positive psychology

24 Nov 2011 No Comments

Half a Year Update

This is my 100th post. I started this blog 6 months ago, even though I’ve been working on the Ultimate Answer idea for one year. The original idea was transformed along the way, but the core is still the same. In one year I learned so much and I am still learning every day.  

First time I presented The Ultimate Answer publicly was in April 2011 at the Boston Ethical Society in Cambridge, MA.

I remember receiving friendly laughter from the ethical members when I mentioned that one of the goals of the project is to find the meaning of life… I wasn’t joking… It is work in progress and I have more answers today than six months ago. See my previous post.

My project is a hybrid of different disciplines and world views, as I developed it using Blue Ocean Innovation Strategy. It is definitely a mix of philosophy, quantified self approach, positive psychology and humanism. In August I went to Washington DC to attend the 119th Annual Convention of American Psychological Association and learned about its strengths, fear, struggles and hopes.

I heard Martin Seligman, the founder of Positive psychology, speak at that conference. I truly admire his courage to focus on what many don’t bother to do – try to leave more than just an empty patient, but alive patient with a zest for meaningful life. He was the one who in his book “Flourish” openly said that antidepressants do not provide good long-term solutions, only short-term. And the book “Anatomy of an Epidemic” by Robert Whitaker has more facts to prove it. I read many more books on the topic of happiness and participated in a number of self-improvement and philosophical courses and forums to gain global realistic perspective on happiness.

Back in June I created the happiness formula and tested it with individual testers and in three live group sessions with about 50 people. Based on their feedback I revised the original formula.

I presented three more times in October 2011: at The Boston New Tech Meetup, Ultra Light Feedback event and Babson Rocket Pitch event. I also made a last minute video in the kitchen of my apartment in front of my project’s post-it notes for the Big Idea Competition, and the video made it to the 6th place out of top 10.

I received feedback from my October presentations. One comment was about collaboration, and I agree that in the future it will be important to create a community and partnerships with other organizations, and I already plan for that (peer support-groups, volunteer organizations, subject matter experts, etc.). Another comment was about “what famous psychologist stands behind it? Otherwise some will think it is  a gimmick.” I don’t support this view: who said that psychologists know how to solve problems and cure depression or unhappiness? If they knew, people wouldn’t spend years in therapy unsuccessfully… or drugged by meds.

I want to hear from people who experienced exact same problems with both negative and positive results so that I will know what to do and what not to do. I’ll make my decisions. There is a formula, but no one is going to prescribe it to you, because you create your own happiness and the formula is not the same for everyone… you create your own , track it and modify it to make your life purposeful. It happens when you find common ground with others, read testimonials and act with wisdom… If I have to name one famous person who can support the Ultimate Answer idea, it is Dalai Lama. And I will prove it in the next several posts.

There were more comments on my presentation at the Rocket Pitch event:

“The “SparkPeople.com” of happiness. Needs cleaner revenue model. Should mention positive psychology as basis – happiness now becoming a science”. To be honest, I don’t care if this project never generates money. If it makes people happy – this is the most important ROI.

“Noble goal: is it a crowd-sourcing version of “ask a psychiatrist”?” Yes, there is an element of this for sure.

Next steps:

I will be submitting an application to present at the National Conference on Service and Volunteering in Chicago, IL on June, 2012. http://www.volunteeringandservice.org/

Two developers are working on creating an app for the happiness formula, basic resource library, forum and a couple of other tools that will help users to improve their happiness formula results. It should be done in December 2011. If you know of any resources on self-improvement and happiness topics, please send them my way so that I can include them in the upcoming library.

Next posts will be about the following books: The Art of happiness in the Troubled World, Anatomy of an Epidemic, Creating the world that works for all, The how of happiness, Alone Together, Good Faith Collaboration, The Map, Mastering Reality and others. I will also tell about my personal experience of being heavily depressed and wanting to go through clinical trials for a new drug.

My latest findings from Miniseries “Rich man, poor man”- good quotes:

“It is all right to be angry, but it is not as good as reaching out”.

“In every family there comes a time when the best thing to do is to let go”.

What you do or say “just doesn’t go with your look unguarded. Are you happy?”

Thank you for reading this blog and Happy Thanksgiving!

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

09 Oct 2011 1 Comment

My Landmark Forum Insight (Part One)

If Landmark course was free, I would recommend every person on the planet to take it. Landmark teachers to understand other people’s opinions, our own reactions, letting go and forgiveness. It teaches optimism and it empowers people. It works for many, but not for everyone.

