Resiliency: Positivity and Self-Care

Positive psychology is one of the newest branches of psychology to emerge, and there is a growing research base of scientific study to validate the significance of this psychological approach in people's lives. This research investigates a unit of study that was developed for students entering university through an enabling program in order to introduce them to proactive solutions and strategies to develop their strengths, capacity and virtues rather than focusing on past weaknesses. Currently, only anecdotal evidence exists indicating that this unit is having a positive impact on the students who have completed the unit. As this research wants to identify the effectiveness of this unit in facilitating change in a student's life, the core tenets of Appreciative Inquiry guided the overall process of formulating the research approach and designing the questions for the survey. Past students became the change actors and their voice and experiences became the data.

Black communities face multiple stressors including racism, discrimination, and navigating systems of oppression, all of which affect their mental health and wellbeing. In recent years, the practice of self-care has gained popularity as a strategy to cope with stress and to improve overall health. However, the current discourse often focuses on individual self-care behaviors and excludes systemic and community level factors that encourage, sustain, or inhibit self-care practices. This paper contextualizes a conceptual model of self-care with intersectionality theory and the psychology of liberation framework, in relation to the lived experiences of Black communities. The paper aims to underscore the necessity of self and community care as a tool for social justice, preservation, and resistance against oppressive systems that threaten the mental health and wellness of this community.

Importance The COVID-19 pandemic represents a unique stressor in Americans’ daily lives and access to health services. However, it remains unclear how the pandemic impacted perceived health status and engagement in health-related behaviors. Objective To assess changes in self-reported health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to explore trends in health-related behaviors that may underlie the observed health changes. Design Interrupted time series stratified by age, gender, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, household income, and employment status. Setting United States. Participants All adult respondents to the 2016–2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (N = 2,146,384). Exposure Survey completion following the U.S. public health emergency declaration (March-December 2020). January 2019 to February 2020 served as our reference period. Main outcomes and measures Self-reported health outcomes included the number of days per month that respondents spent in poor mental health, physical health, or when poor health prevented their usual activities of daily living. Self-reported health behaviors included the number of hours slept per day, number of days in the past month where alcohol was consumed, participation in any exercise, and current smoking status. Results The national rate of days spent in poor physical health decreased overall (-1.00 days, 95% CI: -1.10 to -0.90) and for all analyzed subgroups. The rate of poor mental health days or days when poor health prevented usual activities did not change overall but exhibited substantial heterogeneity by subgroup. We also observed overall increases in mean sleep hours per day (+0.09, 95% CI 0.05 to 0.13), the percentage of adults who report any exercise activity (+3.28%, 95% CI 2.48 to 4.09), increased alcohol consumption days (0.27, 95% CI 0.18 to 0.37), and decreased smoking prevalence (-1.11%, 95% CI -1.39 to -0.83). Conclusions and relevance The COVID-19 pandemic had deleterious but heterogeneous effects on mental health, days when poor health prevented usual activities, and alcohol consumption. In contrast, the pandemic’s onset was associated with improvements in physical health, mean hours of sleep per day, exercise participation, and smoking status. These findings highlight the need for targeted outreach and interventions to improve mental health in individuals who may be disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

With anxiety and stress at an all-time high, self-care has never been more important. The pandemic has taken a toll on our physical and mental wellbeing leading many to seek healthier habits, avenues for connection and new ways of thinking. Hear from experts about how different kinds of accessible self-care solutions can support altruism and can help you reach your personal and professional wellness goals. Washington Post senior writer Frances Stead Sellers speaks with The Chopra Foundation founder Deepak Chopra, MD, Thrive Global CEO Arianna Huffington and Yale psychologist Laurie Santos on Thursday, March 18 at 12:00pm ET.

This program illustrates the application of positive psychology through a powerful workshop in which participants increase their awareness of what creates happiness by performing acts of indulgence, altruism, and gratitude. How to Be Happy also considers whether wealth, friendship, religion, job satisfaction, raising children, and getting older typically do or don’t promote happiness. An fMRI study on the effect of deep meditation on the brain, a segment on laughter yoga, and a case study of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, a very successful company whose management style is firmly based on the principles of positive psychology, round out the program. Original CBC broadcast title: How to Be Happy! (44 minutes)

In this video designed to teach counselors and supervisors to care for themseles and deal with their own stressors as caregivers, counselor Jacqui Atkinson demonstrates an easily taught technique for self care that can be of benefit to anybody experiencing stress of any sort. In a guided conversation, she helps a “client” to develop a “first aid kit” that he can draw on whenever he needs to - a resource that will always be available, and always be familiar.

Can modern psychology move beyond a focus on disease? How can it help us better understand what we are to become? Martin Seligman is the founder of positive psychology, a field of study that examines healthy states—such as happiness, optimism, and strength of character. In this TEDTalk, he characterizes psychology both as a field of study and as an approach to the human experience, in which a “patient” is actually a practitioner who develops skills for well-being.