7 WAYS TO APPLY POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Learn practical, proven strategies to live a happier, more engaged and more meaningful life. We all want to live happier, more engaging and more meaningful lives. The science of positive psychology contributes new Introduction insights and proven strategies to increase wellbeing in individuals, workplaces and communities. After years classifying and repairing the worst of human experience, positive psychology emerged to help us flourish and learn from the best. This rich and varied field now spans many areas, building on philosophies and practices from Aristotle to Maslow. This eBook introduces you to some of the most practical and research-backed ways to apply positive psychology to increase happiness, wellbeing and effectiveness—in your life, at work, at home and with the people you care for, help and lead. You will learn: • How to maximise the power of positivity to create sustainable pathways to happiness and success. • Seven positive psychology practices - “[Positive Psychology is] the from optimism to mindfullness. scientific study of positive • Tips to apply these practices at work, at human functioning and home and when helping people. flourishing on multiple levels.” We look forward to inspiring you and others to live a Martin Seligman &Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi happier, more engaged and fulfilling life! The Langley Group team © 2015 Langley Group. All rights reserved 2 Positive psychology 7 POSITIVE PRACTICES Positive emotion 1 Generating positive emotions helps broaden and build our resources and moves us toward greater wellbeing. Spearheaded by Martin Seligman and Mindset Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1998, positive 2 psychology focuses on exploring and Adopting a positive attitude and Growth Mindset enhances learning and opens our expanding what makes life worthwhile, mind to new ways to raise happiness levels. productive and fulfilling, in all it’s complexity. Mindfulness 3 Positive psychology research shows happiness leads to Mindfulness is the opposite of success in nearly every life domain, from health and mindlessness. Learning to be mindful longevity to workplace performance, creativity and allows us to stay present in the moment. relationships. This is the finding of a landmark meta- Resilience study by leading positive psychologists Sonja Lyubomirsky, 4 Laura King and Ed Diener, who brought together over Resilience is the capacity to withstand and 200 studies conducted on 275,000 people worldwide. adapt to the challenges life throws us. There are many ways to build resilience. They found happier people—those with higher levels of Optimism wellbeing—are: 5 Optimism is a tendency to expect the • Healthier best possible outcomes. We can learn • Live longer strategies to be more optimistic. • Less accident prone Gratitude • More successful 6 • More productive Practicing gratitude makes us aware of the • More creative good things that happen and connects us to a sense of life’s wonder. • Faster thinking • Harder-working Strengths 7 • Higher earning When we use our strengths, we enjoy • More caring and altruistic what we are doing, do it better, and feel • More socially engaged we are working toward our potential. • Luckier © 2015 Langley Group. All rights reserved 4 1 POSITIVE EMOTION Positive emotions are one of the hallmarks of happiness and wellbeing. When we feel good, we are more able to perform at our best. Positive emotions allow us to think more High-energy emotions like excitement, flexibly and creatively. We come up with zest and enthusiasm shift our mood and more ideas and they tend to be better our physiology fast. Laughter is one of quality. the quickest ways you can activate the healing effect of positive emotion. Just a They also make us more willing to try few minutes of laughter a day can reduce new strategies and reach out to others, stress and improve your heart rate, according to Barbara Fredrickson, who muscle activity, digestion and immune developed the Broaden and Build Theory. system. The psychological and social resources Like laughter, positive emotions are we build when we experience positive contagious. Maximise fun moments to emotions buffer life’s challenges, keep us feel happier and healthier. Better still, optimistic and curious about the future, share them with others to create an and propel us in an upward spiral of upward spiral of positivity that sustains happiness and wellbeing. everyone. “Positivity puts the brakes “Positivity transforms us for the better,” Focus on increasing the duration and says Fredrickson. “By opening our hearts intensity of your emotional peaks and on negativity. In a heartbeat, and minds positive emotions allow us to shortening the duration and intensity of negativity can spike your blood discover and build new skills, new ties, your lows. Do this in every domain of pressure, positivity can calm it. new knowledge and new ways of being.” your life. Positivity works like reset