Positive Psychology: Be thankful for the miracle of your life

Friday, June 29, 2012

Be thankful for the miracle of your life

"Please write again soon. Though my own life is filled with activity, letters encourage momentary escape into others' lives and I come back to my own with greater contentment.
- Elizabeth Hailey, "A Woman of Independent Means"

The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I'm happy about the things I've done. Not always happy about the results, but happy about the decisions, because I made them myself. And I think that's an important way to go through life.
- Kevin Costner

The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.

- Thomas Moore
Irish poet (1779 - 1852)

By learning to discover and value our ordinariness, we nurture a friendliness toward ourselves and the world that is the essence of a healthy soul.
- Thomas Moore

Positive Psychology given credence by Academia:

Positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Commentators on the subject Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, note that:

"The field of positive psychology at the subjective level is about valued subjective experiences: well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present).

At the individual level, it is about positive individual traits: the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent, and wisdom.

At the group level, it is about the civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation,tolerance, and work ethic."