The more I learn about Yoga, Buddhism, the more I notice many similarities of both philosophies with the modern psychology. In 2018, I decided to embark on a new learning journey in Psychology and did a Positive Psychology module. The assignment given was to write a (PPI) Positive Psychology Intervention paper. Below is the written assignment paper. I will like to share this with my Yoga students and friends. Hope it will also benefit a bigger audience in the world wide web.
Abstract
This report experimented a self-devise Positive Psychology Intervention (PPI) by using Emotional Quadrant (from the book “The Power of Full Engagement) and daily mindfulness (in every aspect of life) to help the subject (Student of TSPP) monitor and modify her daily energy levels through various activities in four categories of her life : physical, mental, emotional and spiritual over a period of three weeks. The subject devise a series of interventions by looking at each four aspects of her life and make adjustments to help her balance her energy levels. She have a deeper understanding of how she spent her energy daily and design ways to rest and recover. The report will explore how modification of these energies enable us to achieve the three dimension of happiness stated by Martin Seligman. We are able to see how the two different ideologies are mirroring each other closely. The subject found out ways to lead a more productive and flourishing life that enable her a higher sense of wellbeing.
Introduction
“Positive Psychology is a scientific study on the positive aspects of human life. It aims to help us understand how we can achieve happiness, well-being and learn how to flourish with optimal functioning in our daily lives.” (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Seligman, the key psychologist who inspires the modern day positive psychology movement explains that there are three dimensions in understanding happiness : the Pleasant Life, the Good Life, and the Meaningful Life. Pleasant Life is the achievement of basic pleasures such as companionship, the natural environment and our bodily needs. The Good Life is achieved by discovering our own virtues and strengths and being able to use them to enhance our lives. The Meaningful Life is the ability to find a deep sense of fulfilment for a purpose greater than ourselves. In this exercise of designing a PPI, the subject will use the theory of emotional quadrant developed (see figure 1) by Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr from the book “The Power of Full Engagement” to uncover how one is able to realignment themselves by observing the daily energy levels in these four quadrants (see Figure 1) and modify her life (daily activities) through a deeper understanding of her Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual energies.
Fig 1. Quadrant of Emotions (from Power of Engagement)
Both theories (3 Happiness and Full Engagement) emphasis on the need to build an in- tegrated structure (between ourselves and our environment) in order to lead a productive and fulfilling life. The Gallup Organization research group have discovered over the last 25 years of research that a staggering 87% of employee worldwide are not engaged. This disengagement is often a indication of overwork and burnout in our modern busy city lives. Burnout research started by Freduengerger and Maslach more than 35 years ago put a spot light onto this previously unrecognised phenomenon. The three common symptoms of burnout are exhaustion, cynicism and inefficiency (Schaufeli, Leiter, Maslach, & Jackson, 1996). The current modern world have created a myriad ways of squandering and misusing our energies that affected our engagement with our working life. Since working life is taking a centre stage of human existence, the trickle effects will easily be felt in our personal life. In the diagram Figure 1, it states four common energy and emotional zones we experience in our daily lives. There is a misconception that we should keep trying to perform our best at all times. Burnout happens when we unconsciously overspend our energy by pushing incessantly to peak our performance. Energies are over spend and drain when we are staying in both high energy levels of Survival Zone (Emotions like impatient, irritation and anger) and Performance Zone (Emotions like challenge, engaged and invigorated) for too long. Consequently, we will be experiencing underuse of energy if we stay in the Burnout Zone (Emotions like exhaustion, emptiness, depression) for too long. The advise is to find ways to get to the Renewal Zone often enough for a more sustainable FULLY ENGAGED Performance Zone. Awareness of dropping into the Renewal Zone will also help us to STRATEGICALLY DISENGAGE in order to recover from Burnout and Survival Zone more quickly. (See Figure 2) Disengagement activities should help to grow emotions like a sense of peacefulness, carefree and receptiveness. Studies have shown that a wandering or disengaged mind offers mental breaks that is useful to alleviate mental fatigues and even improve creativity. ( Mooneyham and Schooler, 2016)
