Launched in the 90s, this current of research has revolutionized psychology. The goal of positive psychology is not to cure mental illness but to find ways to make people happy.
The positive psychology is a current of scientific research that dates back to the end of the 1990s. It was initiated by a handful of American psychologists, including Martin Seligmanpsychology researcher at the University of Pennsylvania and president of the prestigious American Psychological Association.
Positive psychology does not treat disease
Seligman started from a simple observation: psychology has always been interested in mental illnesses and the means of understanding them and especially of treating them.
But isn’t it just as important to be interested in people’s well-being and development? How can we ensure that we do not treat them once they are sick, but improve their daily health and well-being?
Everyone can train their mind to focus not on the difficulties of life but on the pleasant and rewarding things. The central role is to help everyone find this balance towards the positive.
” It’s no longer about helping people go from -5 to 0 on the satisfaction scale, but about enabling everyone to go from 0 to +5 ! “, defined David Servan-Schreiber, psychiatrist, in 2005.
The events that we are living through have ultimately onlya relative influence on our happinesswhether it’s a romantic encounter, a salary increase or the purchase of a car…
After a moment of intense joy and personal satisfaction, these elements become our “new normal”. Once fulfilled, our desires give way to new desires. and new frustrations. This mechanism is a powerful driving force in our consumer society.
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This is why we must realize little joys of everyday life which are so many booster shots to maintain well-being at a high level…
The Science of Wellness
Positive psychology is revolutionary in that it is concerned with what makes people happy. Its objective is to answer some essential questions such as:
- What is happiness ?
- How can we be happy?
- What are the factors that really contribute to happiness?
- How to increase your level of happiness?
Positive psychology offers “strategies” for happiness, validated by scientific studies, according to the law of probability: we know, for example, that expressing gratitude daily or offering oneself one enjoyable activity per day makes you happier.
It is not a therapy in itself. This discipline is primarily aimed at those who are not initially desperate or depressedbut who expect more from their existence.
positive psychology exercises
Positive psychology then offers them actions to perform and behaviors to develop to increase their sense of well-being. Its objectives are, for example, to develop the capacity to love and be loved, to give meaning to one’s actions, to be responsible for what we can change, to be resilient in the face of what we cannot avoid. .
In practice, the various research carried out in positive psychology have made it possible to determine a few exercises that can be easily done by everyone to access this state of well-being.
The best known of them is the gratitude journal which consists of writing in a notebook, in the evening or at least once a week, the most positive events that you have experienced during your day.
Read also:
Positive psychology: get closer to happiness…
Seeing the glass half full, can you learn that?
10 tips from science to be happy
Mindfulness meditation: 4 tips for success
6 keys to exercising your gratitude
Scientific studies show that after only six weeks, satisfaction and well-being are developed. The brain is then trained to identify the positive, and no longer to focus on the difficulties of life. An obviously essential step to increase your quality of life and well-being and get closer to what we define as happiness!
