What is positive psychology?
Positive psychology centres on what is good. This does not mean that this field of psychology ignores or trivialises any problems we experience. It just means that once we have had a good look at a problem, our energy is directed to creating new directions and better solutions. The ‘good’ takes the foreground and the ‘not-so-good’ is distanced, our focus shifting from what we don’t want to what we do want.
Focusing on what is helpful
Positive psychology sets our sights on thriving and empowers us to actively grow. It contrasts with traditional deficit approaches to psychology, which make us feel inadequate, constantly trying to plug gaps and fix what is wrong with our learning. Focusing on faults and remediating shortcomings can have us working hard just to ‘measure up’. We can be discouraged to work at tasks and, believing that we are unlikely to succeed, experience a low sense of self-efficacy. Positive psychology helps us to focus on what we want to happen and fresh solutions. It can lift and engage us so that we willingly make efforts to progress. It can even help us improve areas in which we already have skill. For example, we may enjoy success in mathematics and wish to super-upskill and perform even better.
Sparkling moments: Pivotal points for growth
When we engage in positive psychology we discover the strengths in our foundations. We notice the things that are already OK and observe the positive experiences we have. At times in our lives, our stories are challenging, even overwhelming, and our foundations may feel a little wobbly. However, there is always a supportive element holding us together. We may need to explore a bit to find it but this search is invariably rewarded with powerful, positive discoveries that spark new solutions. For this reason, these discoveries are often called ‘sparking moments’.
Experiencing positive emotions
Positive psychology aids sound decision-making because it helps us to feel positive emotions. When we feel positive emotions, our brains are calm and open to reasoning. Our pre-frontal cortexes function freely and process multiple sets of information with ease.
Positive thinking
There are many ways we can encourage positive thinking in our everyday lives such as:
activities that calm the mind like breathing techniques and mindfulness exercises
engaging in activity that is intrinsically interesting to us
writing journals of the positive emotions we have noticed during the day
saying something genuine that makes someone else feel good
using language that places problems and solutions externally to us and others
mapping our journeys toward the positive futures we envision
becoming curious about the world around us
We can develop and strengthen optimistic ways of thinking when we have opportunities to envision and consolidate positive pathways ahead. A positive mindset can become a good habit. Of course, the effectiveness of positive psychology is maximised when those around us believe in us and have positive expectations for our futures.