Introduction
I’ve read this book in 2012 and wrote the notes around this time. I won’t add anything. It’s just for the sake of completion.
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“Positive psychology is the scientific study of optimal human functioning and what makes life worth living”
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Founders
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Martin Seligman
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Mihaly Csiskszentmihalyi
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Journals
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Journal of Positive Psychology
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Psychology of Well-being
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Journal of Happiness Studies
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International Journal of Well-being
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40% of our happiness is determined by intentional activities
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Well-being journal
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Record activities and how you get on with them
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Start off with an initial level
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Positive psychology center: four question general happiness scale, five question satisfaction with life scale and 24-question authentic happiness inventory
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Happiness is less about ‘having’ and more about ‘doing’
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Changing how you spend your time and your outlook on life helps achieving long-lasting happiness
What is happiness?
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Hedonic well-being: feeling pleasure
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Eudaimonic well-being: doing what is worth doing; meaning and purpose in your life, fulfilling our potential and feeling that we are part of something bigger than you
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Subjective Well-Being (SWB) = Satisfaction with Life + Positive Emotion – Negative Emotion
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Satisfaction with life: what I think about my life
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Positive Emotion: how positive I feel
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Negative Emotion: how negative I feel
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PERMA (M. Seligman)
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Positive emotion
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Engagement (flow)
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Relationships
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Meaning
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Accomplishment
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Barriers to well-being
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Barrier: negativity bias
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You are more likely to remember bad things (experiences, emotions & information) than good ones
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Positivity ratio if 3:1 (Losada line), means you will need three times the positive experiences to flourish
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“bad is stronger than good”
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> try to make a conscious effort to notice and focus on the good things in your life first
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Barrier: duration neglect
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Duration hardly matters at all
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More important factors
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Intensity of the peak emotion
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The end of the experience
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> try to end experiences on a high note
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Most pleasant task / experience last
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Remember how much you’ve done so far
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Try to reframe bad experiences in a positive way
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Barrier: social comparison
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> try to compare yourself with those who are worse off
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Barrier: hedonic treadmill
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Positive experience fade away rather quickly
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Bad experiences fade away more quickly
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Barrier: lack of self-control
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“lack of self-regulation is at the hart of many of the social and personal problems that we suffer in the modern, developed world”
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Higher self-control is actually linked to higher well-being
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The more you practice self-control, the stronger it gets
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> find an activity that requires self-control but which you are motivated to do
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Positive emotions
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Broaden and build theory (B. Fredrickson)
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Experience of positive emotions enables people to create additional resources in the following categories:
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Intellectual (e.g. problem-solving skills)
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Physical
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Social
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Psychological
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> try to find positive experiences: plan something different for a week, look at pictures that make you happy
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Small acts of kindness helps building relationships and makes you happy
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Amusing experiences help you to recover more quickly from negative experiences / stress
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Benefits of happiness and positive emotions
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Longer lifespan
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Higher earnings
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Sociability and better quality relationships
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Better mental and physical health
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Likeability
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Greater persistence
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Creativity
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More efficient decision-making
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=> cause or effect?
