Tag Archives: positive psychology

A Life Worth Living: Andy Cope

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This is the first in a regular series of interviews looking at the approach different people take to creating A Life Worth Living.  This interview is with Andy Cope, author of a number of books including The Art of Being Brilliant and The Art of Being a Brilliant Teacher.   Andy is currently studying for a PhD in “Happiness” and delivers workshops and seminars via his company The Art of Brilliance. Enjoy the interview.

Andy Cope

Andy Cope

1.  What prompted you to write your book “The Art of Being Brilliant” and who is it aimed at? What has been the response to your book?

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‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ is basically all the best bits from my PhD research. I’’ve been studying ‘happiness’ and ‘flourishing’ (basically, I’’ve been seeking out happy people and bottling their secrets) and some simple principles were crying out to be shared. I’’m delighted to say that the response has been brilliant. ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ has reached a global audience and I’m working on book 2

2. What led you to undertaking studies in positive psychology?

I studies ‘Psychology’ at Uni. and it was interesting, but always about ill people. I learned about disorders, anxiety and depression. And then I came across the relatively new field of ‘Positive Psychology’ which was pitched at the opposite end of the spectrum. And, bizarre as it sounds, we’d never really studied happy people. And that piqued my interest. I noticed that too many people were in a default whinge/moan/pessimistic mindset. Why is that? And wouldn’t it be cool to find people who were different? And find out what they were doing?

So I did!

3. You are working on a PhD in “Happiness” – what topic specifically is your PhD looking at?

I’m looking at what I call ‘flourishing’. In a nut shell, I’ve been studying people who are happy and upbeat and (and this is important) whom other people are noticing are more happy and upbeat. In short, those who shine and who impact positively on those around them

And my research is targeted at those who are working in the public sector. I thought this would be particularly challenging, in times of re-structuring, low morale and budget cuts. Yet, some people remain happy and upbeat!

4. If you could change the world in any way you wanted what 3 things would you change?

Just 1 thing. I’d change education. There aren’t enough words in this article that allow me to do justice to the changes I’d make. Suffice to say, I’d pretty much tear up the current model and start again. We’re preparing children for a world that no longer exists!

5.  Who is the most inspiring person you have ever met and why?

Crikey! Good question!

I’ve been fortunate to meet a good selection of awesome people. I’d better go for my colleague and co-author, the fabulous Mr Andy Whittaker (cos he’ll probably read this!). He’s the nicest bloke on the planet and has really inspired me by proving that when you play to your strengths, anything’s possible

6.  How do you spread your message of happiness?

We have a really cool workshop called ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’. Plus various books and CDs. But the best way to spread the message is to take it into schools and train kids to deliver it across their community

7.  Tell me about your 2%ers event?

A ‘2%er’ is my shorthand way of describing the people I’ve been studying. It isn’t actually scientifically correct but is merely meant to imply that happy, positive, upbeat people are a minority group. 2%ers are people who are significantly happier than average

And we have gatherings of 2%ers. Basically we cram 400 happy people into a room and deliver some workshops for them. It gives me a chance to try out some new material on a friendly audience

8. I believe we should all do something every day to make us feel proud. (Cue Heather Small) What are you most proud of?

My family. The biggest results I’ve had with ‘positive psychology’ have been at home

9. What has been you greatest life lesson to date?

The biggest discovery of my PhD (and the most obvious!) is that 2%ers actively and consciously choose to be positive. I describe this as common sense but not common practice. I also describe it as simple but not easy (there’s a very important difference!)

10. Tell me about your involvement with schools and why you choose to work with them?

We delivered ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ in businesses for a number of years before we twigged that teachers and children need these messages too! So we re-jigged the content and we now deliver what we call our ‘embedded model’, where we take a year group through the messages and task them with designing their own curriculum that they take across school (and the wider community). Young people get such a hard time in the press and this is an attempt to redress the balance by getting teenagers to inspire their communities.

Quite simply, the earlier you can embed positivity and happiness in your life, the better your life chances

And we choose to deliver in schools because it’s absolutely the right thing to do! In fact our business model is set up in such a way that we charge quite hefty fees to deliver in businesses and we use the surplus to subsidise our work in schools.

 

11.  Is it easier to teach happiness to young people or adults? In other words can you teach old dogs new happiness tricks?

Our’s is an incredibly simple message. Adults get it. And younger children (age 9 to 12) get it

Teenagers are more of an issue. Quite often, we find that teens are already indoctrinated into negative mind-sets and some of them can be very difficult to work with. Invariably, these habits have been learned from home. Sadly, if you’re a British teenager, it’s not cool to be your best self. We are working hard to change this culture in the schools that invite us in.

