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