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Frequency of positive emotions is more important than intensity
Engagement or flow
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‘high-skill high-challenge’ experiences (in the zone)
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Characteristics of activities
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Right challenge level (not too hard and not too easy)
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You goal is clear
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Immediate feedback
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Feel completely absorbed and at one with what you’re doing
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You feel in control
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You lose track of time
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You don’t feel self-conscious
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The activity is intrinsically rewarding
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Flow is linked to
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Achievement
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Better physical health
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Improved self-esteem
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High challenge + medium – high skill = flow
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High challenge + low skill = anxiety and stress
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Low challenge + medium – high skill = apathy and boredom
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You can make the challenges more difficult by setting goals
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E.g. washing the dishes in 20 instead of 30 minutes
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Get more flow into your life
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SMART goals
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Specific
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Measureable
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Achievable
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Realistic
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Time-bound
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Aim for high-skill & high-challenge balance
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Focus on what you’re doing
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Find ways to get immediate feedback
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Make the task more fun
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Positive relationships
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Moods and behaviors are contagious
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Happiness depends on the people with whom you are connected
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Warm, trusting and supportive relationships are important for well-being
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Ability to respond enthusiastically to good news is more important than how we communicate in bad times
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Passive Constructive (PC) – “it’s good / nice”
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Passive Destructive (PD) – turn conversation to yourself
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Active Destructive (AD) – respond with negative notions “that’s terrible because X”
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Active Constructive (AC) – enthusiastic & energetic support allowing them to capitalize on the good news
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Relationship positivity ratio 5:1
Meaning and purpose
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Two central functions
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Bedrock foundation which allows us to be more resilient
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Sense of direction which allows us to set goals and targets to aim for
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PURE (P. Wong)
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Purpose (motivations, goals, values and aspirations)
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Understanding (self-awareness, who you are, what you do and where you stand)
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Responsibility (integrity, assuming responsibility)
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Enjoyment / Evaluation (enjoyment of life, iterations)
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Meaning
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Classical by internal & external meaning
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Or by relationship:
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Work as a job – to finance your mean time (extrinsic)
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Work as a career – focused on promotions / rewards (extrinsic)
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Work as a calling – end in itself, contribution & personal fulfillment
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Accomplishment
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Accomplishment
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Achievement, success, competence, mastery and progress towards your goals
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Achievement is influenced by skill and effort
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Speed of thought
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Rate of learning
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Competence
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Get regular feedback
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Improve your skills
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Get a mentor
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Appreciative inquiry (AI)
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Meanings
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To be grateful
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To recognize the value / quality of something
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To increase in value
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A process for implementing & achieving change: strength-based approach to managing change
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Start with what’s working well and then build on this information
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Principles
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‘Words create worlds’ – subjective perception allows people to see the same situation in different lights
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Asking question starts the change process
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Individual experience can be told and reinterpreted in different ways
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Positive change can come from positive images of the future
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Review of what works well is more enlightening
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AI works on a systemic level
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Stages of AI
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Start: ‘Positive core’ – What is good / great?
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Stage 1: Discovery: asking further positively-framed question about your positive core
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Stage 2: Dream: Create positive & compelling vision of the future
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Based on descriptions & stores from Stage 1
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Stage 3: Design: Create a design for the future
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Stage 4: Destiny: Developing, creating and improving
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Character strengths
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Assessment
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Values in Action Inventory of Strengths
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Strengthscope
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Realise2
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Talent = Foundation for strength development
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Competence = something you are good at but don’t partially like
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Strengths = personal attributes which energies us, which feel like us and which enable optimal performance
Emotional intelligence
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Emotional intelligence have greater awareness of their own emotions & of others
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Self-aware
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Self-managed
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Socially-aware
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Socially-Skilled
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Model of emotional intelligence based on these skills:
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Identifying emotions
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Using emotions appropriately
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Understanding the causes of emotions
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Managing your emotions
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Negative feelings
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Make us more focused
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Easier to be critical
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More likely to spot mistakes
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Easier for us to pay attention to detail
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Positive feelings
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Expand our thinking
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Easier to think up new ideas
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Encourage us to consider new possibilities
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Think in terms of opportunities
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Gratitude
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Gratitude relates strongly to your sense of coherence
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Belief that life is manageable, meaningful and understandable
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How to
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Write a gratitude journal
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Iamthinkful.com or thankfulfor.com
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Write a thank you card / letter
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What where your three good things today?
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What went well?
