Top Strengths Of Happy People ... And How?

TOP STRENGTHS OF HAPPY PEOPLE

AND HOW?

Mental health and positive psychology.

Not only do I love it, but it has changed my life.

Positive psychology is a fast moving field becoming more researched, evidence based and infiltrating into education and the corporate world. 

I have always had a need to know more about positive psychology and to learn more that I can apply. I wanted to learn from the research and apply. Fortunately there has been an explosion in the area of positive psychology since 2005.

My journey has changed me as a woman, wife, mother friend and teacher.

I believe you do need to be careful who you listen to and what you read. There is a lot of material out there.

What we do know is that people who expose themselves to this work fundamentally change.

It forces you to sit back and take a look at your life, ways you’re living, and causes you to say.

Do I have four friends?

Am I living to my highest?

Do I set goals?

Do I have the right relationships?

We know the happiest people tend to set goals and have the best relationships with other people.

That’s what happened to me.

I began to sit back and look at my life on two different levels.

Checking the quality of my own life and wellbeing.

Did I have the ingredients to authentic happiness, pleasure in my life, meaningful, in the right proportions? Was one thing at the expense of another?

I wanted to be able transfer this to my clients. To give away these tools, teach people how to use the best of them.

I wanted to put together the right ingredients. Goal setting and tools to overcome difficult experiences.

The focus has been on studying what’s wrong with people for a long time.

When the focus changed to the study of ‘What’s right with people’ and ‘How to make life better’, I became addicted.

The TOP Strengths of Happy People 

1. LOVE– the ability to love all humans and be loved. To accept love and extend love to all and everything.

2. HOPE – optimism, future, mindfulness

3. ZEST (natural energy) – children are high in this. By the age of 40 it is one of our bottom 5 strengths.

4. CURIOSITY –treat the world like one big school of learning everyday.

5. GRATITUDE

HAPPY PEOPLE FLOURISH with PERMA   

(from Martin Seligman’s theoretical model of happiness)

P Positive Emotions/feelings with a ratio of 5 positive feelings to 1 negative feeling.

E Engagement in life. They use their strengths to reach their goals. They experience FLOW. 

R Relationships. They have at least 4 friends. This gets less in our culture as we age. It is our ability to love and be loved.

M Meaningful Life. This does not mean life is always pleasant but in helping others it is enriched. E.g. helping others in trauma. Making a difference. Having a purpose.

A Achievement. Pursue goals important to you. Not necessarily materialistic.

HOW? TO FLOURISH AND BE HAPPY

1. GRATITIDE – 

The 3 Blessing exercise. 

End each day, say or write 3 great things that happened. 

Why did that happen? 

Repeat for 30 days. 

To create new neural pathways and Habit.

2. JOURNALING – Thought down load/brain dump

Spend 5 minutes each morning or night before bed writing everything in your head.

This improves the immune system and helps to make meaning by cleaning out the mind.

3. Forgiveness

This does not condone others poor behaviours or actions. It merely means you letting go. 

I recommend Loving Kindness Meditation.

4. MEDITATIONS – SIVER BULLET OF POSITIVE THINKING

This doesn’t do any harm. It seems to do nothing but good by creating relaxation response in our body rather than stress response. This allows the body to be in its self-healing state.

Good meditation changes the state of the brain.

5. EXERCISE – 

There is so much research to the benefits of exercise.

It makes us feel better.

I love to get up at 5.15am and swim or run. This gives me energy for the day. Some people love the ‘tipping point’, and the push that activates. Like interval training.

6. ALTURISM –

Giving to others. Energy, time, money. Be there for others. Random acts of kindness.

STRENGTHS SURVEY

You can take the VIA STRENGTHS SURVEY to find out your own strengths 

viacharacter.org

Simply taking the test makes you feel better.

Write down your top 5 on a card and ask ‘HOW CAN I USE THEM TO ENGAGE MORE …’ at work, as a parent, friend, sister, brother, leader?