Positive psychology
Have you ever felt unhappy, sad, depressed? I am sure that everyone has some ups and downs in their life. It is rare to feel fortunate all the time, but maybe we, Polish people have tendency to recognise mostly negative sides of our lives? Some people however think that happiness does not depend on our state of possession. They claim that the way we think and perceive the world makes us happy. This new branch of psychology is called “positive psychology”.
The precursors of positive psychology are Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. They however took their interest in this field thanks to works of Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers and Erich Fromm. Quoting their words: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise that achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in individuals, families, and communities."
Usually most branches of psychology are focused on mental illnesses or other dysfunctions. Positive psychology is concentrated on upgrading humans’ lives and make them more fulfilling. One of its goals is achieving an ability to pull attention away from the chronic inner chatter of our thoughts can be quite advantageous to well-being.
The method
The therapy is focused on short-term goals rather that working on big-pictures appraisals. Practitioners of positive psychology claims that negative self-talk is one of the biggest barrier to fell satisfied with life. Lots of people become insecure, the way they think of themselves is pulling them down. There is four mindsets which are the biggest barriers to positive thinking:
1. Personalizing – many of us when hearing, seeing or experiencing some negativities tend to focused those on them. This way they fell depressed often, even though it is not directed to them.
2. Filtering – some people in almost every situation focus only on negatives, instead on seeing positivity.
3. Catastrophizing – basically, it is about anticipating the worst of everything in our life. Those people cannot fully enjoy themselves in their moments of happiness, because in the back of their head is always a voice which says that something is about to go wrong.
4. Polarizing – in this case people tend not to see the gray aspects of life. It can only be perfect or a catastrophe. It is very tiring since almost nothing is ideal.
All of above may carrying funny names and actually seem to be absurd, but most people do not even realize they have tendency to any of those.
What gives you the positive psychology?
The most important: health! Scientifics studies shows that depression, great impact of stress and negative thoughts can badly influent the immunology system. Positive thinkers have a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease. They also deal better with hardship in their life like divorce or illnesses. I believe there is no need to say that positive thinkers achieve better education results, higher job position and more people likes them.
So maybe it is time to start be positive and make some small changes in life just to be happier? :)
Sources: http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/positive-psychology http://psychology.about.com/od/branchesofpsycholog1/a/positive-psychology.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/03/11/positive-psychology-the-benefits-of-living-positively/
Have you ever felt unhappy, sad, depressed? I am sure that everyone has some ups and downs in their life. It is rare to feel fortunate all the time, but maybe we, Polish people have tendency to recognise mostly negative sides of our lives? Some people however think that happiness does not depend on our state of possession. They claim that the way we think and perceive the world makes us happy. This new branch of psychology is called “positive psychology”.
The precursors of positive psychology are Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. They however took their interest in this field thanks to works of Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers and Erich Fromm. Quoting their words: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise that achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in individuals, families, and communities."
Usually most branches of psychology are focused on mental illnesses or other dysfunctions. Positive psychology is concentrated on upgrading humans’ lives and make them more fulfilling. One of its goals is achieving an ability to pull attention away from the chronic inner chatter of our thoughts can be quite advantageous to well-being.
The method
The therapy is focused on short-term goals rather that working on big-pictures appraisals. Practitioners of positive psychology claims that negative self-talk is one of the biggest barrier to fell satisfied with life. Lots of people become insecure, the way they think of themselves is pulling them down. There is four mindsets which are the biggest barriers to positive thinking:
1. Personalizing – many of us when hearing, seeing or experiencing some negativities tend to focused those on them. This way they fell depressed often, even though it is not directed to them.
2. Filtering – some people in almost every situation focus only on negatives, instead on seeing positivity.
3. Catastrophizing – basically, it is about anticipating the worst of everything in our life. Those people cannot fully enjoy themselves in their moments of happiness, because in the back of their head is always a voice which says that something is about to go wrong.
