By Emiliya Zhivotovskaya -

My Dieting Becomes an Eating Disorder

Cake under control

Obviously I had an eating disorder, which I define as repeatedly having disordered thinking about body and food. I was binging to stop emotions and purging to maintain control in my life. I obsessed over food. At breakfast having my fat free yogurt and rice cake, I’d be planning what to eat for lunch and dinner. I counted calories, fat grams, protein, and, of course, fiber. Sometimes I marked this down in a book. Other times, I wore a Weight Watchers bracelet which tallied my “calorie points” and constantly reminded me to avoid eating “bad” food. The bulk of the information was in my mind, playing over and over again.

I knew that I could not spend the rest of my life that way. I told myself that once I achieved the body I wanted, I’d go back to eating normally. I thought the mind chatter and the need to throw up would go away. But I did not get the body type I desired from the approaches I was taking. My body was not the issue — my mind was.

Positive Treatment Approaches
According to Steck, Abrams and Phelps, perhaps “too much attention has been devoted to the presence or absence of maladaptive eating disorder behaviors (e.g. purging, laxative abuse, fasting) as compared to focusing on qualitatively different and positive actions (e.g. eating well balanced meals, exercising moderately, reporting positive body image.”

Savoring was my first positive psychology intervention on the road to recovery. I was given an assignment: Eat one meal a day in silence… no television, no reading, no driving, no standing, no walking, no talking … just my meal.

Wheat field

As I began to cultivate positive habits my maladaptive behaviors lessened.

Savor What You Eat

Asparagus and tomatoes

In her article, Stories I tell my patients: Where are you when you are eating? Andersen recommends that her colleagues embrace mindful eating themselves so they can model this behavior for their patients.

I have witnessed these benefits first hand. My healing process involved years of positive psychology, mindfulness and meditation, yoga, growing awareness of how the body works, holistic nutrition, and exercise.

The hardest points were when I ate something “bad”. I had a silent threshold in my mind… a point of physical fullness that if I crossed I knew I’d force myself to throw up. I look back at those moments in my life as individual turning points- opportunities to give in to old habits or choose health and well-being. Savoring and slowing down were pivotal at those times. They gave me the gift of a few seconds to choose which behavior I wanted to indulge.

Over time, I’ve learned to express gratitude for food to nourish my body and give energy to it. This too was a turning point. Up until then, food was the enemy. Food was something that needed to be rationed. There were good foods, there were bad foods. There were foods that would make me fat and there were foods that wouldn’t. Although I knew that food is the body’s primary source of energy, that concept had never sunk in. Giving thanks for my meals made me aware that my body was worthy and in need of nourishment.

In that space of slow, deliberate, savored eating, I learned to work with my mind chatter and my emotions. I became more aware of my body’s cues… when I was hungry… when I was full. It took less food to bring me to fullness and I did not take myself to that stuffed threshold. I found subtle flavors in simple fools. I began to enjoy eating in a qualitatively different way than I had before.

Savor Your Next Meal
Whether the food you eat is a battle or a simple necessity, there is room to improve the quality of your life by savoring more. Here are applications of savoring that you can use with your next meal:

The Joy of Preparing food

• Prepare your own meal.
• Take the time to plan ahead, thinking about how the meal will taste, how your family and friends will react to it.

Thanksgiving:

• Use mental imagery to amplify your gratitude. Consider a meditation where you trace your food to its origin and give gratitude for each person or thing that contributed to it.
• Visualize the ways in which your food is nourishing each of the billions of cells in your body. Follow the course of your food digesting in your body. It’s quite a miracle how millions of tiny chemical reactions are happening to sustain your life.

Luxuriating:. Make your meal a full body experience. Engage all your senses.

• Close your eyes as you smell the aroma.
• Keep your eyes closed for the first bite. Due to adaptation, subsequent bites won’t taste as exquisite as the first, so savor it.
• Chew a lot. If you were to try to chew your food 100 times, you could not because it would all dissolve in your mouth. Not only is this a great approach for slow, savory eating, but it will support your digestive system in quickly and efficiently breaking your food down.
• Savor the different textures of your food. Consider having Indian or Senegalese food where the meal is traditionally eaten with one’s hands.

Remembering:

• After your meal, acknowledge yourself for your savoring efforts.
• Reflect on what your senses just experienced.

Crow Pose

It took me years to fully grasp that my body is a temple, and years after that to learn to honor it and care for it. It’s been worth the effort and at times struggle. Today I can truthfully and gratefully say I love my body, my strength, flexibility, coordination, and beauty. Savoring is not just an approach for increasing one’s well-being. It has the potential to be preventive medicine.

Andersen, A. (2007). Stories I tell my patients: Where are you when you are eating? Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention, 15(3), 279-280.

Bryant, F. & Veroff, J. (2007) Savoring: A new model of positive experience.. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Forman, E., Butryn, M., Hoffman, K., Herbert, J. (2009). An open trial of an acceptance-based behavioral intervention for weight loss. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice. Special Series: Ethical Challenges in Cognitive Behavioral Research, Training, and Practice, 16(2), 223-235.

Recent studies have included mindful eating training as part of weight loss interventions. Forman and colleagues studied the promotion of mindful eating habits in a 12-week trial. Participants lost an average of 6.6% of their body weight and 9.6% at the 6-month follow-up.

Proulx, K. (2008). Experiences of women with bulimia nervosa in a mindfulness-based eating disorder treatment group. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention, 16(1), 52-72.

Steck, E. L., Abrams, L. M., & Phelps, L. (2004). Positive psychology in the prevention of eating disorders. Psychology in the Schools, 41, 111-118. Quotation from page 112.

