What is positive education?

Positive education focuses on teaching students practical ways to boost their wellbeing. Students are taught ways to increase the amount of positive emotions they experience. Frequently the positive education curriculum is based on the PERMA model proposed by Martin Seligman. This model proposes that there are five factors that can be developed in all of us to aid flourishing.

P stands for positive emotions. These are cultivated through activities such as gratitude, kindness and savouring.

E stands for engagement which describes how involved students are in their tasks. Their involvement can be strengthened by helping students to identify and use their strengths when working on a task. When students are deeply engaged, they may enter a flow state where the degree of challenge is created that is appropriate for their skill level.

R stands for relationships, this includes improving the quality of our social connections, we can achieve this by helping students to feel part of a community and encouraging them to contribute to that community.

M stands for meaning and this involves helping students to find a sense of purpose and meaning in what they are doing. Often this is achieved by helping students to see how what they are doing is connected to something bigger than them such as a just cause.

A stands for accomplishment which refers to striving for achievements that help us grow as an individual. We can help students in this through scaffolded goal setting in order that they gain a sense of achievement which builds confidence.

Related Education

Often the five factors are described as separate entities, however, I view them more as related self-perpetuating factors. For example, being engaged and in a state of flow boosts the positive emotions such as joy, satisfaction and interest. Experiencing positive emotions makes us more approachable and we are better able to build relationships with others. Finding a deep sense of meaning can boost feelings of awe and gratitude.

The positive helps with the negative

The rising tide of poor mental health of our young people is a deep-seated worry for many educators, psychologists and parents. Typically poor mental health has been addressed after the student has experienced this distressing state. This is where positive education has a large role to play. A positive education curriculum can be part of the preventative measures schools and colleges take to boost mental health. By helping students to feel a sense of connection, to find a sense of meaning and to boost their positive emotions, we can help build resilience in our young people. They will have internal resources that they can draw upon in times of difficulty which in turn has a buffering effect against potential negative experiences. Students become more resourceful and they are able to deal with successes and setbacks in a constructive way that promotes good mental health.

Positive education endows students with the skills to flourish that they can use throughout their lives.

Read more about Bryony Shaw and her other articles HERE

‘We Are The Positive Psychology People’

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In school, I was the nerdy kid with glasses who was always studying. At university, I went out only 2 times in my first year, only to overcompensate and subsequently turn into a party animal. And after graduating, when my peers were all getting regular jobs, I found that I much preferred to work for myself.

Modern society talks a lot about the value of diversity, often regarding superficial qualities like gender or skin colour. I would argue that the most important type of diversity is diversity of character. Society is a richer place when each individual is in touch with his or her unique temperament and lives that out in the world. Let the introverts become librarians; let the people highest in openness become travel bloggers. We all benefit from such an arrangement.

School promotes obedience and conformity

Sounds reasonable, right? Then why is it that the school system is set up to promote obedience and conformity, instead of each person following their individual path?

If you think that assessment is too harsh, consider the following:

• Schools tell children when they can speak, how they should spend their time, and sometimes what they should wear.
• All children have to study the same material until a certain age (in my case that was 14). If you have the level of self-awareness to know that you’re not interested in a given compulsory subject, you are shamed as an unruly student.
• The people who designed the modern education system were heavily influenced by the Prussian school system of the 19th century, the main goal of which was to produce an obedient soldier. The Prussians decided they didn’t want their soldiers to do unreasonable things like running away from life-threatening military engagements. They were lauded for their insight by bureaucrats across the UK, the US and much of the Western world.

As befits their Prussian origins, school conditions have more in common with an army barracks than a place that nurtures the soul of the individual.

The value of saying no

One of the universal rules of life is that you can judge the quality of a relationship by how easy it is for either party to say or hear the word “no.” Everyone understands this intuitively on some level. The ability to say or hear “no” is strongly correlated with a sense of mutual respect. For example:

• If you have a partner who always wants to spend time with you and can’t take no for an answer when you want to see your friends, then your partner is objectively needy. Your relationship would benefit from you having the courage to say no when you mean it, and your partner developing the self-esteem to hear a no without taking it personally.
• Imagine your boss gives you a task at work that strongly goes against your values. The right thing to do is to decline the task, and a boss that respects you will respect your right to say no. That may well result in you parting ways with your employer if your values are too divergent, but better to say no honestly than to do something that you profoundly disagree with.
• We even have sexual consent laws that enshrine an individual’s right to say no. We rightly deem relationships that don’t respect one partner’s right to say no to sex as abusive.

