Positive Psychology: Positive Cognitive States and Processes

Fixed vs Growth Mindset:

  • Fixed Mindset: intelligence is ^^static^^
    • Leads to a desire to look smart
  • Growth Mindset: intelligence ^^can be developed^^
    • Leads to a desire to learn
  • Tyranny of Now: cheat on a test, run from difficulty, find someone who has it worse
  • Discover the Power of Yet
    • ^^Process^^ the error by learning deeply from it
  • ^^Reward the use of effort, strategy and process^^ instead of results alone
  • Every time students are pushed out of their comfort zones, neurons form stronger connections that can make one smarter, wiser.
  • Basic human abilities can be cultivated and nurtured.

Mindfulness, Flow, and Spirituality: In Search of Optimal Experiences

  • Life Pursuits
    • Intentional, moment-to-moment searches for optimal experiences give us joy and fulfillment.
    • Mindless pursuit of less than meaningful goals or unchallenging ones leaves people bored and empty.
  • Many walk through life unaware of the significance of our lives and its relation to our experiences and emotional selves.
  • Daniel Kahnenman
    • There are about 20,000 moments in 3 seconds in a 16-hour day, so this is what life consists of a sequence of moments. 
    • Each moment is very rich in experience. There is a goal, a mental content, a physical state and even an emotional arousal.
    • Many things are happening.
    • And then you can ask, “What happens to these moments?”
  • Mindfulness
    • State of active, open attention to the present. This state is described as observing one’s thoughts and feelings without judgment.
    • Awareness + Acceptance
    • Flexible state of mind
    • Here and now
    • Context and perspective
    • Active search for novelty > mindlessness involves zoning out to everyday life.
  • This requires us to
    • Overcome mind wandering to reduce uncertainty in everyday life
    • Override the tendency to engage in automatic behavior
    • Engage less frequently in evaluations of self, others and situations.
  • Openness to novelty and sensitivity to context and perspective. 
  • Cultivating awareness of everyday happenings and physiological and psychological sensations.
  • Qualities
    • Non judging
    • Non striving
    • Acceptance
    • Patience
    • Trust 
    • Openness
    • Letting go
    • Gentleness
    • Generosity
    • Empathy
    • Gratitude
    • Loving
    • Kindness
  • Living with Mindfulness
    • Being mindful of emotions
    • Being mindful of eating
    • Mindful stretching exercises
    • Mindful breathing and sitting
  • Benefits of Mindfulness
    • Successful treatment of chronic pain and anxiety
    • Stress-reduction
    • Affiliative trust towards others (mindful parenting)
    • Change in perspectives and outlook
    • Increased cultural sensitivity
  • Mindful Brain and Rejection
    • Part of the human experience is being rejected
    • Mindful individuals report less distress during reaction because they don’t attempt to suppress the experience in the first place
    • Mindfully accepting, rather than suppressing goes a long way towards healing from social injuries.

 

 

Flow and Mindfulness

  • Mindfulness and flow involve deep concentration, flow involves goal-directed behavior

  • Mindfulness channels concentration toward the present moment, flow channels concentration toward skill and goal achievement which includes past and future and assessment of these thoughts

  • Flow

    • A person can make himself happy or miserable, regardless of what is actually happening outside just by changing the content of consciousness
    • State which a person involved perceived that nothing else matters
    • ^^Intense concentration^^, no attention for problems or anything else
    • Where one loses oneself in the process, time gets distorted 
    • ^^“Can do” attitude^^
    • Happiness is something that individuals can conjure themselves
    • Happiness was a function of our degree of engagement with whatever we choose to do
    • Start doing more of what you love
    • ^^Optimal state of engagement^^ 
    • A person perceives challenges to action as neither underutilizing nor overwhelming his or her existing skills.
    • Has clear attainable goals and immediate feedback about progress

  • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

    • Intrigued by the stories about artists who “^^lost themselves in their work^^”
    • Similar activities that causes this single-mindedness state
    • State of “full-capacity” living that is believed to be directly linked to optimal development and functioning.

  • Finding your Flow

    • Why do people pursue particular goals with great fervor in the absence of rewards?
    • Conditions of flow appear remarkably similar across work settings, play settings and cultures, which include:
    • Perceived challenges and opportunities for actions that stretch
    • Clear proximal goals and immediate feedback about progress.

  • What happens during flow?

    • Intense and focused concentration on what one is doing at the present moment
    • Merging of action and happiness
    • Loss of reflective self-consciousness
    • A sense that one can control one’s actions.
    • Time has passed faster than normal
    • Experience that activity as intrinsically rewarding, end goal just an excuse for the process.

  • Benefits of Flow

    • Mastery of skills
    • Flow in workspaces
    • Optimal experiences
    • Flow influencing the environment and the individual
    • Work becomes “serious play”

  • Autotelic Personality

    • Cluster of traits exhibited by a person who enjoys life and generally does things for his/her own sake rather than in order to achieve something later.

  • Concept of Flow

    • Optimal experiences and its role in development
    • Focus, attention and the self
    • Flow, complexity and development
    • Measuring Flow and Autotelic Personality
    • Consequences of Flow
    • Nature and Dynamics of Flow 
    • Obstacles and Facilitators of Flow 
    • Autotelic Families
    • Interventions and Programs to Foster Flow

Spirituality: In Search of the Sacred

  • Thoughts, feelings and behaviors that fuel and arise from the search for the Sacred.
  • Spiritual strivings, which include personal goals associated with the ultimate concerns of purpose, ethics and recognition of the transcendent.
  • Although specific content of spiritual beliefs varies, all cultures have a concept of an ultimate, transcendent, sacred and divine force.
  • Belief in God
  • Value of Prayer
  • Religion 
  • Aid in human functioning
    • Mental health 
    • Marriage and Family Life
    • Stress and Grief