12. Who or what is the greatest source of happiness in your life?

My children

13. Which 3 books would you take to a desert island?

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (Roal Dahl)

Success Intelligence (Robert Holden)

‘Spy Dog’ (by me…and I’d take this book along just to remind myself that I can write books)

14. Who is the happiest person you have ever met and what have you learned from him/her?

In 2005, I interviewed Britain’s happiest man. Not only did he put his happiness down to a conscious choice. He also made that choice after a terrible tragedy when many people would have given up on life. We hear so much about ‘post traumatic stress disorder’. This guy showed that adversity can make you stronger (which is called ‘post traumatic growth’, btw). You don’t have to dwell on bad stuff.

15. When was the last time you experienced an explosion of joy (controlled or otherwise)?

I was driving home from doing a talk. And the night sky was filled with stars. I pulled the car over, got out and gazed at the sky. I can’t never remember seeing so many stars! And that got me thinking that here am I, a flickering dot of life on a tiny rock in the solar system. How cool is that!

16. Can you remember the happiest moment of your life and what made you happy?

Sounds corny, but I reckon the happiest moment of my life was when my wife and newborn daughter came home from hospital. Sophie was premature so things were a bit dicey for a while. Getting my girls home was a huge relief and an immense source of happiness that has lasted 18 years.

17. Have you tried any of the Happiness Experiments? What was your experience?

We’re just recording a series where we experience a range of ‘happiness remedies’ and report back. So watch this space. We’re experimenting with meditation, getting drunk, being grateful, watching a funny film, walking in the countryside, doing random kindness, etc. It’s meant to be light-hearted reporting but with a serious message

18.  Do you have any Happiness Experiments of your own to recommend? 

I tend to give a ‘top tip’ that I found useful when re-training myself to be more positive. Wake up in the morning being really grateful that you haven’t got toothache. Genuinely appreciate it. It works really well on cold, dark winter mornings. Or, on a bigger scale, appreciate that your kidneys are working and your heart’s still beating. And get out of bed like you mean it! (I think this is a twist on the often-quoted ‘attitude of gratitude’)

19.  The aim of The Happiness Experiment blog is to show people ways to live a happier and more meaningful life.  What brings meaning to your life?

For me, meaning comes from having goals that connect with the world. So to continue to grow ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ and to get it embedded in the school curriculum, gives me a very strong sense of purpose and meaning. Because it means more and more young people will get to connect with being their best selves. That means I can’t wait to get out of bed in the morning and I have more energy than I’ve ever had in my life

20. If I were to ask you to think about “a life worth living”? What constitutes a life worth living for you?

One in which I feel loved. And one in which I feel I’m adding some value. I rather like this story from our book…

Posted by Shona Lockhart on 15th May 2013

Happiness Experiment No 13: Dance more

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As children and young adults dance is something that comes naturally to us and it is difficult to imagine a life in which we do not dance and move our bodies to music.  As we grow up we increasingly disconnect our heads from our bodies and dance becomes a less significant activity in our life, apart from the occasional boogie on the dance floor at a cousin’s wedding.  Positive psychology research tells us that getting your groove on can seriously improve your mental and physical health. Dr Peter Lovatt who runs the dance psychology lab at the University of Hertfordshire has pioneered research in to dance and its mood altering possibilities. This School of Life video from the Sunday Sermons series gives you an insight in to his fascinating research.  Watch the video and maybe you will be persuaded to put on your shoes and dance again.

 

 

Posted by Shona Lockhart, 25th April 2013

What can Anna Karenina teach us about happy families?

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“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Leo Tolstoy

Jude Law's looks had to be disguised for the role of Karenin, while his costume was inspired by Tsar Alexander II

Keira Knightley and Jude Law in Anna Karenina

Positive Psychology and the Anna Karenina Principle

Does the Anna Karenina Principle apply to people’s well-being?

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy’s well-known opening to Anna Karenina is thought by some to apply not only to families but also more broadly. It has even given rise to a rule dubbed the Anna Karenina Principle*, which holds that it is possible to fail in many ways but to succeed in only one way, by avoiding each of the routes to failure.

An example was provided by Jared Diamond (1997) in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel. He discussed why so few animal species have been domesticated. Unless an animal is easy to feed, unless it grows rapidly, unless it breeds readily in captivity, unless it has a benign temperament, unless it does not run away when frightened, and unless it has a stable social hierarchy, domestication is not going to happen. Think horses versus zebras.

 

Centuries ago, Aristotle proposed a similar idea in The Nichomachean Ethics: ”For men are good in but one way, but bad in many.”

