One tool that helps you incorporate using positive psychology is Gratitude Journaling. It teaches you to appreciate the impact that gratitude can have on your well-being. The three most important things to know about Positive Psychology according to Martin Seligman, coauthor of the Positive Psychology Workbook is that “PPT is a therapeutic approach that attempts to counteract symptoms with strengths, weaknesses with virtues and deficits with skills to help one understand complex situations and experiences in a balanced way”.
Here is a way that Martin Seligman suggests for you to get started with the following journaling exercise:
First, try to relax and follow your breath in and out 7 to 10 times then …
-Recall and reflect on a time when you prevailed in a circumstance and journal about it. After sharing your story on paper and then with your therapist you can begin to acknowledge your strengths and reframe your experience in a more positive way.
-Resiliency: Mindfully recall a meaningful experience weaving it into a story you create with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Write it down, share it and take the opportunity to reframe it, reappraise and refile important parts of the self that were revealed in the story. Write down your strengths and virtues.
-Your distress and hurt from past experiences can be an opportunity to take a deeper look at your past, and the skills you used in a difficult situation as you work on overcoming and moving forward. Write down the skills you have learned that have helped you, and the weaknesses that you can acknowledge as stepping stones to create positive change.
According to PPT as stated in the Positive Psychology Workbook there are:
Three things to know about Gratitude Journaling:
Vanessa Adams, LMHC