4. Polarizing – in this case people tend not to see the gray aspects of life. It can only be perfect or a catastrophe. It is very tiring since almost nothing is ideal.
All of above may carrying funny names and actually seem to be absurd, but most people do not even realize they have tendency to any of those.
What gives you the positive psychology?
The most important: health! Scientifics studies shows that depression, great impact of stress and negative thoughts can badly influent the immunology system. Positive thinkers have a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease. They also deal better with hardship in their life like divorce or illnesses. I believe there is no need to say that positive thinkers achieve better education results, higher job position and more people likes them.
So maybe it is time to start be positive and make some small changes in life just to be happier? :)
Sources: http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/positive-psychology http://psychology.about.com/od/branchesofpsycholog1/a/positive-psychology.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/03/11/positive-psychology-the-benefits-of-living-positively/
Everyone has ups and downs. Our behaviour depends on our environement: family, friends, school, weather.. I think that the best solution for bein happy is to be positively predisposed to the world. When we have bad day you should see mainly the positive sides. When we are tired about routin of life the best thing is doing some sports, like swimming, playing football, dancing..the activity which help us to separate from the boring reality.
ReplyDeleteI like this kind of psychology because in my opinion humor is the best defend against bad and unpleased situations. I noticed that people who are aware that all thing appears and disappears are very happy. I think we should do this therapy for most people in Poland because we like to talking and grumble about problems but not to solve them.
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting field of psychology. Each of us have good and bad days in our lives. But positive thinking can do enormous miracles. We aren't aware of it. Apart from seeing only bad things in our lives we should focus through small steps on everything around us which may be happy for us. It is a main idea of positive thinking. Today in spring we can spend all day on green grass listening to songs of birds. I am sure it will be beneficial.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, lots of people have problems with depression and immunology, because of the rate of their lives. They are always in hurry and have little time for themselves. Positive psychology sounds really interesting. The methods seem to be very good and appropriate for almost everyone. Happiness, smile and positive thinking can be benefical and are really necessary for many people in Poland, because of our way of thinking. Everyone has some ways to combat stress. We exercise, do some sports, listen to music or meet friends to talk with someone with positive thinking and good attitude.
ReplyDeleteI think that very interesting and very useful field of psyhology. Nowadays a lot of people are very stressed or have problem with their psychic. It is due to fast pace of life and a great number of problem in job or private life. People in Poland are really frustrated and I think that they should use techniques of positive psychology for their health.
ReplyDeleteIt’s true that people, who are optimists, have better job, more friends, and, honestly, more successful life than pessimists. In my opinion, it takes place because of positive thinking- when we believe that we can achieve something, we concentrate better on an aim. When we know that something goes wrong we don’t try to make our dreams come true.
ReplyDeleteI can't agree. While optimists are more prone to taking chances, it could be taken in reverse. They are happy because they were miserable and then compared their life with someone else and it spared feeling of feeling good, because they are in local 'positivity maximum'. We did evolve to compare ourselves with small groups, but rapid rise of information made it possible to compare with people on other side of the planet etc.
ReplyDeleteThere are almost too many arguments for both sides, and it goes by personal view of phenomena. I choose to see it in reversed order of reasoning, and it does not invalidate other people on my side and certainly anyone who is opposing. This is extremally snobbish of me to say, but it is not 'real science'. Just observation with rudinamentary statistics that can proove either side just because data are scattered at best. I'm sorry if it offended anyone but psychology is hardy objective. I am mostly biased because of such wretched invention that goes by the name of IQ test ;).
Despite that I am well acquainted with material of presentation, I want to congratulate the author for presentation. It is comprehensive, compact and elegant in its form.
