Positive Psychology Interventions (Part One)
Positive Interventions
Positive Psychological Interventions (PPIs) are scientifically based techniques that help us increase our health and happiness (in their broadest sense). PPIs must address at least one positive psychology construct or theory, and their effectiveness should have been supported by empirical research evidence.
PPIs are designed to promote positivity in people’s lives and help them cope with adverse events, emotions and moods that they may experience. Research suggests that the best results from PPIs were achieved in therapeutic settings and coaching; nonetheless, carefully self-administered PPIs are still effective in improving well-being.
More than one hundred positive psychology interventions have been suggested, and most of them are backed by empirical evidence that supports their efficacy in improving people’s well-being and happiness.
Person-Activity Fit
PPIs are indeed useful, but like any other technique, they have their own time, place and limitations. It is crucial to think critically when using PPIs or any other intervention approaches in clinical, coaching or therapeutic practices.
Meta-analyses (studies of previous studies) have generally found PPIs are beneficial (to varying degrees, depending on circumstances). They are undeniably appealing to mental health practitioners, counsellors and coaches. However, some people with a particular culture, personality type, attitude, or health condition do not benefit from some of these interventions (and may even be harmed by them).
Therefore, positive psychology practitioners (therapists, counsellors and coaches) should not apply PPIs universally to every person without considering who they are and whether they would benefit from the selected PPI (person-activity-fit principle). Below, you find a summary of the most common PPIs.
Gratitude
Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what we have received/achieved (tangible or conceptual). It is also a way to focus on and appreciate what we have instead of what we lack. Gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. It helps people feel more positive emotions, enjoy their experiences, improve their health, deal better with adversity and build stronger relationships.
Research has shown that people who kept a gratitude daily or weekly gratitude journal were more optimistic, felt better about their lives and had fewer visits to their doctor (GP). Staff and employees who received genuine messages of gratitude felt more motivated, worked harder and had higher productivity than those who did not. The virtue of gratitude grows stronger with use and practice. Here are some ways you can use to cultivate gratitude:
keep a gratitude journal,
write and personally deliver a letter of gratitude,
count your blessings,
mentally thank someone,
More importantly, ensure you always show your appreciation for people who serve you in any way.
Savouring
Savouring is about noticing and appreciating the positive aspects of our lives. Savouring involves mindful and conscious attention to our gratifying and pleasant experiences. It is an attempt to fully feel, appreciate and extend our positive feelings and experiences. Savouring is a great way to develop stable and enduring positive thoughts and emotions.
To exercise savouring, spend a few minutes thinking about a happy, joyful or pleasant event that happened to you recently. As you remember that enjoyable event, think about the people, smells, sounds, sights and physical sensations that you experienced. Try to recreate the positive emotions that you felt at the time. In your mind, explore everything about that happy experience which made you feel good, and mentally hold on to those pleasant feelings. Take a deep breath and pay attention to how these emotions feel in your body. The idea is to deeply experience, appreciate, remember and prolong those positive feelings.
You can also practice savouring the present moment by paying attention to your positive experiences when you find yourself feeling good. Mentally hold on to them by thinking about the positive emotions and what causes them and do a short savouring meditation. Adding gratitude to savouring reminds you that you are also thankful for those positive emotions.
Kindness
Kindness is about acts of compassion (often small), such as helping others, being pleasant or benevolent (for their own sake), and not expecting anything in return. The association between kindness and happiness suggests that happy people tend to engage in more prosocial behaviours, and those who engage in kind activities experience heightened happiness.
Kindness is a character strength that bolsters friendship, cooperation and social bonds. It sets examples of good practice in compassion, generosity and empathy and makes us feel good about ourselves. Research suggests that pursuing happiness need not be a self-focused or self-absorbed endeavour. By helping others, people are more likely to feel confident in accepting change, building better relationships and triggering an upward spiral of positive emotions and relationships (see altruism below).
