Sarah Cramoysan
Sarah Cramoysan is currently in her second year on the MAPP course at Buckinghamshire New University. She gained a degree from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences, specialising in Psychology a long time ago before Marty Seligman had invented Positive Psychology. After university, she worked in IT until leaving full-time work to make the most of raising her three children. Once the oldest two went off to university, Sarah started yearning to study again and was delighted when she discovered that Psychology was now embracing the fun parts of life. She could become a student again, study Positive Psychology and get student discount on trainers, even if she was a bit old for Fresher’s week.
Sarah loves writing about PP, her particular interest is Gratitude, as the underlying themes of social connection and looking for the silver linings in life seem to connect with so many other aspects of PP.
Sarah is also a long-time Oxfam volunteer and has an interest in climate change and environmental issues. Sarah’s blog is at fledglingproject.blogspot.com
Sarah’s Blog
Toxic Positivity And Dealing With Negative Emotions
Recently online, I’ve noticed lots of talk about “Toxic Positivity” – so what is it, why is it bad for you, and how do we avoid it? What is Toxic Positivity and why is it bad for you? Toxic positivity can be defined as portraying a positive attitude or...
The Psychological Benefits of Volunteering
A personal perspective When I gave birth to my twins some 25 years ago, I told my husband “I want at least a year off before I think about going back to work”, and somehow that one year stretched into three. Then my third child arrived and the “going back to work” in...
Kindness 2.0
Kindness 2.0: going beyond the feel-good factor to true compassion. As an associate lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University one of my favourite parts of the job is marking one of the first assignments on the Masters of Applied Positive Psychology course. Students...
The Problem With ‘Goals’ and Why Focusing on Your Values Will Help.
When I was a new mother some 20+ years ago, Gina Ford published ‘The contented Little Baby Book” outlining her strict daily routines for parents and babies to follow, based on her experience as a maternity nurse. Opinions on the book split the world of new parents....
How Understanding Your Strengths Can Liberate You From Perfectionism
Character Strengths An important topic in the field of positive psychology is the study of strengths. The basic idea is that we are all different and have different strengths – thoughts, feelings or behaviours that come naturally to us and give us energy and a sense...
How to be Happy: Four Myths Debunked
The question of how to be happy, and how to live a good life has been kicking around for aeons. Back to when the Ancient Greeks were shooting the breeze in Athens, debating what type of happiness was best, there are written records of people discussing happiness and...
Making and Breaking Habits – How to Reprogram our Lazy brains.
New Year’s resolutions. It’s traditional on New Year’s Eve to make New Year’s resolutions. People promise themselves they will lose weight, drink less, quit smoking or start exercising. If they are lucky, they might keep up their new year’s...
How Positive Psychology Can Help us to Cope in Difficult Times
When life deals you Lemons… Positive Psychology has sometimes been described as what takes us from OK to great – but what happens when something knocks us sideways and we are finding it hard to cope? There are times when things just aren’t going right for us and no...
How Comparisons Affect our Happiness and Psychological Wellbeing
Racing for gold Imagine yourself performing your favourite sport in the Tokyo Olympics – maybe a running event. You’ve worked hard, trained for it, you’re ready for the big day. On the day, it gets off to a good start, you race hard, and it goes better than expected....
The Benefits of Gratitude Journaling
What is gratitude journaling? In the last couple of decades, research into happiness and wellbeing has shown that consciously choosing to participate in certain activities (sometimes called positive psychology interventions) can have a positive effect on our mood,...
Lockdown – Dealing with the Dark Side
Lockdown Insomnia One of the side effects of this lockdown for me, seems to be a type of insomnia. I have no problem going to sleep, but often wake up about four hours later and have an hour or two of wakefulness, before eventually drifting back into a sound sleep. In...
New Year – Fresh Start
The joy of a fresh new page My family laugh at me, as whenever I decide to be more organised, I buy myself a new notebook or planner. As I open it, the crisp clean pages make me feel like this is a new start, a new beginning. They laugh because they know that in a few...
Stressful times? You’ve got to Laugh
Speaking as a positive psychology student who feels they should know how to cope, I have to admit that there are times when trying to maintain a positive outlook on life gets increasingly hard. In the early days of lockdown, I managed to retain a grateful outlook on...
The Happiness Benefits From NOT Buying Clothes
The challenge A couple of years ago, I decided to set myself a challenge of not buying anything I didn’t really need for a whole year. For me the main challenge was not buying clothes – I’m not a shopaholic, but I’m a female who likes to express myself through what I...
Lockdown and Social Connections
Why we need to remember what lockdown taught us about the importance of social connections Evidence There is plenty of evidence in positive psychology of the benefits of social connection. Having strong social ties makes us healthier, happier, more resilient and can...