SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES
DEAR READERS,
I am now sitting in my cool room looking at the sunny Queensland
summer (37C). Only a few days ago we had a celebration of Christmas and now it is
no more. We are enjoying a real sense of Peace in this small world in Brisbane,
Australia. Such a holiday or Holy-day is what most of us wish but not many can achieve
the reality. Just open the TV on the 24 hrs news and we are filled with
catastrophes like the tsunami in Indonesia, the Syrian war, bombings in Kabul,
stock markets down and children starving everywhere. Michael Meade, the
mythologist just wrote an article “ The Threat of Tyranny” and here is a quote:
“These are Titan times
when huge changes sweep through the institutions of culture while great shifts
disrupt climate patterns all over the earth. Amidst storms of change, it takes
very little to tear the skin of civilization and reveal massive emotional
wounds full of fear and anger, resentment and vengeance. Amidst growing uncertainties,
it takes very little to incite rage and provoke violence."
Michael Meade
Read the full article here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-meade-dhl/the-threat-of-tyranny_b_11435462.html The threat of tyrany
So, as we are approaching the new year 2019, it may be a
good idea to reflect about how, we as therapists and healers, can help by sending a new message to all in order to
generate a shift in that old negative perspective that shows only “doom and
gloom” and promote a new positive psychology.
I therefore, wish to share an article written by the psychologist Christopher
Peterson form the University of Michigan USA.
Positive Psychology: The Underpinning
Notions
Christopher Peterson
Professor of Psychology, University
of Michigan
Positive psychology, which has recently enjoyed a burgeoning
base of research support, is “the scientific study of optimal functioning,
performance, and wellbeing” (Langley & Francis, 2016). It asks not what is
broken and needing to be fixed, but what is working, what is good in people and
life. It wants to know what the positive experiences, characteristics, and
practices are that enable individuals, institutions, and communities to live
happy, productive, fulfilling lives. It is about flourishing and thriving, not
merely surviving.
Accordingly, it gives pride of place to the characteristics
of abundance, a focus on virtues and strengths, embracing positive deviance,
and flourishing rather than languishing (Langley & Francis, 2016). We look
at these in more detail below.
Abundance
Viewing people as competent, creative, and resourceful,
positive psychology looks through an abundance lens to help people,
organisations, and communities thrive and excel. Positive outcomes and
performance can be facilitated, it says, as people access their inner resources
and create the outcomes to which they aspire, rather than seeing themselves as
victims (Langley & Francis, 2016).
Focus on strengths
and virtues
This assumption says that everyone has strengths and
deserves to be respected for them. At the heart of positive psychology is the
idea that effort is better directed to strengthen what is working well than to
try to “fix” what is “broken”. Concentrating on talents, positive
characteristics, and special abilities allows people to deal with growing
edges, or weaknesses. The corollary idea is that positive psychology itself is
an ethical approach in suggesting that human beings and their systems possess a
latent desire and capacity to improve themselves, and that this should be
activated (Langley & Francis, 2016).
Embracing positive
deviance
When positive psychologists talk about adopting a stance of
positive deviance, they are acknowledging an evolutionary bias toward the negative:
negative emotions, interpretations, and thoughts are often stronger and more
numerous than positive ones. Human beings tend to respond more intensely – and
automatically – to negative events. While that has been appropriately
self-protective, especially at some earlier stages of human evolution, it now
means that we are kept from devoting time, energy, and other resources to those
projects and concerns which would move us toward greater wellbeing and success.
Positive psychology proposes that we amplify our positive emotions, thus
re-setting the bias from negative to positive. When we act from positive
deviance, we go against the grain, thinking “outside the box” and suddenly
gaining access to solutions that aren’t apparent with a deficit focus (Langley
& Francis, 2016).
Flourishing and
languishing
Hot and cold, night and day, and dark and light are all
polar opposites, but – in the paradigm of positive psychology – mental illness
and mental health are not. Langley cites the work of Corey Keyes, whose work
studying the relationship between mental health and mental illness has shown
that, rather than being at opposite ends of the same spectrum, they lie on
different continua. Thus, the absence of mental illness does not mean the
presence of mental health and treating the former does not ensure the latter
(Keyes, 2005, in Langley & Francis, 2016). A person can be lacking any
identifiable mental illness, yet be languishing if she has poor social
networks, is chronically distressed, and/or is leading a very unfulfilling
life.
