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...
by Fizza Shah | October, 2020 | Fizza Shah, hope
In Greek methodology, hope was the only remaining element in Pandora’s jar when she unleashed all the evils in the world. Bearing in mind our current climate I feel hope is the only way forward and we must cultivate it in abundance. Hope is defined as “to want something to happen and think it is possible” Oxford Dictionary. Leading psychologist within the field of hope convey that it’s a three-part process visualise your goal, find Positive pathways to accomplish them and keep going (Lopez et al., 2004). The effective attitude towards a more progressive emergence of hope in a cognitive nature of hope advocates the cultivation of positive emotions for the successful pursuit of goals (Snyder and his colleagues, 2002). The novel theology of hope is well defined by the layers of emotional/mental ability that triggers the key elements of ability with energy to accomplish one’s goals (Snyder, 2002). The process of building and broadening the notion of hope has been eloquently devised by a leading Positive Psychologist Barbara Frederickson into a Hope portfolio. The hope portfolio is a four-tier process initiating the first process being hopeful/optimistic, believing a change for good, physically changing for humane betterment and to access your creative ability for a better future (Fredrickson, 2009). The formation of hope in terms of character strength is a vital asset in self-development as it looks upon positive relationships, physical well-being, active problem-solving and diligence (Niemiec, R.M. (2014a). Finally, the great Dr Paul T P Wong defines hope as “Hope has no shape, no colour, and no words. It is just an illusion, a flicker of light that...
by Lena Britnell | April, 2019 | hope
Those of you who have ever taken a winter skiing holiday will know that it’s common to spend as much time travelling uphill as skiing downhill. Last month during a beautiful sunny day, I found myself again propelled upwards courtesy of a button lift and enjoying some beautiful alpine scenery. During these quiet moments, I reflected on how my downhill and uphill experiences have changed over the years. Steep learning curve I have been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to ski since I was a teenager, having family living in the shadows of the Alps and a skiing enthusiast as a father. To clarify, I am not, nor have I ever been sporty, nor am I an outdoors type of person and was more comfortable inside with a good book and my mixtapes. Skiing holidays were as a result the perfect mix of terror, frustration and fun. Preferring to teach us himself, we learned from following my dad down the baby slopes. Looking back, I admire his persistence and patience! My memories from this time include a lot of frustration, tears, arguments and at one point actually throwing my ski at my him! However, I also have a lot of fond memories; picnics under the trees, snow in the sunshine and most importantly time with my dad sharing something we (eventually) both enjoyed. All will, no ways! As with everything, with skiing I worked hard, was emotional, yet risk averse and I much preferred my comfort zone over new challenge, speed and excitement. I was afraid to be out of my depth as I thought I just...
by Emma Willmer | December, 2018 | hope
I recently found myself telling a work colleague that hope was everything in my life and was surprised by what I’d said as soon as the words left my mouth. On reflection, I discovered that indeed hope has, and still is, everything in my life. Hope has pulled me through the darkest of times and has driven me to continue growing no matter what. I have never consciously looked for hope, it has always subtly been there in my life, popping it’s head up whenever I’ve needed it. In studying for a MSc Applied Positive Psychology degree I’ve become more and more interested in the tools that can be used to enable people to flourish. I’ve found myself wondering how much easier my own past challenges would have been if I’ve been aware of Positive Psychology and the interventions that exist. My current challenge is grappling with a decision to sell up and move to a new house. Whilst this doesn’t seem a huge event ordinarily, it is the first time in my life I am facing this kind of situation alone. Every decision and choice needing to be made is to be made by me alone, and the responsibility of achieving the best outcome possible is all mine. Not being a fortune teller, I can’t see how it will turn out and it is one of the scariest things I have ever done knowing that it affects my children as well. In acknowledging the pressure I am feeling, I have turned to Positive Psychology to use the interventions that I believe will provide me the desired support through...
by Kimberley Wakefield | November, 2018 | hope
The Set Up I joined my fellow MAPP classmates from Bucks New University at the European Positive Psychology Conference expecting some fun and a bit of learning along the way. Never in my wildest imagination did I think that my classmate and I would be having dinner with Barbara Fredrickson, Lea Waters, Michael Steger, Judy Moskowitz and some hilarious guys from Denmark. As my classmate and I carefully chose a table at the gala event, an evening dinner on a boat literally sailing down the Danube. We sat down eager and nervous about our evening ahead. We wanted a good view in the middle of the action as we sat down at an empty table. Then, lo and behold Barbara and her crew sat down and joined us. I just thought “pinch me!” The Chat At first I don’t think either my classmate nor I knew what to do, could we talk to her, what would we say, perhaps for the first time both of us outgoing, extroverts were tongue tied. I’m not normally star stuck but I was now, the Canadian in me wanted to keep my polite distance but the positive psychology enthusiast knew I’d been given an amazing opportunity that I wouldn’t get again and so I’d better use it. We had a wonderful conversation that filled me with joy and gave me hope about the future. She was approachable and the team of them clearly had a lovely connection. They were generous and authentic, just as I would have imagined the leaders of our field to be. The Picture The evening wore on and I...
by Steve Emery | January, 2018 | hope, Steve Emery
At the time of writing this blog, 2018 has just started and I have begun a new journal outlying all my goals for the year ready to create lots of new memories. We all carry memories from past events, hopefully many of those are happy ones we can look back on with some joy and satisfaction. In a TED talk by Shane Lopez he talks about how we are in 3 states of being; past, present, and future and these states determine who we are. Our past achievements show what we can do, our present state is who we are right now, and our future state offers the potential of who we may become. However, when we apply to a school a college or a job, we are judged solely on our past. Did we get the right grades at school? Have we performed well in our previous job? Of course, we don’t yet have the ability to see into the future so its understandable that we are judged on our past endeavours as this is all anyone has to go on. But just how much does this define who we really are, and how helpful is this to us when moving forward? Creating a memory of the future What happens when we take our past memories, mix them with who we are now and carry those in to the future to create new memories? By doing this we are experiencing hope. Hope is a place we create for ourselves which is better than the place we are right now or have been before. Hope is the emotion that...