I think that being happy is the most important thing in our lives. When we are happy we're also healthier. I'm sure positive psychology is very useful in modern world, where our lives are usually stressful
ReplyDeleteThe most important is positive thinking. If you concentrate on good sides you attract good things. Positive thoughts attract positive people. Positive people are open to new things and activities. More things you try more positive things you will discover in your life. If you feel happy you can do everything. You can achieve a lot.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone of us sometimes feel depressed, sad. Often we do everything possible to get rid of a bad mood but nothing helps. Therefore, I believe that a thing as a "positive psychology" is a very useful. Especially for women, who are more vulnerable and in the case of postpartum depression, at the time of divorce, death of a loved one. I agree, that those four mindsets are the biggest barriers to positive thinking. Often people during a depression, or a bad day telling themself that always meets their bad luck and all the worst that nothing good doesn't happen to them. At such times, we don't think about happiness around us, don't look for positive aspects and elements in our lives that are large fortune, health, and family. And there are so much things around us those can make us happy, things that can cheer us, such as good weather, or the fact that we live in! I think the "positive psychology" is a very good thing for the pessimists, unhappy people. And when we get a bad mood we should think about something nice, what happened to us during the day, or about something that always cheers us.
ReplyDeleteI think that the way to become a happy person is not so easy. Positive psychology is one of possible method to change your habits. Sometimes we even don't know that we live in negative environment and that is only one person cold "I" who can find out it and change it.
ReplyDeleteFor me environment and family background is very important to feel good and be happy, but ours future from some moment only depends from ours decision and behavior. Always magical for me is the look of happy people, especially women. Always smiling women is always looking younger and is better person to meet or something;)
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DeleteIt is unnatural for people to be positive all the time. There are many factors that consist on deteriorating our mood: climate, our endocrine system, illnesses, lifestyle and so on. Sometimes we cannot control it. For example in countries where there is less sun and temperature is lower, like Finland, depression rate is higher. Undoubtedly, positive psychology is advantageous in the question of success and motivation, but it is too general and conventional and it could be insufficient in more uncommon cases. But still, it is essential to overcome the negative self-talking - the result of the whole system which put the pressure on us to have the best results in every area, that leads people to comparing with others and problems with self-confidence.
DeleteI think positive psychology is very interesting issue. Especially in our times, when more and more people have problems with unhappiness, depression etc. For some people this method may be really effective. When we look on the bright side of life everything becomes easier. When we are happy we smile more often and people receive us as better person. So in my opinion we should try to be happier and thinh positive!
ReplyDeleteThis way of fighting with depression is noteworthy. But I am afraid that it may be difficult for some people to introduce it into life or even notice those symptoms of "bad thinking" If being happy was so easy we would not have any problems with depression of mankind. I also think that this "health" argument is misplaced - probably some of those "negative" people want to die so they don't care about their healths' condition.
ReplyDeleteI think it's very important to think positive and try not to focus on bad things. Actually, I'm a bit negative, I think that bad things will happen to me. For example, I often think that I will suspend a subject, even before start studying it. It can be because I'm a very insecure person, and easily I feel depressed. For me, the best ways to be happy are go for a walk with some friends, read a good book or, if it's possible, do a long trip.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion the best way to be happy in out life is finding our occupation of the life and doing what we like. We also mhust get used to to the bad things. It is the part of our life. Happy living is easy and everythig is in our mind.
ReplyDeleteI believe that living your life according to your heart is the best option. We never can predict how long we are going to live. We should get what we won’t of course without hurting others. I think that positive psychology may be good for people who has problems with coming up what they want in their lives, because it is not so easy to name the goals.
ReplyDeleteI think our feelings and mood depends on ourselfs. Because what we do with somethink bad or good, maybe a good or bad situation, depends on us. True is that somebody can have bad influence on us what makes us depressed but do we have to see this person? NO! I think extreme thinking is the worst think. To stay in a good feeling we should try to stay in balance, it is my opinion or when we have good psychological mechanisms we are able to bear extreme situations.
ReplyDeleteI think that this idea of positive psychology is something very interesting.
