“Positive psychology is the science behind personality traits that makes it possible for individuals and societies to evolve and grow, it is a study of well-being and optimal functioning as well as human strengths. ” Psychologists developed positive psychology interventions generally to help people in grow their positivity, well-being, relationships, creativity and other desirable consequences (E. g, three good things, gratitude visit and identifying signature strengths).
Three good things is an intervention where participants write down three good things happening to them, or things that went well during the day, each day, for a certain time period. This method began to show positive effects about one month after the test period was over. At the one-month follow-up, participants showed more happiness and less depression than at the baseline. The participants also stayed less depressed and increased their happiness at the three-month and six-month follow-ups (Seligman, Steen, Park & Peterson 2005).
I wrote down three good things happening to me, each night, for a month. I felt that it left a huge psychological impact on me. After about a week and a half, I started to look for things to be happy about automatically, without thinking about the assignment. I started to see things from another, more positive, perspective. I will keep doing this exercise because I felt like it made me feel more grateful about the small things than before.
I also started to appreciate more things, (E. g. I walked back home from school, thinking about my friends and family, it was 85 degrees in October as I was walking around this beautiful lake. It made me appreciate a little thing like that, knowing how rough and cold it is back in Sweden). I think that the well-being test will show a difference, not necessarily a huge different, because I was pretty excited when I moved here to Florida, but definitely a difference.
We tend to take a lot of things for granted as we fall into daily routines and I truly believe that these interventions could be a great tool to use in the desire for true happiness. As society is becoming more and more automatic, fast paced and electronic it is really easy to focus on materialistic things such as new phones, new cars, new houses and other miscellaneous things. It makes us forget what really matters in life; people we meet, places we see, etc. We forget how lucky we are and forget to cherish the beautiful things we get to experience.
I would like to recommend these interventions rather than having “sick” people eat anti-depressive prescription drugs that are addictive and dangerous. I hope that positive psychology will only grow bigger and get the recognition it deserves. The only negative implication I can think of was that I had to remember writing it down each night. But then again, is five minutes each day really too much to ask for, in order to improve your own happiness? Ask yourself.