button.” Barbara Fredrickson © 2015 Langley Group. All rights reserved 6 2 MINDSET Our attitude influences the way we respond, our impact on others and our happiness level. The more we recognise our power to make conscious positive choices, the more difference we can make to our own and other people’s wellbeing. The attitudes that make up our mindset So how much potential do we have aren’t as set as we think, according to change if we set our minds to it? to Carol Dweck, a Stanford University Research by Sonja Lyubomirsky and professor who discovered the concept of her colleagues and their concept of a Growth Mindset. Happiness Pie gives us a clue. People with a Fixed Mindset believe their They discovered that about 50% of the basic qualities, like intelligence or talent, differences between people’s happiness are static traits, and so don’t spend time levels can be explained by genetically developing them. People with a Growth determined set points. A further 10% is Mindset see themselves as a work in linked to your circumstances. Whether progress. They believe they can nurture you are rich or poor, married or divorced, their abilities through dedication and hard healthy or unhealthy, environmental work. Their love of learning makes them factors account for a portion of your more motivated, resilient and successful. happiness overall. The remaining 40% is influenced by intentional activities. Some “I change myself, To practice Growth Mindset emphasise of these can improve your circumstances. I change my world.” what you are learning each time you try something new. Focus on the This means we can increase or decrease progress you are making toward a goal, almost half of our happiness level through M. K Ghandi rather than what will happen if you our choices and mindset. The tools in don’t get there. Challenge self-limiting this ebook are designed to widen your assumptions. options and capacity for happiness. © 2015 Langley Group. All rights reserved 8 3 MINDFULNESS Mindfulness involves single pointedly resting our awareness in one place for an extended period without being distracted. Ellen Langer, a mindfulness expert and • Vigilance – careful, focused attention early positive psychology researcher, on the mind itself moment by defines mindfulness as “the process moment. of actively noticing new things.” She believes it’s the opposite of mindlessness, “Normally our attention wanders, drawing us into in the present. “It’s the oscillating between excitation and essence of engagement. And it’s energy- dullness,” she explains. “Only when we begetting, not energy-consuming.” attempt for the first time to direct and hold our attention in a single place for When we approach the world with even a few moments do we become mindful awareness we can more vividly aware of just how chaotic our accurately assess and respond to minds really are. Mindfulness is the ability situations and people. By noticing and to rest our awareness without it falling separating ourselves from old beliefs and into either state.” anxieties we become more accepting of ourselves and others. Mindfulness is a skill that takes time to learn and discipline to practice, yet it does A mindful state has three qualities, not take long to make significant progress “Mental activities like meditation according to Mel Neil, practicing Buddhist and the benefits are immediate. While and senior trainer of our Diploma of there are many mindfulness practices can actually change the brain.” Positive Psychology and Wellbeing. such as meditation and yoga, its not that • Relaxation – settling the body in its hard to include mindfulness in our own His Holiness the Dalai Lama natural state. day-to-day, routine-filled lifestyles. We just need to notice what’s going on and • Stillness – avoiding movement to savour our experiences with attention and quiet the mind. awareness. © 2015 Langley Group. All rights reserved 10 4 RESILIENCE Resilience is the capacity to withstand and adapt to the challenges life throws us. It is a skill anyone can learn, to survive and to thrive. Resilient people fulfill their potential For example, exercise or deep breathing despite, even because of, adversity, and techniques will help you get oxygen tend to see challenges as opportunities to your body and brain and shift your for growth and renewal. emotional state. Get out into nature or change your environment when you are Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte identify feeling stressed. Even a simple action four ways people use resilience: to like tidying your desk can create enough overcome the difficult circumstances or space to adjust and choose the best negative consequences of childhood, to way to respond to situations rather than steer through daily stressors, to bounce letting our emotional reactions dictate our back from setbacks, and to reach out to behaviour. pursue new goals and a stronger sense of self. Reaching out allows us to move past As we’ve seen, positive emotions our urge to protect ourselves and open up enhance our social resources.