ReplyDeleteMany people, especially the Poles, looks at the world in a very pessimistic way. They concentrate on negatives instead of positives. They think that things will only get worse and worse. It makes people feel depressed. I think that a positive attitude is very important for our psyche.
I personally try to be optimistic and so far, thanks to this, I feel that I'm happy.
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ReplyDeletePositive Thinks! I totally agree with this. Really, people don't believe in yourself, don't believe he can find solution of problems. Positive Psychology can help people who fall from power or people who thinking "i'am nothing". My favorite positive phrase is: "when God closes a door He opens a window".
ReplyDeleteAbout positive thinking and happy: " If Kali steal a cow, it's good. But If Kali lose his cow, it's very bad. All is depends on something.
ReplyDeleteIf we want a lot from life, we must be prepared to sacrifice.
If we know more, it is also difficult to agree with certain things.
So if we want be happy, we must to accept that everything is not realistic to do.
But positive thinking is one way to be happy without this worries.
I think our positive energy is from us. I mean, WE have the most impact on our mood. We can think of many things in our life in such a way to feel positively, we can also think in the bad way. It depends on un how we see the world.
ReplyDeleteFor me the most important is my family and friends, they give me strenght.
But we can think the way, that, for egzample relaxing is more important, and then it will be. The power is in our minds.
We should look realistic on life, not positive or negative. Feeling positive won't help us with almost everything and i don't belive in "miracle" of changing your life just through smiling more and more. You will just look stupid smiling when somethng in your life s just collapsing.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of positive psychology is very much needed, especially in Poland. So many of us suffer from depression! We do not want to live, we have enough problems. A positive thinking can change our lives, after all. It can bring us success, it can open us to the world. From positive thinking often depends on whether we achieve something or whether we make our dreams come true. Only when we think positive, we can be happy!
ReplyDeleteI have always been a positive thinking one, thanks god. There is inthe text that positive thinking people go better through hard moments in life and are more healthy. I think beeing in good shape and taking care about health make people positive thinking and happy. So it works in that way too.
ReplyDeleteI believe that positive psychology is not anything new, it is the scientific name for positive thinking. Now there is a general trend that you need to think positively, mainly because our thoughts determine our lives. I fully agree with that. I remember when I was a little, I always thought negatively and still meet me luck. When I realized that I can do something change by thinking, I try just to do it. Changing the way we think it is really difficult, because this is a habit, but it is not impossible. It all depends on our willing.
ReplyDeleteI think that being happy is the really important thing in our lives. Positive thinking help us to be happy. If you concentrate on good sides you attract good things. Positive psychology is one of possible method to change your habits For some people this method may be really effective. When we look on the bright side of life everything becomes easier. It can bring us success and make our life more beautiful!
ReplyDeleteIt is said that if we think positively,we attract positive thing as well. I totally agree with that statement. If we think more positively,we seem to be happy people. It open us to the world, we have more power to work and we want to share our happiness with others. It can also help us to achieve a success,because we start to treat failure as motivation.
ReplyDeleteMany people told me that I can always find something good even about very bad things. But still I am not an optimist, rather a realist. All I do is just keep in mind the negative aspects of the problem and speak out on good ones. That helps to save the pleasant working atmosphere and not to panic. Yet you have to remember about all the sides of the issue to be in touch with the reality. It is very important, especially if you occupy a high position associated with decision-making.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, it is really impossible to be happy all the time. We are not able to predict the situations that cause that we are in a worse mood. Of course, we should find some positive sides in our problems but it's not always possible. However, to be able to be the most happy, we should do what gives us the most satisfaction, makes us smiling and full of positive energy. The second issue is people. We need to surround ourselves with only such people with whom we like to spend time, who are willing to support us and give a lot of spiritual strength.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I am not into a positive psychology because I believe that it is far better the be a realist than optimist. In my opinion, we do not need a theraphy to think positively and when something bad happens we forget about all the rules of being optimists. I consider myself as a realistic person and thanks to that I analyze everything properly and than try to make the right decisions. I try to avoid unpleasant situations.
