Narsha Bulgakbaev
Learn to be happy! Confidence and Success
A midlife crisis can mark the first significant decline in happiness in the average person’s life. The evidence suggests that most people become unhappy as they get older, except in their 40s and 50s, which is the typical age at which a crisis can occur. Scientists believe that for people between the ages of 20 and 70, it is the most important time for happiness. For example, feelings of stress and anger decrease after age 20, anxiety decreases after age 50, and pleasure declines very slowly in adulthood but begins to increase after age 50.
Well-being in old age may depend on other contextual factors, including proximity to death. However, most of this terminal decline in well-being is functionally age-related declines may be related to other changes, including physical health and function. In addition, single population-based estimates of age-related changes in well-being truly reflect the lived experiences of older adults. It has allowed researchers to identify homogeneous groups of individuals who are more similar to each other than a population in terms of their level and changes in well-being, and has shown that most of them eventually report stable well-being. The studies also controlled for income, employment status, and parenthood (versus childlessness) to try to isolate the effect of age. Researchers support the idea that age-related changes affect happiness. This can be due to various reasons. The ability to manage and anticipate desires – even if unrealistic expectations contribute to happiness; approaching death can motivate people to achieve personal goals; social skills like forgiveness can take years to develop – practicing forgiveness seems to be associated with higher levels of happiness; or happy people can live longer. Age-related chemical changes may also play a role. Other studies have shown that older adults have more health problems but fewer problems overall. youth reported more anger, anxiety, depression, financial problems, problematic relationships, and career stress. and researchers say that depression in older adults is often related to inactivity – suggesting that people continue to do activities that bring them happiness even in old age. The activity restriction model of depressive affect suggests that stressors that disrupt traditional daily activities can lead to poorer mental health. Elderly people are limited or vulnerable to activities due to age or disability factors. Increasing planned activity as well as social support may reduce the likelihood of activity limitation. due to depression and fatigue, Case studies have shown that depression, experienced by 14% of adults each year, has serious costs: it impairs social roles; it costs billions of dollars in absenteeism, lost productivity, and health care costs each year; Finally, depression accounts for at least one-third of suicides. Therefore, it is important to study prosperity to see what can be achieved by addressing issues such as depression and how the consequences of focusing on the positive can improve the lives of not only one person, but those around them. There are important positive aspects to flourishing, Case explains, which are better compared to depressed adults, and depressed adults are better than depressed adults. For example, lethargic (characterized by sluggishness and tiredness) adults have the same chronic illnesses as depressed adults, while thriving adults are in particularly good physical health. Lazy adults don’t spend as many workdays as depressed adults, and actually visit doctors and therapists more often than depressed adults. A strengths-based approach to positive personality change aims to ensure that clinical psychology gives equal weight to positive and negative functioning when attempting to understand and treat distress. This rationale is based on empirical data. Because positive characteristics interact with negative life events to predict disorder, examining negative life events alone may yield misleading results. Thus, psychologists try to use positive psychology to treat patients. Amy Krenzman, among others, has discussed positive interventions as a way to treat patients. He defined a positive intervention as a therapy or activity that focuses primarily on increasing positive feelings, positive behaviors, or positive cognitions rather than focusing on negative thoughts or dysfunctional behaviors. One way to use positive intervention as a clinical treatment is to use positive activity interventions. Positive activity interventions, or PAIs, are brief, self-paced exercises that promote positive feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. «Three good things» requires the patient to document three good events and the corresponding reason or reasons every day for a week (this exercise can be modified by counterfactual thinking, i.e., if they are bad, by turning the thought to the positive). «The Best Future is Mine» forces the patient to «think about his future life and imagine that everything went as well as possible. They worked hard and achieved all their goals in life. This is everything in life think of it as making your dreams come true.» Then the patient is asked to write down what he imagines. These positive interventions reduce depression, and interventions that focus on strong and positive emotions may actually be as effective in treating brain disorders as other commonly used approaches, such as cognitive behavioral therapy. Furthermore, according to a meta-analysis of 60 studies (49), the observed effect may not be due to publication bias. Research has shown that writing thank-you notes, thinking optimistically, recalling positive life experiences, and interacting with people are all important. Additionally, a recent meta-analysis (39 studies, 6 participants, 139) found a standardized mean difference of 20.12 for subjective well-being, 34.0 for psychological well-being, and 20.0 for depression.
