As Norman Vincent Peale remarked, “Change your thoughts, and you change your world.” This shift in thinking can transform our thoughts and also our lives. The power of positivity leads to tremendous transformations in our lives and it is through positive thinking and our attitudes that help us stay mentally healthy and able to combat challenges in our lives.
When we talk about mental health there is a myriad of terms such as anxiety, depression, stress, anger, grief, fear, etc. that come into the picture.
Concepts such as motivation, positive thinking, emotional resilience and happiness play a very important role in combating these mental health issues.
Positive psychology plays a very important role in dealing with mental health issues as the role of positive emotions, happiness and wellbeing is essential for a person’s well-being.
Internalising capabilities is one of the hallmarks of positive psychology and it diverts treatment from other methods such as symptomatic therapy and treatment. Positive psychology focuses more on emotional stability, fruitful thinking and expectation management. It is the study of just our ordinary strengths and virtues. It is more than merely thinking positively but is linked to an increased life span, lower rates of depression and anxiety, and better coping skills. Positive thinking is more than just a fleeting mood or momentary joy; it is a conscious choice to look at the positive in every situation that we encounter. It is a sustained mindset that focuses on the brighter side of life.
Mental disorders lead to significant disturbances in emotional, thinking regulation and behaviour. Mental Illnesses such as anxiety disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder), etc. all can employ positive psychology as an effective treatment method.
Positive psychology interventions aim to boost positive emotions, thereby finding meaning in life. Many experiments have been conducted on people suffering from anxiety, depression, fear, etc. where positive ideation can effectively reduce the amount of anxiety, depression, worry, etc.
Besides this, positive psychology goes hand in hand with traditional mental health interventions.
Positive psychology makes use of devised measures such as the psychological well-being scale and the happiness scale to measure how satisfied a person is with their life. In fact, the effects of positive psychology interventions are known to last longer and produce more happiness than traditional psychotherapies.
Some of the interventions that can be used in positive psychology include:
1) Strengths-based therapy: Combining positive psychology, social psychology, preventive measures, solution-focused measures and personal development, strengths-based therapy can be used in conversations, group sessions and objective tests. It helps an individual to find strengths and act on them with focused attention.
2) Quality-of-life therapy: Working on the principles of positive psychology and cognitive therapy, quality-of-life therapy helps people to find goals in life and even motivates them to follow their dreams. The entire motive is for a person to not only identify areas of their life that they would like to improve but also have separate interventions for the specific areas that they want to work on towards their life’s goals.
3) Hope Therapy: Operating on the theory of hope, emotions can be evaluated or changed according to a person’s goals and pursuits. People can enhance insight and reconnect with their sense of self through this therapy. It makes use of standardized tests with subjective tests. This method can help people to focus on goals, possibilities and past successes rather than focusing on problems or other failures.
4) Wellbeing therapy: Promoting happiness, people can use this therapy method to identify their thought blocks. It emphasises self-observation with the use of a structured diary kept strictly confidential between the therapist and the patient.
Such a scientific approach to the subject
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