Images
6 July Birthday Cakes (Cake under control) courtesy of Sladey
Wheat field explored courtesy of Kevin Lalillier
Spring tomato olive salad with blanched asparagus courtesy of the Gifted Photographer.
Diana the couchsurfing chef courtesy of Guttorm Flatabø
Crow pose courtesy of lululemon athletica

This article first appeared on Positive Psychology News. To see the original article, click here. To comment on this article, click here.

By Emiliya Zhivotovskaya -

When Did I Become Serious?

Laughing Baby

My client came into the office. He had a hard week and was feeling pretty depressed. As our coaching session began, his energy shifted, he got more centered and he started to feel a little better. In came Buddy, a 9.5 pound Domestic Short Hair Black Tuxedo Cat with an affinity for paper balls and slight repugnance for catnip.  Buddy planted his rump on my client’s lap and his paws on his chest. My client lightened up, and began to smile. The cuteness was hard to bear, and he burst into laughter as Buddy commenced his mid-afternoon cleaning, taking extra care between his toes.

Exploring Cat

Buddy enabled my client to laugh a little. He came in taking himself extremely seriously. Not to say that the state of his reality was not serious business, but as Barbara Fredrickson has taught us, it can be hard to be creative and think outside the box with regard to career changes when you are in a negative rut. Buddy helped jolt him out of his woes, long enough for us to come up with action steps to support him in his journey. The benefit of laughter has been well documented and is great news for people with pet allergies.

The touted health benefits of laughter have increased dramatically over the years: we’ve all heard “laughter is the best medicine.” Whether or not it is the “best” is questionable. It is difficult to isolate laughter as the sole originator of these benefits (Martin, 2001). However research shows laughter’s positive effect on:

 
1. Immune system function (McClelland & Cheriff, 1997)

 

2. Pain tolerance (Nevo, Keinan & Teshimovsky-Arditi, 1993)
3. Blood pressure (White & Camarena, 1989)

 

4. Longevity (Rotton, 1992)

  

5. Asthma and Allergies (Kimata, 2004 )

Am I Laughing Or Just Having a Great Time?

Martin (2002) points out that humor and laughter are different, and a few studies have showed contradictory correlations between humor and longevity and blood pressure.

A recent study showed that watching a funny film decreased cortisol, adrenaline and DOPAC, before, during and after watching the film. This means that simply anticipating something funny happening can decrease your experience of stress.

Two Top-10 Lists for Laughter and Play

Laughter Yoga

1. Laughter is a stress buster: it reduces epinephrine and cortisol levels
2. Laughter strengthens the immune system: it increases natural killer cells and antibody levels
3. Laughter is anti-aging: It tones facial muscles, increases blood supply to the face, nourishing tissues and making the skin glow
4. Laughter is aerobic exercise: It increases your heart rate and is equivalent to any other standard aerobic exercise. William Fry, MD, from Standford University claims that one minute of laughter is equal to 10 minutes of rowing
5. Laughter is internal jogging: Exercises abdominal muscles, improves facial muscle tone
6. Laughter is a natural pain killer: Increases endorphin production, reducing intensity of pain
7. Laughter helps control high blood pressure: Reduces release of stress-related hormones
8. Laughter reduces depression and anxiety
9. Laughter improves bronchitis and asthma: It increases lung capacity and oxygen levels.
10. LAUGHTER JUST MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD!!!

Laughter yoga started in 1995 and has since spread to over 6,000 laughter clubs in over 60 countries [2]. In laughter yoga, people don’t tell jokes. They don’t play reruns of I Love Lucy , but they sure have fun. They laugh and do laughter exercises. They make sounds like “Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha,” laugh like three-year-olds and eighty-year-olds. They pretend to be have hysterical conversations on their cell phones, and greet each other as long-lost friends with laughter. In essence, they are playing.

Here are 10 Benefits of Play for Adults by Marianne St. Clair:

1. Play inspires you to think differently
2. Brings more joy into your life
3. Reduces stress

 

4. Increases longevity

 

5. Reduces struggle, conflict and worry

 

6. Increases ones sense of lightness

  

7. Stimulates imagination, curiosity and creativity
8. Softens and eases the heart

  

9. Enhances energy levels

   

10. Provides the opportunity to take risks.

How Does Laughter Work?

It is unclear what the magic formula is for why laughter works the way it does. Rod Martin (2002), psychologist and laughter specialist from the University of Western Ontario, suggests four possibilities:

 
1. Laughter creates physiological changes in the body, such as exercising and relaxing the muscles which sets off a chain reaction of health benefits (improved breathing, which leads to improved circulation and production of endorphins, leading to decreased stress hormone and enhanced immunity.

  

2. Laugher induces a positive state and it’s the positive affect that has produces the benefit.

  

3. Laughter reduces stress which in turn causes all sorts of health benefits.

  

4. People with a good sense of humor may get more social support from others wanting to be around them.

There is no stronger recommendation I can make to adults in how to increase their happiness then learning to not take themselves so seriously. Adding more play, joy and laughter into one’s life doesn’t mean you can’t function, pay your bills, or care for your family.

Laughter is an expression of joy. It’s a universal and sacred expression that is the same in every language. My laughter yoga trainer challenged us to "laugh for no reason" everyday. I challenge you to do the same. You’re looking at this computer screen right now… laugh out loud. Your colleagues in the office will think you’re reading a funny e-mail. Go ahead give it a try! Bring some lightness into your life.

Images
Courtesy of Emiliya Zhivotovskaya

References

[1] Laughter Yoga Leader Manual
[2] http://laughteryoga.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=15&Itemid=265

Kimata, K (2004). Pediatric Asthma, Allergy & Immunology, 17(2): 131-135.