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Mindfulness
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Specific type of meditation-based practice
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Paying attention in the following way
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On purpose
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In the present moment
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Notice thoughts and emotions as they occur
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Non-judgmentally
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Accept things as they are
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Opposite of mindlessness
Mindsets
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Fixed mindset
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Your personal qualities and abilities are carved in stone
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Growth mindset
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Personal qualities and abilities can be changed or developed
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Effects of a growth mindset
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Focus on learning goals:
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First gaining competence then mastering it
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Less about winning and losing and more about growing and learning
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Responding to failure / Taking responsibility
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Making an effort
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‘Practice makes perfect’
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Problems as opportunities to try new strategies
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Motivation and goals
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Approach goals: positive outcomes
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Contribution to our well-being
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Presence of something positive
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Avoidance goals: negative outcome
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Stressful
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Absence of something negative
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Self-Determination Theory (SDT) for human motivation
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Control / Autonomy for setting goals
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Competence – Regular positive feedback
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Connection – Relationships with people who are close and secure
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Improving your working memory will help increase your self-control
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Brainworkshop.sourceforge.net
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Goal focus by commitment
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Fully committed -> focus on what you have left to accomplish
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Uncertain commitment -> focus on what you have done so far
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Nutrition
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Deficiency of
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Omega-3 can lead to depression, anxiety, poor concentration and mood swings
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Folic acid is linked to fatigues, confusion and irritability
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Iron is linked to fatigue, irritability, apathy, inability to concentrate and increase depressive symptoms
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Vitamin B12 is linked to loss of memory, mental dysfunction and depression
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Vitamin C has been shown to reduce major depression
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Zinc is linked to depressions
Optimism
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Advantages
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Less anxiety, depression and distress
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More effective coping
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Higher life satisfaction & increased well-being
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Stronger immune system and lower cardiac risk
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Recover from surgery more quickly
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Adapt better to negative events
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Don’t give up so easily
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More action-oriented when faced with problems
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Styles
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Explanatory styles
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The way we explain our experiences
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Optimists attribute the cause of negative events to
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External
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Specific
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Transient factors
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Optimists attribute the cause of positive events to
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Internal
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Global
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Permanent factors
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Defensive pessimists
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Take their expectation as shield to manage their anxiety
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Don’t profit from optimism
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Physical exercise
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Tips
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Find different forms of exercise that you enjoy and alternate them
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Consider mixing individual, partner & team exercises
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Be part of group – helps if your self-control isn’t strong
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Think outside the box
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Start with the most pleasant exercise first, then it’s easier to continue
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Start with small steps
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Benefits
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Reducing high blood pressure
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Developing strong bones & muscles
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More active brain cells
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Better mental skills
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Better memory
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Enhance body image, self-esteem & self-perceptions
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Improved sleep patterns
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Reduce emotional distress
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Reduced depression
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Reduced stress
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Small commitments help a lot
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5 – 30min walk
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5min light resistance training
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Resilience
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Key element in positive psychology
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Benefits
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More likely to perceive challenges / setbacks as manageable
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Greater emotional stability
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Greater ability to cope with stressors & daily hassles
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Greater energy
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Curious & open to new experiences
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Good at helping other people feel good too
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Reflect on setbacks which you recovered from
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You have a wide array of experiences dealing with setbacks
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Write about your really bad life experiences
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Three Ds
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Distraction — do something to calm or silence your negative inner voice
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Distancing — Your interpretation, is just an interpretation – you don’t have to see something the way you do
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Will this experience matter in 5 hours / days / weeks / years time?
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Who is wore off than me at the moment?
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What else do I have in my life that is unaffected by this?
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How can I interpret this situation more positively?
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Disputation — look for evidence for and against your belief
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Try to find benefits of (negative) events (benefit-finding)
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Which doors have opened thanks to the event?
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Savouring
“The aim of life appreciation.” — G.K. Chesterton
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Savouring more down-to-earth definition of appreciation
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To be thankful for something
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To acknowledge the quality of something
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To increase in value
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=> Really noticing, appreciating and enhancing the positive experiences in your life
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How to
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Slow down
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Pay attention to what you are doing
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Use all your senses
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Stretch out your experience
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Reflect on your enjoyment
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Savour things
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In the present
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From the past
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In the future
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Expressing your positive feelings externally can intensify them
Positive psychology of time
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Stop trying too many things
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Enjoy your free time more intensively
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Don’t slump in front of the TV
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Time perspectives
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Future time
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Able to delay gratification
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Work towards future rewards
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More successful
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Present positive time
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Enjoy life to the max
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Less likely to be concerned about the consequences
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Present negative time
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Sense of hopelessness
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Life is controlled by outside forces
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Past positive time
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Lots of pleasure from looking back
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Like to maintain family traditions
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Past negative time
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More likely to have many regrets
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Balanced time perspective (BTP)
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Benefits:
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Happier
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More satisfied with life
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Experience more positive emotions
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Have stronger sense of life purpose
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More optimistic
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More self-efficacious
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How to
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Pick the right TP
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E.g. studying: future TP, relaxing: present positive time
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Where next?
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Feeling outside of your comfort zone can be good — sign that you are learning something new
“What one thing will you commit to do today that will help improve your well-being for the longer term?”