The effects on subjective well-being and psychological well-being were still significant three to six months after the intervention, so the effects appear to be quite robust. However, in high-quality studies, the positive effect was still weak, although positive, so the authors felt that more high-quality studies were needed to strengthen the evidence. They are the meta-analysis mentioned above assured that he did not pay enough attention to the quality of research. Positive result include prayers, good practices, setting personal goals, and expressing gratitude. interventions called gratitude journaling and the three good things work through gratitude. there is evidence that when keeping a gratitude journal, it is more effective to focus on quality rather than quantity, people rather than possessions. There is also evidence that the effectiveness of gratitude journaling diminishes if done more than once or twice a week. Gratitude journaling is effective in reducing negative emotions in general, suggesting that not only gratitude but also the act of journaling is involved in this therapeutic effect. Positive psychology attempts to inform clinical psychology about the potential for broadening its perspective and the benefits of these opportunities. Post-traumatic growth (PTS) is a potential post-traumatic outcome in addition to post-traumatic stress (PTSD). «It’s normal to experience symptoms of depression and anxiety» after a traumatic event such as rape, incest, cancer, assault or a fight. however, a person exhibiting ptg experiences these negative effects for some time and then shows an improvement in well-being that is greater than before the injury. The founder of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, emphasizes that «achieving a higher level of psychological functioning than before» is the main point in PTG. instead, if the person experiences a depressive episode but recovers from the event and returns to a normal level of psychological functioning. this suggests that in ptg trauma acts as a turning point for a person to achieve greater well-being. Seligman acknowledges that «trauma is often the foundation for growth,» and with the right tools, people can make the most of it. When thinking about traumatic growth, Seligman suggests using the following five elements to facilitate PTG: understanding the trauma response, reducing anxiety, using constructive anger, creating a narrative about the trauma, and articulating life attitudes and perspectives. A person experiencing PTSD achieves elements of Seligman’s theory of the «good life,» including a meaningful and purposeful appreciation of life, enhanced positive relationships, achievement, and optimistic and open-minded thinking consistent with expansion and construction theory. The PTG phenomenon is related to many disciplines. This design is important not only for soldiers, first responders, and people who have experienced traumatic events, but also for ordinary citizens who face common challenges. One way to acquaint citizens with stories about PTG is constructive journalism. Constructive journalism, as defined by a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, «is a new style and function of journalism that uses positive psychology techniques to manage news with the goal of engaging readers by creating productive news while remaining relevant.» Kathryn Gildenstedt, a seasoned reporter with a master’s degree in applied positive psychology and co-author of two books, has shown that typical news stories associated with negative valence are detrimental to mood. Using PTG to focus on victims’ strengths and examples of overcoming adversity encourages readers to incorporate similar ideals into their own lives. «Thus, the goal of positive psychology in well-being theory is to measure and construct human flourishing.» Integrating positive psychology constructs such as PTG, PERMA, and «expand and build» with journalism has the potential to improve impact and inspire people to embrace the benefits of positive psychology. PERMA not only plays an important role in our personal lives, but can also be used for public news. With this model, journalists can focus on the positive aspects of a story and how conflict or even tragedy can bring people together, how someone experiences growth after a trauma, and so on. can ask questions.Then news events shift the perspective from victimization to empowerment. Positive psychology is slowly but surely creeping into news reporting through constructive journalism. PERMA helps journalists ask the right questions to continue this progress, highlighting a potentially negative story with positive solutions. Affect is the ratio of positive and negative affect. In 2005, Fredrickson and Losada hypothesized that the ratio of positive to negative affect, known as the critical positivity ratio, can distinguish those who thrive from those who do not. Nostalgia was characterized by a positive affect to negative affect ratio of 2.5. Optimum functioning or prosperity is said to occur in a ratio of 4.3. Flowering is the point at which lethargy gives way. It is called the Losada line and is located at a positive coefficient of 2.9. Individuals with higher scores are said to have a broader behavioral repertoire, greater resilience and resilience to adversity, more social resources, and optimal functioning in many areas of their lives. The model also predicted that there would be an upper limit of happiness achieved at a positivity level of 11.5. At this