It is notable that the education system rarely gives children a right to say no. When it does, it’s normally in a contrived context that the school has decided on, such as letting students choose what subjects to study at age 16. It is also notable that the education system has developed all sorts of shaming language to describe those who don’t conform:

• “bad student”
• “unruly”
• “difficult child”
• “typical moody teenager”

This is abusive behaviour, and should be called out as such.

I would venture that it’s not the child who is acting dysfunctionally when they rebel against such a system. A healthy person is not going to respond positively to a system that coerces them and threatens their individuality. Is it any wonder that mental illnesses such as depression are rampant among people under the age of 25? I say this entirely without judgment, as someone who suffered with depression for a long time due to over-identifying with the values promoted by the education system.

What would a healthy education system look like?

None of what I’ve written here will come as a surprise to anyone who has reflected honestly about the state of the modern education system. It’s a cliche at this point to say that the system is broken.

I’ve never wanted to be the sort of person who complains about things all the time. Yes, it’s important to point out the flaws in existing patterns of behaviour, both on an individual and a societal level. But it’s even more important to actively work towards creating something better.

Universal Owl is my attempt to fix the problem of education. I started from first principles and asked myself the question: what does every young person need to learn in order to become a successful adult? Answers include things like:

• How to budget, save, invest and build wealth
• How to eat healthily and exercise on a regular basis
• How to communicate well at work, in romantic relationships and in friendships
• How to develop a healthy mindset that promotes self-respect and self-growth
• How to understand your own unique temperament and live it out in the world

It is my contention that moral relativism is a lie and thus the answers to questions like these are universal. That is to say, the answers have been the same for all of human history, and will be the same for the foreseeable future. I am fascinated by questions like these and have spent the last 10 years of my life uncovering these universal truths and applying them to my own life. This is a process that never ends, in my experience.

The astute reader may have noticed that I have not listed skills here like: how to file taxes, how to change a tyre, or how to clean a toilet. We live in an age where such things are easily learned online. It is significantly harder to develop a healthy mindset and the habits that come with it — largely because so many of us are saddled with terrible habits via the education system. So I think that an intelligent education system should focus on the formation of good character and good habits.

Building the education system of the future

My team and I are aware that new organisations don’t spring up overnight. This is doubly true in the realm of education, where the present system is so engrained in society.

As of the time of writing, Universal Owl is currently a blog that teaches universal life skills to young people. My previous business was a content marketing consultancy, so it made sense for us to lean on the skills we already had. We are slowly building an audience and are planning on releasing some online courses later in 2020.

One of the things that has bugged me for a while about school and university is how ill-qualified the teachers are. By that, I don’t mean that they have no academic qualifications! Quite the opposite. I mean that they don’t always have the life experience to teach what they are teaching and relate it to the real world.

Universal Owl wants to solve this problem by connecting students to mentors who have achieved success in their chosen subject in the real world. Academic qualifications are entirely arbitrary in terms of whether someone is a good mentor or not. We hope that this will naturally engender a certain amount of mutual respect, in the same way that young people across the world respect Lionel Messi or Roger Federer for their real-life ability in the realm of sport.

I’m committed to this vision and am prepared to do whatever it takes to get it off the ground. I think there’s a misfit in all of us, and I want to create a system that nourishes that individuality instead of destroying it. If you’re interested in any of the ideas I’ve raised in this blog post, I would invite you to follow along our journey at UniversalOwl.com.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently.” — Steve Jobs

Geoff Walters

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I recently attended the International Meaning Conference (IMeC) in London (July 2019), which held many inspiring talks by inspiring people. It led me to reflect on the journey of positive psychology and how it has come a long way from being all about finding happiness to a place that also values having a meaningful life. This blog reflects on a statement, inspired by Viktor Frankl, which is: Ask not ‘what makes me feel good?’ instead ask ‘what am I good for?’

Origins of positive psychology

Most people with an interest in positive psychology will be aware that the seeds were planted by the thought that we should be studying the outliers of data that seemed to buck the trend of what most people experienced in life. These outliers were individuals who, despite difficulties and challenges, still flourished and thrived. Usually psychologists would ignore these oddities (they upset their charts!), but in the late 1990s Seligman, Peterson and Csikszentmihalyi decided to explore them further.

What makes me feel good?

Most of the researchers under the umbrella field of positive psychology wanted to understand what made people happy and satisfied in life. This was important to create better well-being in society. However over time this first wave of positive psychology was challenged by researchers and critics who thought this was far too superficial and limited. Many studies began to emerge that demonstrated that chasing happiness as a means to an end in itself led to more unhappiness. It seemed that happiness was always out of reach, like the end of a rainbow. Positive psychology had attracted many critics who saw it as a ‘positive thinking’ field that sold empty dreams.