And much more recently, psychologist Roy Baumeister and his colleagues (2001) concluded that “bad is stronger than good,” meaning that bad emotions, bad parents, and bad feedback have more impact than their good counterparts.

The Anna Karenina Principle implies that what is good is more elusive than what is bad. What is good reflects a perfect storm of contributors, and the absence of only one of these contributors precludes what is positive, desirable, or worthy.

If we apply this principle to the well-being of people, the conclusion is discouraging. Threats abound to happiness and life satisfaction, and only one of these needs to be present to bring us down. In contrast, doing well can only occur in special circumstances.

So, do we have another criticism of positive psychology? Is the scientific study of what makes life worth living the study of the fragile and the fleeting among the fortunate and the few?

I think not. Calling a notion a principle need not make it so. I prefer to regard the Anna Karenina Principle as a hypothesis to be tested. While it may hold in some cases, it likely does not hold in all or indeed most cases. If it did, then the factors that enable happiness (well-being) would – necessarily – be necessary ones, and that flies in the face of what the evidence actually shows. Conversely, the factors that make happiness difficult to attain would – again necessarily – be damaging and insurmountable in all cases. That too flies in the face of what the evidence actually shows.

If positive psychology, not to mention common sense, teaches us anything, it is that all of us are a mixture of strengths and weaknesses. No one has it all, and no one lacks it all, except of course the boys who want to date our teenage daughters. And our daughters would beg to differ.

We know that there are numerous contributors to happiness but that they rarely if ever exist at the same time for the same person. Nevertheless, most people are happy (Diener & Diener, 1996).

We know that Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, and Steven Jobs, among many other well-known folks, all had weaknesses and flaws, yet each lived a life worth living and indeed a life that is widely acclaimed.

We know that most people are resilient. Despite experience with potentially-traumatic events, most do well in their wake (Bonanno, 2004).

And by the way, although this is a topic for another essay, I doubt that the Anna Karenina Principle even applies to families. Happy families exist, as even Tolstoy would acknowledge, but they are wonderfully diverse.

*Thanks to Wikipedia for background on the Anna Karenina Principle.

Article originally published on February 27, 2012 by the late Christopher Peterson, Ph.D. in The Good Life

References

Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5, 323-370.

Bonanno, G. A. (2004). Loss, trauma, and human resilience: Have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events? American Psychologist, 59, 20-28.

Diamond, J. (1997). Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. New York: Norton.

Diener, E., & Diener, C. (1996). Most people are happy. Psychological Science, 7, 181-185.

Anna Karenina – Official Trailer (2012)

Posted by Shona Lockhart, 29th October 2012

 

 

Three cheerful reasons to visit Todmorden

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1000 places to see before you die, Taj Mahal

1000 places to see before you die

Isn’t it funny how you can go through life blissfully unaware of certain places until suddenly a name keeps popping up again and again and you move from a state of complete oblivion to gradual awareness of that place’s charms and then to a sudden overwhelming compulsion to visit that particular destination as soon as you can?  Just six months ago Todmorden would not have been on my list of 1000 places to see before you die, not that I’m planning to die any time soon. Todmorden is not exactly up there with the Grand Canyon, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China or other places which are considered by many to be one of the 7 Wonders of the World. So what has fuelled my sudden desire to visit Todmorden?

Todmorden – a Yorkshire Town

The first reason is a personal one – it’s in Yorkshire and my husband who is from Yorkshire tells me Yorkshire’s hard to beat. The other two reasons stem from my interest in positive psychology as Todmorden has many valuable lessons it can teach us about happiness and the importance of trying out happiness experiments.

Todmorden first crossed my radar earlier this year when I watched the Derren Brown programme on Channel 4 about The Secret of Luck.  Derren Brown had chosen Todmorden as the town in which he aimed to try out a social experiment.  He wanted to see if by planting a rumour about a Lucky Dog statue it was possible to change the lives and fortunes of local residents.

Derren Brown and Professor Richard Wiseman

Derren looked at what makes some people lucky and other people attract only misfortune.  The theories which Derren Brown was testing out in his Todmorden happiness experiment were based on the book The Luck Factor by Professor Richard Wiseman.  In addition to writing The Luck Factor, Richard Wiseman, who holds a professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, has written many books on a range of topics including luck, self-help, illusion and persuasion such as Quirkology, 59 Seconds, Rip it Up and Did you spot the Guerrilla?