limit, Fredrickson and Losada argue, prosperity begins to disintegrate and productivity and creativity begin to decline. They suggested that as positivity increases, the «corresponding negativity» should also increase. This has been described as time-limited, actionable feedback based on specific circumstances, ie. constructive criticism. This positivity coefficient theory was widely accepted until 2013, when applied positive psychology graduate student Nick Brown, along with Alan Sokal and Harris Friedman, wrote a paper showing that the mathematical basis of the work was flawed. Fredrickson partially retracted the paper, agreeing that the math could be wrong, but that the empirical evidence was still valid. Brown and his colleagues argue that there is no evidence of a critical positivity rate. Most psychologists focus on the most basic human emotions. There are believed to be between seven and fifteen basic emotions. Emotions can be combined in different ways to create more subtle variations of emotional experience. This suggests that any attempt to completely eliminate negative emotions from our lives has the unintended consequence of losing the variety and subtlety of our deepest emotional experiences. An attempt to increase positive emotions does not automatically lead to a decrease in negative emotions, and a decrease in negative emotions does not necessarily lead to an increase in positive emotions. Described emotional responses as primary affects, primitive emotional reactions that are constantly experienced but often unacknowledged; They mix positive and negative, as well as activated and deactivated dimensions, which we carry with us on an unconscious level. Although a 2012 study found that people who experienced both positive and negative emotions experienced higher levels of well-being, evidence suggests that negative emotions can be destructive. Barbara Fredrickson et al suggested in an article titled «The Cancellation Effect of Positive Emotions» that positive emotions counteract the negative effects of negative emotions on the cardiovascular system. When people are stressed, they experience increased heart rate, increased blood sugar, decreased immunity, and other adaptations optimized for immediate action. If unregulated, prolonged physiological activation can lead to morbidity, coronary heart disease, and increased mortality. Laboratory and sociological studies confirm that positive emotions help stressed individuals to return to a suitable, healthy physiological base. Other studies show that improving mood is one of the various benefits of exercise. Behavior repertoire. positive emotion theory suggests that positive emotions (eg, happiness, interest, joy) expand the mind and stimulate new, diverse, and exploratory thoughts and actions. over time, this expanded behavioral repertoire develops skills and resources. For example, interest in scenery becomes valuable navigational knowledge; a pleasant relationship with a stranger turns into a supportive friendship; aimless physical play turns into exercise and physical perfection. positive emotions are contrasted with negative emotions, encouraging pro-life behaviors. a positive moral emotion produced by observing good acts of admirable moral goodness and leading to the desire to act morally and to do «good». As an emotion, it has a biological basis and is sometimes accompanied by a feeling of expansion in the chest. There are elements that make life better, there are other elements that make life worse. But when you put them aside, what you gather is not neutral: it is actually positive. This measure of well-being has been proposed as an empirically validated extension of the dichotomy of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being (separately divided into two parts that are more intrinsically related than each other). While hedonic well-being is measured by life satisfaction and eudaimonic well-being by the perception of meaning in one’s life, psychological well-being is measured by life experiences. Psychological richness is cultivated through psychologically rich experiences that are characterized as diverse, interesting, innovative, challenging, and perspective-changing. One piece of evidence for this comes from research with college students, in which students who took trips, whether short field trips or semester-long study abroad programs, reported increased psychological well-being or meaning in life. Unlike hedonic well-being, which leads to personal satisfaction, and eudaimonic well-being, which is believed to contribute to society, psychological wealth is believed to lead to wisdom. The term «flourishing» in positive psychology refers to optimal human functioning. It has four parts: kindness, generativity, growth (development) and stability. Virtue consists of: happiness, contentment and efficient work; Generativity aims to improve the lives of future generations and is defined by «an expanded repertoire of thoughts and actions and behavioral flexibility»; growth involves the use of personal and social assets; and resilience refers to survival and growth after overcoming adversity. A prosperous life comes from mastering all four of these parts. two opposing ideologies: burnout and psychopathology.
On the mental health continuum, they are considered intermediate mental disorders that reflect an unfulfilling and meaningless life. Fatigued people experience emotional pain, psychosocial disruptions, limitations in normal activities, and missed work days.