A shift towards meaning

To counteract the emphasis on happiness, a number of researchers began to promote the concept of meaning. This is not new, and the most famous academic who advocated meaning over happiness was Viktor Frankl who developed a therapy called logotherapy. Here Frankl helped his clients to find meaning in every day living, in the small things as well as big things. He recognised that it is not a healthy life to be always happy, as being in a state of happiness and expecting that life will always be a great experience brings misery. Researchers such as Paul Wong argued for a second wave of positive psychology, one that also recognised the value and necessity of the dark side that complimented the light side.
Soon positive psychology was looking for its dark side, such as through our emotions and post traumatic growth. Many books have since been written that advocate the value of so-called ‘negative emotions’ as well as positive emotions. This shift opened up research into other topics that recognised that life will always have some suffering, but it’s not the fact that we suffer it’s how we respond that makes us resilient. In fact, many commentators began to ask whether it is right to find happiness when there is so much suffering around us. This question was posed to the audience of the IMeC conference by Alexander Batthyany, a leading expert of logotherapy today.
Batthyany pointed out research results where people who focus on positive thinking will very quickly not only loose the sense of optimism, but their well-being will dip lower than previous. Instead those that build compassion into their experiences retain a higher sense of well-being due to the balance of hope with reality.
The hallmark of neuroticism, according to Frankl, are i) enforced pleasure and avoidance of pain, ii) dependence on external validation, and iii) avoidance of responsibility for one’s own living. In other words, looking away from unhappiness and responsibility doesn’t create happiness but exacerbates the unhappiness.

What am I good for?

Life has meaning when we choose to accept what we cannot control, and do the best that we can with what we have. An inspiring story told by Batthyany was of a man who had had a bad childhood. Rather than be bitter about it he chose to use his experiences to break the cycle of misery and do what he could to prevent others from suffering the same way. Rather than giving out what he had received, he sent out to the world compassion. And for his efforts he received the happiness everyone wants. Not because he looked for happiness, but because he found meaning and that meaning brought with it a sense of achievement, which in turn made him happy.
So if you want happiness, don’t go looking for it because it won’t be there. Instead do something that gives back to the world, and in return it will offer the gift of a meaningful and satisfying life.

Lisa Jones has a professional background in strategic human resources, organisational change and development. She has just completed the MAPP at Bucks New University. As an organisational change and development practitioner, researcher and coach she uses her knowledge and learning in her client work to facilitate conversations and storytelling for creating meaningful change. She also intends to undertake a PhD … very soon.

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The Cons

So, what are the concerns regarding device use?  In terms of research it is still relatively early days with the results being inconclusive.   In its guide to screen time, The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) says research is difficult to apply to children and young people because their use of screens is evolving so rapidly.

Potentially, there are quite a few different cons ranging from lack of quality parent and child time, decreased social skills, addiction, sleep disruption and tantrums to name but a few.  These can not only be applied to babies and children but also to adults.

Another side effect of tablet use is that it can actually get in the way of family interaction such as at meal times.  Meal times form such an important time in our busy family lives.  It’s our opportunity to connect with each other and find out about what we have all been up to.  This applies to meal times at home but also in public.  How many times have you seen a family gathering in a restaurant with the children playing on devices rather than joining in the conversation some of the time?  The old saying that children should be seen and not heard still seems to be accurate!

The Pros

On a positive side, tablets form part of the technological society that we live in.  If we deny our children access to these devices from a young age, are we denying them the opportunity to keep up to date?  Will they be behind before they have even begun their education?  Talking of education, there are clear educational benefits from accessing the Internet and Apps.  Learning is fun through these medias and far more interactive than simply watching television.

Another benefit is the ability to remain in touch with your children if works takes you away from home or if you have family who don’t live nearby for regular visits.  Video calls allow that face to face conversation that means so much to many of us.  My sister lives in New Zealand.  Although I have never met her children in the flesh, I almost feel that I have thanks to Skype calls over the years.  Friends of mine who are cabin crew like me, are able to speak to their young children when they are away.  For them it feels entirely normal as they have never known anything else.

Balance

It is hard to set specific guidelines as each child and family is different.  Life is about balance and it the personal choice of parents as to what they think is acceptable.  Some elements are easier to decide than others.  Clear guidelines such as no devices for all the family at mealtimes or in the bedroom have much clearer arguments.

I mentioned bribery in the opening but even that is open to interpretation.  By using the threat of device removal as a punishment we are then sending a mixed message by offering the same device as a tool to keep a child distracted.

Device use will also be very different for babies and toddlers versus adolescents.  In the earlier years, tablet time requires more supervision.  As our children grow, they still need supervision so that they are protected from things such as predators, fake news, bullying and so on but Safeguarding is a whole other subject.