Fig 2. Dynamics of Engagement (from Power of Engagement)
Loher and Schwartz provide an excellent stock-taking techniques (by looking at Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual aspects) at both our work and personal lives. The fundamental idea is to “maintain a powerful pulse in our lives. We must learn how to rhythmically spend and renew energy.” “Energy capacity diminishes both with overuse and with underuse, we must balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal”. The renewal of energy can be done by creating a positive ritual (daily actives) that is fuelled by deeply held values or beliefs. This is to effect a positive change that can be long lasting and sustainable. “A sustainable gains of well being is possible if a person makes the right kind of changes in his or her life” (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2004)
Method
The subject design a PPI by integrating the ideologies wrote in The Power of Engagement book and the concept of mindfulness. She uses the emotional quadrant as a guide for tracking the energy level in her daily lives. Each quadrant is given a number (see below figure 3)
Fig 3. Quadrant of Emotions (with label of energy level)
The numbers given are based on the level of favourability. For example, performance zone is the most favourable, it has the highest number, whereas burnout zone is the least favourable and therefore the lowest number. A plot chart is attached to the average number collected for the day. (See Annex 1)
The subject monitor her use of energy for 1.5 weeks and devise a list of suggestions under each heading of Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual for her to implement during the intervention period. (See Annex 2) She put special attention to the insufficient recovery period under each category and actively create new list and keep modifying it throughout the next 1.5 weeks. Soon she realised that in order to execute the list of renewal activities, there is one skills she need to possess, that is Mindfulness practise.
Jon Kabat-Zinn explained in his book (Full Catastrophe Living; Using the Wisdom of your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and illness) that if one would like to embark on the journey of self development and self discovery in healing, mindfulness is an excellent way to observe, without judging, our habitual ways of being. The moment to moment awareness in various situations can open up the possibility of coping more effectively with stress. Mindfulness practise allow ones to cultivate emotional flexibility as the gentle observations that couple with self compassion enable us to take an objective perspective on negative emotions and respond effectively. (Beshai, Prentice, Huang, 2017). In the book of Powerful Engagement, the advise is to learn how to manoeuvre with flexibility among the four categories of our lives. We need physical flexibility to handle daily physical activities, emotional flexibility to bounce back from negative experience, mental flexibility to move between rationality and intuition, spiritual flexibility to tolerate different values and beliefs. All these areas of flexible muscles will in turn create a resilient nature in various dimensions of our lives. In short, we learn how to manage ourselves (with the help of energy observation) in a conscious and intentional way.
Results
The subject notice an improve in physical strength and focus when she modify her daily lives with more rest intervals in various areas. Taking care of her needs in a flexible and dynamic way that response to ever changing environment is extremely helpful to increase her productivity. (See Fig 4) She observes a more sustainable increase in energy when she apply mindfulness in creating resting periods to her life. This allow the subject to function more optimally in her daily lives. (See Annex 1) for the improve in energy level in the third week) Although the evidence can be ambiguous as the energy level still toggles up and down in her daily life. There is an evidence that the general energy level in the third week is slightly higher.
Discussion
While embarking on this self devise PPI using ideas from Powerful Engagement, all the elements that is affecting Happiness and Wellbeing can be identified. (See Annex 3). Below is a discussion of how each element play its role.