About 6 percent of Americans live affluent lives. The benefits of an enriched life stem from research on the effects of experiencing a high ratio of positive to negative affect. Researched benefits of positive affect include increased responsiveness, an «expanded behavioral repertoire,» heightened instincts, and heightened perception and imagination. In addition, the positive feelings associated with prosperity lead to improved immune system function, cardiovascular recovery, and reduced effects of negative affect and frontal brain asymmetry. Other benefits for people with moderate or moderate levels of mental health include: stronger psychological and social performance, higher endurance, better cardiovascular health, and an overall healthier lifestyle. The benefits found in thriving offer the following definition: “ [thriving] people experience high levels of emotional, psychological, and social well-being through energy and vitality, self-determination, continuous self-development, close relationships, and meaningful and purposeful living. Psychologists Peter Hills and Michael Argyle developed the Oxford Happiness Inventory as a broad measure of psychological well-being. This approach has been criticized for lacking a theoretical model of happiness and for being overly aligned with related concepts such as self-esteem, sense of purpose, social interest, kindness, sense of humor, and aesthetic appreciation. «Happiness» includes various emotional and mental phenomena. Scientists use beeps to remind volunteers to record details of their current state. In addition, volunteers fill out detailed diary entries each morning the day before. The discrepancy arises when researchers compare the results of these short-term «experiment selection» methods with long-term assessments. in particular, the latter may not be very accurate; people may not know what they enjoy in life at any given moment. for example, parents’ ratings refer to their children as a source of pleasure, while the «experience pattern» indicates that parents do not enjoy caring for their children compared to other activities. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman explains this discrepancy by distinguishing: When we are asked to think about an experience, memory biases such as the Peak-End effect play a large role (for example, we often remember the impressive moments of a vacation and how it ended).
A surprising conclusion was made in the study of colonoscopy patients. By adding 60 seconds to this invasive procedure, Kahneman found that participants found the colonoscopy more enjoyable. This was due to the fact that the colonoscopy device did not move for an additional 60 seconds – movement being the source of the greatest discomfort. Thus, Kahneman appealed to the tendency of the memory person to focus on the end of the experience. Such findings help explain the human error in affective forecasting – people’s ability to predict future emotional states.
The Memorizing Self is not a source of pleasure for the Worrying Self. (colonoscopy)
People have different abilities. it involves emotional hedonic adaptability, the idea that beauty, fame, and money have no lasting effect on happiness (this effect is also known as the hedonic treadmill). in this regard, some studies have shown that only recent events, that is, events that happened within the last 3 months, affect the level of happiness. the tendency to adapt and thus return to previous levels of happiness is demonstrated by research showing that lottery winners are no longer happy many years after winning. other studies have shown that paraplegics are just as happy as healthy athletes years later. Daniel Kahneman explains: «They are not completely paralyzed… It is due to the separation of attention.» So, contrary to our preconceived notions, the lottery and paraplegia do not alter experience as much as we would like. However, in a recent study (2007), winning the average lottery had a lasting effect of 1.4 GHQ points on British mental health two years after the event. Moreover, adaptation can be a very slow and incomplete process. Disturbing life changes, such as the death of a spouse or the loss of a job, can show measurable changes in happiness within a few years. Even the aforementioned «adapted» paraplegics reported low levels of pleasure (not yet fully adapted). Thus, adaptation is a complex process, and although it can alleviate the emotional consequences of many life events, it cannot completely alleviate them. The idea behind a happy set point is that most people return to an average level or set point of happiness after temporary emotional ups and downs. People with high positive emotionality tend to be cheerful, while people with negative emotionality tend to be pessimistic. Lykken discovered that we can influence our level of well-being by creating an environment conducive to feelings of happiness and working with our genetic makeup. One reason why subjective well-being is stable is because of the strong influence of genetics. Although life events have some effect on subjective well-being, the general population returns to baseline. Lyubomirsky’s analysis of the sources of happiness in the book «How to achieve happiness». It makes no sense to blame one ingredient in one person’s recipe for happiness (because everything is needed). However, when comparing the happiness of two people, ingredients like genetics can account for up to half of the difference. Sonya Lyubomirsky in her book «How to be happy» also proved that people’s happiness depends on their genetic structure. However, Diener cautions that saying that «genetics accounts for 30—50% of happiness» is nonsense. Diener explains that the recipe for human happiness always includes genetics (seed), environment (external environment), and behavior (internal environment), so it doesn’t make sense to say that a person’s happiness depends on just one ingredient. Differences in happiness can only be attributed to differences in factors. In other words, Lyubomirsky’s research does not discuss happiness in a single person; It discusses differences in happiness between two or more people. In particular, Lyubomirsky suggests that 30—40% of the variance in happiness is due to genetics (ie heredity). In other words, Diener says it doesn’t make sense to say that one person’s happiness is «50% genetics,» but it makes sense to say that the difference in one person’s happiness is 