Rabbit Effect
Can kindness determine who gets sick and who stays healthy? This is the question Dr Kelli Harding answered in her book “The Rabbit Effect”, which looks at the effect of kindness and relationships on our health. The story began in 1978 when Dr Robert Nerem and his colleagues were studying rabbits to establish the relationship between a high-fat diet and the health of rabbits’ hearts. Instead, they discovered that kindness could help rabbits to be healthier!
The team expected that their rabbits would have fatty deposits in their blood vessels, but the unexpected result was that a significant number of them did not. After much examination, the team discovered that the group of rabbits with healthier blood vessels were under the care of an incredibly kind post-doctoral student who treated the animals with love and patience. A similar study focusing on the type of care rabbits received confirmed that kind and considerate treatment could lead to healthier rabbits.
Dr Harding used that study to introduce a more profound idea that people thrive in communities (families or groups) that advocate kindness, connection and purpose. She showed that kind and considerate treatment, in general, can change our health on molecular, individual, interpersonal and global levels.
Unfortunately, some people have few opportunities for positive interactions and suffer preventable health consequences that our limited biomedical practice model cannot reverse.
Altruism
Altruism is an unbiased and selfless concern for the well-being of others, i.e., it is a moral practice of being concerned for the happiness of other human beings or animals. It is an established virtue in many cultures and a personal quality, the opposite of selfishness. The French philosopher Auguste Comte coined "altruism" as an antonym of “egoism”. Altruism is different from “loyalty”, as loyalty is a feature of relationships, while altruism does not consider relationships.
In natural sciences, altruism is the action of individuals (organisms), which is at a cost to them but of benefit to another (directly or indirectly), without any expectation of reciprocity or compensation. David Steinberg (physician and researcher in organ donation) defined altruism (in clinical settings) as intentional actions that aim to enhance the welfare of another person in the absence of any external rewards.
There is an ongoing debate as to whether true altruism is possible. The theory of psychological egoism (which considers humans to be motivated by self-interest) suggests that no act of sharing, helping or sacrificing can be described as genuinely altruistic because people may receive an intrinsic reward in the form of personal gratification.
Effective Altruism
Effective altruism is a philosophy and a social movement that advocates using evidence and reasoning to determine the most effective way of supporting others. Effectiveness refers to doing the highest good with available resources and identifying the highest good by using evidence and reasoning (as opposed to only doing what feels good or appears appealing).
While many may think of effective altruism as what charities (non-profit organisations) often do, the idea of effective altruism applies more broadly to prioritising the scientific projects, companies and policies which can save lives, help people or otherwise have the most significant effect on their well-being.
Most published literature on effective altruism emphasises impartial reasoning and conclude that all other things being equal (ceteris paribus), everyone's well-being (and suffering) counts equally, regardless of who they are. Impartiality about benefitting others, combined with seeking the best, is compatible with prioritising benefits to those in a worse state because anyone who is worse off will benefit more from improving their condition.
Some have argued that doing the best can only be achieved through promoting humans' long-term well-being by reducing existential risks to humanity (climate change, ecosystem collapse or pandemic diseases). Others think that the interests of animals should also be given equal moral weight to humans’ interests.
Philosopher Peter Singer expressed an argument for impartiality that has been influential among effective altruists for decades. In his 1972 essay "Famine, Affluence and Morality", he wrote: “It makes no moral difference whether the person I can help is a neighbour’s child ten yards away from me or a Bengali whose name I shall never know, ten thousand miles away, … The moral point of view requires us to look beyond the interests of our own society, ...”
Reciprocal Altruism
In evolutionary biology, reciprocal altruism is a behaviour where an organism acts in a manner that temporarily reduces its fitness while increasing another organism's fitness, with the expectation that the other organism will later act similarly.
The concept was initially developed by Robert Trivers (American evolutionary biologist and socio-biologist) to explain the evolution of cooperation as instances of mutually altruistic acts. The idea is close to the "tit for tat" strategy used in game theory and was introduced by Anatol Rapoport (Ukrainian-born American mathematical psychologist). It is also rooted in the work of William Hamilton (English evolutionary biologist, 1936-2000). He developed mathematical models for predicting the likelihood of an altruistic act to be performed on behalf of one's kin.