Limiting screen time may be the parents’ choice e.g. only one hour a day but then when they are older and have the choice, will they then have the ability to set limits with their new freedom of choice?  Is a more fluid approach better?  There are no rules, only guidelines.

I am sure that as time evolves and the generation that has been born into the device era grows into adulthood, we will have more reliable statistics.   In the meantime, parents will continue to find their own way of understating and managing this issue, learning from their experience which they can in turn pass onto their children and grandchildren.

There will always be new challenges to parents as time evolves.  I don’t envy them that but hopefully the challenges are far outweighed by the joy of being a parent.  Who knows, maybe one day I will have that experience myself.

About the author: Stuart Dickson

‘We Are The Positive Psychology People’

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Let’s RAISE the Bar

Over my many years of teaching, and through the many collaborative interactions with students, I have developed the acronym RAISE. First, because it signifies elevation, which I have always been a fan of evaluating students to new levels. Second, it acts as a reminder of the actions and behaviors that reflect a growth environment that I want to be a part of.

RAISE is a reflective tool for servant educators who mindfully desire to incorporate educational elements that go beyond teaching curriculum and support perpetuated growth of students personally.  It models what, we as servant educators, want to put out there to the world; behaviors, and actions that are created through “pass it on” positive role model mentorship. We have the power to RAISE the bar of education.

R—Respect

Respect encapsulates ways in which a person wants to be viewed or treated; revered, admired, etc. What do you admire about your students? Let them know. “I admire your dedication… I admire that you took the extra time…” Respect can be nurtured by pointing out what went well alongside what didn’t go so well. When students feel they are respected, they are more open to growth feedback as they know their esteem and worth is valued.

Student thought/reaction—oh yeah, I’m that good, the teacher said so. Yeah, maybe I can improve my writing a bit, but the teacher said it is a working progress and I just need to keep practicing; I can do that.

A—Appreciate

Appreciation is probably the easiest yet most overlooked action in the classroom. It is not outside of an educator’s realm to say “thank you for taking the time to provide inputs, your inputs really add to our learning… I appreciate that you share your perspectives…” not only does it add to the positive dynamic of learning, but it also strengthens the learning relationship between an educator and student

Student thought/reaction–oh my gosh, my teacher values me! I am so telling my parents that I am almost the teacher of the class.

I—Inspire

Nothing is more inspiring than developing a sense of wonder of what is yet to come. As field leaders, we often think we must tell our story of success to inspire students. However, we are just the tour guides of their journey. Creating a sense of self-inspiration through motivation, making them curious, and developing efficacy, inspiration becomes an array of possibilities.

Student thought/reaction—The teacher said my Lego model looked like a NASA rocket. Who’s to say I can’t build a rocket for real? I just might do that someday.

S—Support

From age zero to one hundred plus we want to know we are supported. Support becomes evident when an educator engages in helping solve an issue. Evidence of support is shown through a willingness to elaborate, collaborate and champion for a student. When students feel an educator has their back, they are less frustrated, and it reduces stress. The ultimate outcome is that the student feels more confident and secure asking for help. In the end, it generates a positive dynamic and environment of growth.

Student thought/reaction—I am so glad I can talk to my teacher; this was a rough week. I know the teacher will understand and has my back.

E—Energy

Yes, energy can be created online. An educator’s energy or lack thereof is contagious.  Students, of all ages, look to the educator to set the tone. Whether it is a blast out “welcome to the most amazing course you will ever take” message, or a hooking story at the beginning of class to include students’ thoughts and ideas; educators set the stage and the tone. The curriculum is but ink and paper, an energetic educator creates a vortex of wonder and hunger to learn.

Student thought/reaction—this is so fun. Who knew school could be fun, but I’m going to tell anyone; others would think I was weird for liking to go to school?

In all honesty, I am sure RAISE is not a new and novel concept in the classroom and there are many who are already practicing the actions. The intent here is to offer a positive additive to curriculum that not only supports growth learning but positively develops all students, or all ages, on their path throughout life.

About the author: Dr. Lynn Soots has been teaching psychology at the higher education level for over ten years. She is proud to integrate Positive Psychology applications in each of her courses to support growth and student goal attainment. She specializes in higher education online course-room design, adult learning, and diversity appreciation.

