“Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living”
~Peterson
Have you ever been happy even when you are challenged in situations or have you ever seen anyone in a difficult situation but still have a positive sense?
Positive psychology is a scientific theory to study human thoughts, feelings and their behavior which will only show positive symptoms, not negative symptoms or reactions. It only focuses on the positive events and influences in life. Research suggests that happiness is influenced by genetics, people can learn to be happier by developing optimism, gratitude and altruism.
What is positive psychology?
It's a study of happiness.
Psychology traditionally focuses on people with mental illness or other psychological problems and how to treat them. But, positive psychology only focuses on the positive effects and behavior of a person.
Positive psychology includes many interesting topics:
*Happiness
*Optimism and helplessness
*Mindfulness
*Flow, which is a state of complete immersion in your present activity
*Character strengths and virtues
*Hope
*Positive thinking
*Resilience
Martin Seligman – American psychologist
Martin Seligman is a researcher with a great experience of psychology. Seligman researched on the well-known psychological theory of “learned helplessness" in the 1960s and 70s.
In this psychological theory he found that humans become helpless and feel like they have lost control over what happens to them.
Seligman connected this theory with depression, which had a great effect on it. He focused on mental illnesses, abnormal psychology, trauma, suffering and pain.
But later when he was elected president of the American Psychological Association in 1998, he got a new idea, proposed a new subfield of psychology which only focuses on how to recreate life from negative effects to positive . His positive psychology theory was published in 2000 by Seligman and the “founding father” of flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
A person suffering from depression
How to recover yourself if you are having negative psychological problems?
Don't overthink, let your mind rest in peace for some time
Don't stress or pressure yourself
Try meditating early in the morning
Roam under the open sky or in nature
Give yourself at least 2 hours to understand yourself and the problem
Try to remember the happy days you have spent and don't let negative thoughts enter your mind again
Don't take unnecessary pills. Give yourself a few moments/hours/days to understand your wrong doings and a chance to start from the point where you lost yourself.
Thus, taking time to cultivate traits like gratitude, kindness, mindfulness, etc. and doing so consistently can help foster happiness on a daily basis.
Authored By: Shreta Das
Edited by: Uddantika Kashyap