Tag Archives: Martin Seligman

The Happiness Tipping Point

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I am thrilled to have just been offered a place to study for an MSc in Positive Psychology at The University of East London beginning in September.  My ongoing personal studies of the science of happiness literature, my participation in an excellent 10 week course in Positive Psychology at City University and my writing of The Happiness Experiment blog have all created a perfect storm in my life where I felt the need to learn more about this fascinating science. You could say that I have reached a happiness tipping point. It turns out I am not alone. This great article by Sunnie Toelle, published in The Huffington Post on 3rd June, investigates the fact that many other people seem to have reached a happiness tipping point too. The science of happiness is everywhere in the news and media at the moment as people become increasingly aware that economic success does not necessarily equate with a happy and fulfilled life. This article reviews whether the time has come for the science of happiness. Have we reached a happiness tipping point?  Read the article and decide for yourself.

The Happiness Tipping Point

 

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“I think it’s here,” Prof. Martin Seligman said as he made a blue dot only millimeters to the left of the tipping point on the diffusion of innovations graph I had sketched in my Moleskine notebook. Martin Seligman, the “father of positive psychology,” had just lectured on Well-being at Work to over 500 business professionals at the Positive Business Forum in Milan. The two-day conference can be understood as the latest manifestation of a larger global phenomenon, labeled by the media as the “happiness movement” or “happiness industry.” With initiatives springing up in every sector — academic, cultural, spiritual, economic, public and private — what is the big picture? Does it matter? And are we actually approaching a tipping point?

The origins of this growing phenomenon go back to what has popularly been called the “science of happiness” or, in more scholarly terms, Positive Psychology. In his book Flourish, Prof. Seligman explains that while the goal of psychology has traditionally been to relieve human suffering, the goal of positive psychology — a field that is just 15 years old — is different. It is about actually raising the bar for the human condition and enabling individuals and communities to flourish.

Since the field’s humble beginnings in the late ’90s, it has seen considerable growth. In 1999, the late Philip J. Stone, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, taught one of the first positive psychology courses to just 20 students. Ten years later, the landscape had changed. You can find over 200 university courses across the United States, a master’s degree program at the University of Pennsylvania and almost 1,000 articles related to the field published in peer-reviewed journals. Other fields have taken notice, too. In 2003, London School of Economics Professor Richard Layard founded the Wellbeing Program after giving a series of public lectures titled Happiness: Has Social Science a Clue? The publication of his book, Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, soon followed and set the stage for a major upswing in interest in “happiness economics.”

As with several big, potentially game-changing ideas in the past 15 years — think Facebook, Google and WordPress — university students are at the forefront of their implementation. The happiness phenomenon is no exception to this pattern. On a national level, USA Todayran a story just last month on how “Happiness Clubs Spread Positive Vibes on Campus.” In the same month, the topic also surfaced in the oldest student-run daily newspaper, the Yale Daily News, which devoted its monthly magazine to college happiness movements.

So might this indicate that Prof. Seligman is right? A tipping point is defined as the point at which the buildup of minor incidents cause a larger, more significant change. So, is all this activity at universities going to tip this world towards happiness? Certainly, some of the world’s most influential social movements started on university campuses. And yet, I’ll refrain from carving out this argument any further because it is not just about what is unfolding on some American college campus. The most powerful evidence can be uncovered in “the real world.”

On a policy level, happiness made its debut on the world stage on March 20, 2013, when the first official United Nations International Day of Happiness took place. This was only months after the UN had released its inaugural World Happiness Report and England adopted the “Wellbeing Index.” As the first country in the Western hemisphere, England now complements the Gross Domestic Product figure with the Wellbeing Index “to measure what matters most.”

Politics is a reactive force rooted in a wide array of community organizations, artistic initiatives and popular support. In the case of happiness, the most notable community organizations are the London-based non-governmental organization Action for Happiness, Sustainable Seattle’s Happiness Initiative and the New York-based H(app)athon project. As for the arts, the popular documentary HAPPY comes to mind, as does graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister’s currently displayed Happy Show exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and Jonathan Harris’ remarkable interactive art project, Balloons of Bhutan.

When academia, politics and the arts are on to something, business cannot be far. On the consumer side, a keen observer will note the ever-increasing number of books, magazines, blogs, online courses and conferences on happiness-related topics. But it is not just a consumer demand that the business sector seeks to satisfy. Ever since Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, authored the #1 New York Times bestseller Delivering Happiness – A Path to Profits, Purpose and Passion, and Google became famous for its culture of workplace satisfaction, happiness is perceived as a powerful competitive advantage in the job market as well. This idea received so much traction that the Harvard Business Review picked it up and devoted its entire January-February 2012 issue to the Value of Happiness: How Employee Well-being Drives Profits. This argument has also recently gained momentum in Europe, in part due to the inaugural Positive Business Forum in Milan in March 2013. Hundreds of human resource professionals diligently took notes as Shawn Achor lectured on The Happiness Advantage and Paul Zak explained the neuroscientific link between purpose and employee happiness.

