Life can pass by if you do not turn its spirit to the perception of good and joyful things, instead of concentrating attention only on life difficulties. And the main task of psychology should be understood as follows: to help each of us gain balance, moving towards positive. Its goal is to develop in us the ability to love and be loved, to see the meaning in each of our actions, to be responsible for what we are able to change, and persistent in the face of the inevitable.
A strict and restrained president of the American Psychological Association was discouraged. He admitted to his colleagues bitterly: only having lived to the age of 60 and having made one of the most brilliant scientific quarries of his generation, he heard from his own five -year -old daughter what psychological science should devote all his strength half a century ago.
It was in the Summer Garden: together with little Nikki, the father conscientiously pulled out the stems of weeds from the warm land. My daughter did not want to work, she threw the grass bundles into the air, dancing and singing. The professor accustomed to order shouted at the girl – she was upset and ran away. But she returned a few minutes later: “Dad, I want to tell you something”. – “Yes, Nikki?” -” Remember when I was four years old, I whimpered all the time? At five, I decided to never roar again. This was the most difficult thing that I had to do at all. And if I could stop whipping, then you certainly can stop swearing all the time!”
In the moment that the professor of the University of Pennsylvania (USA) Martin Seligman called “insight from above”, he understood the main thing: life can pass by if he does not turn his spirit to the perception of good and joyful things, instead of concentrating attention onlyon life difficulties. And the main task of psychology should be understood as follows: to help each of us gain balance, moving towards positive, as Nikki did it, and completely independently*.
For about a hundred years now, since modern psychology has arisen, the definition of “mental health” was mainly reduced to the treatment of neurosis, fears, self -doubt. Ten years ago, 90% of scientific articles in psychology were devoted to phenomena such as anxiety
states or depression. Psychiatry, based on a biological approach to human health, interprets the state of rest as a result of uniform transmission of nervous impulses – balance, which at any moment can be violated. In the understanding of classical psychology, each individual is nothing more than the result of the interaction of unresolved children’s conflicts, more or less pacified unhealthy instincts and biological forces, which he himself is not able to control.
The new psychology, proclaimed by Seligman, uses a completely different approach. Her task is no longer to raise a person from a minus mark to zero on a life scale, but help him go through “zero” to the gradation “plus”.
“Psychology of positivism” is revolutionary, since it is engaged in what can make a person happy. Its goal is to develop in us the ability to love and be loved, to see the meaning in each of our actions, to be responsible for what we are able to change, and persistent in the face of the inevitable. One of the wonderful illustrations of this new psychology is an international research program dedicated to the ability of Tibetan monks to deliberately fill themselves with positive emotions. Using Buddhist practices, these monks are able to radically change the condition of their brain, gaining a sense of peace and compassion, approaching the “territory” of happiness. **
In the same of us who are not going to monasticism, the first serious work in the field of positive psychology also open simpler paths: for example, at least once a week, write down the most positive of what happened to us during this time,noting how we contributed to these events. Only six weeks (about the same amount is needed to get the effect of taking antidepressant!) – and life will bring us much more pleasure ***.
One of the most serious conclusions of positive psychology indicates how important our connection with other people. The famous American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who opened the phenomenon of “absorption of activity”, called the “stream” (flow), notes: “People are the happiest when they are in society of their own kind. The worst that a person can wish himself is at home in silence and tranquility, without particularly urgent classes and deeds. But most people are sure that they dream of this!»Elementary search for pleasure, says Seligman, does not lead to a sustainable feeling of well -being. Happiness gives only a state of involvement (in love, family life, work, existence in society …) or “meaningfulness of our own activity” – when we use our best features and abilities to act for the good of others.
And yet, the most important idea of the new psychology is best explained to us by little Nikki: each of us has a natural ability to be happy, and, by and large, to decide whether to give her a chance to come true for us into reality.
* M. E. P. Seligman, m. Csikszentmihalyi. Positive Psychology: An Introduction. American Psychologist, 2000, Vol. 1 (55). ** a. Lutz, l. L. Greischar et al. ProChedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 2004, Vol. 101. *** r. A. Emmons, m. E. McCullush. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 2003, Vol. 2 (84).