by Kelly Seaward - Ding | November, 2021 | Kelly Seaward - Ding, Life
‘The only people who get upset about you setting boundaries are the ones who were benefitting from you having none’ I have seen the above quote a few times on Facebook. I usually write in line with empirical research regarding Positive Psychology, but within the spiritual practices I belong to, if you see something more than three times, you need to pay attention to it. This is the reason why I feel empowered to write about boundaries. Our modern culture has nearly everything on instant mode. This can sometimes make our lives easier. However, regarding our time it means that everything seems like a priority but you only have the same twenty-four hours a day to complete everything. So, this quote got me pondering that time is precious and how much our thoughts and emotions contribute to this notion of time. Seligman and Positive Emotions: According to Martin Seligman (2011), Positive Emotions is the first element in his Well-being Theory. It was also part of his original theory – Authentic Happiness. Positive Emotion is linked with the pleasant life. Positive Emotions are also connected to the research of Barbara Fredrickson. Fredrickson (2011), research suggests ten Positive Emotions: Love, Gratitude, Interest, Pride, Inspiration, Joy, Serenity, Hope, Amusement and Awe. Tugade and Fredrickson, (2004) state Positive Emotions can undo the harmful effects of negative emotions and promote resilience. They are also one of the key ingredients that promote flourishing. Coming back to the theme of boundaries. During the first lockdown when most things in life were restricted, I found I experienced a reflection process where I was reviewing all...
by Kelly Seaward - Ding | October, 2021 | Kelly Seaward - Ding
We travel in this world in our bodies, it is our temple and it needs the right nourishment to do all the wonderful things it is capable of doing. The mind-body connection is constantly bringing new depths of research to help us navigate our way to flourishing. I ponder on the word flourishing as we journey through COVID 19. Martin Seligman, the pioneer of Positive Psychology defines flourish as finding fulfilment in our lives, accomplishing meaningful and worthwhile tasks, and connecting with others at a deeper level—in essence, living the “good life” (Seligman, 2011). As a teacher embracing immense changes to working practices under the COVID guidelines, my profession, like many others found themselves with new challenges, learning to be adaptable, flexible and creative in how we managed this unpredictable time. I am an advocate for Positive Psychology, I found the pressure on workload commitments tested my application of Positive Psychology in my own life. Positive Psychology is the “scientific study of what goes right in life, from birth to death and all the stops in between: (White, 2016, p. 1). Positive Psychology is a lifestyle. You create wellbeing in your life through the activities you do. This makes it a unique practice as we are all different. Learn it, Live it, Teach it, Embed it I felt I was tested on how I apply Positive Psychology in my life. I completed the MAPP in 2018. Here is where I learnt the world of Positive Psychology. Now was the life test of how I applied it. Knowledge is good, but transformation takes place in the application stage. Taking...
by Kelly Seaward - Ding | March, 2021 | Gratitude, Kelly Seaward
The Power of Gratitude The Pandemic has refocused our lives. The restrictions have created a different way of living, a new perspective and reflection process. For some of us, the treadmill of life has slowed down, for some, it has stopped completely and for some new ways of working. The family dynamics have altered as social distancing and staying within the family home and not mixing is in place. The sense of loss is felt in several areas of life, it can be through the death of loved ones, a loss of the workplace environment as furlough schemes and working from home increases and the loss of physical face to face contact with loved ones as we move to virtual meetups to stay in contact. The loss of identity and lifestyles as life changes. Even though there is an understanding of why this has had to happen, the uncertainty can be overwhelming. The How of Happiness In Sonja Lyubomirsky’s book ‘The How of Happiness’ (2010), she offers lots of activities that you can apply to your life to increase and sustain happiness in your life. It is at times like this during the pandemic when things sometimes feel difficult, that taking some action can help cultivate positive thinking, motivation and a sense of faith. The one I have found powerful at this time is expressing gratitude. I am a secondary school teacher and the changes made to Education have been tough. These changes are essential but working within an industry already known for excessive stress and burnout rates, the pressure has increased and to stop it imploding on...
by Kelly Seaward - Ding | January, 2021 | hope, Kelly Seaward - Ding
The Foundations of the exploration of Hope: One of my roles is teaching drama and something very interesting took place with my year 11 students. For their GCSE they have to create a devised piece of drama. The requirement is the teacher provides a variety of stimuli for the students to explore and then they decide where this will take them in relation to the end product. I used a photo stimulus of Pandora opening a box. The interesting part of this story is most groups I have used this with in the past, explores the despair and negative effects of opening the box. This group started doing exactly this, but when they came to the ‘Hope’ aspect, they started to explore what the positive side of this one virtue being left meant to them. Without knowing it they had ventured into the world of Positive Psychology and they just happen to have a drama teacher, who is also a Positive Psychologist. I completed my MSc Applied Positive Psychology in 2018. The students know this and I do use concepts from Positive Psychology with them, but they were left to their own devices in how they wanted to explore this stimulus. Here is where the two worlds that co-exist for me began to organically merge. In the Presence of Hope – Is the Power of Everything. ‘Hope’ has a pivotal role in the Positive Psychology world and is defined as ‘Positive Expectations and feelings about the likelihood of desired events and outcomes occurring in the future’. (Norrish, 2015). This group of students looked at the box in an alternative...