The forum also brings me back to Prof. Seligman. After decades of scientific study, he makes one point very clear: happiness is not about smiley faces, unicorns and light-hearted merriment. Nor is it about self-proclaimed gurus and their self-help anecdotes of supposed enlightenment. When put in these contexts, happiness becomes an unworkable term for science or for any practical goal such as education, therapy, public policy, or even just changing your personal life, according to Prof. Seligman. Rather, happiness — or “well-being” as he prefers to call it — should be understood as a comprehensive, holistic framework consisting of five measurable and buildable components summarized by the acronym P.E.R.M.A. (Positive Emotion, Engagement, Positive Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment). It is this scientifically grounded understanding that lies at the heart of the global happiness phenomenon this article and many “happiness” experts seek to portray. And it is a much needed understanding too. With burn-out, stress and depression rates skyrocketing and mental health costs in 2010 hitting $2.5 trillion globally, we must find ways to reverse this shocking development.

Coming back to my initial question of whether we are reaching a tipping point, the answers appears to be as follows: Some fascinating and potentially powerful happiness-related frameworks and initiatives exist on multiple levels and across geographic regions. Happiness matters for many reasons, but most of all, because business as usual is leading to a staggering increase in mental disorders, mental health costs and a massive loss of human potential. Arguably, it should therefore become a key agenda item in boardroom meetings and at policy roundtables. Yet, it remains to be seen who and what will hit off the tipping point.

 Follow Sunnie Toelle on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@sunniejaye
Posted by Shona Lockhart on 4th June 2013

To flow or not to flow that is the question

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Many experts in positive psychology argue in favour of focusing on flow as a means to happiness and well-being.  The excellent article below by Bridget Grenville-Cleave  provides you with 5 reasons to focus on flow as part of your well being armoury.  I personally am hugely in favour of the concept of flow as I think that if you can become completed engaged with mastering the task before you all other concerns simply melt away.  The only gripe I have with the theory of flow is that it can become so addictive.  In my own case I get the greatest sense of flow when I am being creative.  For months my creative energies were poured into setting up and writing this blog and I loved doing it, but  in writing the Happiness Experiment blog I was excluding other pursuits which I also valued. I took a few month’s break from the blog to refocus and my creative energies have gone in to creating art (mainly mosaic art) to the exclusion of the blog – hence my recent silence here.  This remains my dilemna with the concept of flow.  I can completely buy in to the theory of becoming utterly absorbed in an activity, but when the activity absorbs you so much that normal activities such as food, rest, sleep etc. begin to seem an inconvenient disruption to your sense of flow then alarm bells start to ring!  I was rescued from my creative abyss by a great little video clip by Jonathan Fields from The Good Life project which you can watch here:

 

 

 

Jonathan’s video clip gives two great tips to get yourself out of a “creative rabbit hole”- one is to use the practice of mindfulness to keep you aware of what you are focusing on and the second is to enlist the help of a friend to hold you accountable for all the other areas of your life which you also value and want to spend time on.  Watch Jonathan’s video and read Bridget’s article and let me know if you have further suggestions for getting all the benefits of being in flow without the disadvantages of focusing too much on a single activity.

 

 

FIVE REASONS TO FOCUS ON FLOW

“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something we make happen.” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1992, p.3)

 

Which pathways lead to well-being?

 

At the moment positive psychologists don’t yet agree on how many routes to well-being there are, or exactly what they are; what we do know is that there are many different ones, for example three in Authentic Happiness, five in the Seligman’s PERMA theory of well-being; six in Carol Ryff’s Psychological Well-being (PWB).

It’s sometimes said that no individual pathway is better than any other; which one you take is very much a matter of personal choice.

Some of us prefer a life filled with positive emotion, taking great pleasure from eating at 5-star restaurants, flaunting a pair of Christian Louboutins, or holidaying in Mauritius, and would be miserable without a regular dose of fun and frivolity. Some are more attracted to a life steeped in meaning and purpose, caring nothing if life’s luxuries are absent. Still others seek accomplishment, such as reaching the pinnacle of a chosen profession, as the main pathway to well-being.

Flow versus Fun

In our Positive Psychology Masterclasses, we frequently discuss with participants the relative merits of flow (also known as engagement or absorption) and positive emotions as routes to happiness. Based on our individual experiences we all have different perspectives. Some put their money firmly on positive emotion being a superior source of happiness. The work of Barbara Fredrickson on the Broaden-and-Build theory of positive emotions has opened our eyes to the possibility that positive emotions are more important than we have traditionally thought. They don’t just make us feel good, they do us good too. But the more I learn about it, the more I think that the importance of flow as a source of well-being is vastly understated.

For one thing, the enjoyment we derive from flow is an active and dynamic state. It’s about being able to control our inner experience, whereas the experience of positive emotion seems more passive, depending on events and experiences that are external to us. According to Csikszentmihalyi,

“…happiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance. It is not something that money can buy or power command. It does not depend on outside events, but, rather, how we interpret them…People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy.” (p2)

Additionally, positive emotions are typically fleeting: they don’t hang around for long. This may explain why we need a balance of around 3:1 in order to experience a positive upward spiral. Being able to feel positive emotions for any length of time looks like quite hard work!

There are many good reasons why we should focus more on flow as a route to well-being. Five of the best ones are highlighted below.

1. Exercising Control

Self-Determination Theory suggests that one of the fundamental building blocks of well-being is autonomy, being in control of your own life and make your own decisions and choices about what to do or not to do. Control is an important part of the flow experience too, although it seems that, paradoxically, it isn’t the actuality of having control that matters, but the possibility of exercising control, and the lack of worry about losing control.

