The influence of Positive Psychology on personal well-being

Let's not confuse positive psychology with the need to be constantly happy, avoiding feelings of sadness and melancholy. In fact, positive psychology considers negative emotions to be crucial to learning and growing as a person. Therefore, when hearing this term, we should not associate it with a perfect world, or a world where "everything is rosy".

Positive psychology was born from the need for change that Martin Seligman expressed when he saw that the professionals of traditional psychology focused exclusively on eliminating everything that causes us discomfort psychological. Seligman wanted to go one step further, seeking to eliminate the discomfort of negative feelings, but enhancing well-being by exercising happiness, self-esteem and optimism. According to him, he found the perfect combination to improve people's quality of life.

At the moment, Positive psychology is defined as the scientific study that has as its final objective the development of positive attitudes to be able to live a full, fluid life and thus prevent health pathologies mental

. In other words, it studies how to favor the strengths and virtues of the human being's character, such as joy, sense of humor, motivation, optimism, etc.

There is scientific evidence that supports the development of positive feelings with benefits in terms of physical and mental health of individuals. Therefore, it can be said that positive psychology has a great weight in personal well-being. In today's article, we will analyze this relationship in depth in order to understand the different opinions of experts on the subject.

• We recommend you read: "Toxic positivity: too much optimism can be worse than sadness"

What is positive psychology?

As we have commented, positive psychology focuses on using the strengths that each person has, to increase their personal well-being. He is based on the idea of ​​emphasizing what the person does have, what he is doing well. Perhaps many of us have felt that having a positive attitude in the face of unpleasant or unexpected situations helps to increase cognitive, physical and social resources. Well, after all, this is the most important pillar of positive psychology: using emotions pleasant to be able to deal autonomously and effectively with situations that cause stress or discomfort.

Seligman, the father of this branch, wanted to break with the traditional psychological perspective and proposed to focus on positive emotions to help individuals to be fully happy. However, we would like to clarify that this discipline does not mean a break with other psychological approaches, rather, it provides an integrating and complementary perspective in the educational, clinical and labor fields.

Finally, it should be noted that positive psychology is based on the scientific method. That is to say, the models and exercises that are put on the table in this discipline have been validated and demonstrate their effectiveness in the population. The results obtained are not due to chance or to the placebo effect.

What is a fortress?

While we are talking about bringing out the positive side of each person to achieve an optimal state of mental health, let's talk about the concept of strength that Seligman proposed. A strength is defined as a psychological characteristic that can be acquired throughout life and is presented in different situations of daily life..

Perhaps strength can be confused with capacity. The first can be improved and requires one's own will. For the second, there needs to be a basis to be able to improve them and it happens naturally and automatically. After clarifying the difference, let's see what are the 24 strengths that Seligman distinguished, included in 6 virtues or categories:

• Wisdom and knowledge: lead us to seek and share knowledge with others. Strengths: curiosity, love of learning, critical thinking, resourcefulness, and perspective.
• Courage: Leaving internal and/or external opposition aside, courage is considered an emotional strength focused on achieving our goals. Strengths: Courage, perseverance, integrity and vitality.
• Humanity: create interpersonal relationships that involve affection and care for others. Strengths: ability to love and be loved, kindness and personal and social intelligence.
• Justice: objectively determine the ethical and moral rights and responsibilities towards others. Strengths: civility, sense of justice, leadership and ability to forgive.
• Moderation: It is a strength related to protection against possible excesses. Strengths: humility, prudence and self-control.
• Transcendence: the ability to connect with our surroundings and provide us with a deeper sense of meaning and purpose in life. Strengths: appreciation of beauty, gratitude, hope, sense of humor, and spirituality.

What does personal well-being mean?

Definitely, the ultimate goal of positive psychology is to promote personal well-being and foster mental health. In order to understand the meaning of personal well-being, we bring the Well-being Theory proposed by Martin Seligman. This theory includes the following elements:

• Positive Emotions: Positive Emotions.
• Engagement: Commitment.
• Relationships: Interpersonal Relations.
• Meaning: Meaning. Connections with others.
• Achievements: Achievements.

The most remarkable thing about this theory is that it recognizes personal well-being with emotional, psychological, social and spiritual aspects. It may remind you of the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of mental health: “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being”.

Relationship between positive psychology and personal well-being

The results obtained from the studies carried out affirm that the development of well-being Personal health and happiness are positively related to the promotion of physical, mental and social. In addition, it helps prevent risk behaviors such as tobacco, drug, technology, and gaming abuse, and in turn, reduces verbal and physical violence. Lastly, this discipline has also proven to be effective in improving anxious and depressive symptoms.

Positive psychology is aware of the great diversity of the human being and that, therefore, there is no single way to be happy. In order to reach as many people as possible, this branch of psychology analyzes thousands of people and concludes that it is what brings the most happiness to the population.

Thanks to research in this area, it has been discovered that one of the most important factors is optimism. Optimism is one of the strengths that provides greater well-being and is closely related to expectations for the future. Such is its influence on personal well-being that it has been found that those with serious health problems that present an optimistic outlook have a longer life and report better quality of life. In contrast, pessimistic people tend to have shorter lives, and maintain more unstable and less satisfying interpersonal relationships.

Another topic of great interest within the study of positive psychology is the concept of flow.. Dr. Csikszentmihalyi is the author of this term and refers to the fact that people with the ability to flow feel clarity and tranquility and are not aware of the passage of time. They simply enjoy the moment, the activity, and are oblivious to the worries of daily life. Reaching this point requires significant self-knowledge and occurs when balance is achieved between the level of difficulty presented by the task and the abilities one has to solve it adequate. If you do not have enough tools, the activity generates anxiety; and if it is too easy, it breeds boredom or apathy.

In relation to personal well-being and positive psychology, resilience is an interesting concept that is worth exploring. When a tragedy occurs, there are people who become obsessed with what happened and enter a depressive state, but there are others who are capable of coping with the overwhelming pain of these situations. For this branch of psychology, humor and pleasant emotions are key factors for resilience. In fact, there is research that shows that people who use positive emotions in difficult moments of life they never lose the ability to see that things can improve in a future. By working on these emotions, resilient people feel that negative feelings must be lived through, but above all, learn and draw strength from them.

Further research on the relationship between personal well-being and positive psychology may lead to the development of training programs. advice and intervention that help to lead a healthy lifestyle, both from the physical, psychological, social and spiritual. We clarify this since in relation to health, prevention is extremely important and should not be left aside since the future of the population depends to a large extent on it.