idealawg

Is positive thinking dangerous? Did it cause the financial crisis?

A new book is getting a lot of media attention. For example, just today Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America was reviewed by the Boston Globe and Times (UK). Friday it was reviewed by the New York Times. The publicity seems to be working; the book is at #154 on Amazon even though not being released until Tuesday.

The articles today both had "danger" in the titles. Is positive thinking dangerous? From "Accentuating the positive can be dangerous— what really helps is being lucky" (Times):

An attack on the cult of positivity is much overdue, given that it now pervades life not only in the US but across the globe. It is detectable in everything from political discourse, for example Obama’s campaign of “hope” and the consistent reluctance of British political parties to give the public bad news, to television and radio (Oprah probably being its most famous proponent), sport (it’s impossible to read an interview with any player or manager without the phrase “you’ve got to be positive” being used at some point), medicine (“you’ve got to be positive” has become the default thing to say to anyone diagnosed with cancer), self-help literature (Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret argues you can obtain everything from a lover to a parking space by just imagining it) and business (according to Ehrenreich, who had the idea

Are you thriving? If not, you may want to take a look at how you see time

What's the way you see time have to do with thriving? A lot according to Philip Zimbardo. (Yes, the Philip Zimbardo of the famous Stanford Prison Experiment.) He explained at the recent First World Congress on Positive Psychology in Philadelphia. From "Psychology of thriving" (Philadelphia Inquirer):

Facts. Emotions. Logic. If you ask most people what they base their decisions on, this is the type of answer you're likely to get. But Zimbardo thinks it's not the whole story - or even most of it.

"The main thing that determines your decisions," he said, "is something you're unaware of - your perspective on time."

Imagine going out to lunch with co-workers and deciding whether to have that second martini. You could approach the decision by considering what happened last time you drank too much at lunch, or by envisioning how it would affect your work performance later in the day. You could focus on how much fun it would be right now. Or you might figure that you never get much done in the afternoon anyway, so why not?

These four responses are typical of distinct time perspectives: past, future, present-hedonistic, and present-fatalistic.

Zimbardo and his colleagues created a time-perspective survey and gave it to thousands

Today (May 31, 2009) is the 8th annual What You Think upon Grows Day

This holiday was declared to remind people to pay attention to what they are paying attention to. More about the power of attention.

Image credit: Image*After.

"10 Secrets to Finding Happiness During the Recession"

Lots of old wisdom but some new research supporting it. From "10 Secrets to Finding Happiness During the Recession" (US News & World Report)

How can we truly feel happy right now, in this moment when our 401(k)'s and house values are tanking? When our jobs are threatened or already lost? U . S . News posed this question to leading happiness researchers to find out what tools we can employ to stay upbeat in gloomy days. While it's true that some lucky folks are born with sunny dispositions, others, according to the latest studies, can learn to be happy. How? "We need to move away from the concept of trying to fill our days with frequent pleasurable moments and fewer negative moments," explains Todd Kashdan, a professor of positive psychology at George Mason University and author of Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life. "What truly provides satisfaction is having a meaning and purpose in life, which is doubly important in the midst of this current economic nightmare." Ten other secrets:

Click to read the rest.

Blog Glob: "How to get happy? Thinking positive is a good start"

Excerpt from "How to get happy? Thinking positive is a good start" (SunJournal.com):

In the past few years, ..., cognitive neuroscientists have made considerable advances in unraveling the enigma of human happiness. One of their basic findings is that more than 60 percent of a person's propensity for positive emotion is due to nature - genetic makeup - but the rest is all nurture, meaning the brain's happiness is highly dependent on an individual's experiences, emotions and thought, and thus capable of being "learned."

Just looking for the bright side, it seems, can stimulate the brain and reset its circuitry to more easily find those silver linings.

Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of "The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want," believes positive feelings are not only capable of being learned, but are general skills that can be reinforced every time we find value in a negative event.

"Sometimes I think our country has gone nuts," Lyubomirsky wrote in a blog three weeks ago. "We 

Yeah, lawyers and happiness, again: An opportunity to look at happiness through many lenses

Lawyers and their happiness (or lack of same) is a much-considered and -discussed topic. Today a Google search on the two words "lawyer" and "happiness" yields over four and one-half million finds. And I myself have jumped into the discussion every once in a while blogging about lawyer happiness.