2. Experiencing Freedom from Negative Thoughts

In flow, being able to control our inner experience isn’t about reframing negative thoughts into positive ones or changing our subjective experience of an event to make it more tolerable or less worrisome. Flow seems more aligned with the concept of mindfulness because it requires you to be able to direct your attention at will to the task in hand.

By paying focused attention to the task, whether it’s washing up, sweeping away last night’s snow fall, or writing your dissertation, there isn’t room in your consciousness for other distractions, worries, or negative thoughts. It isn’t that you ignore the source of negativity as such, but that for as long as the flow experience lasts, which might be minutes or even hours, you’re oblivious to negative thoughts and therefore free from them.

 

3. Developing Mastery

 

We all want to feel that we’re good at doing what we do. Fulfilling our basic need for mastery or competence is another of the basic building blocks of well-being in Self-Determination Theory. According to K. Anders Ericsson, mastery of your subject or discipline requires around 10,000 hours (or roughly 10 years) of deliberate, effortful practice. As long as the challenge of the task slightly outweighs the level of skill, experiencing flow can lead to mastery. Attention and intrinsic motivation seem to go hand in hand: ensuring that the years of practice are as enjoyable as possible, even if they are hard work, makes perfect sense.

4. Facilitating Personal Growth and Connection with Others

Flow also leads to personal growth because it facilitates two contrasting psychological processes that enable the self to become more complex. On the one hand, it facilitates differentiation or separation from other people, that is, the feeling of being personally unique, capable, and skilled. On the other hand, flow facilitates integration, both of the self (harmony because your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and senses are aligned) and with other people (in terms of feeling more closely connected with them). It would seem that flow experiences not only enable us to learn and grow as individuals, but also help us to achieve the third psychological need of Self-Determination Theory, relatedness.

5. Building Confidence

Another reason why flow should be at the top of the list of happiness enhancers is that flow experiences help build confidence. This isn’t just the confidence that naturally occurs as a result of becoming more skilled and competent at a task. Flow requires us to focus our attention so completely on the task in hand that there’s no room left over to think about our own selves. We don’t worry about what we look like or what others are thinking of us. There is what Csikszentmihalyi calls “a loss of consciousness of the self,” where we are no longer preoccupied by who we are. If you spend a moment recalling any of your recent flow experiences, you’ll know what I mean.

 

Tips for Finding More Flow in Your Life

 

  • Control your attention. Minimize distractions and focus on your task, whatever it might be. If your mind wanders, bring it back to the task.
  • Manage the balance between skill and challenge.
    • If the task is too easy, find ways to make it more challenging, for example by doing it more quickly (or more slowly) than normal.
    • To transform otherwise dull low skill/low challenge activities like sitting in a waiting room, create ‘micro-flow’ experiences with specific rules and goals. Examples include solving puzzles in your head or composing haiku.
    • If the task is too challenging, find ways to up your skill level. You could look for additional training, coaching or mentoring. Or you could break the task down into smaller steps which are more achievable. Or find ways to apply your top strengths to help you achieve it.
  • To achieve flow in conversation, focus intently on the other person and actively listen to what they are saying. Ask questions and allow plenty of time.
  • Talk to other people about how they find flow.
  • Finally, seek feedback on your performance on the task and act on it.

 

References

 

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience.. New York: Harper Perennial. Published in the UK in 1992 as Flow: the classic work on how to achieve happiness. London: Rider.

Fredrickson, B. (2009). Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive. New York: Crown.

Fredrickson, B.L. & Losada, N. (2005). Positive affect and the complex dynamics of human flourishing.American Psychologist, 60(7), 678-686.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68–78.

Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6): 1069–1081. Abstract.

Seligman, Martin (2004), Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. New York: Free Press. London: Nicolas Brealey Publishing.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being. New York: Free Press. London: Nicolas Brealey Publishing.

              

 

 

 

 Images

1. Flow courtesy of Eva Lottchen

2. Focussed courtesy of Vince Alongi

3. The Soloist by DG Jones

Bridget Grenville-Cleave, MAPP graduate of the University of East London, is a UK-based positive psychology consultant, trainer and writer. She is author of Introducing Positive Psychology: A Practical Guide (2012), and The Happiness Equation with Dr Ilona Boniwell. She regularly facilitates school well-being programs and Positive Psychology Masterclasses for personal and professional development. Find her on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter @BridgetGC. Website. Full bio. Her articles are here.

 

Posted by Shona Lockhart on 12th March 2013

Play to your strengths – it will make you happier

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One of the most important lessons I have learned in my studies of positive psychology is about playing to your strengths.  Like many people I have spent most of my life trying to “fix” my weaknesses and imagining that if I could only overcome my character deficits I would somehow be happier.  Positive psychology teaches us that this is a back to front approach and that it is much better to discover what your character strengths are and to use your top strengths every day in new and interesting ways. So how do you go about discovering where your true strengths and talents lie?  One way is to use your own judgement, another is to ask a group of people who know you really well what they think your top 5 strengths are.  It is a good idea to take both of these approaches but it is important to be aware when you are assessing yourself that we tend to think that because we find something easy to do that this does not constitute a strength.  Another option is to try the range of character strength surveys which are available online.  They are either free or very cheap to use and the small investment in time and money which is involved in doing these tests is time well spent.