Christopher Stephens (associate professor, University of British Colombia, Canada) showed a set of three necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for reciprocal altruism: 1) the behaviour must reduce a donor's fitness relative to a selfish alternative; 2) the fitness of the recipient must be elevated relative to non-recipients; 3) the performance of the behaviour must not depend on the receipt of an immediate benefit. These conditions must apply to both individuals engaging in reciprocal helping. Moreover, there are two additional conditions necessary for reciprocal altruism to evolve: a) a mechanism for detecting “cheaters” and b) there must be a large (or indefinite) number of opportunities for exchange.
Altruism and Longevity
Studies by Harvard University and others in the US add weight to the idea that altruism (such as volunteering) can help us live longer (Positive News, 2020 - https://www.positive .news/). One study of 13,000 adults found that people over 50 who volunteered for two hours a week had a reduced risk of mortality, less chance of developing physical impairments and a better sense of well-being than the control group (those who didn’t volunteer).
The study showed that altruism in the form of volunteering among older adults doesn’t just strengthen communities but enriches the volunteers’ lives by strengthening their bonds to other people, helping them feel a sense of purpose and protecting them from loneliness, depression and hopelessness (Dr Eric Kim - Harvard’s School of Public Health).
Note that loneliness has been linked to premature death by various studies as damaging as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. In comparison, a growing body of research has linked altruism (being kind and helping others cope during a crisis such as the coronavirus pandemic) to well-being and positive health outcomes (see loneliness).
Resources and Further Reading
Steinberg, David (2010). "Altruism in medicine: its definition, nature, and dilemmas". Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. 19 (2): 249–57.
Margolis, H. (1984). Selfishness, altruism, and rationality. University of Chicago Press.
Batson, C. & Powell, A. (2003). Altruism and prosocial behaviour. Handbook of psychology.
Hamilton (1964). The Genetical Evolution of Social Behaviour II. Journal of Theoretical Biology.
Trivers, R. (1971). The evolution of reciprocal altruism. Quarterly Review of Biology. 46: 35–57.
Stephens, C. (1996). Modelling Reciprocal Altruism. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 47 (4): 533–551.
Self-compassion
Dr Kristin Neff (associate professor at the University of Texas in Austin) has described having compassion for ourselves as not being different from having compassion for others. To have compassion for others requires the ability to notice that others are suffering and having the sensitivity to be moved by their suffering (the word compassion means to “suffer with”). It is about generosity to offer our understanding and kindness (rather than judging them), especially when they fail or make mistakes.
Having compassion (rather than pity) leads to the realisation that suffering, failure and imperfection are part of our shared humanity. Therefore, instead of mercilessly judging and criticising ourselves for our inadequacies or shortcomings, self-compassion means we should be kind and understanding and acknowledge that we’re only human (fallible, but also good learners).
Self-compassion is not self-pity or self-indulgence. Feeling self-pity means being immersed in our own problems and forgetting that others have similar issues. Self-pity or self-indulgence is an egocentric (selfish) feeling that separates us from others, with an exaggerated sense of personal entitlement or suffering. On the other hand, self-compassion allows us to see the related experiences of self and others without feeling isolated and disconnected.
People who are self-indulgent or feel self-pity cannot step back from their situation and adopt a more balanced or objective perspective. In contrast, being compassionate towards self and others leaves a mental space where we can recognise and appreciate the broader context of our experience within the realm of humanity and put things in a greater perspective. Dr Neff (a pioneer in self-compassion research) created a scale to measure self-compassion.
Three Elements of Self-compassion
kindness v Judgment. Self-compassion entails being warm and understanding (being kind) to ourselves when we suffer, fail or feel inadequate, rather than ignoring our pain or lashing ourselves with self-criticism (judging).
Humanity v Isolation. Frustration at not having everything exactly as we want is often accompanied by an irrational sense of self-interest, egotism (isolation) and arrogance. However, self-compassion involves recognising that suffering and personal inadequacy are part of our shared humanity (and generosity), something that we all go through rather than something that happens to “me” alone.
