Lisa Jones
I completed the MAPP at Bucks New University in 2018. My professional work involves organisational development, professional coaching, and research. I am also a creative person and a writer. My professional interest is in applying systemic and creative thinking to leadership and organisations, which recognises that we are all interdependent and part of an extended web of life (my business name ‘Hundred Generations’ represents this concept too). Leaders now really need to be ‘eco-warriors’ not ‘ego-worriers’. My Ph.D., which is at Bucks New University, is looking at the relationship between emotional differentiation, emotional closeness and emotional loneliness.
My writing focuses on the areas of emotions, systems and the interdependence of people. I apply a constructionist philosophy to my research and writing, which means I believe social reality is subjective and constructed within people (psychologically) and between people (socially). Thus there is no ‘one truth’ out there, but many truths (and lived realities) – which makes life far more interesting and complex!
I hope my writing speaks to you from a personal level, organisational and leadership level; but mostly from a human level. We are all part of a social system that is connected to one another, we co-create our stories, and we thrive because of one another
Lisa’s Blog
Introducing the Model: Intentions and Preventions
In my last blog (December 2024) I shared with you my intentions for 2025; to journey from Ph.D. into working within research. It is both daunting and exciting to start a new stage in my career, and these blogs will chart my journey, which I hope will also be of help...
All Things Are Difficult Before They Are Easy
My journey into a career transition using positive psychology tools Listen to the audio version if you prefer. I am about to embark on a new chapter in my life. I’m reaching the end of my Ph.D. program and looking forward to a research career. But...
Individual and Community Interventions
Third wave positive psychology and positive communities For this blog post I want to deviate away from focusing on the individual to reflect on what it might mean to apply a positive psychology intervention at the community-level. As a researcher and practitioner...
The powerful self-question in midlife
The powerful self-question in midlife As a coach I used to think that powerful questions were ‘clever’ questions you learn by rote, but a powerful question emerges from the relationship, from being there with the coachee, curious and genuinely interested in their...
Mid-life Transitions: How to feel alive
Following on from my last post on mid-life (https://www.thepositivepsychologypeople.com/focus-on-mid-life-in-21st-century/), this one is also about mid-life, but here I am focusing on the experience of how to feel alive, even when things are changing for us. It can be...
Focus on Mid-Life in 21st Century
Mid-life now in the 21st Century is a much different experience to that which our parents and grandparents experienced. Mid-life is broadly considered to be between the ages of 40 and 65 years of age. Many of the adult development theories we still rely on to define...
How to be a Positively Psychology Deviant!
For this post I wanted to reflect on a recent article by Carol Ryff ‘Positive Psychology: Looking Back and Looking Forward’ (2022) which is a timely and needed article about the state of research and the need to expand its focus into the inequalities, greed, and...
Connecting Through Stillness and Silence
“The more space we give to stillness and silence, the more we have to give both to ourselves and to others” – Thich Nhat Hahn “A poor life this if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare” – W.H. Davies The late Thich Nhat Hahn was a wise person indeed. He...
The Misconception About Introversion And Extroversion: Enjoying Alone Time
There is a common view that introverts don’t like interacting too much and would rather spend time alone, whilst extroverts spend all their time socialising and hate being alone. Is this a simplistic view of these personality traits? Could there be more to understand...
Together Alone: Being By Yourself and With Yourself
You may be thinking that the two words ‘together’ and ‘alone’ are an odd two words to put together. I’ve put them together for this post to emphasise the need to know ourselves and be comfortable in our own company. In today’s contemporary world we have little time to...
Are you Feeling the Pressure of Aloneliness?
Are you feeling the pressure of aloneliness? How to recognise it and take action It’s the New Year and most people will have had a whirlwind of a Festive season. The level of busyness cranks up for many and there is very little time to be truly alone- even in these...
How to Have a New Experience Without Leaving Your Chair!
Really we don’t need to always be out and about having a new experience; we can create our own simply by expanding our imagination and our access to new words. In this post, I aim to show you how that can be done. As I continue my research into what it means to be or...
Loneliness or Solitude? It depends on your point of view!
As a loneliness researcher, I am interested in the history and meaning of the word. Did you know there is no specific word that means the opposite of loneliness? This is intriguing in itself! Just to add to the mix, if you compare the word solitude with loneliness you...
The Wisdom of Loneliness
There is understandably an increased concern since the Covid-19 pandemic that more people have been left feeling lonely. However, is loneliness all it seems? It is defined as a perceived lack of social relationships but research has found loneliness is more complex...
Language Feeds What We Believe
Language feeds what we believe, which shapes what we think and feel- let’s take back control! Have you ever thought about the words you use, the information you absorb and how you make sense of the world around you to shape your beliefs? It may seem that what see and...
