Job Crafting

Why? When was the last time you felt like this at work? Unfortunately many of us feel our job isn’t as interesting or worthwhile as it could be. The practice of ‘job crafting’ helps to make our work more fulfilling and engaging. It encourages us to highlight aspects of our job that fit well with […]

The Lighter Side of Life

Humour is known to lift the mood, enhance connection between people and increase feelings of positive emotion. While it can include more obvious things like telling jokes and making others laugh, it also involves being able to look for the fun in everyday events and not taking yourself, or others, too seriously. Some people are […]

Optimism

This picture is often used to start a discussion. Is the glass half empty or half full? Is it both? What’s your gut tell you and does this really reveal anything about your personality? Optimism You might know someone (or be someone) who people often notice for their positive take on situations. When something goes […]

Meaning and Purpose

Eudaimonic Well-Being Last time we explored hedonia – one of the pathways to happiness/well-being. Now to look at the second pathway, eudaimonia, in more detail. Eudaimonia: has roots in the Ancient Greek words ‘eu’ meaning good and ‘daimon’ meaning power, fate, lesser deity or guiding spirit. A brief review; eudaimonic well-being comes from actions which […]

Pleasure

HAPPINESS Happiness is often thought of and talked about as if it’s an end goal, something that we’re pursuing and hoping to find or eventually achieve. Once we have it, the hope is it’ll remain for good. Of course, life experience tells us otherwise. Happiness comes and goes and the things that create it at […]

Pathways to Well-being

Subjective Well-Being (SWB) In the last post about well-being, we saw that the terms ‘happiness’ and ‘well-being’ are often used interchangeably to describe feelings such as joy, contentment and a sense that life is meaningful within positive psychology. What generates these feelings in our lives is unique to us. SWB = satisfaction with life + […]

Positive Psychology

A little background… Positive psychology was brought to the forefront when Martin Seligman used the term ‘positive psychology’ in his inaugural speech as President of the American Psychological Association in 1999. This set out the perceived need for a change of focus due to the belief that psychology was over-focused on healing mental illness and […]