Mindfulness v Over-identification. Self-compassion also requires a balanced approach to our negative emotions so that feelings are neither suppressed nor exaggerated (not distorted). This equilibrium stems from relating our experiences to those suffering, thus putting our own situation into a larger perspective. It also stems from the willingness to observe our negative thoughts and emotions with openness and clarity to hold them in mindful awareness. Mindfulness is a non-judgmental, receptive state of mind. We cannot ignore our pain and simultaneously feel compassion for it. Mindfulness makes us avoid minimising or maximising (over-identifying or distorting) our feelings.
Visualising Best Possible Self
Research by Johannes Heekerens and Michael Eid (of Freie University in Berlin) and subsequent other studies have shown that visualising our Best Possible Self (BPS) boosts our positive emotions, happiness levels, optimism, hope, coping skills and positive expectations about the future.
We should visualise our best possible self in two steps: a) visualising ourselves at a future time when we will have accomplished our goals, and b) considering the character strengths and the actions we’ll need to make that vision come true. The following steps guide you through such an exercise:
Take a few minutes to select a future time (six months, one year or three years from now) and imagine that you are experiencing your best possible self at that time.
Visualise it vividly in a pleasant, interesting and exciting way. Use all your senses.
Imagine in vivid detail that you have worked hard and accomplished your goals. You might think of it as reaching your full potential, hitting an important milestone or realising one of your dreams. Be careful; you should not think of unrealistic fantasies but rather things that are positive and attainable within reason.
Make sure that you also consider and think through the character strengths and the actions that helped you make your vision come true.
After having a reasonably clear image, write it with as many details as possible. Write how you feel living through such an achievement and with the character strengths conducive to that way of life.
Writing down your best possible self helps you create a logical structure for the future and can help you move from the realm of foggy ideas and fragmented thoughts to concrete, real possibilities. Make sure that you also write about the character strengths and the necessary actions that made your best possible self a reality. Some people prefer to reverse the process by writing about the image before sitting back and playing it in their minds.
Body Posture
We communicate to others and ourselves through body posture, hand gestures and facial expressions. When we have a brilliant day and feel on top of the world, we smile, walk energetically, stand tall and make bold gestures with our hands. On the other hand, when we have a bad day and feel miserable and low, we hunch over slightly, keep our hands closer to our bodies and frown.
Interestingly, the communication between our body posture and feelings goes both ways (Embodied cognition). For example, happiness leads to smiling, and conversely smiling leads to happiness.
“Emotions and thoughts affect our posture and energy levels, while our posture and energy affect our emotions and thoughts” (Dr Erik Peper). Our bodies change our minds, our minds change our behaviour, and our behaviour changes our outcomes (Dr Amy Cuddy).
Therefore, we can change our feelings by changing how we hold our body (posture). The chemistry of our brain (hormones) changes by how we keep our bodies and what we physically do (Dr Erik Peper and Dr Amy Cuddy 2012). Just two minutes of “power poses” (a day before a meeting or an interview) can change how we feel about ourselves (controversial, but ample anecdotal evidence). This exercise is not about displaying confidence to others, but about changing our attitude and brain chemistry (hormones: increased testosterone levels and decreased cortisol levels, or the stress hormone). Fake it till you become it (Dr Amy Cuddy).
Dr Peper and his colleagues suggest that posture significantly contributes to decreased energy levels and depression. Slouching (sitting in front of our computer to looking down at our smartphones) results in frequent headaches and neck and shoulder pains.
Affirmations
Our daily experiences are substantially affected by our unconscious beliefs and attitudes. Therefore, we need to change our unconscious perceptions to improve our lives. One way to do that is by repeating and reciting positive statements (affirmations).
Affirmations stimulate and prompt our minds and help us believe certain things about ourselves or the world. They also help us create the reality we want, often generating confidence, courage or happiness.
They can focus our attention on our goals throughout the day and inspire or remind us of important points about our decisions. They also have the potential to promote positive thinking and enduring self-change.
