates of this science often refer to the "Three Levels of Positive Psychology": • Subjective level: The subjective level focuses on feelings of happiness, well-being, optimism, and similar emotions or feelings that relate to your daily experience. • Individual level: The individual level combines the feelings of well-being of the subjective level with the qualities or virtues that make you a whole person, such as forgiveness, love and courage. • Group level: The group level focuses on positive interaction with your community and includes traits such as altruism, social responsibility, and other virtues that strengthen social ties.

6. Why is positive psychology important? • The main goal of positive psychology is to encourage people to discover and cultivate their character strengths, rather than to channel their efforts to correct deficiencies. Positive psychology highlights the need for one to change one's negative outlook to a more optimistic outlook to improve the quality of life. • According to the theories of positive psychology, positivity is one of the main driving forces in life. Each of us routinely experiences good and bad results, but it often feels easier to focus on the negative results, ignoring the ways in which we could harness the effect of good things to remedy bad things. For much of its history, psychological research focused on the psychological defects and abnormalities that differentiate us from one another, the diagnoses that explain negative actions, and patterns of behaviour. These diagnoses include the mental health challenges many of us struggle with, including anxiety and depression.

7. Research on positive psychology, however, focuses more on scientific explanations of positive thoughts and actions. Positive psychology does not deny the existence of flaws and weaknesses in our thoughts and behaviour, but maintains that the same consideration should be given to the strengths and virtues of people. • Positive psychology course is important because discovering what leads people to live more meaningful lives can translate into better strategies for managing mental illness, correcting negative behaviours, and increasing our happiness and productivity. For example, instead of looking at the underlying traits associated with drug addiction, a positive psychologist could study the resilience of those who have made a successful recovery and promote that resilience among future patients.

8. Experience the personal benefits of positive psychology • Applied Positive psychology theory suggests that building on the positive aspects of actions or situations can create the conditions for an overall happier and fuller life. • However, happiness can be built not only by amplifying pleasant experiences or living a life of commitment, but also by living a life filled with purpose and meaning. Thus, you can enhance your commitment by pursuing hobbies that interest you, taking the time to use your skills to excel in your interests, and pursuing a career path that is tailored to the things that you are passionate about.

9. What is an example of positive psychology? • Based on Seligman's suggestions, you can enhance your sense of true happiness by focusing on doing more of the things that make you happy so that you can enjoy your daily routines and experience more positive emotions. You should also work to improve the quality of your relationships and work to build stronger bonds with your friends and loved ones. • If you feel like you're not making sense of your work or relationships, Seligman also recommends turning to your personal hobbies or volunteering and discovering new ways you can find purpose by impacting the lives of others. Most importantly, you focus on achieving your goals while maintaining a healthy balance between your ambition and the other elements that matter in life, such as self-care and companionship.

10. How is positive psychology applied? • Positive psychology has also come under fire and accused of promoting misleading ideas about positivity. As a result, the principles of positive psychology are sometimes dismissed as having more in common with self-help tactics than with scientifically proven theories. • However, positive psychology techniques are now used in other traditional aspects of therapy, with confirmed results supporting its efficacy. The wellness therapy practice, developed by University of Bologna psychologist Giovanni Fava, focuses on the patient's self-observed well-being, rather than solely on their self-reported distress.

11. Carol Kauffman, director of the Positive Psychology Coaching Initiative at Harvard University McLean Hospital, described four techniques for integrating positive psychology into traditional therapy methods in the Harvard Mental Health Letter. These techniques mainly involve reversing the focus of therapy of negative events and emotions to more positive ones, developing a force language, balancing the negative and positive aspects of certain actions or situations, and building strategies that promote hope, such as identifying skills to approach. a particular problem and shift the focus to those skills. • Although the principles of positive psychology degree suggest that success can be built on personal strengths, it is also important to work on your weaknesses and achieve a healthy balance, so that you can achieve a more fulfilling life. If you are interested in learning more about positive psychology and a more personalized and tailored approach to living your best life, try the convenience of working with a licensed online therapist.

12. About Us • At the School of Positive Transformation, we believe that through education, teaching, training, and support we could trigger positive change. We now have a strong scientific knowledge base, from positive psychology and other similar disciplines, providing us with incredible knowledge about practical tools we could use to live better. • Website - https://schoolofpositivetransformation.com/