Positive Psychology - a Well Lived Life

Happiness is an essential goal for most people. From books and expensive classes that teach people how to achieve happiness to the fundamental right of “the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence, the importance of happiness is evident in society. This causes the rise to two fundamental questions: “How does one attain happiness?” and “,How does happiness create a meaningful life?” Both happiness and living a meaningful life are achieved simultaneously. The search for happiness and the factors that make it brings meaning to life. Happiness can stem from several factors such as wisdom and knowledge, savoring life and its experiences, and even suffering and pain. Analyzing these factors brings meaning to one’s life.

“Happiness is in the enjoyment of man’s chief good. Two conditions of the chief good: 1st, Nothing is better than it; 2nd, it cannot be lost against the will” (Augustine 264-267). As human

In “Happiness 101,” Harvard professor Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar presents his ideas pertaining to the achievability of happiness. He begins by discussing how individuals must give themselves permission to be human, so that they can feel the negative feelings before they reach the positive feelings. If negative feelings are held back without release, then they only intensify eventually blocking out the positive feelings. Ben-Shahar continues his presentation to the topic of managing stress on the micro, mezza, and macro levels. These levels include the ideas of meditation, sleep, taking time off, vacations, and the “three deep breaths.” Simplifying agendas and practicing quality over quantity has a positive effect on stress levels as well. At the conclusion of his presentation, Ben-Shahar discusses the positive effect of practicing gratitude on health, happiness, and well-being. After listening to Tal Ben-Shahar’s presentation, I completely agree with every point that Ben-Shahar uses over the topics of giving permission to be human, stress management, and practicing gratitude covered throughout his presentation over happiness.

In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Happiness is when you want to think what you think what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Describing happiness can seem as ambiguous as accomplishing and achieving it. Without help, we as different individuals all have the same want---- happiness. However, the satisfaction in life can not be defined through just one definition or study. The concept of happiness and it’s sources have been defined through religious, psychological and abstract ground. People in general are happier when they are around a set of people that uplifts them, because psychologically their happiness is affected by their environment.

If you would like to live a happy and more so, successful life, it is vital that you learn to express gratitude wherever you go. In order to reach where you would like to be in life, everyone should concentrate on their goals and objectives. Through expressing gratitude, people can learn to show good deeds, and hence be able to receive the same goodness, in return. (Radwan, Msc.) Gratitude refers to the act of being thankful, noticing simple pleasures, counting every little blessing, and acknowledging every good done unto you. In other terms, it can be described as living life as if everything happening in it is a miracle, and being able to continuously acknowledge every much you receive. On the other hand, when people decide to concentrate a lot of energy on bad things in life, it will make them remain in the state of conflict. But by developing gratitude, it will allow someone to focus on positivity and the good things in life. It must be understood that this will allow an individual to always remain optimistic, and with enthusiasm much success can be achieved.

I have chosen the GQ-6 Gratitude Survey to measure the natural likelihood to experience gratitude. Gratitude has links with spirituality and grateful people tend to be more spiritually inclined (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002). As a spiritual individual and a practicing Christian with a true belief in God, I aim to cultivate gratitude to improve the symptoms of my depression and strengthen my faith. Constructed by McCullough, et. al., (2002) to investigate the grateful disposition and assess gratitude among 238 undergraduate psychology students: the GQ-6 has an internal consistency reliability with alphas between .82 and .87 and evidence of relating positively to optimism, life satisfaction, hope, spirituality and religiousness, forgiveness,

I might have used a little Positive Therapy in the sense that when a person feels anxious, the anxiety almost makes the individual notice an important moment and that will give the client a chance to act properly. For example, if a professor is about to begin teaching a class on theories it would be understandable if that professor was slightly anxious. Since, the professor is going to influence future counselors who will in the future go in to the workforce and begin to treat clients.

