The Power of Positive Psychology
Wow... I'm just out of control excited that you're here. If you're listening to me, you are at the right place, at the right time, and you have pressed on the right link, cause I'm about to shift your personal paradigm, and as a result provide you with some totally legit skills and reasons that will help you to do, and be happier. First of all, I just dropped a million dollar word your way... paradigm... your paradigm is just the way you look at something, its your way of thinking about something, and today I'm about to give you a better and more sophisticated way of thinking about happiness.
But as always, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you about positive psychology, but before I do, i'll just give you a completely fascinating and brief history of psych. All you really need to know is that psychology has for the longest time focused on the problems of humanity. How depressed we are... how anxious we are... how traumatized we are... how crappy we are at communicating... how we deal with hopelessness, loneliness, helplessness, selfishness, our suicidality, our desires to self-harm... you get the idea. Psychology has been focused on the negative side of human nature, and how to help people feel less sad, panicky, anxious, insecure, etc.
Positive psychology on the other hand, is focused on the positive side of human nature. It's focused on how to think and live in an extraordinary way. Cause it's one thing to help someone feel less sad, and a whole other thing to help someone live deeply, and suck out the marrow of life, in fact, it's possible to feel sad, and live an extraordinary life. Positive pscyh is there to help you become a more positive, optimistic, hopeful, confident, and powerful person. The skills that I'lll share with you all year long, are meant to help you become a relationship master, not a relationship disaster. They are there to help you achieve and find success in all areas of your life. One of the paradigm shifting ideas that I'm going to teach you, is how to create a happiness advantage in your life. Perhaps you've been taught that if you work really hard, you'll be successful, and once you're successful, you'll be happy. In a way, people feel that happiness revolves around success, similar to how people at one point believed that the sun revolved around the earth... well at least until copernicus came along and pretty much blew everyone's minds, with the truth that the earth revolves around the sun, and not the other way around. In a way, the concept i'm teaching you right now, is a copernican revolution as well. What I'm telling you is that success orbits around happiness. Basically, when you are happier, more positive, more optimistic, more hopeful, more grateful, that incredible brain, inside that lovely cranium of yours, becomes more creative, it learns better, it retains information better, it's more flexible, it's more patient, it has a larger perspective, it performs better in almost any setting, wether it be in your home, in your friendships, at school, in your sports teams, at work, etc. I'm telling you, happiness makes things easier, but let me stop here for just a quick moment, because some of you may be thinking, "well iuri this is nice for people who are naturally happy, but what about me?" Yo... you brilliant soul, listen to me. Your happiness or unhappiness isn't something that's set in stone. It's not who you are... happiness isn't just about how you feel... happiness is a work ethic, It's an ability... it's a set of skills that you can utilize that will encourage your brain and body to feel happier. I've heard say that "happiness is the ultimate discipline" because what I'm talking about isn't a cruel joke, and meant to work only for people who are happy. In fact one of the key ideas that will help you to feel happier more of the time, is being kind and patient with yourself, when your brain and body are not happy. It sound silly, but it's totally true. My friend a critical part of your life is to experience the full spectrum of human emotion. From Misery to Joy. From feeling loved, to disliked and rejected. Filled with courage, to panicky and fearful. Recognizing that this is natural, will actually help you to keep your head about you, and continue to move forward and upwards, and continue on, pursuing intelligent, meaningful, fun, and awesome things.
Now listen, I could talk theory and psych all day long, but I also want to leave you with some of those key skills, and specific areas that I want you to work on today, tomorrow, and pretty much for the rest of your life... because what you need to know is this! What I'm telling you right now, works... the data shows it... studies show it... people have done it, and are doing it now, and it will work with you... so let's get to it.
- Relationships are worth their weight in gold. The #1 predictor for long-term happiness are positive relationships. So if you've got them, invest your time, and the very best of yourself, your very best skills... enthusiasm, kindness, fun, forgiveness, patience, being helpful and supportive, to grow and maintain these. If you're struggling with these relationships, invest your time, your efforts, place yourself in the right places, around the right people, doing the right things, and give the very best of yourself to build some friendships... smile, say hello, remember people's names, be interested in people, compliment them, be helpful, think of things to do. Once again, no excuses... "well i'm just not social... or what if I don't like people" my friend we are not concrete statues... those thoughts are ideas, opinions... and honestly not very intelligent ones. Time for some new ideas, in other words, invest endlessly in this area of your life. Failures and rejection are natural... learn from those, and move on and continue moving forward.
- A body in motion thinks and feels better than one that is stale and inactive. No excuses here either... I don't care what you think you're good at or not good at... i'm just delivering facts to you. Walk, run, hike, ride a bike, go to the gym, join a team, climb, play a sport, do martial arts, jiu jitsu, do yoga, learn to dance, once again stop setting limits on yourself... realize that your body will literally learn to do anything that you consistently invest in and practice. Your body and your brain are the ultimate instruments, and whatever you feed them, they will become... so be intelligent, and feed them awesomeness. I'll add one more quick thought to this concept. Remember that your smile is an act of courage, and is a behavior that not only draws others to you, but that helps your brain... so smile away, and feel good about it.
- Focus and scan your life and your environment for the good and positive. Once again, I want you to view this as a skill. Instead of worshiping your worries and your struggles, your pessimism, what can go wrong, the tragedies that have befallen you, the people that don't get along with you, it's time for you to train your brain to scan for opportunities, for kindness, for awesomeness, for opportunities to become wiser, more understanding of others, for new friends, for ways to do just a little better the following time.
A cool way to do this is by simply surrounding yourself with positivity. Open up a new Note on your phone, and add quotes and images that inspire you, and constantly add to this note. Or simply take a few seconds on monday, wend, and friday to engage in the goodness that we will send your way... minimal effort, big payday. Well my friend, I'm done... there's much more to say... life is so great, it's so grand, so meaningful, so important, but we can take and build things a little at a time, and simply trust the process. Talk to you soon.
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