Positive Psychology P5

Positive Psychology P5

Outline

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Improve self-esteem and base level of happiness: to cope, to risk as opposed to avoid

• Self-perception theory: we derive conclusion about ourselves in the same way we derive conclusion about other people(by observing behavour)
  • We see ourself coping -> I must be courageous and with high self-esteem
• Failure is not that bad (be familiar)
  • learn to fail / fail to learn

How to be more optimistic

• (Optimitic is an interpreation style)
• Take action
  • Constantly being told you are wonderful no matter what × (should be discerning with praise)
  • Action, put hard work on the things you want to be confident about, putting yourselves on the line and cope. (physical immune system) (Self-perception theory)
  • To dare is to lose one's foot momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself. -- Soren Kierkegaard (how to perceive failure)
    • Interpret the failure not as permanent and pervasive one but temporary and specific one
  • Give ourselves the permission to fail
• Power of imagination
  • Imagining success
  • Fire the same neurons as the real thing(our mind is a powerful simulator)
  • To avoid inconsistency, we will bring up the external reality to match the internal schema that we imagined and practiced over and over again
  • To visisualize the destination as well as the journey of getting there.
  • To make it as real as possible by involving as many senses as possible
  • Evoking emotions: emotion -- motion
  • <<I Have a Dream>>
    • "In the process of gaining our rightful place..."
    • "By drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred..."
    • "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
• Cognitive therapy(effective)
  • Basic premise: thoughts drive emotions
    • Event -> Evaluation(thought) -> Emotion -> Action
    • The evaluation is natural and healthy, but sometimes our thoughts are irrational, distort reality and the evalutaion (restore rationality)
  • Summary (3M, three traps)
    • Magnifying
      • Over generalize
      • All or nothing
    • Minimizing (tunnel vision)
      • Fall into one small question and ignore the big picture
      • Dissmiss the positive or the negative
    • Making up (fabricating)
      • Avoid facing the reality but over-personlize or over-blame
      • Emotional reasoning: take the emotion into account when evaluating the situation
    • Dispute it, challenge it, reframe it
  • Key method: be real
    • Tie conclusion to reality
    • Rational
    • Open the vision up (not zoom in, not ignore any side)
• Evaluation -> self-fulfilling prophecy
• No short cuts
  • Work visualizing
  • Hard work and coping
  • Work learning to dispute irrational thoughts

Focus

• Internal mind is a lot more important than external world
• Nothing is good or bad, but thinking make it so. "Shakespeare"

Focus create reality

• Change our focus, change our questions
  • Fault-finder: focus on problems, constatant complainer, find faults even in paradise. Resignation, helplessness
  • Benefit-finder: focus on what works, find the miricle in the common (detached benefit-finder: focus only on the positive ×)
• To respect reality, we don't creat it simply by focus, but we are co-creator
  • Fixed elements in reality, but we still have a certain freedom in our dealing with them, like our sensation, depends our own interests
  • Waterloo: English -> Victory; French -> Defeat
  • What do we do with our reality is what we are responsed for

Cognitive reconstruction

• Learning to interpret things optimistically
  • Things happen for the best ×
  • To make the best of things that happened √
• "Never let a good crisis go to waste"

Response Paper

• One way to improve self-esteem and happiness is through the self-perception theory. By seeing ourselves cope with difficult situations, we can conclude that we are courageous and have high self-esteem. Additionally, we should learn to embrace failure and view it as an opportunity to learn and grow, to gain experience in dealing with negative situations and thoughts just like physical immune system dealing with viruses. Besides, we need to take action and put in the hard work to become confident in the things we value.

• Constantly being told that we are wonderful no matter what is not helpful, as we should be discerning with praise and only take it seriously when it is deserved. We should also perceive failure as temporary and specific, rather than permanent and pervasive, as this will help us overcome setbacks and move forward with greater confidence.

• The power of imagination is another powerful tool for optimism. By visualizing success, we can activate the same neurons in our brain as if we were actually experiencing that success. When visualizing success, we should make it as real as possible by involving all of our senses and evoking emotions that will drive us forward.

• Cognitive therapy is an effective method for challenging irrational thoughts that can lead to negative self-fulfilling prophecies. By recognizing and disputing negative thoughts, we can restore rationality and view situations in a more balanced and realistic way. The three traps of cognitive therapy include magnifying, minimizing, and making up. By disputing these irrational thoughts and reframing them in a more rational way, we can improve our overall mental health and happiness.

• In conclusion, there are no shortcuts to improving self-esteem and happiness levels, but by using the tools of self-perception theory, visualization, and cognitive therapy, we can overcome negative self-fulfilling prophecies and cultivate a more optimistic outlook on life. We should be willing to take risks and cope with failure, challenging irrational thoughts and viewing situations in a more balanced and realistic way.

Response Paper 2

• Just like a relationship where we need to seek for novel attempts and excitements constantly or else the relationship will be boring and monotonous. The same goes for our life. If we are not willing to take risks and try new things, the relationship between our mind and the world will cool down. Our mind will be grounded in a cozy but small room. We will be stuck in a boring and dull life.

• In this open world based on the wide Internet, we may find ourself staying in not only a small room but a glass cage as well, with others' most fabulous and exciting life displaying on screens around your cage. It's almost unavoidable and makes you feel pressured and depressed.

• Obviously, the solution to this is simply step out and step into the unlimited real world behind the screens to try the things you want in flesh, and get the new and real, joyful and painful experience the more the better.

• During the exploration, we need to be ready to take risks and cope with failure, challenging irrational thoughts and viewing situations in a more balanced and realistic way. Everything are not perfect, they happens according to laws of nature subjectively, including ourselves. But the special point of us is our spiritual world is separated from the physical world that co-create our reality.

• We should perceive failure with a subjectively in the first step, without losing our mind and trapped in the 3M mentioned previously. The failure in the single attempt is temporary and specific, rather than permanent and pervasive.

• Only consider it subjectively doesn't fully utilize the power of spiritual and objective mind. We might view the failure in a unity of opposites way, like as a successful and precious experience that can serve its value deeply and permanently. As time goes by and we explore wider and deeper, the mental immune system grow stronger and we will sense a stronger and robust mind, which can help us overcome future setbacks and move forward with greater confidence.