I have tried two of the currently available strengths surveys and have found them invaluable.  The first one I tried is the VIA Survey, created by Chris Peterson and Martin Seligman who have looked at the strengths that were most valued historically and cross-culturally. The final list contains 24 strengths and the VIA assessment has been taken by over 1.3 million times by people around the world. A VIA report will give you insight into your ability to access all 24 strengths.

 

Another strengths assessment which I have tried is the Clifton StrengthsFinder from Gallup. StrengthsFinder is slightly more relevant to your strengths at work but there is an overlap between the 2 surveys.  You can purchase a book which provides you with the code to take the test online and the assessment provides you with information about relative strengths of 34 talents themes. The Gallup researchers, Donald Clifton, Marcus Buckingham, and Tom Rath, created the list of talents based on studies of human behavior in organizations that occurred over 40 years. The StrengthsFinder report gives you an insight into your top 5 talent themes that become strengths when you bring them into play in the real world.

There are other surveys such as Realise2 developed by the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP) in the United Kingdom and StandOut from The Marcus Buckingham Company which is both an individual and team assessment tool for the workplace.  I will cover these assessments in future blog posts but the VIA Survey and the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment are a good starting point to establish your strengths.

My new creativity tool – a kitchen timer.

One of my strengths is creativity and although I was aware of this before I took the tests I had lost the habit of using this strength in my daily life.  I discovered other strengths which I had not been aware of so even though you think you know your strengths I would encourage you to take the surveys as they are very revealing.  This great video by the super creative John Cleese has some great lessons on how to bring more creativity in to your life and how to make sure you make time for creativity:

One of the lessons I have learned from this video is that you need to make time for creativity – this sounds obvious doesn’t it but it is easier said than done.  John Cleese makes the very valid point that you need a clearly defined space and time for creativity to happen.  You should sit down in your allocated creative space for ideally 90 minutes at a time and not move until you have really got your creative juices flowing.  Any longer than 90 minutes and you start to tire, any less than 90 minutes and you are not giving yourself the chance to become really creative as your mind tends to wander for the first 30 minutes and only really starts to focus in the last 60 minutes of your allocated time.  Hence my recent purchase of a kitchen timer, which is my new creativity tool of choice.  It keeps me focused and aware that time is ticking.  My “appointment for creativity” has a beginning and an end and if I don’t make the most of my allocated 90 minutes my time will be up and I will have to move on to less pleasurable pursuits which require my attention.

Using this technique in the last week I have tried out three creative pursuits which I used to enjoy but which I have not made time for recently: bread making, mosaic art and dressmaking.  I have managed to fit all three pursuits in to one week when previously I couldn’t begin to see how creativity could fit in to my busy life.

2 new Liberty print blouses which I made this week

Breadmaking

The happiness bug spreads to my kitchen as the PIG of HAPPINESS takes over!

This week I have chosen to express my “creativity strength” by making items which are creative in the physical sense.  You can also express you creativity through finding new ways to solve problems, taking up writing or music making or embarking on a whole myriad of different creative pursuits.  Another great creative tool I have found is the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron – it is a 12 week programme to help you rediscover your creativity and I can highly recommend it.

I will end this blog post with a wonderful, inspirational video on creativity by Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote the bestseller Eat, Pray, Love.

 A new way to think about creativity by Elizabeth Gilbert

Creativity is one of my top 5 strengths according to the surveys I have taken and I think that this is an accurate assessment.  Even if creativity does not feature in your top 5 strengths I think it is important that everyone works at expressing their creativity in any way they can. I hope that this article has give you some food for thought.

Posted by Shona Lockhart, 24th July 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making Positive Psychology Wiser

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Making Positive Psychology Wiser

“Psychology without philosophy is blind, Philosophy without psychology is empty” (James Hume)

There’s a possibility that the 21st century could be the century when we finally get to understand more about how to lead happier, more fulfilling lives. Compared to our ancestors of just a century ago we enjoy better health, greater material riches and have a richer understanding of psychological problems such as depression and anxiety. But are we happier or more fulfilled? Perhaps not. As the French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre said “Everything has been figured out except how to live.”

There’s at least one reason for thinking that things might change for the better. Since 1998 American psychologist Martin Seligman has led the “Positive Psychology” movement which aims to put human well-being on a scientific footing. It has already uncovered some surprising facts , such as

  • Happier people are more creative, live longer and are more altruistic than unhappy people

  • Optimists have less heart attacks than pessimists

  • People experience more absorption and engagement (“Flow”) at work than at home

Moreover Positive Psychology has developed simple practices which are statistically proven to increase happiness for most people. One of the easiest and most effective is the “Three Good Things in Life Exercise”.

Each night for one week, write down three things that went well that day.
In addition to writing three things that went well, provide a causal explanation for each thing.
In particular, try to pay attention to how your behaviour caused the positive thing.

You might like to try it. Most people find there are lasting benefits of doing it for just one week. Governments are beginning to take notice of Positive Psychology. Whilst Bhutan, a tiny nation in the Himalayas, has been using a National Happiness Index for years, other countries such as the UK have more recently supported the idea that National Happiness should be measured. Initiatives to enable children to develop important life skills such as optimism and self-control have been piloted in schools. In addition there are many books describing scientifically supported ways you can become happier, some of which are rather good.

