Kategorie: Positive Psychologie

Positive Psychology Part: Did you know that coping strategies could lower your stress level?

Stress is defined by Lazarus and Folkman (1984) as the internal or external demands appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the individual.

 Studies shows that positive psychology can help you to increase the experience of positive cognition (e.g., positive reappraisal) and positive emotions (e.g., gratitude)

hold significant promise for helping people bolster their mental health.

 These have demonstrated effects on a number of indicators of psychological well being such as:

  • positive affect
  • meaning and purpose
  • depression.

Study results suggest that positive psychology interventions have much to offer to help everyone cope better with both day-to-day stress as well as more major stressors.

 If you ask yourself: Which positive psychology intervention are possible to integrate them into my daily business?

Here are some examples you could use with each other in your daily communication:

  • noticing positive events,
  • savoring,
  • gratitude,
  • mindful awareness,
  • positive reappraisal,
  • personal strengths,
  • acts of kindness,
  • self-compassion
  • appreciation and recognition

 “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Ghandi

Positive Psychology: The power of self-compassion to overcome adversity

Self -compassion means to treat your self with care, kindness and concern you would show to your be loved when they are struggling.

In this way, treat yourself like you would behave towards others.

 Often we are more cruel and colder to our-self than to others. Self-compassion turns this around and we have against us compassion as well.

To be able to be compassion against our-self we need to be mindful with our feelings and pains we have.

There fore we have to observe them, accept them and acknowledge them instead of ignoring and suppress them. We need to look at the chance of the situation than to focus on how bad things are.

 Instead of feeling isolated and lonely we should assume that nobody is perfect and has to deal by them self with challenges in their live.

This is what differentiates self- compassion from self-pity.

 Instead of trying to replace bad feelings with ‘better’ ones, we can create sustainable positive emotions through dealing with our suffering with kindness and care. In this way both sort of feelings can be felt in parallel. Such friendly and benevolent ability helps us to come over the difficulties we are coping with and explain why self-compassionate people are happier, more optimistic, and satisfied with their lives than those who don´t care for them self.

From a scientific perspective strengthen such behaviour your immune system and enhances physical health by decreasing cortisol and increasing heart rate variability.

Positive Psychologe: For the future we need courage!

Courage with which it is possible for us to overcome our fear, to be able to go new ways, to trust ourselves, to overcome our own limits, to live our own convictions, to be authentic, to master life, to grow personally, in short, to live in our personal courage zone.

 Courage is something different for everyone.

It means taking a risk to achieve a goal that is valuable to oneself. Therefor the proportionality plays an important role.

The relative proportionality of the risk compared to the value of the goal is based on the subjective assessment of the person taking or observing the action. Actions that are considered courageous by all are usually those where everyone agrees that the risk is significant, and the goal is valuable.

 Courage plays a special role in times of crisis or challenging situations to overcome them.

 If you like to reflect what the meaning of courage is to you, feel free to use the thought flower.

Positive Psychology: Power of Gratitude

To work in harmonious and force human flourishing you should be grateful and demonstrate gratitude to reach this aim. This is scientifically proven.

In order to get a positive emotional reaction to one’s own behaviour, it is necessary to promote goodness in itself through gratitude in and towards oneself.

Gratitude is well proven in many studies that this is beneficial for your well-being in the psychology, physical and spiritual level. Gratitude supports you to have in orientation in your life it lowers the stress level and increase the positive emotions, and through gratitude social relationship will flourish and maintain.

With your appreciation you support the interrelationship between each other.

Studies shows that gratitude helps you to overcome critical situations in live and see the tragic in your life with more distance.

Like Solomon a lecturer on Søren Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre and other said in the Oxford University press 20002:

Gratitude, I want to suggest, is not only the best answer to the tragedies of life. It is the best approach to life itself.

The person you are talking to subconsciously has an influence, if you are relaxed or stressed

Did you felt powerless or full of anger and aggression? Would you like to go into a small mouse hole to be not seen or shouting with some one?

Than your autonomous nevus system has control over you.

The evolution shows that human beings (mammals) can stop such reactions through eye contact, calming voices, deep breathing, and a friendly face you are looking into. This is called co-regulation, which happens through the nevus vagus specially the smart vagus. This is the Polyvagal Theory from Stephen W. Porges.

To understand the power and influence of our autonomous nervous system, please watch this short video: https://youtu.be/ZdIQRxwT1I0

Positive Psychology „Broaden-and Build-Theory“

Barbara L. Fredrickson developed the “Broaden-and Built-Theory“.

The key essence of this theory is, that positive emotions

  • enhance our thinking and awareness,
  • can reduce negative emotive states
  • will support developing psychology resilience
  • can support you to build own abilities
  • increase well-being
  • encourage own development

 Positive emotions in one’s own life and in the life of your conversational partners leads to

  • a good feeling
  • changes us to the better self
  • leads to a healthy life and prosperity

 Positive emotions lead you into a generalized, attitude that leads to more creativity and resilience. This creates a variety of complex possibilities for you.

 In the absence of positive emotions, further development will hardly be possible. One impact is on your freedom to determine one’s own behavior is lost, and we will stay in our pain through negative emotions. To stop this down-spiral, positive emotions are needed, as when they are in excess, the positive emotions support us to grow beyond ourselves.

The „Broaden-and-Build Theory“ demonstrates that positive emotions make us grow beyond ourselves and increase our own well-being.

Do you have ideas, on how you can create positive emotions on a daily basis?

When you are interested in the publication of Barbara L. Fredrickson, please klick on this link: 15347528.pdf (nih.gov)