by Lynn Soots | October, 2015 | Community, Culture, Relationships, Uncategorized
The Syrian crisis has been the most frequent topic of discussion in my twins’ Global Perspectives class. I love the concept of the class – they access media coverage from around the world and see the same event covered from different perspectives. A great way to challenge their unconscious biases and broaden their perspective, or so one would think. But then they go on to do something that I think totally defeats the purpose. They critically analyze the news, but in what’s been called “motivated reasoning”, process the new information through the filter of their preexisting worldview. Which means that it often leads to what their teacher calls a drunk’s bar conversation, where they adamantly defend their positions and become all the more certain of their views. What Children Learn is Important At the breakfast table one day though, one of the twins was reading the story of a refugee family, one of many that they had read over the past few weeks. But when she looked up, something had changed within her. “Mommy!” she cried in alarm, “this family was just like us – they worked in good jobs, their children went to good schools. Their daughter did ballet, their two sons played soccer and basketball. And look what happened to them…” as she trailed off in disbelief. Somehow, the fact that most of the people were living normal lives before the crisis had evaded her for so long. And somehow this was all she needed to feel genuine empathy for them. It’s true that critical reasoning without empathy simply leads to cynicism and disconnect. To be moved...
by Nikki Young | October, 2015 | Community, Health, Relationships
Women and men can learn from each other how to de-stress Are you aware of the fact that women and men de-stress in entirely different ways? Now this is one piece of important information. Research shows that women tend to release stress through doing chores while chatting to others. They enjoy brewing coffee or tidying up while talking to each other about a zillion of emotional issues. This was quite easy to accomplish in traditional settings of living in extended families or tribal societies in natural surroundings where women spend a lot of time in the company of other women and shared some burdens of housekeeping. In today’s post modern societies with their large numbers of single households or married couples without children, de-stressing that works for both partners seems to be a massive challenge. Most people know that many men de-stress by going into the famous cave. A state of mindlessness is the preferred mode. Perhaps this is a state women could benefit from understanding and cultivating within themselves. The Importance of the Empty Box A stressed man is not exactly well equipped to deal with a stressed out woman who wants to chatter a stream of words into his ears while she moves many items around. This is likely to become unsettling for the standard stressed man and can easily aggravate him. Mark Gougon brilliantly brings this message across in his “Tale of two brains”. He cracks people up with his poignant truths. His term of that particular part of men’s brains says it all: “The Nothing Box”. Men can be completely braindead for hours, he...
by Nikki Young | October, 2015 | Community, Positive Psychology, Work
Well-Being – more than a passing fad? Polly Vernon recently wrote an upbeat article about 2015 fads she has openly embraced – Pilates, Uber, summer cocktails, sobriety, Instagram and Almond milk to name a few! As a style journalist, trends are kind of her bread and butter. I reflected on my own indulgence in the ‘latest craze’. Reading anything to do with my role, listening to Engage for Success podcasts, attending Happiness seminars and making new connections at Culture Meet-Ups all hold great appeal. The concepts of pre-approving ideas, celebrating failures and transparent salaries draw me to explore them more deeply and practically. I rejoiced in International Happiness Day with my team this year and I’m currently exploring the synergy between Culture and Brand. Well-Being at work No surprises then how animated I get about mental and physical well-being at work! When I found the nef research on the Five Ways to Wellbeing, I knew my next intervention lay right there…. “The Five Ways to Wellbeing are a set of evidence-based actions which promote people’s wellbeing. They are: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice,Keep Learning and Give. These activities are simple things individuals can do in their everyday lives.” Mental Health in the UK is currently in the spotlight, spearheaded by famous names such as Ruby Wax and Stephen Fry, but the spectrum of mental health issues tend to be poorly understood by the general population. As a result, stigma and a lack of support prevail, often worsening the issues. But what if we could do something preventative? Something easy to build into our everyday lives?. Wouldn’t it be great if more employers realised that employees everywhere are...
by Lynn Soots | September, 2015 | Community, Education, Positive Psychology, Relationships
What Do Students Learn in Positive Psychology? There is not a class that goes by that I do not see a tremendous amount of growth in the general population of the students who fill my higher education Positive Psychology cyber classroom each semester. Research vastly supports the benefits of learning factors associated with Positive Psychology in the indications there is a growth in self, with others, and out to the world1. But what does that look like? Well, week seven of ten, into the thick of the material, I posed the opportunity for the class to respond to: Question: As part of building esteem you could implement these into any environment in many ways (talking circles, story time, discussions, relation improvement sessions…). Look at the list below and propose an environment (population), a strategy and what you might see as an outcome. How would it be beneficial to the population, corporations or the world in general? Pick one of the following and list the ways you can do this and how the list would be beneficial. 10 things you can do to make yourself laugh 10 things you can do to make someone else laugh 10 ways to help another person 10 things you can do for yourself that don’t consist of buying something....
by Dan Collinson | September, 2015 | Community, EMAPP Portugal
Co-contructing Public Happiness Five years ago, the University of Lisbon and the Portuguese Association of Studies and interventions in Positive Psychology (APEIPP) organized the 1st Portuguese Positive Psychology Conference. The topic chosen was “Positive Nations – looking for hope inspiring collective processes”. We discussed issues as diverse as “What is a Positive Nation? Is it possible to promote collective forgiveness between a country that colonized and the one who was colonized? What is Positive Peace? How did the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa help to heal a wounded country? What effect can political revolutions have in the level of well-being of a country?” Positive Nations and Communities In 2013, the two organizers of the Conference, Luís Miguel Neto and Helena Águeda Marujo, coordinated a book tilted “Positive Nations and Communities”, edited by Springer, where several of the invited researchers of the 2010 Conference participated. After opening in 2012 the first cohort of the Executive Master of Applied Positive Psychology at the School of Social and Political Sciences (ISCSP), University of Lisbon, the team felt it was now the time to organize the 2nd Portuguese Positive Psychology Conference. It will be held in Lisbon between the 11 and the 13th of September 2015. This year’s theme In this occasion the theme selected is “Positive Communities and Relational Goods: Co-constructing Publica Felicitas (Public Happiness)”. The focus on collective and relational processes, on values, and on virtuous organizations, has been one of the main interests of the Portuguese team. Also, there is an interest in including transnational and multi-disciplinary approaches to study and promote positive communities, which implies that the...
by Lynn Soots | July, 2015 | Community
Positive Leadership in Communities Opportunities Knock Opportunities knock at every mindful acknowledgement that creating something larger than one’s self is but an email, a call, or just a conversation away. Commitment to connection is the essential factor that bridges people through interests, common goals, enjoyment, seeking of meaning, life, cultural engagement and movement in a positive direction. Communities are not bound by a set distinctive criteria or specific attributes physical, location or tangible in nature. Communities are formed by nature of one person linking to another, linking to another though a number of ways that brings a vision to realization. Planting seeds Building positive communities can, but does not exclusively mean going out into a community and building on what is already there. It can also mean being one who plants the seed and elects to become one who tends to the garden as good host and helper; setting aside one’s individual needs and nurturing a movement towards a larger positive goal. I am reminded of my military days where the common phrase was never leaving your wingman—oh yes that famous phrase in Top Gun. This meant you had their back as they had your back; alone meant you were dead in the water. Positive communities develop and thrive on these sorts of unspoken commitments to ensure no link breaks free from a solid chain, thus together they form a solid loop with each link as valuable as the next. For this blog I will use the example of the developing Positive Psychology field itself. This is a community that has seen vast growth over the past decade, but...