‘We are the Positive Psychology People’

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What is positive education? Well it is perceived in Positive Psychology as positive emotions and attitudes derived from subjective wellbeing student’s experiences within their schooling environment. So how would we create a school environment whereby you have the opportunities to experience positive affect (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) ? . The fundamental goal of positive education is to promote flourishing or positive mental health within the school community.” (Norrish et. al., 2013).  Positive Psychology advocates that the younger years of a child are the optimal functioning period of childhood to cultivate healthy Subjective Well being habits. It goes  further  with the broaden and build model proposed by Barbara Fredrickson (2001) explores this notion by advocating upon the implementation of play/exploration thought and action repertoire behaviours within children thus promoting adaptive positive behaviours. Over a period of time a child learns to develop a range of personal resources as positive social relationships, flexiable coping behaviours and learning opportunities with many positive effect experiences builds an abundance of personal resources.

The importance of having certain acquired personal characteristics such as self esteem (Karatzias et al., 2002), academic self efficacy (Vekuyten & Thisjs, 2002) intrinsic motivation (Gilman & Anderman, 2006) hope (Huebner & Gilman, 2006) and external locus control (gilman & Anderman, 2006) have been suggested as contributing factors for students to experience optimal levels of school satisfaction. Other behavioural factors are enganging in extracurriculum activities (Gilman, 2001) building social competent skills (Eamon, 2002) and positive life experiences (Huebner and McCullough, 2000). Teacher-classroom factors that effect student life satisfaction are as followed support/structure provided to students for engagement and participation in schools (Furrer & Skinner, 2003; Wentzel, 1998) strict classroom rules cultivate school satisfaction (Baker,Dilly, Aupperlee, & Patil, 2003). In addition promotion of choice and autonomy (Karatzias et al., 2002) advocating a task-orientated

Subjective Wellbeing has been incorporated as reoccurring Positive Affect (PA) experiences such as joy, excitement and a tendency of experiencing life satisfaction within the following areas of life family life in cohersion with schooling too (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985). The notion of Positive schools has been built upon the concept of optimising Subjective Well being experiences through building and broadening (Fredrickson,2001) Positive affect emotions. This concept is implemented through play and explores activities advocating adaptive subjective wellbeing behaviours. By repeating such behaviours a collective adaptation would allow the children to build a personal range of resources thorough learning opportunities, social relationships and adaptive coping behaviours.

Collaborative professional development of practitioners

Positive Psychology practitioners can make a real difference by implementing Positive Psychology Interventions by boosting teaching staff well being and empowering institutions advocating swb by cultivating psychsocial strengths, in addition to academic learning thus allowing them to embrace wellness approaches. In positive psychology there are many action for happiness strategies that feed the overall PERMA well being model, which can be incorporated into the curriculum can be referred to as Positive well being lessons.

Where do we go with Positive Education ?

Organizations such as IPEN the international Positive Education Network is the collaboration of great minds such as Martin Seligman and Lord James O’shaughnessy advocating Positive Education. Promising positive elements were drawn from this meeting one advocating double helix model of positive education about character & wellbeing and IPEN was created to connect people over the world with great ideas, people and projects

References: Lopez, S.J & Snyder, C, R, (2011) The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology, Second edition, New York, United States of America, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.

About the author: Fizza Shah

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I must confess a personal interest in the subject matter here – I am a foodie.  By that I mean, I am passionate about food. On my last count, I owned 76 books on the subject.  I like growing food, cooking food, shopping for food, eating food, photographing food, sharing food with others and going out for food.  I think you might have got the idea here.

Food for Good Health – it’s important but doesn’t need to be complicated

The importance of food in health is increasingly the subject of public discussion.  A study published in the Lancet in 2015 advocated the recognition of diet and nutrition as central determinants of mental and physical health.

Essentially, our bodies need to work properly for us to function well and what we feed our bodies will be of primary importance – it is more significant, more fundamental than other measures such as journal writing or other similar measures when it comes to our optimal functioning. (Heffron, 2013), Good nutrition can significantly reduce the risk of a wide range of illnesses.

Sugar has been identified as one of the bad guys in the quest for a healthy mind and body.  While sugar has long formed part of our diet, it is the rise in its use in processed food that has lead to a massive increase in sugar consumption.  This is bad news for our brains as sugar has been found to shrink areas of it as explained in this video here.

Sugar is addictive and is found all over the place: glucose, fructose, maltose, lactose, dextrose – to name but a few that you will find added to products that are not obviously ‘sugary’ such as tomato sauce, pasta sauces, curries and the majority of processed foods.  As sugar dips follow sugar highs, attention span, concentration and mood fall along with the dip.  For sustained brain power, nutrient-rich foods are essential.

Diets full of whole foods have been found to predict lower levels of depression five years later.  There is plenty of evidence to suggest that food influences emotional balance (Korn, 2017).  There are some great books on the market on cooking for health.

Keep it Simple!