Martin, R.A. (2001). Humor, laughter, and physical health: Methodological issues and research findings. Psychological Bulletin , 127, 504-519.

Martin, R. A. (2002). Is laughter the best medicine?: Humor, laughter, and physical health. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 216-220.

McClelland, D.C., & Cheriff, A.D. (1997). The immunoenhancing effects of humor on secretory IgA and resistance to respiratory infections. Psychology and Health, 12, 329-344.

Nevo, O., Keinan, G., & Teshimovsky-Arditi, M. (1993). Humor and pain tolerance. Humor: Internation Journal of Humor Research, 6,71-88.

Rotton, J. (1992). Trait humor and longevity: Do comics have the last laugh? Health Psychology, 11, 262-266.

White, S., & Camarena, P. (1989). Laughter as a stress reducer in small groups. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 2, 73-79.

This article first appeared on Positive Psychology News. To see the original article, click here. To comment on this article, click here.

By Emiliya Zhivotovskaya -

A tall man stands in front of the room holding up a half a human cranium (which eerily resembles the bowl from which I ate my Thai food the night before). This Tibetan Skull Cup is used in Tantric Buddhist rituals to symbolize impermanence and a quest for an empty mind. This symbol sets the tone for the evening’s lecture.

Dr. Barbara Fredrickson and Sharon Salzberg share the stage at the Rubin Museum in New York City as part of their Brainwave Series exploring the intersection of mind and matter. Psychologist and meditation teacher together discuss the Western science of Eastern practices of meditation.

One of Barbara Fredrickson’s contributions to the field of positive psychology is the understanding of the purpose that positive emotions play in the human experience, to broaden behavioral repertoires and build durable resources. She describes 3 to 1 as a tipping point: people who are often above a ratio of three positive emotions to every negative emotion are more likely to flourish. Meditation is a powerful way to increase the positivity ratio.

Sharon Salzberg teaches many Eastern approaches to cultivating a flourishing life.

One of the most powerful is the loving kindness meditation, also known as Metta Bhavana. This practice involves cultivating and sending out a sense of love and well-being to all sentient beings. (Visit here for a guided loving kindness meditation).

Fredrickson cited recent field research on 139 adults randomly assigned to practice daily loving kindness meditation and attend workshops, or to be on a wait list control group for a total of 9 weeks. The basis for the study was to test the hypothesis that loving kindness meditation could increase positive emotions, which would increase durable resources, in turn increasing life satisfaction. Participants directed loving, kind feelings towards themselves, then to loved ones, acquaintances, strangers, and finally, all beings.

Early Morning Meditation

According to Salzberg, “Negative emotions fixate and narrow our world view, who we are, what we are capable of and where our joy is to be found.” The Loving Kindness Meditation opens space for people to expand their perception of themselves and their connection to others.

Each meditation experience is unique. According to Fredrickson this is one of the beauties of meditation because it counters the hedonic treadmill—the tendency to adapt and experience lower levels of pleasure out of activities after doing them often. 

According to Fredrickson’s research, positive emotions tend to be fleeting, less intense, less attention grabbing and more spread out than negative emotions. Daily practice of Loving Kindness Meditation can increase the frequency and potency of positive emotions, over time increasing our life satisfaction and building resources that support flourishing lives.

References

Fredrickson, B., Cohn, M., Coffey, K. A, Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open Hearts Build Lives: Positive Emotions, Induced Through Loving-Kindness Meditation, Build Consequential Personal Resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95 (5), 1045–1062.

Fredrickson, B. (2009). Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive. New York: Crown.

Salzberg, S. (1996). Track 08 from Loving Kindness Meditation. Sounds True Label.

This article first appeared on Positive Psychology News. To see the original article, click here. To comment on this article, click here.

By Emiliya Zhivotovskaya -

Walls for Humans

Human beings are creatures of habit. We look for patterns, routines and shortcuts to maximize our expended energy. The need for speed also leads to increased desire for immediate gratification. In an age of e-mail, on-line shopping and text-messaging it is easy to get sucked into wanting things to happen quickly, and if they don’t, it’s easy to give up.

In his “Last Lecture,” Randy Pausch put a picture of wall on the screen. He said when a wall appears in front of the things you want, the wall is not there to say do not do it. Instead, the wall is asking, “How badly do you want it?” Essentially, he was calling on his audience to develop what researchers such as Dr. Angela Duckworth refer to as grit.

Grit

Grit is defined as perseverance and passion toward long-term goals (Duckworth et al. 2006). Gritty people tend to persevere, self-regulate and push themselves toward success. Drs. Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman (2006) found that the correlation between self-discipline and achievement was twice as large as the correlation between IQ and achievement.

Additional research suggests that people with grit:

• report experiencing more happiness than those who are less gritty, even when controlling for age and education;
• earn higher GPAs than their non-gritty classmates, even with lower SATs scores;
• are more likely to outperform in spelling bee contests, regardless of verbal IQ.

Barriers to Grit

Author Jack Canfield says that if your goal is to chop down a tree (the environmentalist in me urges you not to, of course), and every day you go out and take five swings at it, you will eventually knock it down. It makes sense that putting effort and perseverance towards a goal enables you to achieve it. The question is why do so many people fail to persevere?

Duckworth et al. (2006) discuss grit on the dimension of sustaining effort and interest. In our world, there are a number of barriers to developing grit.

Attention is a hot commodity in an era of the World Wide Web, advertisements and endless choices. It is easy to get swept away into the world of options, which is fabulous for ambition yet a barrier to long-term goal achievement. Getting excited about multiple projects makes it difficult to maintain interest and cultivate grit.