EMOTIONS is placed on top of the list in the learning of Positive Psychology. This human construct affects every corner of our lives. Interestingly, it can be rather elusive at times when we do not pay enough attention to it. When the subject get a chance to review her emotions and mood with reference to the emotional quadrant few times a day, it gives her an opportunity to review and perceive her emotions more often than she did. Daniel Coleman, the psychologist who devise the EQ concept wrote that perceiving and understanding emotions help us to facilitate thinking and manage our emotions. The ability to identify lousy mood can be useful for motivating a change (Forges, 2014) because negative mood improves attention to detail and results in better memory. When identifying a variety of emotional changes in her daily lives and later devise a list of action for change gives the subject a sense of HOPE or purpose for changes. “Hope is a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful (a) agency (goal-directed energy) and (b) pathways (planning to meet goals)”.(Snyder, 1991). When hope is in place, we develop the faculty of knowing what we want, we can think of a range of ways to get there and start the process of achieving it (Boniwell, 2008). Hope flourishes when probability of attainable goals are increase (Averill, Catlin, & Chon, 1990). People who have identified a purpose for their lives reported feeling contented and motivated (Kandell, 2009). In order for the new goals set to be attainable, individual awareness of their STRENGTH will play an important part in ensuring higher level of success. Research found that top achievers tend to have a more realistic assessment of their capabilities and thus design goals that are only slightly above their current level of performance. (Boniwell, 2008). This remind the subject to create a list of things that is more readily achievable in her daily lives. She put attention on activities that she is already doing, but may not be in enough intensity or frequency. She consciously added more into the practise. She is also aware that the new activity must be highly achievable in her life-style. When one is encountering setbacks, the ability to persevere have a close corre- lation with their VALUES. (Boniwell, 2008). The spiritual energy in this PPI encourages one to look deeply into our values. This could be one of the most difficult exercise as value construct is not a daily topic we entertain. Boniwell suggests that values are often link to worries. By looking at what worries us often will probably give a good insight into what we value in our lives. This insight may also hint that there is a need for change in values if certain worries in life are not useful for us. Changes can be extremely challenging as it requires a rewiring of old beliefs or habit. WISDOM is imperative for conquering the discomfort that comes with change. One of the coping mechanism for setback is avoidance. In order to shift from coping with avoidance to coping with problem solving and emotional focus, it requires some work in disputing the unconscious emotive behaviour. This can be done by with the help of understanding Berlin’s wisdom paradigm. Berlin wrote that having rich and factual knowledge about pragmatics of life, learning ways to deal with it, recognise, tolerate and manage uncertainty are some key fundamentals of cultivating wisdom. Howev- er, research showcase that it is a “rare achievement” as it requires a lot of introspection and individual disputing some long-held beliefs. We need to take practical action, cultivation of social intelligence, insight and awareness to grow this faculty of wisdom. (Kramer, 2000). A baby step towards cultivation of wisdom could be the theory of self determination. Self-determination support our psychological well-being for it helps to give control in people’s lives. (Ackerman & Tran 2018). Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are powerful forces in shaping our self determination. (Deci & Ryan, 2008) “Autonomous motivation are motivation that comes from internal sources, but it also includes motivation from extrinsic sources if the individual has identified with an activity’s value and feel it aligns with their sense of self. “(Ackerman & Tran 2018) However research point out that a higher level of importance should be given to intrinsic motivation as our successful achievement is usually higher without dependence on external forces. (Deci & Ryan, 2008). In this PPI, we are constantly challenged with the question of how our lives can be modify internally with physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy awareness. The exercise create many opportunities for one to cultivate intrinsic motivations by observing all the small little details of our internal landscape.
Limitations & Conclusion
This Emotional Quadrant and mindfulness PPI requires a much longer period of time for the effects to be visible. A four weeks studies reveal an insufficient time to mark deep change. This method is not suitable for those who are looking for quick results, as it encompass a lot in various aspects of life, it can also be too complicated to execute for someone who is totally new to the idea of positive psychology and mindfulness. This method is more suitable for those who are already practising mindfulness for a period of time. In conclusion, this emotional quadrant and mindfulness PPI help the subject to increase her productivity through an effective use of energy. This method empowers her to lead a wellbeing of pleasant and good life by designing ways to keep her mood towards the positive quadrant more often. Her ability to revisit her values and working towards it gives her a sense of a meaningful life. She is extremely grateful to have learn this wonderful technique.
Annexes
Annex 1_Energy_Emo Log_Plot Annex 1a_EmoQuadurant Annex 2_PPI design for Li San Annex 3_PositivePsychologyInfoGraphics2
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