Studies have shown the effects of social relations on psychological wellbeing, where high quality relationships between individuals decrease the negative effects of mental disorders like anxiety and depression, and increase longevity. In reducing anxiety and depression, cardiovascular health is increased and the chances of risky coping behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and suicide are decreased. Typically, it is found that women form these higher quality relationships more frequently than men. Higher female survivorship could also be the result of more proactive behaviors for preventive treatment for mental and physical health issues, where early detection and treatment can prevent illnesses from becoming fatal. In general, increased tobacco

According to Heffernan and Boniwell (2011) gratitude promotes the savouring of positive events and may counteract hedonic adaptation. Heffernan and Boniwell (2011) continue to mention that when people count their blessing once a week there is an increase in well-being. Gratitude has been shown to contribute to not only an increase in positive affect and other desirable life outcomes but also to a decrease in negative affect and problematic functioning as demonstrated in diverse samples such as among patients with neuromuscular disease, college students, hypersensitives, and early adolescents (Emmons & McCullough, 2003; Froh, Sefick, & Emmon, 2008; Shipon, 2007). McCullough et al. (2001) showed that grateful individuals were especially appreciative of the contribution of others to their happiness. However, it is thought that when people count their blessings more than three times a week the exercise becomes a chore and loses meaning. Therefore, implementation of the gratitude intervention is highly important for its fruition. According to Robert A. Emmons and Anjali Mishra gratitude motivates moral behaviour, enhance the ability to access positive memories, builds social resources, increases self-esteem and reduces materialistic

“Be content with what you have. Rejoice in how things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” (Lao Tzu). After eight weeks of learning about the fundamental concepts of psychology in Psychology 150, I have begun to think about the different perspectives of everyone’s actions and opinions and have become less judgmental of others. People are who they are, and I appreciate that value. Learning about different psychological concepts led me to give other people a chance to express their personality and opinion instead of judging by their physical appearance. The course has taught me to stay positive during difficult situations and every obstacle will be a lesson to develop in the future. The concepts I learned sparked many lights in my

Researchers theorize the use of positive psychology in the treatment of cancer patients can diminish or eliminate depression. Researchers determined a structured positive psychotherapy program, designed to address the psychological challenges that cancer patients traverse. Breast cancer patients are taxed with medical, physical, emotional, and psychological stresses, that consume their lives. The natural instinct to survive allows patients to override the emotional and psychological fallout of the disease and focus on the eliminating the physical attack of the cancer, with medical interventions. This time proves to be chaotic, overwhelming and stressful; with patients inundated with fear, medical jargon, choices,

In a research done by Casaundra and Michael (2014), it was proposed that the happiness level of an individual increases when he practice gratitude. Total participants recruited for this study were 164 undergraduates from a large Midwestern university. The scales used for this research were Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999) and Gratitude questionnaire-6 (GQ-6) (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002). An ANOVA test was done which showed significant results among both scales (F (2, 159)=15.75, p<0.01). The author has suggested form his research that exercising gratitude can effectively enhance happiness (Harbaugh & Vasey,

Watkins (2004) has also suggested a list of reasons to explain how gratitude may affect subjective wellbeing. First, he has suggested that observing positive occasions as a present or gift may enhance well-being. Second, gratitude might respond as an adjustment or adaptation towards satisfaction that usually happen as a person’s usual reaction (Frijda, 1988). Third, the practice of gratitude may work as a coping strategy in conditions of hardship by giving a helpful viewpoint on life that helps in changing mood in a stressful event. Fourth, gratitude may enhance the availability and remembrance of pleasing life events. Fifth, gratitude may improve the real number of benefits in a person’s life, specifically social benefits. Finally, Watkins

Happiness is the fundamental objective of life. This bold statement is unanimously agreed upon among generations of people on every corner of our planet. However, the real question that has been contested for centuries is the true meaning of happiness? The true meaning of happiness is one of the most highly debated philosophy topics in history. Most famous are the writings of Aristotle and John Stuart Mill who both paint very opposing pictures of happiness. Mill believes happiness is obtained through pleasure and the absence of pain. On the other hand, Aristotle insist happiness is obtained through living a fulfilling, virtuous life. This passage will examine Aristotle 's and Mill 's views on happiness as well as give an opinion one which philosophical theory is most convincing.

It is common sense that all the human beings would like to live a happy life and they will spare no efforts in order to realize the purpose of really living a happy life in the end. However, different people have different definitions toward what a happy life is and they tend to have different standards as for how a life is that can be regarded as a happy life. There is no doubt that people will then try different means in order to pursue a happy life based on their definition toward what a happy life is. Therefore, the following will talk about the pursuit of a happy life from the perspectives of both Dalai Lama in The Art of Happiness and Viktor E. Frankl in Man’s Searching for Meaning, during which the experiences of some characters from the film Forrest Gump will be applied as evidence. Generally speaking, the pursuit of a happy life in the minds of Dalai Lama and Viktor E. Frankl can be achieved via experiencing sufferings and adversity. It is hoped that this analysis can help people understand what a happy is from a different point of view.