As a coach, I have worked with many people that want to leap from being at step 2 to step 20 in no time because of their enthusiasm to move on to the next project. Again, great for motivation, but a barrier to developing grit towards accomplishing their goals. I recommend that clients keep a list of things they want to accomplish in the future. This list reminds them that they will get to it eventually and enables them to focus on their current project.

Antidotes to Low Grit: Short-Term Tasks and Continued Effort

I recommend cultivating conditions for flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). We have found ways to spice up the project and create more flow by utilizing more of their strengths. Make short term tasks that lead to long-term goals by dissecting them into manageable, achievable tasks and make them more-game like with rules and guidelines.The second dimension for grit is effort. Achievement, according to Duckworth et al. (2004), is a product of talent and time spent on a task.

Fixed Mindset People Do Not Love Effort

This is a difficult message for people to embrace who believe in fixed intelligence or proclivity for success. That belief is what Dr. Carol Dweck refers to as fixed mindset. Those in a fixed mindset tend to believe that effort is a bad thing, if they have what it takes to be smart, gifted or talented by nature than they should not need much effort. This type of belief decreases the motivation to work towards long term goals.

Interestingly, according to Dweck, simply learning about fixed mindset causes changes in people’s belief systems. They are more likely to accept a growth mindset- or the belief that effort, embracing challenges and seeking out learning opportunities is a stronger predictor of success. This encourages developing a grittier perspective, contributing to wanting to put more effort and time in.

A few years ago I completed the NYC half-marathon. This was a stretch goal. I had never ran more than 4 miles in my life. It took grit to get to the race and even more to complete it. Nevertheless, afterward I felt so proud and the positive emotions were self-reinforcing.

The mantra of the Army is, “Be all that you can be.” Grit, perseverance and self-regulation towards long term goals can make that happen.

Images:

• Randy Pausch
• Multitasking image from Do you think trying to do several things at once is an asset or an obstacle in coping with modern life? an article by Carole Mithers in UCLA Magazine.

References:

Csiksentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience.. New York: Harper Perennial.

Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews & Kelly (2006). Grit, perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087-101.

Duckworth, A.L., Seligman, M.E.P.S. (2005). Self-Discipline Outdoes IQ in Predicting Academic Performance of Adolescents. Psychological Science, 16, 939-944.

Dweck, C. (2002). Messages that motivate: How praise molds students’ beliefs, motivation, and performance (in surprising ways). In J. Aronson (Ed.), Improving Academic Achievement: Impact of Psychological Factors on Education (Educational Psychology), (pp. 37-60). San Diego, CA, US: Academic Press.

Dweck, C. (2007). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Ballantine Books.

Pausch, R. (2008). The Last Lecture. Hyperion Press.

Rozin, P. (2006). Lecture for the Masters of Applied Positive Psychology.

This article first appeared on Positive Psychology News. To see the original article, click here. To comment on this article, click here.

By Emiliya Zhivotovskaya -

Want ideas for what to do with your sweetie on Valentine’s Day?

“Loving, selective, enduring attachment… scientists find such love difficult to talk about,” says Dr. George Vaillant, renown psychiatrist and author.  Love as noun is hard to measure. Love as a verb or an action is more tangible. Consider taking a Valentine’s Day date where your loving activity capitalizes on research from positive psychology.

Here are five suggestions for sharing with your partner, friend, or family member:

1)      Strengths Date

The Values-In-Actions Strengths Questionnaire (VIA) is a classification of the positive side of the human experience: the VIA describes what is right with you. Research shows that people who discovered their strengths and used their strengths in a new way every day for a week increased their happiness and decreased depressive symptoms (see graphs below, Seligman et al. 2005) up to six months later. Dr. Karen Reivich, co-author of The Resilience Factor and co-creator of the Penn Resiliency Program, suggests taking a strengths date to facilitate capitalizing on your strengths in a way that can bring people closer together.

Have your partner, friend, or family member take the VIA Signature Strength Survey. Take as many of your top strengths as you see fit, and sculpt an activity together that taps into the individual strengths for both you and your sweetie or friend.

For example, my Valentine and I both shared Curiosity and Interest in the World as our first strength and Forgiveness and Mercy as our fourth. Additionally, he had Judgment, Critical Thinking & Open-Mindedness, Love and the Capacity to Be Loved and Love of Learning. I had Gratitude, Hope, Optimism and Future-Mindedness, and Perspective/Wisdom.

Together we researched quotes about Love and Forgiveness from the wise, the famous, the infamous, and the every day person. Then we imagined that we were going to present at a debate on the topics of Love and Forgiveness. We used the quotes to analyze what others said about what love is. How does forgiveness work? How do these two concepts interplay? What are its outer limits?

With this newly created knowledge, we discussed ways to incorporate it into our future. We ended it by expressing gratitude to one another for specific insights that were raised during the conversation.

Whatever your combined strengths might be, there are creative ways of crafting an activity around them. Consult Dr. Tayyab Rashid’s online resource title “340 Ways to Use Via Character Strengths”.

2)      Savor a Meal… Blindfolded

Research shows that savoring increases the experience of positive emotions, gratitude, mindfulness, pleasure and engagement (See the book Savoring by Bryant and Veroff).  It is easy to take basic things for granted such as foods, sensations and sounds. This activity is one of my personal favorites.

Depending on how daring you are, you can blindfold your partner on the way to a restaurant. Lovingly guiding them through the city and later the restaurant will enable them to engage their sense of smell, touch, and hearing. Try to prevent your partner from finding out what they are going to eat. Rather than reading the order to your waiter, point to the menu. As your courses come out, allow your partner to first smell the food and guess what it might be. Then feed small morsels to them so they can savor all the flavors.

Or you can also prepare a meal at home.  You can both engage in what Bryant calls anticipatory savoring and present moment savoring, as well as reminiscing savoring which happens after the fact.