The idea behind Positive Psychology is important and timely. When I run workshops in Positive Psychology , most students enjoy the classes and find that practicing its ideas on themselves makes them happier. In my life coaching and psychotherapy practice I routinely incorporate Positive Psychology techniques and have found them to be a useful addition to the therapist’s toolkit.

However, much as I enthuse about Positive Psychology, I fear that unless it broadens it perspective it will not fulfill its potential to bring about a fundamental transformation in human well-being this century. I will put my cards on the table straight away. I believe that psychology needs to be combined with philosophy. Science can help us understand and reliably change the world but it cannot tell us what to change. As author Jules Evans argues, “Philosophy ungrounded in social science is a brain in a vat. But social science unguided by ethical philosophy is a chicken without a head. “

It is to ethical philosophy we must turn if we want to reason about such questions as “What is the good life?”, “What is human flourishing?” and “How important is happiness?” . A lot of books on Positive Psychology focus on happiness and how to be happier. Yet a few moments reflection is enough to convince most people that happiness isn’t all there is to a good life. Would you want your tombstone just to say that you were happy? Many people agree with psychologist Joseph Ciarrochi who says:

” I think I want my tombstone to say something about me being a loving father, caring husband and someone who sought to improve this human condition.  I bet you…have similar hopes and values”.

But if human flourishing isn’t just happiness, then what is it? Positive Psychology’s leading theorist, Martin Seligman, has proposed the idea that flourishing has five components, captured by the acronym PERMA, meaning:

  • Pleasure
  • Engagement
  • Relationships
  • Meaning &
  • Acheivement
Unfortunately Seligman’s theory raises more questions than it answers. For example:
  • What is the best balance of these five values in a good life?
  • Are there other important values (such as health, autonomy and  wisdom) missing from this list?
  • To lead a good life do you have to actually have these values satisfied, or do you just have to think you have?

  • Is wisdom, the ability to make ethical choices in the face of complex practical and emotional situations, a particularly important value?

These are all good questions. The answers implied by Seligman ( “Don’t know”, “No”, “You just have to think you have them satisfied” and “Wisdom is just one of 24 strengths and you should focus on it only if it is one of your strengths”) are not very satisfactory.

These are not technical quibbles, these are fundamental issues. If Positive Psychology is going to guide us in our personal lives and public policy, it needs to have a solid conceptual basis. We need to be able to trust it. Yet Seligman himself has admitted that Osama Bin Laden could well have lived a PERMA life. Since PERMA is measured by the subject’s own estimate (see question 3 above) every psychopath, terrorist and criminal could be rated to have good lives according to positive psychology. Worse still, positive psychology’s methods could actually make them worse. Would you prefer your local criminals to be more or less motivated, more or less optimistic? Like nuclear fission, Positive Psychology’s tools can be used in the pursuit of good and evil..

The idea that you should transform human well-being without doing philosophy as well as psychology is too narrow. But Seligman’s own model of Positive Psychology also runs into more specific problems because it ignores key ideas commonplace to philosophers but less obvious to psychologists. Central to Seligman’s theory is the idea that we should all be more aware of our character strengths and use our strengths more often. But should we? Imagine that your next door neighbour, Fred has optimism as his top strength. Positive Psychology tells him to be optimistic in new situations. Suppose Fred’s optimism has so far worked very well for him at home, where his encouragement and positivity are greatly appreciated by his family. After reading Seligman, Fred decides to be more optimistic at work as well. Now cut to the day of your holiday. Unfortunately it’s extremely foggy. You arrive at the airport expecting a long delay to your flight. You are surprised to hear a familiar “How is it going?” from Fred, your optimistic neighbour, who – I forgot to mention – is an airline pilot and is due to fly your plane. “How long will the delay be?” you ask him anxiously. “No delay at all!”, he replies cheerily. “Today I’m going to practice my optimism strength a bit more. Air Traffic Control say we should wait an hour for the fog to clear, but the good news is I’m an optimist so I’m going to ignore them.”? The problem with Seligman’s strengths theory is we have to judge when and where to apply our strengths. Fred needs what philosophers have long recognised to be a key virtue – wisdom.

Many centuries ago, Plato, Aristotle and other ancient philosophers argued that wisdom was in fact the most important thing you need to live well. Without wisdom, all the other things in life could be misused. Money, good looks and health may seem to be good things, but to live well you have to know how to use them wisely. In our example, Fred’s lack of practical wisdom will him lead to use his optimism strength rashly. One of the most influential philosophers on the subject, Aristotle, argued that a wise choice involves choosing the golden mean between two extremes. Fred needs to find the golden mean between optimism and pessimism . In this situation, since there is so much to lose, he should err on the side of pessimism.
What can be done? Positive Psychology has great potential, but for it to be fulfilled it needs to take on a more philosophical perspective. My hope is that more philosophers become involved in Positive Psychology and more psychologists become involved in Practical Philosophy.. I would like them to work together to develop a multi-disciplinary approach to the question of how to increase well- being.

