How to make the most of all that’s good

How to make the most of all that’s good

As some of you might know, my initial training in psychology was in Clinical Psychology.

So, in very simple terms, I learned how to help people who were experiencing various forms of mental ill-health, like stress, depression and anxiety.

Much of that “helping” came from a cognitive-behavioural perspective; and so, we would look for unhelpful thoughts, and then use various strategies to change them into more helpful ones. 

Part of that involved keeping things in perspective, not overly blaming oneself, and recognising that even the toughest of times, were usually temporary.

Since shifting my focus to Positive Psychology, several decades ago now, I’ve repurposed some of the CBT type approaches, so they don’t just work to overcome unhappiness, but to foster and develop more happiness. 

What that means is that in simple terms, almost the opposite of that which I described above works in the opposite way … to promote positive emotions.

And an example of this is how you respond when things are going well, when you succeed at something, or have a win.

In these instances you can try the following: 

  • take responsibility for your success and for all that’s good in your life (try not to discount it or diminish its significance)
  • focus on doing what you can do to make it last
  • and reflect on the fact that if this is good, then much more probably is or at least can be good too! 

Happiness is something that comes more easily to some than others; but it’s also something we can all create more of with this and other (relatively simple) strategies.