My partner and I did this once. To this day, one of his fondest moments was guiding me around New York City blindfolded. According to him, the expressions on people’s faces, while watching us have so much pure, radiant fun, seemed to light others up. We met people on the street, played guessing games, and spread our joy to our waiters, taxi drivers, and passersby.

3)      Partner Yoga

Yoga has numerous health benefits, from improving cardiac health to reducing both depression (Pilkington et al., 2005) and premature ejaculation.

Research by Carson et al. (2004) found that relatively happily, nondistressed couples who followed a mindfulness-based relationship enhancement program reported benefits such as increased amounts of relationship satisfaction, relatedness, and optimism.

Partner yoga is a great way to accomplish this. It involves moving your body together, coordinating your breathing, using eye contact and communication, all in a nurturing, loving manner. You both get to stretch, strengthen, and play. Whether you are a trained yogi or can barely touch your toes, there are partner poses and exercises you can do together.

As a yoga instructor, I generally find time to practice yoga and partner yoga because I feel the benefits that researchers write about.  I can vouch for those benefits.  And Valentine’s Day is a wonderful day to find such programs near you. (Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of Partner Poses with Emiliya for a video tutorial).

4)      Gratitude Letter

In a study by Seligman et al. (2005), participants completed a gratitude visit which involved writing a letter expressing gratitude to someone that has positively impacted their lives and reading the letter in person. Participants reported increased happiness and decreased depression (see charts on left). A recent dissertation by Gurel Kirgiz Ozge (2008) found similar benefits in writing a gratitude letter. According to numerous articles in The Psychology of Gratitude (2004), people who express gratitude report greater life satisfaction, optimism, physical health, energy, and connection with others.

In his book Authentic Happiness, Martin Seligman suggests laminating your gratitude letter so the recipient can keep the memento. “Take your time composing this [letter]… read your testimonial aloud slowly, with expression and eye contact” (Seligman, 2002, p. 74). Seligman also recommends reflecting and reminiscing afterward on how the person has affected your life.

Gratitude is one of the most important concepts to me personally, and so, building on solid research to enact true good for yourself – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spitritually – I highly recommend regular expressions of gratitude.  And Valentine’s Day is a natural time to express such emotions to each other.

5)      V.I.A. Strength Gift

If you must resort to dark chocolate, flowers and jewelry, consider a gift with positive meaning. The Values In Action (VIA) Institute has a gift shop where you can purchase a gift for your valentine that reflects his or her unique character strengths. Check out the VIA Store. All proceeds go toward research and training, so your gift will help further the field of positive psychology.

Who wouldn’t be touched by such a personal gift?  And even the anticipation of such a personal touch of thoughtfulness about the relationship or friendship?

Valentine’s Day can be a time to honor the people you love. You can always bring positive psychology tools and techniques to this holiday. Capture the experience through photos, journaling, scrapbooking, or just being present and in the moment. Discuss ways of creating these connections with your partner on non-holidays as well.

Love is a journey, not a destination.

Bryant, F. & Veroff, J. (2007) Savoring: A new model of positive experience.. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Ozge, G.K. (2008). Effects of gratitude on subjective well-being, self-construal, and memory. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 68(7-B), 4825.

Emmons, R. & McCullough, M. Eds. (2004). The Psychology of Gratitude (Series in Affective Science). Oxford University Press.

Pilkington, K., Kirkwood, G., Rampes, H., & Richardson, J. (2005). Yoga for depression: The research evidence. Journal of Affective Disorders, 89,13-24.

Reivich, K, & Shattẻ, A. (2002). The Resilience Factor: 7 Keys to Finding Your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life’s Hurdles. New York: Broadway Books.

Seligman, Martin (2004), Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. New York: Free Press.

Vaillant, G. (2008). Spiritual Evolution: A Scientific Defense of Faith. New York: Broadway Press.

This article first appeared on Positive Psychology News. To see the original article, click here. To comment on this article, click here.

By Emiliya Zhivotovskaya -

BOOK REVIEW: Creating Your Best Life: The Ultimate Life List Guide by Caroline Adams Miller, MAPP and Dr. Michael B. Frisch (Sterling Publishing Company, 2009). Available now.

Why do so many people fail at New Year’s Resolutions? What separates athletes that achieve lofty goals from people who procrastinate in accomplishing even simple things?

These are central questions for me as a life coach since my work revolves around helping people discover and achieve what they want out of life.  Creating Your Best Life: The Ultimate Life List Guide, is the best and most comprehensive resource I have come across on this topic.

The lead author, Caroline Adams Miller, MAPP, is a coach and a graduate of the Masters of Applied Positive Psychology program at the University of Pennsylvania.  Much of her research for the book was started during her masters’ thesis.  Additionally, she has written many articles for PPND (Caroline Adams Miller’s articles).

Starting with a concise review of literature in the fields of positive psychology and goal setting theory, the book describes “research-tested happiness boosters” and techniques for building self-efficacy.  Instead of searching in psychology, economics, and social science, the reader can enjoy various research assembled together into one comprehensive place. This book seamlessly weaves in research on grit, relationships, passion, savoring, self-regulation, positive emotions, strengths, flow, exercise, and values, as they relate to creating an ideal life.

Creative Use of People’s Existing Resources
A major strength of this book is the unique and creative way of applying research and theory. There are over 30 pages of exercises and forms, ranging from Miller’s “100 Things to do Before I Die” list to the “All But Dissertation Goals” form, which helps people address those unfinished goals that are weighing them down, similar to a doctoral student that completes all their requirements except the dissertation.

Following an idea Miller has frequently spoken about and writes about in the book, I changed the passwords I use daily to reflect my life mission statement. The beautiful thing about the plethora of ideas that the book proposes is that most of them make creative use of people’s existing resources. Another idea she proposes is to set your computer screen saver to scroll your goals, instead of free advertising for Windows.

