Julieta Karahalios

PSY-2900-400-Sp17

Inst. Meyers

6 April 6, 2017

Positive Semester Project

Methods

During the course of this semester, I tried to pick methods that I

could implement on a daily basis in order to see their results. Through

PERMA, I found I needed to focus mainly on accomplishment and

positive emotion to better help myself. They are listed as follows:

Method 1: Increase Optimism: March 30-April 3: During this time

period, I came to find out that the job I had been promised through my

military move would not work out. Usually, I would get scared because

I thought I would have a source of income and not have to live off my

husband. I actively worked to change my mind set to optimism versus

focusing on the bad of the situation, and thought about how this works

out better for me. I was able to see that moving to a new town would

be scary if I didn't find a job there to socialize with people and make

friends. This contributed to PERMAs positive emotion, and I loved

every moment about it. The only complaint I have is that too much

optimism may blind you from seeing other effects that may not be

ideal.
Method 2: Take a few moments of quiet time: Daily: I practice

this method everyday since I am a high anxiety individual. I practiced

by taking 15-minute breaks at least once a day. I close my eyes, lie

down or sit down in pure silence, and let time stop. This also relates to

PERMAs positive emotion, and resonates with our TED talk on slowing

down. This was perhaps the most positive of all the methods for me

since it helped ease my anxiety and recharge. The hardest part about

this method is learning how to stop my racing mind.

Method 3: Create a to do list: 2/15, 3/11, 4/3: In between school,

moving to another state, and having two jobs: my mind is a weed of

things I need to do. During this method, I simply just made a list of

everything I needed to accomplish starting from the most urgent to the

least. What I really liked about this method is that it held me

accountable, and it was satisfying to cross things off my to do list. The

only thing I didn't like is that I did get slight anxiety if I didn't

accomplish something on time. This relates to PERMAs

accomplishment by helping accomplish small goals.

Method 4: Go to the Gym: 3-4x a week: I have always been a gym

rat and usually engage in weight training and light cardio. My schedule

has been extremely tedious lately, so I have been slacking. I have

started to go to the gym before work at 7am in order to fit in the

workout. I liked this method because it jumpstarted my day and my

workouts were powerful from not being post-work drained. It was rough
when I was really tired and would have preferred sleeping in instead.

This contributed to PERMAs positive emotion simply for the nice

endorphin rush and self-confidence.

Method 5: Eat Well Balanced Meals: Mid Feb- Current: Tagging

along with going to the gym, this method was also put in place to help

get my schedule on track. With so much going on I found myself barely

eating- and when I did it wasn't the right food. I do my best now to

prep my food and make enough time to eat appropriate meals. I have

even eliminated processed foods in order to add more fruits and

vegetables into my diet. I love this method because I feel very

energetic, but equally hated it because I love carbs. This contributed to

PERMAs accomplishment since it was probably the toughest method.

The difference in my Oxford Scale of Happiness Questionnaire

was quite impressive, going up by 2 points. I worked really hard to

implement these methods into my life in order to truly better my

happiness.

Reflection

As a blessing in disguise, this Positive Psychology class landed in

my lap right as I was facing some hard times in my life. I would have to

say out of my entire college career, this was the most effective

exercise and practice since I could easily apply it into my life. I find that

many times in psych courses there is a lot of talk and analyze, but not

enough applying. This helped expand on what I know as a student, and

honestly give me a little more hope for my future classes. As it shows

in my questionnaire, this did greatly help increase my happiness and it

made me start thinking about some anxiety ridden portions of my life

differently. I feel as if I have become more aware of my emotions and

what is truly worth my worry or not. The strategy I liked best had to be

my 15 minutes of relaxation time since it lessened my anxiety by

nearly 70%. I was working two jobs at the same time, and having just a

small amount of time to recharge between the two produced the same

effect of a large coffee or 5 hour energy, only I felt much more rested.

On top of this, during my move, our leasing office was closed when we

arrived so my husband and I were left high and dry. Luckily, we both

stayed positive and were able to score a room for the night on an Air

Force base. My second favorite strategy was hitting the gym since it

helped boost my energy and self-confidence. I struggle with my self-

image and giving myself time in the gym really helped me appreciate

what my body is capable and that I am strong. My least favorite

exercise was eating balanced meals, since I have some intense

cravings for horrible food when I am stressed out. It was very

convenient to have food ready to take and it actually helped me save

money. Since I always had food available, I have been able to stop

eating out so much in order to eat my pre-made meals. I was

astounded that by implementing some pretty simple methods, I could

really change how I outlook my life on a different note. It made me

think back to the methods I used in therapy when I was younger,

recovering from a severe eating disorder. We constantly focused on

taking our mind off ourselves and trying to find appreciation and

enjoyment in everything we did. Just this small amount of enjoyment

helped get me out of my own head, and so did these methods 8 years

later. The methods I chose are simple ones that help me feel as though

my life is well rounded, but I do plan to use more off our list in order to

maximize the positivity in my life. I know that when I move, I may face

some trials that will benefit from implementing relaxation and

mindfulness methods.

In all honesty, I did not expect my Oxford questionnaire to

budge- but then again I probably used my current feelings to predict

my future ones as well. It went up by 2 points, which considering it is

only a 1-6 points is really great. My answers suddenly seemed to end

on a more positive note, in comparison to some of my gloomy ones

that took place back in January. The questionnaire did reflect positive

changes into my life, which I hope to incorporate into my life more

naturally. Who knew that thinking positively could take so much work?

