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Building Bridges to Learning, Peace, Positive Health and Medicine in Budapest #ECPP2018
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Building Bridges to Learning, Peace, Positive Health and Medicine in Budapest #ECPP2018

written by Elaine O'Brien

Building Bridges in Budapest
Courtesy Elaine O’Brien

The 9th European Conference on Positive Psychology theme Building Bridges to Learning, Peace, Positive Health and Medicine, took place in Budapest from June 27 to June 30, 2018.

Here is news overview about the conference with commentary by Dr. Lea Waters. Commentary by Dr. Peggy Kern was published last Friday. This is the conference that Dr. Attila Oláh invited people to attend in the March 2018 article, Three-in-One: 9th European Conference on Positive Psychology.

Dr. Lea Waters, IPPA President

From IPPA President, Dr. Lea Waters:

The 9th European Conference, held in beautiful Budapest, was a wonderful event showcasing the latest science and practice from across the globe. In addition to the professional learning, the Europeans put on a terrific social program. They always do! The Conference Dinner cruise along the famous Danube River helped us build international friendships and professional connections while enjoying Hungarian food and looking at historic buildings.

The stimulating and collegial learning environment created by the conference organizers is also a value that we hold dear at IPPA. It was exciting to learn from many scientists and practitioners in Budapest

Put Melbourne in your calendar! The 6th IPPA World Congress will be held there from July 18-21, 2019.

We have secured the names we all love to learn from such as Martin Seligman, Barbara Frederickson, Sonja Lyubomirsky, and Sir Anthony Seldon. Importantly, you will have the opportunity to hear new voices and new ideas. We have been fortunate to secure speakers from many parts of the globe including Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, England, Mexico, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran, India, South Africa, Israel, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela.

If you want to be a speaker, watch for the invitation for abstract submissions in August.

International Panel on Positive Health and Medicine members


Is Medicine Ready for Positive Psychology? Innovative Research from the Front Lines of Positive Health

In this Positive Health and Medicine symposium led by Dr. Svala Sigurðardóttir, panelists shared their experiences applying positive theories, research, and innovative methodologies in medical and health care settings. Panelists included: Merethe Dronnen (Denmark), Lisa Buksbaum (USA), Kathi Norman (USA), Elaine O’Brien (USA), and Marlena Kossakowska (Poland – missing from picture). The aim here was to advance positive health and medicine at research and policy levels, while presenting critical aspects and positive implications of each panelist’s work. Plans are underway for a Positive Health and Medicine invited symposium at the 2019 IPPA World Conference with Svala as chair, and Kathi, Lisa, and Elaine to present the cutting-edge research and applications at the 2019 IPPA World Conference.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Andrea Ortega Bechara

Conference Highlights

It was fitting that positive psychology pioneer, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, of Hungarian ancestry, kicked off the ECPP in Budapest. He discussed the importance of well-being applications within the social-cultural context. He discussed the growth of positive psychology via individuals, and individual traits, but emphasized that we need to know more about the context of social systems for improving the quality of life.

In discussing the World Values Survey, Csikszentmihalyi, discussed trust, equality, happiness, and peace, saying, “If you want to change the world, make war less likely, and make peace a goal.” He also introduced Andrea Ortega Bechara, Columbia, who spoke about Science for Peace, and her passionate work in fighting poverty, lifting up education, and bringing peace to a country.

Dora Gudrun Gudmundsdottir (Iceland), president of the European Network for Positive Psychology, was a welcoming force, bringing positive energy and great professionalism to the conference. Dora presented during the invited symposium, Meaning in Surprising and Unsurprising Places, with chair, Michael Steger (USA), Bradley Conner (USA), Tamor Martos (Hungary), and Helena Agueda Marujo (Portugal). Helena gave an earnest plea in her talk for co-constructing collective meaning as a contribution to peace. Helena and her husband Luis Neto, are the leaders of MAPP Portugal.

Excellent keynotes were offered by Antonella Delle Fave, Barbara Fredrickson, Tamas Freund, Kate Hefferon, Itai Ivtzan, Hans Henrik Knoop, Jeanne Nakamura, Ryan Niemiec, and Wilmar Schaufeli. For example, Dr. Kate Hefferon invited her audience to celebrate complexity as the field increasingly includes qualitative methods.