The Gift that Keeps on Giving: Building Your Conceptual Knowledge
In previous posts I have written about emotions and how they are constructed by us rather than fixed within our brains. This gives us a great deal of freedom and opportunity to construct many different emotions to build a healthy emotional life. To do this we need to...
Embracing Our Multiple Selves in Coaching
Do you ever think about who you are? Do you say you are an introvert, extrovert, creative, energetic, or some other descriptor? Often we speak of wanting to be our ‘best selves’, or we might say we ‘we weren’t at our best’. That indicates that who we are at any given...
Social Reality and How to ‘emote’ Wisely
Our world has changed significantly over the last few months. This post looks at emotions from the lens of social reality. At a time when everything feels as though it is out of control, now is the time to take stock and reflect on what we can control. We may find...
How to Develop Meaning and Life Purpose
If you want to have more meaning and stronger life purpose, develop and love your mixed emotions There is a growing interest in the role of mixed emotions. Until quite recently it was considered that mixed emotions cannot truly exist. This understanding is changing,...
The Four Qualities of Close Friendships
Do you have a best friend? Friendships are very important to our well-being and happiness. This blog takes a look at friendship research and highlights the qualities that are needed to maintain and deepen close friendships. Research has found that there are four...
The Art of Presupposing: Blending NLP with Positive Psychology
This blog looks at how we shape our beliefs, frame experiences, create meaning, and judge other people and situations. Neuroscience is demonstrating more and more that we have far more control over our thoughts than we thought and many behaviours and mindsets can be...
What Am I Good For
What am I good for? 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...
Re-framing experiences using our senses
Re-framing experiences using our senses: sight, sound, movement and feeling This blog is an exploration into how we experience the world using our senses. It looks at the power of our visual, auditory and kinaesthetic systems to shape how we respond to the world...
The Importance of Socratic Questioning in Positive Psychology
Much of applied psychology and psychotherapy aims to help the client move from a belief that keeps them helpless and stuck towards one that is helpful and enables mobility into a more positive existence. The purpose of positive psychology interventions (PPI) is to...
How to laugh, smile, dance and sing: Using humour to turn overwhelm into playfulness
This month’s blog looks at humour and how it can be used to reduce anxiety and overwhelm. I’m certainly guilty of taking myself and life far too seriously much of the time. With the endless responsibilities and goals we have each day it’s no wonder we loose ourselves...
Mixed emotions about the New Year: How ambivalence is a good thing after all
Some people love New Year with the promise of resolutions, a new beginning, renewed energy to do the thing that they meant to do last year. Others dread the long winter days, the dreary ‘down’ after the busy high of Christmas. This blog looks at the mixed (ambivalent)...
The Emotional Life of Trust
Have you ever thought about trust? It’s a hard concept to pin down: What do we mean when we talk about trust, how does it affect our day to day living? This blog takes a quick look at how we might define trust, and what this has to do with emotions. Defining trust...
Feeling Ubuntu, thinking Iroquois – How new words can give us new ways of being
The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said “The limits of my language means the limits of my world”. What this means is, when we have a narrow viewpoint and limited means of expressing ourselves we are limited in what we think, feel and know. Our culture is just...
Creating new emotion concepts for a better day
This is a brief exploration into emotions, and how they relate to our daily experiences. We often don’t pay much attention to them, unless they are so strong we feel overwhelmed. It may feel as though they have a life of their own, but is that really the case?...
Making friends with your inner critic: Turning your inner critic into your inner mentor
This blog is about our inner critic, and gives some suggestions on how we can use this for a positive approach to self-compassion. Being aware of the critic We all know what it’s like to hear the sound of our inner critic, giving us a hard time or warning us off...
Do you use your strengths to hide self-esteem issues?
This blog will look at how a positive action, such as using our strengths, can also create an illusion of being psychologically healthy when we use them to protect a very vulnerable self-esteem issue. Understanding strengths Character strengths are a central theme...
Moments of Envy- Into Positive Action
This blog will look at the emotion of envy. We have all had times when we look at what other people have achieved and feel that pang of envy. We try and brush off our feelings, even feel ashamed of ourselves. We might even hope that everything goes wrong for that...
Three Steps to Compassion
Three steps to compassion; reinventing the Serenity Prayer This blog will explore what we mean by compassion, and see how it might be applied to the well known ‘serenity prayer’. By understanding compassion in this way we can start to see that...
Positive Psychology and the Discomfort of Change
“The only thing constant is change” Heraclitus Each and every day we are subject to the vagaries of our world. However much we may want to keep what we have constant, we have to accept that we are all subject to continuous change. Most changes are gradual...
Is there such a thing as ‘mindful hope’
Hope can be defined as the difference between where we are now and where we want to be. Our hopes are not guaranteed, but we think there is a chance that what we want could happen. It requires us to project our thoughts into the future to visualise a change. Hope...