On the theme of happiness, I had the privilege of being at the Simply Happy conference (with the compliments of John, Philip and Normala. Thank you!) organised in Singapore by Philip’s Global Leadership Academy. It was a conference with a mitochondria of knowledge-infused speakers! It was indeed a power-packed two days of sharing ideas and research in this field of Psychology.

It was an impressive start with Marty Seligman’s keynote speech on “Positive Psychology: The pursuit of happiness at work, at school, and at home”. Hearing Positive Psychology (PP) spoken out loud reinforced my belief in PP, and I see a great potential for PP to be used in the various facets of our lives! Thank you Marty for setting a wonderful foundation for PP to flourish! Definitely plausible, life satisfaction may be predicted by our positive emotions, our engagement in activities, as well as our perspective on making our lives meaningful.

Two wonderful speakers got me thinking about how we could create and implement a PP module or course for our local children, and in particular, to Northlight School‘s character education curriculum.  Firstly, coming from the European perspective, Ilona Boniwell’s “Positive education: Bringing well-being to parents, schools and universities” brought to light the importance of well-being to our children’s psychological health. Secondly, building on Ilona’s speech was Judy Willis’ “Parenting and teaching with the brain in mind”.  Judy’s speech appealed very much to me as I am a great fan of neurology.  It was a fantastic blend of practical insights and feasible exercises wedded with the technicalities of brainworks!  Literally, I can imagine the prefrontal cortex firing up with the floodgates of the reticular activating system and amygdala opening, and dopamine transporting all the happy stuff right into us!  Just liken it to an expressway.  Dopamine is the car.  To get into the expressway, we drive and enter a side exit (reticular activating system), pass through the electronic road pricing system check (amygdala), before getting to our destination (prefrontal cortex).

Other noteworthy bits included master storyteller Catherine Lim’s speech on “The Scheherazade magic: A Singaporean writer shows the joy and power of story-telling”, which got me fired up on writing my own fiction stories!  Definitely full of substance, David Chan’s “The science of happiness and well-being: Singapore perspectives”, got me intrigued over the idea of negativity bias.  Did you know that giving a compliment (a positive) and a criticism (a negative) resulted in a net result of negativity?  Food connoisseur Paul Rozin’s “Positive Psychology and culture: Pleasure, domains of life, and the world of food” stayed close to my heart, especially the research on food!  I learnt that we spent over 13% of our life concerned with food, third to sleep and work!

I was especially tickled by Avi Liran’s “Laughter Yoga: Experiential session”. Avi is an Optimism and Yoga teacher and he guided us through various exercises on laughing, the yoga style. It still gets my funny bone tickling when I recall the “Ho! Ho! Ha! Ha! Ha!” and the “Very good! Very good! Yay!” exclamations, led by our charismatic teacher, Avi. It has given me inspiration for one of my next speeches!

The PP conference culminated in the awarding of Singapore’s Happiest Person, Andy Goh!  All in all, it was an interesting eye-opening experience as well as a deeper insight into the field of Positive Psychology.  An awesome first in Asian and Singapore’s Positive Psychology book!  I am eagerly anticipating more!

Happiness and well-being, the way to go!!!

Happiness is simply being happy (^.^)

It is only now that I realise that how is imbued with other subtle “W”ives (Yip, 2008). Who can Positive Psychology be applied? When can Positive Psychology be used? Where can Positive Psychology be utilised? These “W”ives are indeed fantastic tools to explain the “H”usband in a clearer manner!

How can Positive Psychology be applied? Firstly, it can be applied to virtually anyone who is interested in making a positive difference in their own lives. Secondly, Positive Psychology, in terms of positive interventions (for example, exercises and questionnaires) can be used whenever needed. You are only limited by your choice of utilising interventions and motivation in employing them. Thirdly, positive interventions can be used in any location, with my recommendation of the exercises for application to be completed in an environment conducive for meditation and reflections.

Seligman’s (2004, September) latest newsletter on Authentic Happiness reported on an investigation on three positive interventions. The three blessings exercise, the gratitude visit, and the identification and innovative utilisation of signature strengths, demonstrated increased positive emotions and reduced depression with a follow up of six months.

Firstly, the three blessings exercise comprises listing three things which happened to you (and why) during the day for which you feel grateful and blessed. The goal of this exercise is to increase your self-awareness of the great things which happens to you. With this conscious awareness, seek to magnify the quality and/or quality of these blessed things in your life!

Secondly, the gratitude visit comprises composing and reading a testimonial to someone important from your past who has made a positive difference in your life, and you have not formally expressed your appreciation for. Pay a face-to-face visit to the person and reminisce about the things that this person has done to make it so important for you.

Thirdly, the identification and innovative utilisation of signature strengths comprises identifying your signature strengths with the VIA signature strengths questionnaire. Reflect on your top five strengths, and use each strength in a new and different way for seven days.

Try out these exercises and see what happens! If you are an altruistic person and want to contribute to research in this field, or just want to find out how positively savvy you are, there are several interesting studies in the Positive Psychology Center Online Research Program where you can participate in!

Most probably, when you apply and teach Positive Psychology, your happiness is inadvertently increased as well (Seligman, 2004, September). What a wonderful win-win situation! Are you ready for embracing Positive Psychology in your life?

References

Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new Positive Psychology to realise your potential for lasting fulfillment. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2004, September). Positive interventions: More evidence of effectiveness. Retrieved March 12, 2008, from http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/newsletter.aspx?id=45

Yip, P. S. (2008). Positive psychology: the husband and his five wives (Part 1). Retrieved February 26, 2008, from http://www.shanshine.com/positive-psychology/positive-psychology-the-husband-and-his-five-wives-part-1

Is everything that makes you feel good positive? That is an interesting question I will consider in due course.

Going by psychological convention, manuals are possibly a convenient method of classifying the unclassified. When there is a yin, there is also a yang. After concentrating on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), a ray of sunshine is paved with the development of Values in Action (VIA) Classification of Strengths Manual (Seligman, 2003, as cited in Pawelski, 2004). The VIA comprises 24 strengths categorised under six virtues: Wisdom and knowledge, Courage, Humanity and love, Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence (Seligman, as cited in Pawelski). The strengths listed under these six virtues are great fodder for more research which I hope to undertake in the future.

The study of Positive Psychology also seeks to address not only positive individual traits (classified by the VIA), but also on two other related issues: positive subjective experience and conducive environments for positive traits and experiences (Peterson & Seligman, 2003). In a morbid metaphor, the study of traits is the skeleton, and the experience, the flesh on the skeleton. Together, they exist together (that is, the environment) to create happiness.

Traits, experience and the environment are the ingredients of the spectrum of emotions. Be it happiness or sadness, the study of “negative” Psychology, without which, would not have laid the foundation for the current interest and popularity in Positive Psychology.

References

Pawelski, J. O. (2004). The promise of positive psychology for the assessment of [and building] character. Retrieved January 24, 2008, from http://www.lifeskillstraining.org/seligman.htm

Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2003). Values in action (VIA) classification of strengths. Retrieved January 24, 2008, from http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/viamanualintro.pdf

Positive psychology. (n.d.). Webster’s New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7). Retrieved January 17, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/positive psychology