Modern Day Positive Psychology - Research Paper Example

Modern Day Positive Psychology Abstract Every human being in the world strives towards achieving happiness in life. As we know, happy people are very healthy people to interact with. Martin Seligman is the founding father of positive psychology. Using questionnaires, he found out that most satisfied people are very happy people. He also discovered that happy people are optimistic and have the ability to have better, loner, and successful lives. In his quest for achieving happiness as a way of preventing depression, or treating already depressed individual, he argued that there are three pillars or paths as some may call them, to achieving happiness; these are pleasant life, good life and meaningful life. In this paper, we shall deal with one of the pillar, which is the pillar of pleasant life. We are going to learn some best ways we can make our selves happy, by achieving the positive emotions such as pleasure, comfort and warmth among others. Keywords: Pleasant life, Positive Psychology, Ideal Day Introduction The roots of modern day positive psychology began from the work of Martin Seligman, who was optimistic in his efforts to understand depression from a positive way. Having had enough experience in the field of psychology, Martin Seligman declared that psychology was not just the study of weaknesses and damage, but it would also study strengths and virtues and as a result, help in preventing and treating depression patients. Also he said that treatment was not just fixing what was already broken; but was also to be used to nurture what’s best within ourselves (“Strengths-Based Clinical Supervision Primer,” n.d.) Positive psychology therefore looks at what goes right in life. There are three basic positive psychology pillars and they are also the components of happiness as stated by Martin Seligman (Ward, 2006). These are the pleasant life, the good life and meaningful life. He goes further to say that a human being is said to have a complete or full life, when he or she experiences the three pillars. This paper focuses on the pillar of pleasant life The pleasant life is achieved by positive emotions like pleasure, rapture, warmth, and comfort among other such emotions that is; learning to appreciate such basic pleasures as companionship, the natural environment, and our bodily needs. Thus the pleasant life entails subjective well being (positive emotions and mood). Good life is achieved when one is able to discover his or her unique virtues and strengths and employ them creatively to enhance life, such as technology (Pursuit for happiness, 2013). Research has shown that we can obtain more pleasure from routines of daily life and this is by training ourselves to notice, reflect, and appreciate simple things. This kind of psychology increases the factors associated with happiness and authentic life. Activity My Ideal day is on Saturday, since when I get to relax after along week full of hustles of life. For me, every Saturday is very convenient because I am able to do a number of things apart from school work. Additionally, I like spending time with friends and family and this is on possible on Saturdays. This day is ideal for me as I usually get time to interact with family and friends, to catch up on the latest events happening in my life and the lives of others around me. Partly, my Saturdays are spent watching movies with family and friends and this gives us time to bond more and more. Live your ideal day Every Saturday, I wake up at around eight in the morning, which is unlike the other days when am going to school. I take my breakfast, which is normally heavier than usual, because I have time to cook what I want unlike during school days. After having my breakfast, I usually embark on doing a general cleaning around my house, as am not able to perform any significant chores during the course of the week. When am done with the house chores, my clothes are usually the next project. I clean them and make sure they are ready for the week ahead. When am done with all my house work and my clothes are clean, I take a shower, then invite my friends over for us to chat and have lunch that we prepare together; this becomes the most favorite part of my ideal day. As we have seen earlier, positive emotions such as pleasure and comfort are the ones that contribute to us having a pleasant life, as we gear towards achieving happiness; that is, the full life. In the evening when my friends are going home, I usually pack and go home to my parents and siblings, to spend the rest of the weekend with them. At home, we cook dinner together as a family, sharing all chores. When dinner is ready, the table is set we eat the dinner as a family. After dinner, we have the tradition of playing together, especially me and my siblings, then watching movies together until midnight, where we all retire to bed. His is how I spend my ideal day, which is what brings happiness to me. This is because each encounter with family and friends assures me that am loved and treasured. I am usually exited on Fridays, as I look forward to the weekend and meeting my friends, and sometimes, going home to visit my family. I long for this day to come every week and incase I get held up with schoolwork on Fridays, I prefer doing the work overnight to create time for family and friends the next day. I also tend to be overwhelmed on Fridays, because unless things crop up, I always know I will definitely see my friends and get time to visit my family. The fact that I usually know that I am going to see the people who matter a lot in my life helps in creation of positive emotions within me. Consequently, I am able to achieve a pleasant life, which is a pillar of happiness. According to positive psychology, creation of positive emotions is very important, because it helps people realize that there are many ways they can increase happiness, and counteract mild to moderate depression, which is really affecting many people today. Essentially, it works by re-focusing our attention to look for what is good in life, rather than what is negative. It has been realized that we can deal with cases of depression by looking at our strengths and virtues. It does not necessary mean that we should aim to treat those who are already experiencing depression, rather, we should focus on how to prevent depression from taking place. This is usually enhanced by helping people realize that there are many things that they should be grateful and thankful for, because this contributes to their happiness. Reference List Strengths-Based Clinical Supervision Primer: From the Roots of Psychology. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2013, from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/47677_ch_5.pdf. The Pursuit of happiness: Bringing the Science of Happiness to life (2013). Retrieved November 10, 2013, from http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/martin-seligman/. Ward, S. (2006). Understanding Concepts for Working with Children and Young People. Retrieved November 10, 2013, from http://www.ycni.org/downloads/misc/Understanding_Concepts.pdf. Read More