Let’s Talk about Goals

Most coaches and practitioners use the acronym SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely) as the pinnacle of proper goal setting. Miller’s compilation of goal setting research transcends this approach, showing that effective goals need to be more than SMART. Here are a few of the book’s proven criteria for effective goals:

• Challenging and Specific: research shows that settling for mediocrity lowers performance. They key to building self-efficacy is to stretch yourself and utilize your potential.
• Measurable: there is a yardstick by which to measure where a person begins, where they want to be, and progress along the way.
• Foster Independence and Competence: people feel empowered by their own ability and are capable of connecting to others.
• Value Driven: goals aligned with one’s values are more likely to be pursued and adopted.
• Approach: goals that make you feel excited and zestful are approach goals, compared to avoidance goals, which are about avoiding a negative outcome.
• Intrinsic: the motivation comes inherently from the task, rather than extrinsic goals where the motivation and reinforcement comes from other people, accumulation of wealth, or notoriety.
• Flow: goals that induce optimal experiences, a state in which a person is fully engaged in the task-at-hand.

From thought provoking quotes to rich stories of people applying these principles, this book is a captivating and enjoyable read. It helped me reach my goal of slimming down for the holiday season since I’d take the book to the gym, get on an elliptical, and then catch myself saying, “I’ll keep going for another section…okay, just one more.” A few pounds and chapters later… : – )

I highly recommend Also, I keep a database of research articles that fascinate me.  The research referenced in Creating Your Best Life has vastly expanded my list, as the book eloquently describes numerous studies. I consider this work the most thorough overview of what researchers know as the “how” of creating a flourishing life and practical applications of theory.  The book received a red star in The Publisher’s Weekly.

Creating Your Best Life this holiday season for you, your clients, family and friends, as a literal gift that keeps giving. After all, as the old adage goes, “Give a man a fish, he eats for the day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for the rest of his life.” This book is equivalent to a crash course in choosing the right hook, building your pool, and casting like a pro.

This article first appeared on Positive Psychology News. To see the original article, click here. To comment on this article, click here.

By Emiliya Zhivotovskaya -

How does happiness work in the body?

Ever fantasize about duplicating yourself? Like when you want to go to your kid’s little league game and be at an important business meeting at the same time? Imagine a world where there is not one, not two, but trillions of you! (Yes, that would require lots of retirement condos in Florida.) Welcome to your body!

Who Are YOU Biologically?

According to Dr. Bruce Lipton, author of The Biology of Belief, “you are a cooperative community of approximately 50 trillion single-celled citizens.” (p. 27). That’s trillions of “Mini-Yous” which breathe, eat, work, laugh, have fun, and yes, even mess up. Cells specialize and band together to form what you affectionately refer to as your skin, eyes, heart, or liver. Each of your cells knows that it is you, but also knows that it is a liver cell thanks to the genetic material in the nucleus. Since the nucleus holds DNA and sends forth RNA to the rest of the cell to create proteins, it has been thought of as the powerhouse or the brain of the cell.

How Cells and Moods Relate

Here is where the mystery starts: if DNA is the powerhouse of the cell, then is it true that your happiness is set at birth?  Not exactly. 

Yes, the genes in your DNA have a role. For example, there are genetic differences among people that affect the production and transportation of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that modulates anger, aggression, and mood. Thus you may be more genetically prone to depression and experiencing less happiness than some other people because of the genes that control your serotonin system. But believing this is the whole story is a recipe for learned helplessness. Truly believing you are doomed by genetics may prevent you from ever taking steps to make positive changes in your life. Happiness and life-satisfaction levels are only partially pre-programmed. Making yourself happier is not as futile as trying to make yourself taller.

Research by Drs. Ken Sheldon, David Schkade and Sonja Lyubomirsky, show that changing your happiness level is worth the effort. Approximately 50% of the variation in happiness across individuals in a population is genetic, 10% of it is situational and, 40% of it is attributable to behavior and thought patterns.  Recent debates on this topic show some researchers believing in an even lower genetic component.

If Your DNA Is Not the Boss, Then What Is?

What other parts of the cell affect smiling?

According to Lipton, DNA does not predict how the cell will act. DNA simply functions as a blue print that can be interpreted multiple ways.

External stimuli from the environment cause the cell to act in a specific way. When an estrogen molecule gets near a cell with an estrogen receptor, the molecule uses a lock-and-key method to bind itself to the outside of the cell. Depending on the blue-print of the cell, that estrogen can cause the cell to reproduce, or produce hair, or do other estrogen governed actions. This means that the brain of the cell is not solely the nucleus.  It is also the cell membrane. (Click here for an animated description of this process).

Is this wide cell membrane surface really what makes you giggle?  Think of the cell membrane as the entrance to a highly secured office building. Revolving doors regulate the flow of people coming in. The cell membrane does the same thing through protein receptors and channels, fondly referred to as Integral Membrane Proteins (IMPs). The cell membrane reacts to physical proteins and vibrations such as light, sound, and radio frequencies. Compare the different sensations you feel in your body when you are listening to heavy metal music compared to hard rock. That acoustic frequency is actually permeating your cells, causing them to respond a certain way.

Lipton (2008) further demonstrates how our reactions and interpretation to the stimuli in our environment affect our cells. Each time you get stressed out, your body pumps out adrenaline, which gets registered in cells through the membrane. Cells try to move away from toxins. The body snaps into fight or flight mode with blood shooting to your extremities and away from the visceral organs that sustain growth. (See Wayne Jencke’s discussion of the sympathetic nervous system.) Negative emotions, triggered from our interpretation and responses to our environment, keep the cell in protection mode. According to Lipton, “Most biological dysfunctions (except injuries due to physical trauma) start at the level of a cell’s molecules and ions” (p. 110). Hence, diseases are attributed to some form of stress.

