Start the year by embracing positive psychology
Feelin’ it? The blahs. Or worse. As the calendar page turns to 2025, we see no date set for General Jubilation. Instead, the zeitgeist is closer to what The New York Times recently called “that lingering ‘meh’ feeling.” A sufferer described it as being “wallpapered in an endless, flat sadness.” Even if most of us never sink so low, this seems a perfect time to revisit a discipline that seeks to instill the very opposite of the blues—positive psychology.
Positive psychology focuses on “the character strengths and behaviors that allow individuals to build a life of meaning and purpose—to move beyond surviving to flourishing,” to cite Psychology Today’s website. It’s not a new branch of study. Humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow used the term in the 1950s, and Martin Seligman, who’s been called the father of positive psychology, began advancing it in the late 1990s.
While traditional therapists put you on the couch to identify and reduce your negative headspace—i.e., problems—positive psychology is interested in what Seligman calls the building blocks of well-being. These include “positive emotions, engagement (with a project, for instance), positive relationships, meaning, and accomplishment/achievement.”
Read More: How to Create a Positive and Mindful Workplace Culture
You are no doubt familiar with the most common practice to promote well-being in positive psychology. It’s gratitude, and it’s not just a New Age-y thing. Its roots run deep in philosophical, religious and cultural traditions throughout history. And research has amply demonstrated its emotional, cognitive and psychological benefits. Journaling about things you are grateful for increases resilience and happiness (by more than 10%, studies show) and lowers levels of depression. One meta-analysis involving 6,745 participants found that gratitude practices positively impacted life satisfaction overall.
“Positive psychology is interested in the building blocks of well-being.”
What Are You Grateful For?
If you haven’t tried it, gratitude journaling need not be a chore—just jot down two or three things a day. Or even recite them in your head just before sleep (you may even sleep better for it). Keep at it—make it a daily habit—for the positive effects to manifest, the experts say.
Concentrating on developing character strengths that foster a sense of well-being—besides gratitude, Seligman and others say, these include hope, zest for life, curiosity, love, perseverance and humor—can pay off to the end of our days. Studies indicate they can give our lives meaning and purpose. Older adults who consider their lives worthwhile tend to have better physical and mental health. And a recent academic study found that meaning and purpose appear to be positive influences on many aspects of our lives, not just health.
So, you might ask, what happens when the inevitable negative emotions and reactions, not to mention all the terrible occurrences of this world, rear their ugly heads? Do you try to deny their existence, even though they are very real? In a word, no. If you have constructed a healthy perimeter of well-being around yourself, advocates of positive psychology say, it will be easier to simply acknowledge the intruders and close ranks.
And that sounds like the best place to be in 2025.
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This article appears in the January 2025 issue. You can subscribe to the magazine here.
