Positive Psychology

I'M SORRY I'M OBSESSED WITH MY MAJOR. So. Just had to get that out there because I feel like I'll be talking about it a lot for the rest of my life. It will be my life.

There's this thing called positive psychology. The premise is that through the history of psychology, all that has been studied is disorders and how to alleviate symptoms or erase them all together through therapies, medications, etc. But what about those times where you're just living life and you wouldn't really classify yourself as having a mental disorder at the moment?

There's this guy, Martin Seligman, along with a few other psychologists that have been spearheading this question of "What causes authentic happiness? How can we make it grow?" According to lots of studies, happiness is 50% genetic, or your set range, 10% circumstantial, and 40% variable by choice. Therefore, some people are naturally more capable of being happy than others, that circumstances like having a constant love interest or a nice house will make you happy only for awhile, and that we actually have a choice of how happy we are. That's cool. I'll probs use those last few sentences in a paper sometime. I dunno.

So that's the basis. And there's this book that we are reading in one of my classes called Authentic Happiness by Seligman and he talks about how we can change our positive affectivity for the better by realizing our strengths--not to focus on our weaknesses, ever. Because your strengths will crowd out your weaknesses. Which is true! And I totally recommend taking the strengths test on the site. It's a definite eye-opener.

Remember Brene Brown and courage? When we see the beauty in ourselves and live whole-heartedly because we're not ashamed of who we are, then we are SO happy. So many different studies have proved this. Think about those people you know who are always down on themselves and don't love who they are...do you think they are happy? Is it easier or harder to go outside of themselves? You tell me.

My first day we had to read a couple chapters in Authentic Happiness and I could not STOP marking it up. I loved it so much. There are so many little gems of wisdom. Ready? OKAY LET'S GO.

"We all contain ancient strengths inside of us that we may not know about until we are truly challenged."

"Authentic happiness derives from raising the bar for yourself, not rating yourself against others."

"When we are happy, we are less self-focused, we like others more, and we want to share our good fortune even with strangers."

"The highest joys, it turns out, sometimes follow relief form our worst fears."

"Religions instill hope for the future and create meaning in life."

"Building strength and virtue is not about learning, training or conditioning, but about discovery, creation, and ownership."

Just read the dang book. There's sooo much more that I can't possibly quote because I'd just have to type the whole book. AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FO' THAT!

Good evening and good night!