Just randomly repeating any slogan is not enough. We need to write our affirmations properly and use them correctly. Effective affirmations are written in first-person and positive sentences (instead of negative). We should write them in the simple present tense (or continuous present tense), be emotionally charged (use encouraging, inspirational and emotional words), and focus on the solution rather than the problem.
Adding visualisation to our positive affirmations makes them more effective (see Visualising Best Possible Self).
Once you’ve developed a set of affirmations, you must use them regularly (several times a day) and act on your affirmations to benefit from them. You should stick to your affirmations long enough to see their effect (probably four to eight weeks).
Spirituality & Religion
Although horrible atrocities have been committed in the name of religion worldwide throughout history, research suggests that religion and spirituality have some positive benefits for some people (ignoring the perils associated with religiosity).
Young people who regularly engage in religious activities tend to be less involved in smoking, drug use and alcohol consumption. They are more likely to have better grades, delay having sex and less likely to experience violent conflict.
Religious beliefs and practices have been associated with altruism, voluntary activities, kindness and forgiveness. Religious beliefs are also broadly associated with our ability to cope with stressful life events and overall well-being. Social support from religious communities plays a substantial role in positive coping.
Some research on spirituality, religion and coping suggests that the benefits of faith must occur more because of how we are religious (religious style and orientation, or the way people interact with and express their religion) than whether we are religious.
Gordon Allport (personality theorist) distinguished intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation. He explained that extrinsically oriented individuals seek out religion mainly because they are motivated by guilt or external sources of pressure (family, social pressure, etc.). In contrast, intrinsically orientated persons are motivated more by faith and a search for meaning and purpose. Some evidence suggests that individuals with an intrinsic orientation can cope better with stressful life events since this orientation leads them to find meaning in what has happened.
Spirituality is a concept that overlaps but is not equivalent to religiosity. Hence, a person can be spiritual without being religious. In contrast, it’s possible to adopt the outward form of religion without experiencing spiritual qualities.
Spiritual and religious activities are positively transformational when they do not condemn us, separate us from others and raise animosity and hate. Positive spiritual beliefs help us live a better life and become compassionate, generous and caring.
Thinking About Death
Facing up to the reality of our death and seeing life as a brief window of existence can give us insight into our attitude towards our lives. We can use this awareness to ensure we fully live while we can, and it doesn’t matter if our lives are adventurous or quiet, successful or modest, as long as we live in a way that’s true to us (to our values and our happiness).
One of the most mind-blowing aspects of being alive is realising what it means to be alive! Seeing our lives in this broader context can help us put our worries into perspective and give us a sense of calmness. We don’t need to dwell on death as we go through life, but we should live with a clear understanding of the brevity of life and the certainty of death. Living with this perspective on life and death should encourage us to savour every moment, making the most of this unique opportunity and living well.
Memento Mori (remember, you die) is the stoics’ practice of reflection on mortality (dailystoic.com). “Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day. The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.” Seneca (see Stoicism).
At a Roman triumph, the public would have their eyes glued to the victorious general at the front, one of the most coveted spots during Roman times. Only a few would notice the aide in the back behind the commander whispering, “Remember, thou art mortal (you are impermanent).” What a reminder at the peak of glory and victory!
Throughout history, Memento Mori reminders have come in many forms. Some, like the aide behind the general, were there to humble. Others were invented to inspire zest for life. For instance, the essayist Michel de Montaigne was fond of an ancient Egyptian custom where, during festivities, a skeleton would be brought out with people cheering, “Drink and be merry for when you’re dead, you will look like this.” To us, this may sound like an awful idea. However, we desperately need reminders like this in our own lives: an idea that we’d rather ignore, do everything to avoid and pretend is not true.
Our ego often runs away from anything that reminds us of the reality that sits at odds with the comfortable narrative we have built for ourselves. We may simply be petrified to look at life’s facts as they are, and there is a straightforward fact that most of us are utterly scared to ponder, reflect on and face head-on: We are going to die, and everyone around us is going to die. Such reminders and contemplations form the Memento Mori, the ancient practice of reflection on mortality that goes back to Socrates, who said, “The proper course of philosophy is about nothing else but dying and being dead.”