However, it really does not have to be complicated.  In his best-selling book ‘In Defence of Food’, Michael Pollan begins his ‘Eater’s Manifesto’ with summing up the advice in his book

“Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.”

That really is how simple it is – maybe we should add the word ‘real’ meaning not processed.  In Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s well-researched book ‘The 4 Pillar Plan’ advising us how to relax, eat, move and sleep well, he suggests the most important dietary changes that we should all make are to de-normalize sugar,  to eat a wide range of fresh vegetables and fruit – aiming for a rainbow of colour each day, to eat your food within a twelve hour period (therefore creating ‘micro fasts) and to drink more water.

“The foundation for your health journey starts on your plate and it’s more powerful than any pill I can prescribe………Rather than focusing on ridding myself of a condition, I had concentrated my efforts on providing my body with the best environment I could.  I worked at being well in mind and body as much as possible” – Dr Rupy Aujla explains in his book The Doctor’s Kitchen (Aujla, 2017).  Positive eating sits so well and is so important to positive psychology.

Cook and Eat Mindfully

While a balanced nutritional diet is key for optimal brain and body functioning – it is not possible to thrive without it, I would also make this plea:  enjoy it!  The variety of meals that can be made, the senses that can be stimulated through use of spices, herbs, a variety of wonderful vegetables, the richness of textures, flavours, smells and sights involved in real food are amazing.   Cooking mindfully is not a chore or something that we don’t have time for, it is a daily opportunity for mindful ritual.  In paying more attention to our food, in eating mindfully, one needs to slow down.  If you do that, you are likely to notice when you are full and not overeat.  You are also more likely to chew your food properly rather than bolting it down which aids your digestive system.  The food industry told us we are all too busy to cook – but whose interests does that serve?  I suggest, perhaps not yours!

Food and Flow

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes the concept of ‘flow’ as being one in which people experience total absorption in what they are doing such that they would be unaware of the time passing.  This, he suggests, is a state in which one can experience happiness.  The state of flow can be achieved when utterly absorbed in researching, preparing and creating recipes, the pleasure from sharing a good meal with friends or family, the mindful practice of observing the senses whilst cooking, the altruism and ensuing benefits in being able to cook and share with others who may need nourishing. It is a far cry from fast food hastily consumed at a desk while reading emails or scoffed in the car on the way to an appointment.

And finally, you can find a recipe for Happiness Soup here.  Bon appetite.

Bibliography
Aujla, R. (2017). The Doctor’s Kitchen. London: Harper Collins.

Chatterjee, R. (2018). The 4 Pillar Plan. London : Penguin Random House.

Heffron, K. (2013). Positive Psychology and the Body The Somatopsychic Side to Flourishing. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Korn, L. (2017). The Good Mood Kitchen. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

(The NHS provide a free, downloadable ‘Eat Well’ guide with the latest guidance on how to eat well but it really can be summed up as simply as Pollan put it.)

About the author: Nicola Morgan is a MAPP student, positive psychology coach, tutor and nutrition adviser. learntothrive.co.uk

‘We Are The Positive Psychology People’

The Positive Psychology People is co-founded and sponsored
by Lesley Lyle and Dan Collinson,
Directors of Positive Psychology Learning and authors of the
8-week online Happiness Course

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Disconnect

However this journey in our modern world of fast pace, distraction, complexity and technology can lead to a person becoming disconnected from himself or herself, their
experiencing and from others, a mindlessness. How can a person truly know another and give freely of himself or herself, if they do not know themself first? What if children were encouraged to grow and develop mindful awareness throughout their childhood into adulthood? How would those adults be different? More ‘in tune’? More connected? More giving? Happier?

Evidence Base

Research describes mindfulness as a moment-by-moment “awareness of present experience with acceptance” (Germer, Seigel and Fulton, 2013, p.7) or an “awareness that
emerges through paying attention on purpose in the present moment, non-judgementally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment” (Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p.145).

Studies

Studies have linked mindfulness with reduced; anxiety and depression (Shapiro et al, 1998), mood disturbance (Rozenweig et al, 2003) and increased; wellbeing (Grepmair et al, 2007), nonjudgmental self-insight (Chung, 1990), empathy, compassion and selfcompassion (Neff, 2003; Neff and Germer, 2013; Shapiro et al, 2007), openness and
acceptance (Bishop et al, 2004) and attention regulation, emotional regulation and psychological flexibility (Hözel et al, 2011; Hayes et al, 1999).