I liked when Roger, our instructor, told us in the beginning, that even if we don’t accept Landmark’s world view, we can just try it out and see what it feels like. Definitely, an open-minded approach. There was no cursing, no making me do things against my will, but a lot of revelations and learning opportunities, and I’m glad I finished 3.5 day Forum with 120 other people in Quincy 3 weeks ago. Even though I don’t agree with some concepts and terminology used, the Forum definitely broadened my perspective of the world. And that  is how:

1.The first thing we were introduced to was What happened vs. Our interpretation or what kind of story we create around the event. We behave as if we know everything. We know that there are things we know and don’t know, but there are also things we don’t know we don’t know, even though we behave as if we know everything or almost everything. So when something happens we immediately interpret the event the way we see it, and automatically attach meaning to it (our own meaning). Example, someone was laid off and thought it happened because his boss never liked him. Then the employee may think that life is not fair, when in fact the boss didn’t dislike the employee but had to eliminate that particular position.

I really like this approach, as it helps understand views of all parties involved in any situation. Any event can be interpreted differently by those involved or not involved. So … always be listening.

2. All the talking about what happened doesn’t help. Example, there is talking during the game in the stands. The whole talk is about the game - who did well , who didn’t, and who will win, but all their talk has zero impact on the outcome of the game. Only those who play have action, and only they can impact the outcome of the game. So when you complain about something unfair in your life, it will not help anything. What you need to do is to pull yourself together and act!

3. Integrity is when we are true to our word. A lot of people suffer because they know they are not what they say. They lie, they cheat, they pretend – they become inauthentic. Integrity breech happens, when we are not true to ourselves (our values, beliefs, inspirations) and not sincere with others about our intentions. To restore integrity is to restore person’s relationship to his word.

4. Rackets come to play, when we start blaming someone or something for things not working out for us in our life, for our own underperformance. Racket is a fixed way of being and a persistent complaint.

Rackets are used in case of loss of power, freedom, self-expression or peace of mind.

Payoff: Right/wrong, dominate/avoid domination, self justify/invalidate others, win/lose.

Cost: Love/affinity, self-expression, health/vitality/wellbeing, satisfaction/fulfillment.

Rackets are a way for us to not take responsibility for our own life.

How to overcome rackets? Don’t change, as change causes persistence. No change causes disappearance. Just choose to be the way you want to be, invent a possibility in your life to do it and do it step by step.

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , ,

01 Sep 2011 No Comments

119th American Psychology Convention Highlight

I didn’t make it to the Second World Congress on Positive Psychology this summer, but I decided to attend the 119th American Psychology Convention in Washington, DC on Aug 4-7, 2011. It was overwhelming to say the least to choose right workshops and talks among hundreds of them every day.

One of the highlights of the Convention to me was the talk by the founder of Positive Psychology Martin Seligman. Here are some of my notes from his talk:

Human goal is not to be miserable and national goal is wellbeing of all citizens. Seligman’s new book Flourish presents up-to-date view of positive psychology which is different from the original called Authentic Happiness. Instead of three, there are five components – positive emotions, engagement, relationship, meaning and accomplishment (PERMA).

Accomplishment (progress, competency and responsibility) and positive relationships are new to this view of positive psychology which is focused on well-being rather than happiness.  Each of the components is measurable, teachable, gameable and buildable, either online or via mobile. All should be built into therapy and educational curriculum  at schools.

GDP is inversely related to happiness (that was new to me). Positive emotions include optimism and positive health, including mental health  and physical health (lack of disease).

The US Army asked him to help develop training on building resilience, positive attitude, and create ways to identify the strongest candidates to invest more time in their training and promotion!

So Penn Resilience Training (PRP) was created. It was decided to change negative literature to positive literature. Interesting finding based on the results of the test is people who were in the bottom 1% of life meaning satisfaction were the ones who would commit suicide in the next year or two.

Another research finding – self-discipline/resilience is higher on strength list than intelligence. The army management wants to know who has grit and who never gives up. Consequently, those will have the most accomplishments and will most likely be promoted to generals.  There is correlation between resilience and meaning.

Gallop wants to have PERMA dashboard vs. single measure. Seligman also works with Google to see if there are changes in search words for PERMA (media and data mining).  There are also ways to have subjective vs. objective measures of your wellbeing (others evaluate it for you). There will be development of the right lexicon for Perma games.

Seligman launched Flourish 51 program, but unfortunately he will not be around to see the results of it in 51 years, but he hopes that others will carry the torch of positive psychology after him.

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

07 Aug 2011 No Comments

International Well-Being Study

Aaron Jarden from The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, Psychology, Wellington, New Zealand and Canterbury University, Psychology, Christchurch, New Zealand;  Todd Kashdan from George Mason University, Psychology, Fairfax, VA, USA

Longitudinal in-depth studies of well-being are few and far between. The International Well-Being Study (www.well-beingstudy.com)- one of the largest and most comprehensive studies in the field of positive psychology to date.

Beginning in March 2009 and available in 16 languages, this study asks participants 208 questions every three months for a year. Measures include 18 validated scales; global well-being scales, component well-being scales, measures of negative symptomatology, and of positive and negative events. To date the survey has been completed more than 10,000 times in English alone.

