Positive Psychology

[George SchneiderMember]

There seems to be a lot of research lately on “Postive Psychology”; i.e., what makes people happy. It seems an especially interesting topic because the Buddha himself could be considered to be  a “positive psychologist.”  Perhaps this would be a good place to discuss some of the techniques psychologists are developing to increase happiness and compare them to what the Buddha taught.

• This topic was modified 11 years, 5 months ago by  George Schneider.
• This topic was modified 11 years, 5 months ago by  kaya.

[Jessica SeacrestMember]

I was recently reading The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, which refers to Positive Psychology often and sites many studies with interesting results. The premise of the book is that happiness fuels success, rather than success fuels happiness.  Basically the brain can be trained or retrained.  One of the important exercises mentioned in the book to foster happiness:  meditation.  Some of the others mentioned were: gratitude recognition, conscience acts of kindness, infuse positivity into surroundings, exercise, and pro social spending.  Meditation makes a marked difference in my metal outlook.
Shawn Achor’s TED Talk:
http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html

[Autumn WileyMember]

Positive Psychology – what a great topic.  At least in western psychology it started blossoming deliberately around 1999-2000.  The idea is that until then clinical psychology had been so focused on pathology, and when someone said “I am ok” it meant there was an absence of sickness and pathology.  But what about flourishing?  Positive states such as joy, gratitude, happiness, excitement, amusement, etc?  It’s becoming a big deal.  I am actually drawing from positive psychology for my dissertation and will love to use this forum to run some ideas by when the time comes.

[Jessica SeacrestMember]

Would love to hear your ideas Autumn!

[Sara KrusenstjernaMember]

I love this topic, and it prompted me to pull Martin Seligman’s “Authentic Happiness” off the shelf. Many familiar themes… Yes, looking forward to hearing about your research, Autumn!

[Hanna SouleMember]

Gestalt Therapy is a kind of “Positive Psychology”. It works on integration of all your experiences and patterns, successful ones and “negative” ones, to create a wholesome “Gestalt” again and stresses the power of your ability to make choices and taking responsibility for ALL you did (or judged as shortcomings etc)). It helped me immensely to see and to follow the “red thread” in my life, the positive, juicy, empowering, happy-making red thread…. Greetings Hanna Soule

[Barbara LarsonMember]

Jessica, I watched Shawn Achor’s TED talk and loved it! The practices he recommends make tons of sense, and they work to help us overcome many different negative influences in the world. Thanks so much for posting it. I’ll read the book.

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