 

Richard Wiseman also happens to be a professional magician who frequently performs at the Edinburgh Festival . You can watch one of his magic trick videos below:

The colour changing card trick

As luck would have it, I happened to be reading the book The Luck Factor at the time the Channel 4 programme was being aired as it was on the recommended reading list of the 10 week course in Positive Psychology which I had just completed at City University in London.  The book teaches us how 4 simple principles can transform your luck and you can read more about these in this article.  It is these principles which Derren Brown investigated in his Todmorden experiment and I would urge you to watch his very entertaining and educational programme The Secret of Luck featuring the now famous Luck Dog statue by local artist David Wynne.

The third pressing reason I have for wanting to visit Todmorden is that I recently came across the wonderful community group called Incredible Edible at the Meaning conference in Brighton.  Pamela Warhurst CBE,  was a really inspiring speaker at this conference and received a standing ovation for her wonderful story of how the action of taking small steps to start a  seed swapping project to get the local community growing its own food on unused land just four years ago has now created a community wide organisation. The Incredible Edible initiative, of which Pam is now chair, has become an inspiration for urban regeneration and education projects around the world.  Todmorden has created a toolkit you can download if you would like to make your own town incredible.  The positive spin offs from this small local intiative have been huge and have not only put Todmorden firmly on the map in this country and abroad for its local food growing intitiatives but have also helped to regenerate many local businesses which are now thriving since this campaign started.

The launch of Incredible Edible in France

Watch Pam Warhurst’s inspiring TED talk and have a rethink about the places you want to see before you die.  Everyone needs to create their own personal list but I hope you will agree with me that Todmorden deserves to move up several places in your list.  Enjoy Derren Brown’s Channel 4 programme and Pam’s wonderful TED talk and hopefully you will be inspired to try some happiness experiments Todmorden style.

Pamela Warhurst: how we can eat our landscapes

 

Posted by Shona Lockhart, 16th October 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

See Oliver Burkeman at Action for Happiness event in June

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As part of my experimentation with Positive Psychology I am always keen to go along to events and to listen to new ideas.  I have just booked to attend the next Action For Happiness event with Oliver Burkeman which is detailed below.  There are still tickets available so do join me.

If you would like a sneak preview of Oliver Burkeman take a look at this video of his RSA talk  on “How to become slightly happier” which was the topic of his previous book.

I look forward to seeing you at the event.

 

 

 

 

ACTION FOR HAPPINESS PRESENTS…

The Antidote with Oliver Burkeman

Join us for a unique and thought-provoking evening as author and columnist Oliver Burkeman brings his refreshing perspective on how to lead a happy life without the need for constant positive thinking.

Oliver will share the insights from his new book The Antidote, which explains why embracing the negative aspects of life may in fact be essential for our happiness. It’s a fascinating and counter-intuitive message that turns self-help advice on its head and forces us to rethink our attitudes towards failure, uncertainty and death.

About Oliver Burkeman

Oliver writes This Column Will Change Your Life in The Guardian, where he regularly investigates social psychology, self-help culture and the science of happiness. His new book The Antidote will be in the shops from 21 June, but exclusive advance copies will be available at this event.

His previous book HELP!: How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done is a witty and thought-provoking exploration of the world of self-help books, which aims to sort out the good ideas from the terrible ones.

 

  • “On practically every page, Oliver Burkeman manages to be both hilarious and thought-provoking – a combination sure to make any reader very happy.” — Gretchen Rubin, author, The Happiness Project
  • “Addictive, wise and very funny. Burkeman never takes himself too seriously, but the rest of us should.” — Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist
  • “Burkeman proves an excellent guide, separating all the schmaltzy hokum on achieving inner bliss on your lunch break from the modest, but genuinely enlightening research on human happiness” — The Big Issue

Location and Timings

This event will take place at Conway Hall in central London on Thursday 14 June 2012. Doors will open at 18:45 and the event will start at 19:00.

 

Tickets

This event is raising funds to support the work of Action for Happiness. We want to make it accessible to as many people as possible, so rather than charging a fixed fee we’re instead asking you to make a donation. It would be great if you could donate£15, but if you can spare more, or feel unable to give that much, then please give what you feel is appropriate.

All funds raised (beyond the costs of putting on the event) will contribute directly to Action for Happiness’ work relating to growing the movement, enabling local action groups and supporting activities relating to happiness and well-being in schools. Action for Happiness is part of the Young Foundation, which is a Registered Charity (274345) in England and Wales.

Any questions about the event please contact events@actionforhappiness.org.

We look forward to seeing you there!

 

Posted by Shona Lockhart, 31st May 2012

 

 

 

 

 

Who is happiest the introvert or the extrovert?