Authentic happiness:
What do we mean and why do we care?
Although philosophers such as Aristotle and Epicurus
advocated leading the “good life”, they defined that as “pleasure-seeking”. Few
people in the middle of a delicious meal, with a favourite beverage and good
friends to share it all with, would say that they were not having a happy time.
However, in his book, Authentic Happiness, Seligman (2004) explained that there
is much more to a happy life than good times filled with pleasure. He distinguished several levels of happiness.
1) The Pleasurable or Pleasant Life. This sort of happiness
is also referred to as subjective wellbeing and consists of hedonic experience:
sensual delights, high life satisfaction, low levels of negative emotion, and
high levels of positive emotion (Langley & Francis, 2016). It is a life
that successfully pursues the positive emotions about the present, past, and
future (Pursuit of Happiness, 2016a). It is this level or type of happiness
that figured in the work of Aristotle and Epicurus. The question for this level
may be: “How do I feel? What emotions do I experience in the moment?” (Langley,
2017)
2) The Engaged or Good Life. As we satisfy the need for
pleasure, we want more. We want to be engaged in a mindful way, as we come to
realise the satisfaction possible through concentrating intensely on a task or
activity which we are using our strengths to perform and which takes us out of
our ordinary consciousness, perhaps into a state of flow, as that was explained
by Csikszentmihalyi (1990). At this level, people use their signature strengths
(Seligman and his colleague identified 24) to obtain abundant gratification,
through enjoyed activities, in the main realms of their lives (Pursuit of
Happiness, 2016a). “Doing” happiness at this level engages us in more of our
wholeness than mere pleasure-seeking, but it is still not all that it is
possible to attain.
3) The Meaningful Life. At the highest levels of happiness
delineated by Seligman, we see a person imbued with meaning and purpose. Called
eudaemonic or psychological wellbeing, the meaningful life involves personal
growth, self-acceptance, autonomy, positive relationships, environmental
mastery, and a strong sense of purpose in life. It happens when people use
their signature strengths and virtues in the service of something much larger
than themselves (Pursuit of Happiness, 2016a). The relevant question for this
level of happiness is: “How do I feel about my life? Am I satisfied with my
life generally?” (Langley, 2017; Positive Psychology Institute, 2012).
“Side effects” of
wellbeing
The answer to that question seems obvious: we want to be
happy because it feels good! Yet there is more. Research shows that higher
levels of wellbeing are correlated with:
Being healthier (including recovering more quickly when one
does get sick) Having a stronger immune system.
Living longer, with a better quality of life
Being more tolerant of pain
Achieving greater success in all areas of life (including
the workplace) Having higher levels of caring and altruism
Being more resilient
Being more socially engaged
Having better quality relationships (that is, more satisfied
in relationships and less likely to experience problems, but more likely to
deal with any problems effectively)
Performing better academically
Considering oneself to be luckier (Langley, 2017; Sharp,
2014).
This article was adapted from the course “Positive
Psychology: The Basics”.
References:
Langley, S., & Francis, S. (2016). White paper: The science
and practice of positive psychology: Promoting human happiness, performance,
and wellbeing. Australia: Langley Group. Retrieved on 28 October, 2017, from:
hyperlink.
Langley, S. (2017). Lecture for Masterclass day on positive
psychology topics for Mental Health Academy. Langley Group: Australia.
Positive Psychology Institute. (2012). Key terms. Positive
Psychology Institute. Retrieved on 24 October, 2017, from: hyperlink.
Pursuit of Happiness. (2016b). William James. The pursuit of
happiness. Retrieved on 29 October,
2017, from: hyperlink.
Sharp, T. (2014). Get happy: Using the powerful principles
of positive psychology to live your best life!
Positive Times. Retrieved on 24 October, 2017, from: hyperlink.