In addition to its notability for its size and scope, this study is also notable for its collaborative nature, cheap cost, scalable use of technology, and longitudinal design which will also be discussed. There are some very interesting findings in the study data to date andimplications of these findings – for example, that the extent to which participants live their lives in alignment with their values is a stronger predictor of life satisfaction than components currently studied in the field – strengths, gratitude, hope, meaning, etc – , or that satisfaction with time use is also a very strong predictor of well-being.

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , ,

06 Aug 2011 No Comments

Resilience Lessons

Applying Resilience Skills for Young People: A Curriculum-Based Approach

Toni Noble from Australian Catholic University, Sydney, Australia

Life is a bumpy journey and everyone experiences setbacks and makes mistakes. All students at times face challenges in learning and in relationships; and some face more major challenges. All students (and teachers) need to learn the skills to be resilient and bounce back. Th is workshop draws on the award-winning Bounce Back program and applies positive psychology principles to educational curriculum. Bounce Back topics include values, courage, positive emotions, relationships, people bouncing back, optimistic thinking, and skills and attitudes for being successful. Practical activities and strategies will be work-shopped to demonstrate ways to embed the teaching of well-being and resilience in the elementary and middle school curriculum. These strategies include the use of children’s literature, cooperative learning, circle time, drama, songs and other activities to help students learn the academic skills, social skills and coping skills to enhance their well-being and resilience.

Children’s Resilience Program in India

Steve Leventhal from University of California, Global Health Sciences, San Francisco, CA, United States:

We present findings from CorStone’s ‘Children‘s Resiliency Program (CRP)’ in New Delhi, Mumbai and Surat, India.

CRP is a 24-week, school-based prevention program that incorporates elements of positive psychology, restorative practices, and social-emotional learning skills for at-risk adolescent youth in developing countries. The CRP seeks to provide youth with knowledge and tools that build character strengths, inter-personal skills, problem-solving and conflict resolution. In 2009 the CRP was piloted with 97 female students, ages 12-18 at a school in a poverty-stricken Muslim community in New Delhi. Teachers were trained to facilitate weekly one-hour support groups (10 students per group). Group sessions included an interactive 20 minute lesson plan followed by 40 minutes of group sharing and problem-solving. Emotional resilience was assessed by levels of optimism, locus of control, and emotional and behavioral difficulties.

Standardized assessments administered at baseline, midpoint and post intervention, showed large emotional and behavioral effects. ‘Normal’ scores on the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) increased from 33% at baseline to 61% at mid-intervention (12 weeks), whereas the percentage of students having an abnormal score decreased from 45% to 6%. Significant decreases in pessimism and external locus of control were found in post-intervention scores. Attendance increased markedly on days when the program was offered. 99% of students reported that the topics were relevant to their lives and that the program provided valuable learning experiences.

An intervention for 1,000 adolescent girl students in slum communities in Mumbai and Gujarat is currently underway, using a quasi-experimental design with 500 girls receiving the intervention and 500 girls serving as a control group.

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , ,

27 Jul 2011 1 Comment

Conference on Kindness in Australia

Last weekend two great events were held on two different continents in two different hemispheres: Time for Renewal Conference in Sydney, Australia and the Second World Congress on Positive Psychology in Philadelphia, US. It is amazing that people so far from each other care about similar things. Year of Kindness blog has a post about the Australian event:

“This weekend I was lucky enough to attend a conference called Time for Renewal: The World Can Only Change From Within. It was held by Wake Up Sydney!, whose mission is to inspire a kindness revolution for ourselves, each other and the natural world. It was two days of music, inspirational speakers, meditation, and workshops focusing on how to be kinder to ourselves. It was a truly amazing experience for me to discover a whole “kindness community” I never even knew existed and to realise I really seriously need to start doing more kindnesses for myself. Here are the biggest lessons I took away from it all …

Don’t wait for a Big D.
Big Ds are the life challenges that everyone is faced with at some point – death, diagnosis, disaster, divorce, depression, disease, downturn, destruction… They are things that rock us to the very core, make us question who we are and why we are here. If we survive these Big Ds, we are forever changed. The suffering they cause breaks us open to answer the greater questions of our existence. If we had not experienced them, we would not have been forced to get to face truths about ourselves and our lives. They require us to develop new ways of being in the world. Hopefully they make us live a more grateful, more purposeful, more kindful life. But why wait for a Big D to live this way? Why not be consciously aware each day of the preciousness of life? Why not start thinking right now about what we want to achieve in our lifetime and how we want to be remembered?

Live all the seasons.
Everyone wants to be happy. But even the happiest of people experience anger, sadness, frustration, regret … Just like summertime comes and goes, so too does happiness. No one can live a summer life all the time. We must accept negative emotions for what they are and think about what we can learn from them.” Read more

.

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,