1. Academic Excellence

The program is offered by Buckinghamshire New University, renowned for its Centre for Positive Psychology and international reputation. With expert lecturers, visiting experts, and practitioners, the course provides academic excellence in the field of spirituality, ecology, and mental health.

2. Take a Transformative Journey

The program presents a unique opportunity for you to embark on a transformative journey that will profoundly reshape your perspective on life, the world, and most importantly, yourself.  By exploring spirituality and adopting practical approaches to living a healthy and fulfilling life, you will not only experience personal growth but also gain a sense of empowerment that will enable you to thrive in all aspects of your life.

3. Make a Meaningful Difference

The program strongly encourages active participation in community projects or initiatives, empowering you to make a meaningful difference. By applying the knowledge and skills gained, you have the opportunity to actively contribute to positive change in your community or even on a global scale. Whether it’s initiating your own projects or joining existing ones, you can leverage your newfound understanding and abilities to create a positive impact in the world around you.

4. Find New Career Opportunities

The program opens up diverse career opportunities for individuals from various professional backgrounds. It provides avenues for career advancement and prospects in fields such as complementary and alternative medicine, healthcare, education, counselling, coaching, leadership, social work, journalism, and more. The interdisciplinary nature of the program makes it applicable and beneficial across a wide range of industries. Whether you are seeking to advance in your current field or explore new career paths, this program equips you with valuable skills and knowledge that are relevant in today’s diverse job market.

5. Create Your Pathway to a PhD

Graduates will have the option to pursue a PhD, delving deeper into the field of positive psychology and contributing to its knowledge base. This advanced degree opens doors to academic and research-oriented careers, fostering personal and professional growth.

6. Benefit from Global Reach and Resources

The program is designed to accommodate students from around the world, ensuring that you can engage in meaningful learning experiences regardless of your geographical location. A wealth of resources are provided to support your learning journey, with a focus on inclusivity and accessibility. You will have access to recommended resources such as books, journals, websites, media, and podcasts that are relevant to the program’s curriculum. Additionally, there will be a monthly program of live online lectures by visiting experts, allowing you to gain insights from leading voices in the field. Recorded lectures, online seminars, and hybrid workshops ensure you can actively participate and engage no matter where you are located.

7. Join a Supportive Learning Community

As a participant in the program, you will become an integral part of a supportive community comprising of dedicated teachers, practitioners, and like-minded individuals who are all connected to the esteemed Centre for Positive Psychology. This community fosters a safe and reflective space for learning and growth, creating the opportunity to connect with passionate individuals who share your commitment to personal and collective growth.

8. Benefit from the Practical Applications

You will learn practical approaches to living a healthy and fulfilling life and how to integrate them into your daily routine.  These practices are designed to help you develop a deeper understanding of yourself, connect with a sense of purpose and meaning, and foster a greater sense of inner peace and harmony. Furthermore, beyond personal well-being, it encompasses a broader perspective that recognizes the interconnectedness of all living beings and the natural world. By nurturing this sense of interconnectedness, you can develop a deeper appreciation for the environment and a greater commitment to sustainable living and ecological harmony.

9. Engage With the Community

The program encourages active participation in community projects or initiatives, enabling you to make a meaningful difference by applying your knowledge, skills, and values for positive change. Through this involvement, you can make a meaningful difference in creating a more compassionate, sustainable, and interconnected society and contribute to positive change on both local and global scales.

10. Embark on a Pioneering Experience

As a member of the first cohort, you will be at the forefront of this innovative program, playing an integral role in shaping its development and direction. You will have the opportunity to provide valuable feedback and contribute to the refinement of the curriculum and learning experience.

These are just 10 of the reasons why enrolling on an MA in Spirituality, Ecology & Mental Health at Buckinghamshire New University might have a profound influence on your life and the life of others. I am looking forward to my journey on this new and exciting course and I’m looking forward to meeting fellow students.

Read more about Lesley Lyle and her other articles HERE

‘We Are The Positive Psychology People’

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What do human’s search for when they search for spirituality? Zinnbauer & Paragament (2005, Pg 611) have suggested that it is “a quest for existential meaning, to the transcendent human dimension” meaning that individual seek meaning in life with freedom and choice.

The quest for spirituality has been explored by positive psychologist in context of spirituality processes as being cultural (cf.Shafranske & Malony, 1996) an engagement in prayer, importance of religion to individuals and evidence-based studies that associate spirituality for better well being human functioning. The key constructs of spirituality have the following elements such as the perception of the divine God and the concept that humans being are beyond their normal experiences (Pargament & Mahoney, 2005). Furthermore,  spiritual processes such as praying and meditation have been strongly associated with better wellbeing with a more adaptive coping ability too as they view life through the scared perspective (Koenig, McCullough & Mahoney, 2005).

The search for scared one is a 5 part spiritual processes divided into the following discovery, conservation, transformation, spiritual integration and disintegration. The process have been identified as the discovery: evolving mindest, conservation: once you have discovered the sacred one then to sustain it is the next process involving social involvements, transformation: the emergence of oneself in spiritual pathways display spiritual resilience. Spiritual Integration: the notion is associated with individuals who pray, meditate and enter holy places of worship experience better wellbeing  (Koenig, Mccullough, & Larson, 2001; Pargament, 1997; Pargament & Mahoney, 2005). Disintegration: spiritual process that have a negative effect upon human well being.  On reflection the processes are a personal journey an individual conducts thus allowing self-development to take place within a framework of spiritual pathways.

Empirical studies have advocated that religion and spirituality can be conferred in a subjective or social manner to cultivate well being (Zinnbauer & Pargament, 2005). The notion of the search for the sacred indicates that the attainment of spirituality is a search process in which an individual chooses to pursue. So many variant pathways can be explored in the search of the meaningful sacred one. The process of spirituality can be incorporated within creativity, wisdom, forgiveness, meaning, hope humility providing imperative pathways to pursuing the sacred ones (Shane  J Lopez & C R Snyder, 2009). The process of finding ones sacred one is an adaptive and evolving spirituality process (Robert Coles (1990, p.335).

Positive Psychology Practitioners

The need to answer your inner spirituality call is much needed in today’s climate and the process starts from the 5 part processes to approaches defined within religious literature. I explored the Mystical approach which considers the process of self-building as a journey towards Allah. It builds upon the relationship of the soul and self-building like you would beautify a home with beautiful furnishing, one would furnish one’s heart with good character strengths. This process is truly a divine positive intervention with the potential to filter into answering one’s quest for spirituality in an authentic manner.

The future of Spirituality

The cohesion of social scientist, health, mental professionals and I feel religious scholars, should make it a positive process of developing a psychospiritual intervention that builds upon spiritual resources into clinical practices. I look forward to such an intervention and feel as Positive Psychology Practitioners should use the spiritual processes to build a foundation to elevate depression, cultivate meaning and joining local spiritual organisations as a step in the right direction. In addition organisations such as the Kings Centre in High Wycombe and the KSIMC of London provide a spiritual platform. I feel a more evidence-based model shall make practitioner within the field of Positive  Psychology more equipped to attend to everyone’s psychological Positive Wellbeing steering us closer to the target of worldwide well being by 2051 for all.

References

Mohammad Ali Shomail, (2016) Self Development, Essays on Islamic Spirituality.

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

‘We Are The Positive Psychology People’

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