ReplyDeleteI always admire people who have a lot of positive energy in every situation. It is impossible for me. Unfortunately I feel I am pessimist and I often don't have energy to be happy. In my opinion we can't have positive energy when we have troubles and there exsist situations when even really happy people aren't optimist.
ReplyDeleteI think, that positive thing is a key to any a success. Everything, which we have inside our minds or body, next is connected with our normal life. I mean, our thoughts decide about what we are doing now. It can be a reason why, we feel good or bad or how we organise our day. This topic is also close to low self-esteem problem. We should learn how to notice positive side of every situation. Additionally, I agree, that depression, stress and negative thoughts have badly impact on our immunology system.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is natural to be sad from time to time. Trying to feel happy all the time may be exhausting. Sometimes it’s healthy to give vent to your emotions – to cry or even shout. I wouldn’t be able to force myself to pretend to be happy around the clock just because it could have been worse. Of course, we need temperance because many of us have tendency to despair and their bad experiences are the only topic they are interested in. Tips given by positive psychologists may help us to find balance between extreme pessimism and optimism. It is very important to look for as many advantages as possible so that we will still have motivation to live and work, but those positive sides should not make us pretend that problems does not exist. Some people mistake positive thinking for ignoring problems and it causes another problems. But if you are reasonable, positive psychology will help you to believe that you can overcome all difficulties and as you believe it, you are more likely to succeed. Self-confidence and complacency are the key to career - this is how I understand the power of positive psychology.
ReplyDeleteMaybe these pieces of advice are good, and maybe they work for some people. But, the question is what is the real meaning af being happy? Is it possible for everyone? and if not, maybe we should rather aimm to be good and warm-hearted, peacefull. Because there are people who suffered so much, that they can not be cheerful, they ay only accept things and try to be good even though the life is not good for them.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion it's very important to think positive and try not to focus on bad things because thanks to it our life can be much easier. Unfortunately I’m a realist even a little bit negative and I can’t always think in positive way. But I try to work on it because I think it really helps. Especially in perception of yourself. Also people react on you when you smile, you are happy and have positive mindset. So, try to be more positive every day.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion Positive psychology is huge issue nowadays. A lot of people are overworked, haven’t enough time for themselves, their friends or family. In this rate race it is just one step to depression if you can’t think positively. It seems to me that, even very short moment just for you and your favorite music, book etc. helps to become happy on daily basis. What is more if you are happy it entail being more self-confident, creative and effective. It is inseparable part of success and create a good streak.
ReplyDeleteYeah I agree that positive thinking can have big influence on our life. I belive that if we thinking about something even in subconscious it can came true. I had such situations few time. But unfortunatelly I have sometimes tendency to being pesimistic especially when I;m thinking about my exams. I'd rather not to bias in favour about some staffs beacuse I don't want to be disappointed. I hope that I will be more optimistic and not worry about everything all the time.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I sell psyhology as a discipline of science short. Psychology neither have good language nor testing methods that might be anticipating a deeper knowdlege than common life expirience. Nevertheless people should have rudiments of psychlogy to interact with others and solve their own problems. I believe that happiness is always around the next corner, but positive psychology is just a scientific theory. We know that scientific theories constatly replace one another, and even our best theoris turn out to be mistaken in some regard much as their predicessor did. Practice being optimistic is crucial, but even more crucial is to grasp what do we really know about happiness.
ReplyDeleteI think the method of short- term and small goals may really help someone to achieve a happiness. People not only have a tendency to "polarizing", "cathastrophizing", "filtering" and "personalizing". When comes to changes people usually try to do everything at one time instead of using a method of "baby steps". In my opinion what really gives a chance to feel happier, is to make small steps, have an ambitious goals, but not to much and be patient with realization of them.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, positive thinking helps us in life. If it is possible, we should try to find some good things. To be honest, I know that it is not easy, but if we really want to, we can find many positive aspects. If I have to say about me, Im quiet negative, because I prefer to have a "nice surprise" than disappointment.