Having a tendency to pull a strong negativity bias is in my nature, but I

have thoroughly challenged myself in this semester project.

Strategizing

As mentioned above, I discussed 5 different strategies that

helped increase my happiness. All 5 strategies can relate to what I

learned in this course, but the 2 that resonate the most towards our

studies would be mindfulness and increased optimism. I will discuss

below 3 pieces of research that support why these two methods have

been the most resourceful through this project.

1. Increasing optimism does tie in with being mindful. I have hit

many blunders in my life path the last few months, but through this

project, I have been able to be a little more light-hearted in how I

approach my goals and situations. I was rather intrigued by a new term

defined in the project: Optimism, Motivational Coping, and Well Being:

Evidence Supporting the Importance of Flexible Goal Adjusting

(Hanssen). Flexible goal adjusting is a method of being able to adjust

our goals accordingly when faced with adversity, in order to keep our

spirits high and increase optimism. In a study conducted at Maastricht

University, flexible goal adjusting was explored with a sample of 254

people: 177 being female, with an average age of 35 in the group. This

was measured by taking a variety of questionnaires: Dispositional

Optimism (LOT-R), Tenacious Goal Pursuit (TGP) (FGA), General Well

Being (W-BQ12), Anxiety and Depression (HADS), and noting physical

complaints (pg. 1528). What they found is that flexible goal adjusting

helped participants be able to deal with challenges or bumps that may

have stopped one goal, by being able to revise and set new goals. The

study calls this Motivational Coping for good reason. It proves that

things may not always go our way, but we can reorganize our goals
and motives to achieve something else. Many people, such as myself,

have a hard time coping when things don't go as planned: especially a

goal. The study was fueled by the idea that pursuing goals too

aggressively or persistently could lead to be detrimental and lower self

confidence, in turn lessening our chances to pursue new goals. This

term came in handy when applying more optimism into my life: if I

couldn't accomplish plan A, there is always a way to find plan B.

2. Mindfullness was a way for me to be aware of my emotions

and help reduce impulsiveness. I tend to react abrasively to many

factors, which is something I had hoped to change through

mindfulness- since I ultimately would lead to regret my impulse-based

decisions. To support my claim, I read a study named Implicitly

Activating Mindfulness Promotes Positive Responses Following Ego

Threat (Bergeron) which was done at Universite Du Quebec A

Montreal. This study explored the emotional and behavioral response

of individuals who used mindfulness after they had a test of ego.

Participants were asked fill out questionnaires and construct sentences

following positive words, along with anagrams. The most important

method was to work on anagrams (which were technically unsolvable)

in order to threaten the ego (since they couldn't find a way to solve

this and were always incorrect). This could be emotionally tough on a

participant when they relentlessly work on an anagram but cannot

seem to solve it. Studies showed that people in the implicit

mindfulness condition showed positive effects after failing (Bergeron,

pg.558). This proves that through emotional regulation (pg. 552),

participants in the implicit mindfulness condition were able to cope

with failure and have a more optimistic outlook post ego threat vs.

those not in the implicit mindfulness condition. I thought this was an

interesting choice of test, since at first I accompanied a threat to the

ego as maybe giving them an insult or critiquing their perfect work.

Instead, this was an easy and harmless experiment- but I do hope to

test this on something a little more intense- such as a disagreement or

being insulted. Many times in life we will fail, and this study along with

flexible goal adjusting show that being able to analyze your feelings

and move on with another game plan, can be reviving for your

emotional health and energy.

3. Throughout the course of this class, I classified that I was

victim of not doing things simply because I imagined it to not go well,

or held bad feelings based of previous prejudices I may have had. I was

even guilty of judging the future to be like it is today- which if we look

at our past, it is not true. In order to implement more optimism I

worked hard to switch around my Pre-Feel mechanism as mentioned in

our book Stumbling on Happiness (Gilbert) (pg. 129-138). Coming

from my personal standpoint, new things scare me. One point Gilbert

mentioned related directly to me- I do everything in my power to pre-

feel: I daydream about the future, what could go wrong, what could go
right, play scenarios in my head. I think of Pre-Feel as my safety net

into the future, so I can slightly have some control on what I anticipate

to come- but this bites me in the butt. Many times I have pre-felt over

events that never happened, resulting in horrible anxiety. Another

point Gilbert had, was that we fall trapped to the idea that the future

will feel much like we do today. The simple study on pg. 136 showed

how researchers called people in different parts of the country to ask

about their life satisfaction. A simple component, the weather, made

all the difference. Those asked during gloomy and rainy day reported

unhappiness, while those in a sunny day reported happiness. This is

proof that we perceive our life and future as a whole according to what

we are currently feeling. We underestimate the power of change,

resilience, and positive things that can come our way. By increasing

optimism in my own life, it has helped sooth the anxiety that comes

with my pre-feel, and feelings towards the future. I know there will be

change, differences, new people, but keeping an open mind and heart

makes this experience less frightening.

 Works Cited

Bergeron, C. M., &Dandeneau, S. (2016). Implicitly Activating

Mindfulness Promotes Positive Responses Following an Ego Threat.

Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology, 35(7), 551-5735.

Gilbert, D. T. (2006). Stumbling on Happiness. New York: A.A. Knopf.

Hanssen, M., Vancleef, L., Vlaeven, J., Hayes, A., Schouten, E., & Peters,

M.

(2015). Optimism, Motivational Coping, and Well-Being: Evidence

Supporting the Importance of Flexible Goal Adjustment. Journal Of

Happiness Studies. 16(6). 1525-1537.