How Can You Talk to The New Boss?

Activities that produce positive emotions produce endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin and other feel-good chemicals that cells gravitate towards and that support cell growth. Hence, on a cellular level, positive emotions support cells in flourishing.

This means that we are a product of our interaction with the world around us. We can choose the quality of our interactions and our responses to them. According to Lipton, “Genes are not destiny! Environmental influences, including nutrition, stress and emotions, can modify those genes, without changing their basic blueprint” (p. 67). Positive interventions such as expressing gratitude, putting healthy foods into your body, spending time with friends, dancing and singing, not only contribute to your happiness, but make biological changes in your body.

Lipton, B. (2008). The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles Hay House.

Lipton, B. (2006). The wisdom of your cells: How your beliefs control your biology. Audio CD from Sounds True.

Lyubomirsky, S. (2001). Why are some people happier than others?: The role of cognitive and motivational processes in well-being. American Psychologist, 56, 239-249. Available here.

Lyubomirsky, S. (2006b). Is it possible to become lastingly happier? Lessons from the modern science of well-being. In Vancouver Dialogues (pp. 53-56). Vancouver: Truffle Tree Publishing. Available here..

Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want. New York: Penguin Press.

Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2007). Is it possible to become happier? (And, if so, how?) Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 1, 129-145. Available here.

Cell membrane from Cell Fractionation site.

This article first appeared on Positive Psychology News. To see the original article, click here. To comment on this article, click here.

By Emiliya Zhivotovskaya -

What if research were to show that people can effect enormous positive changes in their lives and in the lives of others using a tool they have with them at all times – their smiles? Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Mimicry

“How so?” you ask. Through a fascinating process called mimicry. Research conducted in Sweden exposed participants to images of faces while they monitored their facial muscles through electromyographs (EMGs) [1]. When exposed to happy faces, participants moved their zygomatic major muscle (used in smiling); when exposed to sad faces, participants moved their corrugator supercilii muscle (used in frowning). Participants did this even when the stimuli were hidden and rapidly presented. Participants were usually unaware that they even moved their muscles. Drs. Ursula Hess and Slyvie Blairy conducted a study where participants viewed video clips of a person expressing anger, sadness, disgust and happiness. Results showed that participants consistently mimicked each of those expressions [2]. These studies supports that when you smile at someone, their muscles maneuver into a smile as well.

This type of mimicry has strong evolutionary roots. Consider this study on expressing disgust. Using functional magnetic-resonance imaging (fMRI), Philips et al. found that hearing the sound of vomit or smelling it activated some of the same areas of the brain as actually experiencing disgust [3]. Our ancestor’s ability to empathize with and mimic their neighbor’s reaction to the funky looking mushrooms prevented them from wanting to and physically feeling able to eat the funky mushrooms.

Emotional Contagion

This process is also known as emotional contagion[4]. That is, emotions are contagious. Feeling good is infectious, and so is feeling crummy. With this in mind, what change do you want trigger in the world? According to a researcher from Lund University in Sweden, mimicking a person’s bodily state or facial expression causes physical responses in the receiver’s body that are identical to those in the sender’s [1]. That is, when people activate muscle groups that link to specific emotions, their body will react as though they are really experiencing that emotion. If you wrinkle your nose and narrow your eyes (see image on the left) your body will release some adrenaline and your heart rate may speed up as though you are angry. If you mimic a smile by lifting the creases of your lips and squinting your eyes, your body will release serotonin, dopamine and other “feel-good” indicators. In the study by Hess and Blairy, participants reported feeling more happiness and sadness/depression relative to the video they were watching [2].

Health Benefits of Smiling

Therefore, when you smile at someone else, they smile and you are causing physiological changes within their bodies. Frequent smiling has many therapeutic and health benefits [5], particularly when the smile is a Duchenne smile [6]. According to Dr. Mark Stibich, smiling:

1. Boosts the immune system
2. Increases positive affect
3. Reduces stress
4. Lowers blood pressure
5. Enhances other people’s perception of you

Duchenne smiles are known as authentic smiles because they consistently co-occur with positive emotions [7]. Duchenne smiles are marked by wrinkles in the eyes that resemble crows feet and are associated with feeling excitement, amusement, interest, happiness and joy [8]. (See image on the right in which the top image is neutral, middle picture is non-genuine/mouth only, and the bottom picture is Duchenne/eyes and mouth engaged).

A well-known study of Duchenne smiles, conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, demonstrated the impact of smiling on life satisfaction [9]. Researchers analyzed the yearbook pictures of 111 smiling women at age 21, fifty of which displayed authentic-Duchenne smiles. Participants expressing genuine positive emotions in their yearbook picture were more likely to be married and have higher well-being than their non-Duchenne smiling classmates. This study was replicated in Australia in 2006 and demonstrated similar results [10]. Duchenne smiles correlated with experiencing less negative emotions and increased sense of competence. (See picture of Guillaume Duchenne stimulating facial muscles with an induction coil.)

The eyes and lips are a powerful weapon that everyone is equipped with at birth. When used for good, this weapon can exert a significant amount of health and happiness on the smiler and recipient. So become the center of a positive change ripple. Squeeze your zigomatic major, squint your orbicularis oculi, and if you really want to get things flowing … expose your teeth.

[2] Hess, U. & Blairy, S. (2001). Facial mimicry and emotional contagion to dynamic emotional facial expressions and their influence on decoding accuracy. International Journal of Psychophysiology. 40, 129-141.