50% due to differences in their lives. Genetics dominates (and the rest depends on behavior and environment). Findings from twin studies support the above findings. Twins raised apart had nearly identical levels of happiness, suggesting that environment is not entirely responsible for differences in people’s happiness. It is important to note that a person’s basic happiness is not entirely determined by genetics, or even by influencing a person’s genetics early in life. Whether a person can raise their baseline to the height of their genetic potential depends in part on several factors, including activities and habits. Some of the habits that increase happiness include gratitude, contentment, and even altruistic behavior (which conceptualizes action as involving selfless concern for the welfare of others, altruism – a concept associated with the concept of sacrificing one’s own good for the good of others, for the common good). Other research-based habits and techniques for increasing happiness are discussed on this page. In addition to developing new habits, using antidepressants, exercising effectively, and eating right can make a big difference to your mood. There is evidence that a vegetarian diet can reduce stress and anxiety. Exercise is sometimes referred to as a «miracle» drug, alluding to the wide range of proven benefits it provides. A recent book, Anatomy of an Epidemic, highlights issues related to the non-conservative use of psychiatric medications, particularly their long-term beneficial effects. Yongei Mingyur Rinpoche said neuroscientists have found that meditation can change a person’s baseline level of happiness, and meditation has been found to increase happiness in several studies. A study of Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga meditators found that they were happier (Oxford Happiness Inventory) than a control group. Recent large panel studies have shown that divorce, death of a spouse, unemployment, disability, and similar events alter long-term subjective well-being, although some adjustment occurs and confounding factors influence. Fujita and Diener found that 24% of people changed significantly between the first five years of the study and the last five years. Almost every fourth person showed a change in well-being over the years; Indeed, sometimes these changes were quite dramatic.
Bruce Heady found that 5—6% of people experienced a dramatic increase in life satisfaction within 15—20 years and that the goals people set had a significant impact on their life satisfaction. The easiest and best way to increase happiness is to increase the balance of positive and negative emotions. contrary to some beliefs, in many scenarios people only want to increase their positive emotions, day cannot be without night.
Many methods have been developed to help increase happiness. the first method is known as the sustainable happiness model (shm). this model suggests that long-term happiness is determined by: (1) genetically determined attitudes, (2) circumstantial factors, and (3) intentional actions. Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, and Schkade recommend making these changes the right way for long-term happiness. Another suggestion for increasing happiness is a procedure called Hope Training. Hope exercises primarily focus on hope because of the belief that it produces positive emotions of well-being. This training is based on the theory of hope, which states that when people set goals that can increase their well-being and believe that they can achieve those goals. One of the main goals of teaching hope is to rid people of false hope syndrome. The syndrome of false hope, in particular, occurs when a person believes that changing his behavior is easy and that the results of the changes will be evident in a short time. There are positive psychology-based coaching processes backed by scientific research, and there are intervention tools and assessments that coaches trained in positive psychology can use in the coaching process. Positive psychology coaching uses scientific evidence and insights from these fields to work with clients toward their goals. Philip Zimbardo says that happiness can be analyzed «in terms of time.» He suggested sorting the foci of people’s lives by valence (positive or negative) and time perspective (past, present, or future orientation). This allows the individual to identify some personal conflict with why they choose to take risks and further delay gratification rather than enjoying the activity.
Zimbardo also believes that research shows an optimal balance of prospects for a happy life; Explanation: We should place a high value on the amount of time spent experiencing positive aspects of our past, then on believing in a positive future, and finally on a moderate (but not excessive) amount of time spent enjoying the present. In the 1970s,
Csikszentmihalyi began to study flow, a state of absorption in which human abilities are well suited to contemporary demands. flow is characterized by intense concentration, loss of self-awareness, a sense of difficulty, and a sense of «rocket time.» flow is inherently beneficial; it can also help you achieve goals (eg win a game) or improve your skills (eg become a better chess player). anyone can experience flow in a variety of areas such as play, creativity and work. Inadequacy of the task for a person with low skills leads to a state of anxiety; For a highly skilled person, insufficient testing leads to boredom.
Difficulty means that the flow is often temporarily disturbed by the influence of conditions and causes different types of stress, but this is considered stress, which is also called «good» stress. Stress may be more harmful than chronic stress, but the pathways of stress-related systems are similar. both can create a «wear» effect; however, the various physiological elements and additional psychological benefits of stress can offset any wear and tear.
Csikszentmihalyi identified nine indicative elements of flow:
– Each step has clear goals
– Immediate feedback guides one’s actions
– There is a balance between challenges and benefits
– Action and consciousness become one
– Thoughts are removed from the mind, so it is necessary to write without lips
– Failure (accident) is not scary
– Self-awareness
– Sense of time
– Activity «self-goal, life made for its own sake.»
Studies indicate more flow during work and more happiness during leisure time.