In the meantime, I suggest the interested reader combine their study of positive psychology with practical philosophy. A good place to start are two excellent recent books

Jules Evans’ Philosophy For Life and Other Dangerous Situations

Julian Baggini & Antonia Macaro’s The Shrink and the Sage.

I also would like to invite interested parties to contact me to help develop a more philosophical type of Positive Psychology. It’s a project I’ve already begun, and I will leave you with one – so far untested – practice, a philosophical version of Three Good Things, which I call “Three Wise Things.”

Each night  for one week, write down three ways in which you or someone you know acted wisely that day. The things don’t have exhibit the wisdom of King Solomon – they just have to be things where someone showed good judgement.
In addition to writing down three wise things, write down what made these actions wise?

Live happily and wisely

Tim LeBon

http://www.timlebon.com

Happiness Experiment No 2: Three Good Things

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Find 3 Good Things

It is the start of a long bank holiday weekend and everyone is in a good mood so it seems like an opportune moment to introduce the second in our series of Happy Experiments: The 3 Good Things experiment.  

Over the next few days The Happiness Experiment will start to focus on things we may need to change to make ourselves happier but before doing this let’s focus on things that we can be grateful for right now before we make any changes.  Scientific experiments have proven that people who are grateful are generally happier, healthier and lead more fulfilling lives. Being grateful can help you cope with stress and can even have a benficial effect on your heart rate.  This experiment is so easy to try but it has great benefits. Practising the 3 Good Things Experiment is now as much a habit for me as brushing my teeth.  In tests, people who tried this experiment every night for just one week were happier and less depressed one month, three months and six months later.  Watch this Martin Seligman video and just give it a try, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

 

Have a wonderful and joyful bank holiday weekend.

Posted by Shona Lockhart, 1st June 2012

Is there a simple equation for happiness?

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This interesting article by Jeremy McCarthy looks at a number of formulas which have been put forward by positive psychology researchers as a solution to finding happiness.  Jeremy argues that although the equations may appear over-simplified they do succeed in making a very valid point which is easy to understand.  It is important to realise that much more of our personal happiness is under our own control than you might think.  Read on to find out why.  What would your happiness equation consist of? It’s worth thinking about….

On Happiness Equations

by  on 8:22 AM in BOOK REVIEWS, POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, QUESTIONS OF SCIENCE

Mathematics by Robert Scarth

In Martin Seligman’s book, Authentic Happiness, he uses a simple equation to describe where happiness comes from:

H = S + C + V

Where “H is your enduring level of happiness, S is your set range, C is the circumstances of your life, and V represents factors under your voluntary control.”

I hear Seligman take a lot of flack for this equation in scientific circles.  There are those who think this is an oversimplification of how happiness works, and that describing it as a simple sum is faulty math in calculating the complex relationships between the variables.

Here’s Barbara Ehrenreich, bashing Seligman in her anti-positivity opus, Bright-Sided:

I move on to one of the most irritatingly pseudo-scientific things in his book, the “happiness equation,” which he had introduced with the coy promise that it “is the only equation I ask you to consider,” as if positive psychology rests on whole thickets of equations from which the reader will mercifully be spared . . . Now I understand what he is trying to say: that a person’s happiness is determined in some way by their innate disposition (S), their immediate circumstances (a recent job loss or bereavement, for example), and by the efforts (V) that they make to improve their outlook. This could be stated unobjectionably as:

H = f(S, C, V)

Or, in words: H is a function of S, C, V, where the exact nature of that function is yet to be determined. But to express it as an equation is to invite ridicule. I ask the question that would occur to any first year physics student, “What are the units of measurement?”

Studying ’till the Sun Goes Down by Jekert Gwapo

I’m sure mathematically, Ehrenreich is correct, but she’s missing the point.  The equation is not intended to be filled in with actual numbers, as if you could calculate your happiness with the ease of pressing buttons on a calculator.  It’s simply a way to describe a complex subject in a way that is easier to understand.

The point of the equation is pretty simple:

Some of our happiness is fixed (genetically programmed, perhaps), some is influenced by the conditions we find ourselves in (where we live,health, wealth and marital status, political and cultural factors, etc.), and some is subject to change through voluntary control. Because the V can be influenced, this is the area where, according to Seligman, positive psychology should focus.

Sonja Lyubomirsky also has taken some heat for attaching some percentages to this equation and showing that about 50% of the variance in happiness can be explained by genetics (the set-point or S above), only about 10% by our circumstances (C), and that leaves a whopping 40% that is subject to voluntary influence (V).

The criticism here is somewhat better founded.  These percentages are based on variances across large populations and don’t tell us much about individuals (your personal mileage may vary.)  And there’s a bit of a leap here to assume that you can truly manipulate whatever falls outside of what’s been found in genetics and circumstance.

But these criticisms still miss the point.  Lyubomirsky is using a simple pie chart to communicate three important facts about human happiness:

A lot of it is set (maybe about half).

Some (a lot less than we think) is dependent on our circumstances.

And, there is a chunk left over that is within our power to change.

I find this not only useful, but a powerful message to share with those who may be assuming that their happiness in life is determined completely by factors outside of their control

Another man who uses simple equations to explain deep human truths is Chip Conley, the author of Emotional Equations (and one of my heroes in the hospitality industry.)