But just what is this thing called happiness? Next month, in the San Francisco Bay Area, is going to be held what appears a wonderful opportunity to answer that question. That opportunity is a conference Happiness & Its Causes. (I am happy to add that If you take a look at the roster of speakers, I think you will see that the woo-woo/airy-fairy factor is fairly low.)

From the Happiness & Its Causes site:

After hugely successful annual conferences internationally since 2006, we are honored to launch the first North American Happiness & Its Causes conference, in San Francisco this year.

What is happiness? Is it possible? What holds us back from it? How to find happiness in the midst of suffering and sadness? How to forgive? How to bring happiness to others?

Over four days—the two-day conference and two days of pre- and post-conference workshops—40 of the best minds in psychology, philosophy, science, education, business, the arts, medicine, and politics will provide answers to these fundamental questions and explore techniques for achieving happiness and well-being, for ourselves and others.

Are any of you going?

Jan. 24, 2009 - Applying the Science of Positive Psychology to Improve Society

Claremont Graduate University has announced a great lineup for their Positive Psychology conference being held early next year. Speakers include Martin Seligman (father of Positive Psychology), Christopher Peterson (author of A Primer in Positive Psychology), Ed Diener (author of Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth), David Cooperrider (founder of Appreciative Inquiry), and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience). Click for more about Applying the Science of Positive Psychology.

Are coaching, organizational development, and appreciative inquiry like "applying leeches"?

You may find that some rich thoughts are provoked as you read "The Future of Leadership," an interview of Art Kleiner, in Shambhala Institute's Fieldnotes. Here are two excerpts I particularly appreciated.

I’m fond of Elliot Jacques’ statement that “management today is where medicine was before the discovery of circulation of the blood.” I think many s+b readers see much of what’s going on in management change as an example of “applying leeches” without really being sure that it is going to make a difference. This year it might be coaching, two years ago it was organizational design, and two years before that it was appreciative inquiry. All these different methods have varying degrees of applicability and validity, but nobody reliably can say why they’re effective, when they’re effective, and where they’re effective. There’s no unifying field theory of management.  . . .

And, of course, being a fan of the brain, I liked seeing the mention of neuroscience here:

At the same time two things have happened. One is that there are now ways of understanding people at work that are more revealing and have more depth than previously was the case. There is a greater understanding that there are significant things going on in organizations that are not necessarily easy to see at the individual level but that colour the direction of the organization. The application of neuroscience in management practice is a developing field that is leading to very interesting insights. Another emerging field is social network analysis—the work of such people as Karen Stephenson and Duncan Watts, who are mathematically analyzing patterns of communication as people share knowledge informally.

Kleiner is editor-in-chief of strategy+business in which was published "The Neuroscience of Leadership."

Article on Solution Focused Mediation—and an upcoming interview of the author

I am pleased to say that Fredrike Bannink has agreed to be interviewed (past idealawg interviews) here. Before the interview is posted, you may learn more about her approach to mediation by reading her article from mediate.com titled "Solution Focused Mediation." Excerpt:

The solution focused model was developed during the 80s by De Shazer, Berg and colleagues at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee, USA. They expanded upon the findings of Watzlawick, Weakland and Fish (1974), who found that the attempted solution would sometimes perpetuate the problem and that an understanding of the origins of the problem was not necessary. Propositions of De Shazer (1985) are:

• The development of a solution is not necessarily related to the problem (or conflict). An analysis of the problem is not useful in finding solutions, whereas an analysis of exceptions to the problem is.
• The clients are the experts. They are the ones who determine their preferred future and the road to achieving this. De Shazer (1994) assumes that problems (or conflicts) are a sort of subway tokens: they get the person through the gate (to the table of the mediator) but do not determine which train he will take, nor do they determine which stop he will use to get off.
• If it is not broken, do not fix it. Leave alone what is positive in the perception of the clients.
• If something works, continue with it. Even though it may be something completely different from what was expected.
• If something does not work, do something else. More of the same leads nowhere.

Click for the rest of the article.

Greet 2008 with hope and a smile: "There's a million things to be . . ." "There's a million ways to go . . ."

Such a quiet time as the year rolls quickly to a close. Not much e-mail. Even the prolific bloggers are not at their computers. Lulls and some whispers.

At the very end of December, I always feel potential pushing and pulling me into the new year. Today that feeling was accompanied by some lyrics in my mind. I looked for the song on the 'net and found even more than what I sought. The lyrics, yes—and a video. Each time I watch this video I grin and celebrate the hope of 2008. Click to watch and listen.

Image credit: alisonkatgraham at photobucket