[3] Philips, M.L., Williams, L.M., Heining, M., Herba, C.M., Russell, T., Andrew, C., Bullmore, E.T., Brammer, M.J., Williams, S.C.R., Young, A.W., Gray, J.A. (2004). Differential neural responses to overt and covert presentations of facial expressions of fear and disgust. NeuroImage. 21, 1484-1496.

[4] Basch, MF. (1983). Empathic understanding: A review of the concept and some theoretical considerations. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. 31,1, 101-126.

[5] Abel, MH, Hester, R. (2002). The therapeutic effects of smiling. In An empirical reflection on the smile. Mellen studies in psychology, Vol. 4. (pp. 217-253). Lewiston, NY, US: Edwin Mellen Press. xiii, 275 pp.

[6] Surakka, V., & Hietanen, J. K. (1998). Facial and emotional reactions to Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles. International Journal of Psychophysiology.29, 23–33.

[7] Papa, A, & Bonanno, GA. (2008). Smiling in the face of adversity: The interpersonal and intrapersonal functions of smiling.Emotion. 8,1, 1-12.

[8] Ekman P, Davidson, RJ, Fiesen, WV. (1990). Emotional expression and brain physiology: II. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 58,2,342-353.

[9] Harker, L., & Keltner, D. (2001). Expressions of positive emotion in women’s college yearbook pictures and their relationship to personality and life outcomes across adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 80, 112–124.

[10] Gladstone, GL, & Parker, GB. (2002). When you’re smiling, does the whole world smile for you?. Australasian Psychiatry. 10,2, 144-146.

This article first appeared on Positive Psychology News. To see the original article, click here. To comment on this article, click here.

By Emiliya Zhivotovskaya -

By Emiliya Zhivotovskaya

Editor’s Note:  This is the first article by Emiliya Zhivotovskaya, and we are delighted to have her writing.  In the past week, we have also had first time articles by Kirsten Cronlund and Louis Alloro, whom we are also thrilled to welcome as authors.

Have you ever been:

• So nervous that you made your stomach churn?
• So excited about something that you could hardly sit still?
• So worried you wound up sick over it?

These phenomena refer to the psychosomatic principle, that is, the mind’s ability to have physiological effects on the body. There may have been no physical reason for you not sitting still. Electrodes were likely not stimulating your muscles forcing you to be antsy. Your thoughts caused your experience.

A less prevalent concept is the somatopsychic principle (a term introduced by psychologists Nanette Mutrie and Guy Faulkner), and refers to the way in which the body affects the mind. Positive psychology goes hand-in-hand with positive physiology. Having a healthy body supports having a healthy mind. Countless studies support the many benefits of physical activity such as reduced risk for cardiovascular disease and increased bone, muscle and joint health. Physical activity releases positive brain chemicals such as endorphins and serotonin. Other benefits include increased subjective well-being, positive mood and affect, decreased stress and anxiety, improved self-esteem and self-perception, improved sleep quality, and cognitive functioning.

Human beings are mammals meant for movement. A recent study shows that sitting for too long can increase risk for diseases because it has a negative effect on metabolism. Most Americans do not meet the recommended 30 minutes of physical activity, 5 days a week. Not only does exercise counteract health concerns and act as an antidepressant; not exercising is like taking a depressant. Imagine that. Would you take a pill everyday that would make you depressed? Of course not. Sadly, however, many people do.

The other day I was driving through New York City and saw a man walking his dog across the street. However, the man was the only one doing the walking! The dog was sitting in a baby carriage merrily looking around, grinning and tongue hanging out, while his owner pushed him around. I did a double take. It is one thing for adults to make excuses about not exercising enough, but dogs have four feet instead of two for a reason. Could this signal an onset of puppy obesity, potentially escalating at the same frightening rate as childhood obesity?

What are some things you can do to encourage your somatopsychic life?

• Go for a walk or a bike ride.
• Call a few friends and get a basketball game together.
• Have a lot of e-mails to catch up on? Consider creating a treadmill walk-station. Businesses are buying these cleaver contraptions at $6,000+, you can make your own at home with a treadmill, a lap top, hospital tray table (or piece of wood), keyboard and mouse. See this picture of my Walk-Station. I absolutely love it; I walk while I work.

Image: Dog Yoga.

References:

* Mutrie, N. & Faulkner, G. (2004). Physical activity: Positive psychology in motion. In Linley, P. A. & Joseph, S. (Eds.), Positive Psychology in Practice (pp. 146-164). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

This article first appeared on Positive Psychology News. To see the original article, click here. To comment on this article, click here.

By Emiliya Zhivotovskaya -

Emiliya Zhivotovskaya, MAPP, fuses positive psychology, nutrition, yoga and spirituality, to help individuals and organizations flourish through coaching and seminars. She combines the Eastern philosophies of aikido, yoga and buddhism, with the Western science of optimal health and functioning.

Emiliya is a Penn Resilience Program facilitator and has international experience training teachers in positive psychology and resilience programs. She conducts seminars based on positive psychology in the community and Yoga Ed. in the school system. For years, she has studied naturopathic and complimentary alternative medicine and incorporates holistic approaches into her work.

Emiliya is a certified Brain Gym practitioner, which involves using physical movements to achieve optimal brain functioning. Additionally Emiliya has a near decade of work as a professional entertainer. Her top strengths are gratitude, love of learning, zest and enthusiasm, forgiveness, love and the capacity to be loved.

Emiliya is the founder of Flourish, Inc. and creator of Flourishing Cards which will be available in print in 2009. She is the creator of www.positivepsycharticles.com, a site through which users can browse research in the field of Positive Psychology and add to the database.

This article first appeared on Positive Psychology News. To see the original article, click here. To comment on this article, click here.