In early Buddhist texts, a prominent term is maranasati, meaning “remember death.” Some Sufis (a mystic sect of Muslims) are called the “people of the graves” because they frequently visit graveyards to ponder death and their mortality.
What if, instead of being scared of death and unwilling to embrace this truth, we did the opposite? What if reflecting and meditating on death is the secret to living life to the fullest and the key to our freedom? As Montaigne put it, “To practise death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be enslaved.” Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations (his private journal), “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.” That was a personal reminder to continue living a life of virtue now and not wait.
The French painter Philippe de Champaigne expressed a similar sentiment in his painting Still Life with a Skull, which showed the three essentials of existence: the tulip (life), the skull (death), and the hourglass (time). The original painting is part of a genre referred to as Vanitas, a form of 17th-century artwork featuring symbols of mortality that encourage reflection on the meaning and transience of life.
Pondering on our mortality is only depressing if we miss the point. It is a tool to create priority and meaning. It’s a tool that generations have used to develop objective perspective and urgency. Treating our time as a gift and not wasting it on the trivial and vain. Death doesn’t make life pointless but rather purposeful. And fortunately, we don’t have to nearly die to tap into this. A simple reminder can bring us closer to living the life we want.
The Stoics find this thought refreshing and humbling. Unsurprisingly, one of Seneca’s biographies is titled Dying Every Day. After all, Seneca urged us to tell ourselves, when going to bed, “You may not wake up tomorrow”, and when waking up, “You may not sleep again”. Another Stoic, Epictetus, urged his students: “Keep death and exile before your eyes each day, along with everything that seems terrible; by doing so, you’ll never have a base (improper) thought nor will you have excessive desire.” Use those reminders and meditate on them daily; let them be the building blocks of living your life to the fullest and not wasting a second.
Self-Care
Self-care is any action that helps us avoid health problems and decreases the risk of having a physical or mental disorder. Self-care may include personal hygiene, getting enough sleep, beautifying (makeup, in moderation), wearing nice and clean clothing, healthy eating, etc. Self-care brings balance to our lives and makes us happier and more energetic. It boosts our confidence, increases our self-esteem, lessens our stress and enhances our overall resilience and wellbeing. The problem is we don’t often take enough or proper care of ourselves.
Research suggests we neglect ourselves regularly because other things such as our work, daily chores, children, or partners and friends incessantly demand our time and attention. The other reason is the fallacy of associating self-care with selfishness and indulgence, making us feel guilty about our likes and needs. However, neglecting ourselves has serious consequences (physically, mentally, socially, and economically), and the problem is that we usually don’t notice that we are neglecting ourselves.
Taking care of ourselves and pursuing health and happiness is far from selfish. We would likely see improvement in many aspects of our lives, including our mental and physical health, relationships and even our bank account. Our partners, children and friends will also benefit when we live a more balanced and healthy life.
We must take good care of ourselves every day, not just when we get sick. We should make every effort to eat well, keep fit, reduce stress, exercise regularly and take a time-out when we need it (see Niksen). Self-care isn’t always easy, and it can be challenging to do adequately. We are always busy, have demanding jobs and are too engrossed with our mobile phones and social media to make time for ourselves. Usually, me-time is the last part of our schedule, and we may feel guilty about prioritising ourselves. So, here are some tips that could help you enhance your self-care habits.
Learn to say no to others and yes to your self-care.
Schedule your self-care and vigorously guard that time.
Every day, do something you enjoy (dancing, watching a favourite TV show, working in the garden, painting or reading).
Learn how to relax and find ways to do it regularly (meditation, yoga, getting a massage, taking a bath or walking in a park).
Make sure you get enough sleep.
Take care of your gut and eat right.
Avoid drugs and alcohol.
Read a book or a magazine (stay with entertainment kind).
Make a habit of retaining good personal hygiene.
Arrange and attend regular medical check-ups.
Keep socially active (regularly visit your friends and relatives, connect with others, and connect with your community).
Call an old friend or reconnect with someone you haven’t had time to talk to for a long time.
