Barbara Frederickson is well known as the pioneer for positive psychology in research explains with her colloquies in her latest article “Positive psychology in a pandemic: buffering, bolstering, and building mental health” which abilities helps us to stay positive even during the pandemic.
In the next articles I will summarize the key points of the recent publication of “The Journal of Positive Psychology”.
Meaning:
To have meaning in life means, to see sense of your live and the world around you. When you see your live as having inherent value and that is worth to live. Therefore, you need to have the three elements, which are:
- coherence,
- significance
- purpose
Meaning is a foundational component of wellbeing like many studies show.
People who found their meaning in life:
- are happier,
- express more frequent and strong positive emotions,
- endorse and use their character strengths more,
- have more satisfying relationships
- are viewed as more desirable potential friends,
- help others more,
- feel better subjective health,
- report fewer health symptoms,
- have better functioning immune systems,
- lower levels of inflammatory cytokines,
- engage in less risky sexual and substance behaviors,
- show slower advancement of cognitive decline
- Alzheimer’s disease,
- live longer
(for reviews, see Cohen et al., 2016; Roepke et al., 2014; Steger, 2012)
Meaning plays an important role in
- coping with stress,
- trauma, and adversity,
- including greater use of effective coping strategies, such as using cognitive reappraisal of stressors and
- avoiding emotional suppression.
Meaning has both buffering against pessimism and building effects for Optimism.