Amazing Me (and Molly)

Molly is child in a UK school who faces challenges everyday. Molly has challenging learning, speech and family circumstances and can get overwhelmed by information,
noise, pressure and the pace of the world she is in. Perhaps we may all feel like Molly for different reasons at some point in life? Molly and her class with Seahorse Education Partnerships CIC developed Amazing Me, a 35 week program of online mindful positive psychology interventions for children and teachers that are designed to be incorporated into any curriculum with minimal training. The programme covers a range of positive psychology areas including mindfulness, strengths, emotions, kindness, gratitude and wellbeing using creative and engaging activities, animations and guided mindfulness practices such as our ‘mindful S.E.L.F.I.E.’

STOP: Stop what you are doing and pause.

EYES: Look, what do you see now that didn’t see before?

LISTEN: Ears, what can you hear now that couldn’t before?

FEELING: What are you feeling right now?

INHALE: and

EXHALE.

Teachers are supported with lesson plans, vocabulary, an interactive forum to share ideas with other schools and online help. Molly is growing and enjoying school, she is learning to face her challenges mindfully and with a smile.

Be at your best and get the best from others

Seahorse Education Partnerships CIC
lee@seahorsed.com
www.seahorsed.com/amazing-me

References

Bishop, S. R., Lau, M., Shapiro, S., Carlson, L., Anderson, N. D., Carmody, J., … & Devins, G. (2004). Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. Clinical psychology: Science and practice, 11(3), 230-241.

Germer, C. K., & Neff, K. D. (2013). Self-compassion in clinical practice. Journal of clinical psychology, 69(8), 856-867.

Germer, C., Siegel, R. D., & Fulton, P. R. (Eds.). (2016). Mindfulness and psychotherapy. Guilford Publications.

Grepmair, L., Mitterlehner, F., Loew, T., Bachler, E., Rother, W., & Nickel, M. (2007). Promoting mindfulness in psychotherapists in training influences the treatment results of their patients: A randomized, double-blind, controlled study. Psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 76(6), 332-338.

Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (2011). Acceptance and commitment therapy: The process and practice of mindful change. Guilford Press.

Hölzel, B. K., Lazar, S. W., Gard, T., Schuman-Olivier, Z., Vago, D. R., & Ott, U. (2011). How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of action from a conceptual and neural perspective. Perspectives on psychological science, 6(6), 537-559.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-based interventions in context: past, present, and future. Clinical psychology: Science and practice, 10(2), 144-156.

Neff, K. D. (2003). The development and validation of a scale to measure self-compassion. Self and identity, 2(3), 223-250.

Rosenzweig, S., Reibel, D. K., Greeson, J. M., Brainard, G. C., & Hojat, M. (2003). Mindfulness-based stress reduction lowers psychological distress in medical students. Teaching and learning in medicine, 15(2), 88-92.

Shapiro, S. L., Brown, K. W., & Biegel, G. M. (2007). Teaching self-care to caregivers: Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on the mental health of therapists in training. Training and education in professional psychology, 1(2), 105.

Shapiro, S. L., Schwartz, G. E., & Bonner, G. (1998). Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on medical and premedical students. Journal of behavioral medicine, 21(6), 581-599.

Sibinga, E. M., Perry-Parrish, C., Chung, S. E., Johnson, S. B., Smith, M., & Ellen, J. M. (2013). Schoolbased mindfulness instruction for urban male youth: A small randomized controlled trial. Preventive medicine, 57(6), 799-801.

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In the autumn term I write references for my students who are applying to university. This is a time consuming and cognitively demanding job to which I always give my all. However, this year I experienced a completely new dimension to it. After many years of doing this I found myself aware that I had been in a state of flow.

Feeling Great

I had been working on a student’s reference in a break and then returned to the classroom to start teaching and I felt extremely uplifted, the feeling appeared to come out of nowhere. I didn’t think too much about it and just passed the mood on to my students.

When the same thing happened again I stopped to consider where did this mood come from, and I realised that it resulted from writing the reference.

When I write student references I focus my full attention on each individual student; reminding myself of their character strengths, drawing out their attributes that make then unique. My aim is to reflect their true nature and potential, relating the particular skills and characteristics they have to those required on the degree. I enjoy putting together a full picture of the student; combining academic qualities with the student’s often busy home life, integrating their work, sports, caring and other commitments.

Deliberate Reflection

This process gives me the chance to slow down and reflect in a conscious and deliberate way, in a way that I often don’t get time for in the everyday college calendar. At the start of the reference I aim to write a short pen portrait of the person, this takes quite a few drafts, it is a process of honing my first thoughts, carefully considering does this accurately reflect the student? Are their personal qualities apparent? Have I done them justice?

Although I have written these references for many years, this is the first time I was aware of receiving positive benefits. Writing the references now leaves me feeling uplifted and serene. I wonder if I received these benefits in previous years? If I had, it was not so striking. I wonder if this is this the result of being more mindful, more able to savour things?