ReplyDeleteI agree that positive thinking, creating goals day after day without thinking about the bigger picture could help us achieve happiness and peace of mind. But this is something incredibly relative. In the life of every human being come moments that breaks our spirit, buckets of ice cold water. And we just can't find in those moments bright side. Holding a smile on our faces and creating trivial, mundane tasks don't always help us. If someone thinking about this lifestyle really seriously and considers it as life's philosophy it's just sad. It's like someone would take the saying "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" one hundred percent seriously and would stop doing anything else to be healthy. It reminds me of the meaning of life by Monty Python (paraphrasing) - Be nice to the neighbor, eat 5 small meals a day, read one book a month and sleep at least 8 hours a day. It helps you organize your life but it doesn't help you go out of the crisis situation.
ReplyDeleteYes I totally agree. Positive thinking helps us in life. By this we are being happier. When we think about sad things and we are pesymistic, things are doing badly, so that's why all people should try postive thinking.
ReplyDeleteWhen somebody asks me: are you optimistic or pessimisic I'm confused. It's really hard for me to say what kind of person I am. Positive psychology is really fine idea, but in my opinion quite befool. You can't change somebody, and show him the positive path. because life is compilcated and you can't be happy every day, but it's good to life positively because you are healthy, and when yor have health you have everything.
ReplyDeleteEveryone have bad and good days and thinking positive can help us to deal with those bad. In my opinion it's good for us when we have bad day because it remaind us to enjoy those happy days. Sometimes it's better think pessimistic and then have a happy disappointment then always stay positive.
ReplyDeleteDefiniately- every time it is good to start thinking positive. Sometimes this is a hard task, because we have a lot of problems. But in my opinion everything is our mind. It is we create our reality. If we look on the big problem in positive way, suddenly that problem can stay simpler. Otherwise I think that therapy- it is good idea. Sometimes people can't start thinking more posotive and someone can show how to be happy.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting idea. I agree that polish people sometimes see just negative sides of life. We should change it for sure. I really like a picture. It shows everything in cool way. It's awsam and I really like it! It's definately impossible to be happy everyday but I wish it all of U :)
ReplyDeleteThe fact that we are happy or not depends on lots of things. First of all, the main reason why we can be happy is our close family, friends. Without them everything seems to be much more harder in common life. What is more, things, which we do in our life are important, too. Our job, studies can give us a lot of happiness. Also our relations with other people create our feelings. We must remember about all these things.
ReplyDeleteI like the moments when all this optimistic power comes to me and change my day, but these are really rare moments. I'm one of that kind of people who are thinking too much about stupidity of this world, and it's hard to change mind in this situation. But laugh always help me to forget about the problems and make my day better.
ReplyDeleteI find this idea very useful. Indeed, it's not very easy to be happy all the time, everyone has worse days, but what we should remember all the time is to find positive aspect of different things. Nobody says it's easy, but it's the only way to improve our mood.
ReplyDeletePeople can be unhappy, becouse they can have wrong job or they do not have family.. It is there a lot of different personal reasons, I think, that sometimes is very hard to change something. And, maybe, in a few cases it can be unreal.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion the best way to be happy is finding a few small thing, what we can enjoy. For me, it is reading and walking . It helps me think about what very various things, and it makes me feel better and less nervous , for exaple, after my exams. It is a simple way to feel happy.
I can't agree with most of the comments. It's because human need not only good, possitive feelings. It's important to hava some moments like this but we need some reference to our thinkig. I think that people which are thinking only positive way ara farer from reality with people who have hard life.
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that we always should stay positive. From my own experience bad thoughts can cause bad things, and postive thinking allows to avoid that and makes us feel better. I think that our thought create our way of living, they have direct influence on how happy and successful we are. That's why we should try to keep only positive things in mind and our life will change in a good way.
ReplyDelete