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I am currently reading a very interesting book by Susan Cain called “Quiet” which eloquently argues the case for the introvert. We live in a society in which extroverts are portrayed as some sort of ideal which we should all somehow strive to become.  A celebrity-focused culture gives little legitimacy to the introvert whose quiet but successful endeavours can go unnoticed amidst the noise and heat surrounding the extrovert.  This well-argued review of Susan Cain’s book, by positive psychologist Dr Christopher Petersen, illustrates that we do not need to be extrovert to be happy.  In fact striving to be an extrovert if this goes against one’s own nature can be the cause of great unhappiness. Read this excellent article from Pysychology Today magazine and watch Susan Cain’s Ted talk in which she tells her own story of an introvert who was forced to become an extrovert to succeed.

“If I could I would always work in silence and obscurity, and let my efforts be known by their results.” Emily Bronte

A Quiet Positive Psychology

A quiet positive psychology would be a scientifically reasonable one.
Published on May 25, 2012 by Christopher Peterson, Ph.D. in The Good Life


I just finished reading a terrific book written by Susan Cain (2012), who also writes blog entries for Psychology Today. Her book Quiet is a best-seller, deservedly so, and many of you readers are no doubt familiar with its content. Her focus is on the 1/3 to 1/2 of all people who are introverted. Introversion is not to be confused with shyness. Rather, the introverted person is reflective and thoughtful and often prefers to be alone and to work alone. Too much social interaction leaves the introvert depleted and overwhelmed. Introverts have friends and social skills, just in different ways than their extroverted counterparts.

 Introverts also have a bad reputation, at least in the modern Western World, and Cain argues that in such domains as business, school, and even religion, extroversion is idealized. That said, introverts have many virtues, and some of the world’s most important accomplishments have been made by introverted individuals.

I will not repeat her further arguments here — see her book or her blog entries — but I will observe that she is a very good writer and a very good thinker. And by her own report, she is an introvert, proof positive of her book’s thesis.

Rather, the point of this essay is to consider positive psychology vis-à-vis the ideas put forth so powerfully in Quiet. What Cain calls the Extroverted Ideal is not explicit in positive psychology’s vision of the good life, but it often lurks there.

When positive psychologists focus on positive emotions, we privilege activated feelings like happiness and shoulder aside more quiet feelings like contentment. When positive psychologists — like me in particular — proclaim that “other people matter,” it is easy to hear this slogan as implying that the most meaningful life is one abuzz nonstop with lots of other folks. When positive psychologists discuss achievement, we point to the role played by teams and workgroups, never mind the fact that many accomplishments result from long hours of solitary work.

Positive psychology holds that the good life can take different forms, and we should take this pronouncement seriously. There is a noisy and extroverted view of what it means to live well, but there is also a quiet and introverted view. Both deserve our scientific attention. One size does not fit all, and introverts should not be measured against extroverts (or vice versa, although no one seems to be doing much of that these days).

My apologies to all who invite me, but I dislike positive psychology conferences, at least after the first day, because they are attended by people who seem extremely extroverted: happy and humorous, boisterous and bouncy, hugging strangers and hollering out to any and all. My persona is that of an extrovert, but that is just a way of behaving that I have adopted over the years in my roles as a teacher and a speaker**. Deep down, at the level of my nervous system if not my overt actions, I am an introvert.

So too are many if not most of the leaders in the field of positive psychology, which of course is ironic. Perhaps when positive psychology began, its earliest proponents were careful not to prescribe their own personality styles as a way to lead a good life. This is regrettable, in retrospect, because a quiet positive psychology would not only be an appealing complement to the noisy one that exists but also a scientifically reasonable one. So, the character strength of curiosity can be shown in a loudly inquisitive way (“I am always asking other people questions”) or in a quietly observant way (“I am always sitting on the sidelines and paying attention to what is happening”). Mixing these together obscures what are likely important differences in what it means to be curious.

Thoughtfully, I call for a quiet positive psychology.

* I will follow the lead of Quiet and use extroversion rather than extraversion to describe people who are outgoing, gregarious, and energized by social encounters.

** When I first began my career as a teacher, I was absolutely terrible … way too abstract and way too serious. So, I studied — and I really mean studied — joke books as well as the common culture to create skills at glibness, meaning humor and small talk. I even subscribed to The National Enquirer and deducted the cost on my federal tax form as an unreimbursed business expense. I became to all outward appearances a funny guy and a chatty guy, and there were professional and even some personal benefits to doing so. But I remained an introvert, and I thank Susan Cain for reminding me that the person I really am is as okay as the person I appear to be.

Reference

Cain, S. (2012). Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking.New York: Crown.

Article published in Psychology Today, 25th May 2012

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Susan Cain TED talk – The Power of Introverts

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