Whatever it is I am thankful for it.

Let me know if you have experienced anything similar. Has a familiar task been transformed? Do you now find flow in something that was difficult?

About the author: To find out more about Bryony Shaw MAPP, please click here.

‘We Are The Positive Psychology People’

The post A New State of Flow appeared first on The Positive Psychology People.

Mindfulness

The benefits of Mindfulness are well-documented.  Mindfulness can take the form of meditation but it can also involve pursuing activities mindfully; being in the moment, paying close attention and observing.  Reading can most certainly be pursued in this way.  In a lovely article by the writer Tim Parks, ‘Mindful Reading’ he considers the pleasures of reading.  In reading carefully, mindfully, you can feel and observe your own reactions to the world that a writer is creating for you, to the characters that you are being presented with, to the problems and dilemmas and worlds that unfold in the pages of a novel.

 “…the excitement of reading is the precarious one of being alive, and reacting from moment to moment, in the most liquid and intimate sphere of the mind, to someone else’s elusive construction of the precarious business of being alive now.”  – Tim Parks

In Dr Mark Williams’ ‘Mindfulness’ one of the pieces of advice is to spend more time on pleasurable activities in to improve your well-being including reading novels.

Emotional Mastery

‘One shed’s one’s sickness in books – repeats and presents again one’s emotions to be a master of them’ wrote D.H. Lawrence. In her book Emotional Agility, Dr Susan David addresses the importance of not trying to ‘impose happy thoughts’ but rather to ‘show up’, face into your emotions and find out what we are really all about.  Through bibliotherapy – reading novels and poetry – it may be possible to improve your understanding of your own emotional life.  We can observe our reaction to the writing, to the world created in our minds in response to the words on the page, create mental space and consider our reactions – our core values, our principles, our goals.

An understanding of how attitudes to emotions have varied over time – attitudes to sensibility, romanticism, changing views of love.  Through reading a range of literature, you can start to understand the role that emotions have played in lives throughout history, allowing us to consider the role of emotions now in modern life and how this has changed.

Flow

Getting lost in a good book is an opportunity to experience what Mihaly Csikszentmihalvi describes as ‘Flow’ with all its’ ensuing benefits such as being completely engaged, being challenged, achieving, not noticing time, and all the mental health benefits that ensue from spending time in that state.

Positivity

At very least, reading is one of the activities that Barbara Fredrickson would describe a healthy distraction to negative feelings.  The opportunity to dip into other lives, worlds, problems and mysteries and be involved in them in safety and comfort provides – at very least – escapism but more than that, it provides the opportunity to do the mental gymnastics involved in visiting other realities without real risk or pressure or stress.

Research from Sussex University has recently shown that just 6 minutes of reading reduces stress – so can help deal with negative emotions.

ReLit

The research as to the benefit of books is in its infancy.  A relatively new charity, ReLit, are endeavouring to collate and consider what is out there.  In very brief terms; reading has been found to improve empathy.  Imagining different characters and situations can improve understanding in real life.  It can improve imagination.    It has been linked with longevity, reduction of mild depressive symptoms, well-being and improved self-knowledge.

Imagination and Empathy

Closely linked to empathy is imagination.  One cannot underestimate the importance of imagination – everything around us that is man-made, our houses, our furniture, our cars etc only exist because someone imagined what could be.  It is the same with our goals, our lifestyle, our priorities, by having the ability to imagine, we can change our own reality.

The ability to imagine how others are feeling helps to create the sense of empathy which has been found to improve through reading fiction.  This links closely with the ‘Theory of Mind’ which psychologists use to explain how we map the intentions of others.

Psychologist Raymond Marr found a substantial overlap in the brain networks used to make sense of stories and the networks used to process interactions with others.  While Professor Keith Oatley of University of Toronto considers that reading runs on the minds of readers in the way that “computer simulations run on computers”.  In other words, reading is simulating reality and providing a valuable, life-enhancing experience.

Character Strengths

Reading a novel and becoming involved with the novel provides a great opportunity to identify and consider character strengths of others and yourself.  In much the same way as Ryan Niemic’s work on using films to identify character strengths and consider positive psychology, a novel can be used for this and with the length of time that it takes, provides time for extended consideration.

There is so much more to explore and investigate as to how fiction could be used in positive psychology – such as the power of narrative and your own journey – but it is time to leave this chapter here and tell that story another time.

About the author: Nicola Morgan is a Positive Psychology Coach, Tutor, Mentor and MAPP student at Bucks New University  learntothrive.co.uk 

‘We Are The Positive Psychology People’

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