Exercise regularly (ensure you have a physically active life).
Occasionally, take a self-care break (a short trip or a weekend retreat).
A pet could be part of your self-care (some pets, primarily dogs, are good companions).
Practice self-compassion and be true to yourself.
Practice mindfulness and learn to regulate your emotions.
Hobbies
Starting a new hobby (leisure and artistic pursuit) such as music, painting, dancing, sculpting, model making, gardening, building, theatrical pastime, etc., or revisiting an old one could be the solution to boredom, idleness, binge-watching or eating, gambling, drinking, anxiety and depression.
From the arts to sports and cooking, hobbies are superb stress relievers, boosting our overall well-being and happiness. Regardless of how busy we may be, finding a hobby we enjoy during our downtime is crucial. Those who regularly engage in a hobby feel happier, more energetic and remain enthusiastic even after a few days.
Hobbies can sharpen our minds, boost our creativity and develop problem-solving skills. They are also good opportunities for socialising and meeting others. Research has found that enjoyable leisure activities are associated with lower blood pressure, lower body mass index and resistance to depression and anxiety.
Empathy
Empathy is about showing concern and compassion for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. It emerges from imagining ourselves in other people's positions and considering how they might feel in a given circumstance. In other words, it is a conceptual leap where we try to understand the world from another person's perspective. It also entails considering our effect and impact on others and the environment.
Empathy is the source of kindness, compassion and generosity.
Core Values
Our core values are the most important principles (or moral concepts) that we care about, such as how we should treat each other, other creatures that share this planet with us and the world in general. We must identify, own up to, and live by our values.
Try to develop a few principles that summarise how you want to live your life (probably the same as notions that give meaning to our lives). We don’t have to be philosophers to find our core values; we just need to be honest about what gives us a sense of purpose and fulfilment.
Once we have a sense of what we value most or what gives us meaning in life, we should choose to live in a way that embraces those values and is consistent with them.
Purpose and Meaning
Anais Nin (French-Cuban writer) once said, “There is not one big cosmic meaning for all; there is only the meaning we each give to our lives.” The meaning of life is subjective (personal); it is the meaning we attribute to (identify or associate with) our lives. Many things that give meaning to our lives are relatively simple and sit right before our eyes, such as relationships with our loved ones. However, we are often unable to see them for what they are.
Our inability to find meaning in life could be due to conflicting values or being blinded by commercial, political, ideological or religious influences that act like fog and make it harder to see what gives meaning to our lives. As mentioned for core values, we don’t have to be philosophers to find the meaning of our lives. We need to remove ourselves (as much as possible) from external distractions and influences and be honest about what gives us a sense of purpose and fulfilment in life.
Make a shortlist of the most important things in your life and reflect on them. You don’t have to come up with a great, profound and significant statement. Once you’ve gained a sense of what gives meaning to your life, you should try to live in a way that embodies that idea and is genuinely consistent with it.
Physical Exercise
We should aim to be more active in fun and enjoyable ways (walking, gardening, cleaning, stretching or playing tennis). Exercise becomes a physical activity when it is part of our daily life. So, we should aim to introduce more physical activity into our daily lives (not necessarily a gym membership), roughly equivalent to around 12000 steps per day.
Engaging in moderate physical activities will improve mood and uplift emotional states. Exercise can promote physical and psychological well-being and improve the quality of our lives. As little as ten minutes of aerobic exercise or even a brief walk at sensible intensity will enhance our mood, increase our energy, and have a notable positive effect on our health in general.
For long-term benefits, we should exercise at least three times a week for about thirty minutes per session at a moderate intensity. When physical activity is fun and pleasant, we are more likely to continue doing it and making it an essential part of our routine.
A report by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (in 2015) called exercise: the miracle cure. It is said that regular exercise can assist in the prevention of strokes, some cancers, anxiety, depression, heart disease and dementia (reducing the risk by about 30%). If we go to a gym once a week and work hard, our inactivity at other times can still damage our health. Moderate and continuous activities at regular intervals and for sustained periods seem to produce the best results.