His formula for happiness is as follows:

Happiness = Wanting What You Have / Having What You Want

Emotional Equations by Chip Conley

Here, the equation brings to mind Buddhist principles of acceptance and how a shift in mindset can increase happiness more than merely attaining or accomplishing more.  Again, the math is flawed because the equation suggests that having more would cause your happiness to plummet, but once again, that’s not the point.

Conley uses equations to explore relationships.  There is a relationship between wanting and having that is described here.  Most people focus on having more, but Conley’s equation asks us to think about wanting less (or better yet, wanting and appreciating what we already have.)  His book is filled with simple equations to help readers come to terms with the factors that allow certain emotions to rise and fall through life.

For me, all of these equations are useful.  They force us to use an analytical part of our brain to consider the forces at play between variables that are unquantifiable.   To the critics of these equations, I’d like to share the same advice that Conley gives to his readers . . . “try not to let the math distract you from the bigger message.”

p.s. What would your happiness equation be?  I think mine would be something like this:

Happiness = (Meaningful Work + Joyful Play + Loving People)  * Time to Appreciate It

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References and recommended reading:

Conley, C. (2012). Emotional Equations: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness + Success.

Ehrenreich, B. (2010).  Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America. Picador.

Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). The How of Happiness: A scientific approach to getting the life you want. New York: Penguin Press.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2003).  Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. Free Press.

Article published in The Psychology of Well-Being 29th May 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wish yourself a happy New Year at any time of the year

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Like many people I started the year with many good intentions and quickly found that life got in the way.  I wrote this article at the beginning of 2012 with the aim of featuring it in my brand new blog about positive psychology, which I had great intentions of setting up in January. We are now in May and thanks to my decision to sign up for the Thirty Day Challenge with  http://www.screwworkletsplay.com/  I have finally set up my blog The Happiness Experiment. It is never too late to have a happy New Year and it is never too soon to start your own journey to happiness.  This article shares some insight in to my own personal journey to happiness and future articles will share some more of the lessons I have learned along the way.  I continue to experiment daily with the lessons of positive psychology and would encourage you to try some experiments too. We are all responsible for our own happiness and like me you have the ability to significantly increase your  own well-being and to flourish – as Mahatma Gandhi so rightly said you can “be the change you want to see in the world.”

An experiment in happiness: “Be the change you want to see in the world”

 

January is traditionally the time of year when newspaper and magazine articles abound with New Year, New You features.  Headlines such as “Make 2012 your best year yet”, “10 secrets to living a happier life” make us believe that this will be the year when everything will be different and circumstances will coincide to make 2012 the year when we finally attain the happiness we have been seeking.

This year I was in the fortunate position of being ahead of the curve as I had just completed Tim Le Bon’s 10 week positive psychology course at City University in December.  This meant that in January I could skip the articles and forget the usual New Year resolutions we all beat ourselves up about for having abandoned in February, as I was already armed with everything I needed to carry out my own happiness experiment in 2012.

The positive psychology course could have been subtitled “10 weeks to happiness” as most of the participants had made significant improvements to their happiness levels by the end of the 10 weeks. We left armed with a range of simple tools and interventions which, if mastered and used regularly, can have a very positive impact on your life.  When I began the course in October I was in a similar position to many of the other students in that I had done some reading on the subject of positive psychology but had not put a great deal of what I had read in to practice – the course proved to be the catalyst for change which we all needed.

The course was a great mixture of gaining an academic understanding of the current principles and theories of positive psychology (a relatively new branch of psychology begun in 1998 by Professor Martin Seligman) and of having the opportunity to apply these ideas in our personal and working lives.  I have always been interested in the theories and benefits of optimum nutrition, popularised by Patrick Holford.  This is a way of living a life of optimum physical health by taking personal responsibility for one’s own physical well-being through lifestyle and nutrition choices rather than abdicating responsibility to health practioners.  Positive psychology, in my view, gives us the opportunity to achieve optimum mental health and the resilience to bounce back from life’s challenges without resorting to a medically prescribed “happy pill”.  In the same way as optimum physical health is not merely absence of illness, optimum mental health is not merely the absence of negative emotions or depression.   Both theories aim to help us achieve a similar outcome – a life in which we are positively flourishing and thriving and living life to the full.

We initially looked at the “happiness formula” formulated by Professor Seligman and his team which is:    H = S + C + V

The level of happiness that you experience (H) is determined by your biological set point (S) plus the conditions of your life (C) plus the voluntary activities (V) that you do.

It was a revelation to me to discover that 50% of our happiness is determined by genes (S), 10% by life circumstances (c) and 40% by our intentional voluntary activities.  Like many of the other participants I had always assumed that our happiness levels were due to a combination of our personal circumstances and to having a naturally positive outlook on life. 

I read two books related to this subject which were instrumental in changing my attitude to our ability to determine our own happiness levels.  The first one “The How of Happiness” by Sonja Lyubomirsky, contains 12 practical happiness inducing activities which are simple to implement and demonstrates that having the possibility to influence our happiness levels by 40% is hugely significant.  The pessimists on the course were secretly thinking that if we can only influence our happiness levels by 40% it is not worth trying!

