Wellbeing

Wednesday Wisdom: Week 21: Wellbeing

One way of thinking about wellbeing is as a training process - where by practising HABITS (such as focusing on practising gratitude or on other positive thinking or behaviour) they become automatic and can replace more harmful patterns. In fact this is one of the ways that ancient philosophers thought about wellbeing and how to live a good life (The Stoic philosophers - especially Seneca)

Most forms of treatment for mental health problems focus on distressing thoughts or unpleasant emotions. Wellbeing approaches (like other forms of positive psychology) focus instead on nourishing and enjoyable experiences. The aim is that with practice we overcome our natural tendency to attend to things that might harm us (which is an useful strategy in times of danger or scarcity) and instead bring our attention to things that are enjoyable, that give us joy, those things for which we are grateful.

Flow Experiences

Flow experiences are characterized by:

• clear goals, immediate feedback

• High challenges matched with adequate personal skills

• Merging of action and awareness

• Concentration on the task at hand

• Perceived control of the situation

• Loss of self-consciousness

• Altered sense of time

• Intrinsic motivation

In other words: What is the activity you do that is challenging, that you feel really good at, and where you lose all sense of time.

Let us know what your FLOW experiences are across the socials- Wakeywakeytv- across them all!