The second book was “Positivity” by Barbara Fredrickson which illustrates that even those who are genetically pre-determined to be die-hard pessimists can improve their positivity ratio by using her broaden and build theory and by focusing on achieving the crucial tipping point of 3 to 1 positive versus negative experiences.  One of the first interventions we were asked to complete on the course was to write a daily gratitude journal of three good things and how your behaviour caused the positive thing.  I have realised that when you appreciate what you have, what you have appreciates in value. I now not only practice this personally every day but have introduced this positive intervention in my workplace as well.

Other topics we covered looked at 3 different routes to happiness; the pleasant life (a hedonistic approach in which temporary pleasures can elate us for a while but as we quickly habituate ourselves to them their effect diminishes), the engaged life (made up of flow experiences which use our signature strengths) and a meaningful life (in which we have a sense of purpose and connectedness and use our signature strengths in the service of something that you believe is larger than you are).

I was in a similar position to many other students in that taking a hedonistic approach to life presented me with no particular problems.  However I had always had a nagging doubt at the back of my mind that there had to be a scientific explanation to the fact that the first cup of coffee in the morning always made me much happier than any subsequent cups.   I have always tried to live a meaningful life and giving back to communities less fortunate than ourselves (particularly the bottom billion in Africa) is hugely important to me and a great source of pleasure.

However I gained 3 important insights from this topic. The first one was that although I was familiar with the concept of “flow”, having read Mihály Csikszentmihály’s book on the subject, I did not choose to put this in to practice in my daily life and did not always live an engaged life.  The second insight was the concept of signature strengths which was a completely new concept to me and which illustrates how we can become significantly happier by focusing on our strengths. Having previously always focused on my weaknesses, this was a revelation.  Once you have taken the easy strengths tests which are available online, you can think of ways to use your signature strengths in different ways and situations. The third insight was the importance of making giving personal.  I became a convert to the idea of acts of kindness practiced at a very personal level (another of our interventions from class) and was inspired to watch the film “Pay it forward”.  I have now set up an Acts of Kindness challenge in my workplace and try to think of little things I can do on a daily basis to “Pay it forward”, such as leaving a surprise bunch of flowers for my dog walker.

We also looked at the concepts of hope, optimism and luck and at the importance of having a positive explanatory style in relation to the situations and events which life throws at us.  We focused on how optimists are capable of seeing good things as permanent, pervasive and personal and bad things as temporary, specific and temporary whereas pessimists do the opposite. Optimism can be learned and your explanatory style can be worked at.

The concept of hope and the importance of perseverance and taking the long view were brought home to me by watching “Shawshank’s Redemption” a film recommended on the course recommended. I also read Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” and learned that if you can survive the horrors of concentration camp life and still be hopeful and optimistic about the human race, then everything is possible.  This quote from the book was really enlightening: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose - one’s own way”.

The concept of luck as a route to happiness was not something I had previously considered, but reading Richard Wiseman’s “The Luck Factor” which demonstrates that there are 12 key principles  which affect our luck and that we are all in control of these 12 principles.  I recently started putting one of the first principles in to practice, “lucky people build and maintain a strong network of luck”. This basically means that the bigger your network, the more opportunities come your way, so it is a great idea to constantly think of new ways to meet people.  It is not about having hundreds of “friends” on Face book but having a network of friends and contacts with whom you are on first name terms.  As a practical example I recently moved house and decided to invite all my new neighbours to a “Pot Luck” party as a way of getting to know people quickly rather than spending years not knowing who lives in the same street.  I am applying one principle of this book each month both in my personal life and at work. The principles can also be found on this website: http://www.theluckfactor.com/

Other aspects of the course which I will be focusing on in 2012 are lessons about savouring, mindfulness and meditation which we practised briefly in class.  This made me aware how little we live in the present and how important it is to master this skill if we want to be happy.  I will be signing up for a course on Mindfulness in the near future and intend putting this in to practice in my daily life.   We also learned about the significant role which positive relationships play in our happiness and of the importance of emotional intelligence in our overall well-being.  These are concepts which I will be studying further now that the course is over.

10 weeks is, of course, only a short period of study and I would not claim to have mastered all the concepts we were taught or indeed to have put everything in to practice yet.  It is now a month since the course finished and I still feel that I derived so much personal benefit from the course that I want to both continue studying this subject and to pass my knowledge (limited though it is at this stage) on to others.  I am implementing the teaching in my personal and work life and am already reaping the benefits.

I have never previously struggled with being hopeful about the future, but I have at times struggled with being optimistic about today.  Above all this is what Tim le Bon’s 10 week positive psychology course has taught me; that if we want to change our happiness levels we have to make that change happen.  To quote Mahatma Gandhi “Be the change you want to see in the world”.  If you would like to learn more, I would recommend you look at the course reading list as a starting point, sign up for the next 10 week course and start to take massive action.  Try out your own happiness experiment and this time next year you could be ahead of the curve too.

My personal top 10 lessons from the course

1. Be grateful and keep a positive attitude

2. Take the long view – post-traumatic growth is possible

3. Be kind and make generosity personal

4. Always stay inspired

5. Focus on strengths and use them creatively

6. Share knowledge about positive psychology

7. Never stop learning but take MASSIVE action

8. Be hopeful about the future and optimistic about today

9. Meet new people, try new experiences, learn new skills and get involved

10. Make a difference and be the change you want to see in the world.

 Article written by Shona Lockhart, 25th January 2012