An uplifting panel on Positive Education included Denise Quinlan, who works delivering training and consultation along with Lucy Hone in New Zealand. Denise discussed the power of whole school changes and how change is an iterative process that takes about 5 years using science, play, practice and implementation.

Along with the Positive Health and Medicine Symposium, I presented a workshop, MAPP Somatics: Let Me Hear Your Body Talk to a fantastic group of participants in the Gratitude Room.

The ECPP 2018 offered excellent social events to complement the scientific program. These including a Ruin Pub Crawl, yoga, sing-alongs, painting together, a thermal bath visit, and a gorgeous dinner river cruise on the Danube.

Ten years ago, I attended my first ECPP in Opatija, Croatia, 2008. This time too, dancing on the river cruise was a real treat. What a great way to have fun, boost energy, and build cherished connections! The ECPP was a full of embodied positive moments and shared experiences that helped build the bridges among us.

August 8, 2018 1 comment
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IPEN Part 2: Angela Duckworth and Dan Kessler and more
AllConferencesHealthParenting & Schools

IPEN Part 2: Angela Duckworth and Dan Kessler and more

written by Lisa Buksbaum

Angela Duckworth (courtesy of SoaringWords.org)

Walking the Character Walk with Angela Duckworth

Angela Duckworth breezed into the Ft. Worth Conference Center at the end of the afternoon and quickly captivated all 800 participants with her passion, humility, and humor. Her riveting headliner talk was called Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.

However, her first statement was, “There’s something bigger and more urgent in education than Grit and that something is Character.” In fact, she quoted the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said, “Intelligence plus character, that is the good of true education.” She went on to say that as a former teacher, “I never met a kid that didn’t make me want to help him or her live a better life.”

Her goal is to teach the faithful that character strengths can be learned and practiced because they are malleable. Duckworth is the founder and scientific director of Character Lab, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to advance the science and practice of character development. With the IPEN crowd she had a most receptive audience.

IPEN Wall chart (click for larger view)

The fact that she’s also a woman of many contradictions made her talk more interesting. For example, although she is a MacArthur Genius (proving that she’s really smart) and she has been incorporating character strengths into positive education for years, when it comes to her own children, Duckworth is a self-confessed Tiger Mom. She was herself raised by two Asian parents who always quietly inquired, “What happened to the other two points?” if she got a 98% test grade. Effortlessly sharing the data from the character research while acknowledging the reality of being a modern-day parent makes Duckworth’s talks resonate with educators and parents alike.

After telling several poignant and humorous examples from the front-lines of education demonstrating how grit and self-control are distinct from IQ and how they powerfully predict success and well-being, Angela unveiled several new videos from Character Lab. These videos are part of the Character Lab Playbooks, a suite of videos, lesson plans and activities all of which are freely downloadable for teachers to use. For example, there are videos for Expert Practice (Grit), for Building Connections (Curiosity), and for WOOP (boosting self-control).

For those of you who have not encountered this acronym, WOOP stands for setting a Wish or intention; identifying the intended Outcome; articulating Obstacles in the way of achieving the goal; and creating a Plan.

Character Lab WOOP from Character Lab on Vimeo.

More Character Lab videos appear in the references below.

Speaking of videos, if you’d like to learn more about grit, here’s a Soaringwords interview with Angela filmed in New York City on the evening before her book was published: How Gritty Are You?.

Daniel Kessler
Courtesy of Soaringwords.org

Measurable Behavior Changes with Meditation

I was intrigued by the title of Dan Kessler’s talk, Making Meditation the 21st Century’s Dodge Ball, since I don’t typically think about meditation, people turning inward to calm their minds, in the same sentence with dodge ball, a sometimes vicious sport that tantalized and terrorized students in my childhood. So he had me at the title.

As the VP of Business Development and Partnerships at Headspace, Kessler and his colleagues have been busy “making the world happier” as more than 30 million people have already downloaded the Headspace meditation apps. Meditation was surely considered weird in the 1960s, but is now common as today teachers around the world lead meditation in classrooms. Students show measurable behavior changes that suggest they have become a “little bit more self-aware and kind.”

Specifically, Dan showed findings that Headspace apps increase compassion by 23% and decrease aggression by 57% after three weeks of meditation practice. After ten days, students show an 11% decrease in stress, which drops to a 32% decrease after 30 days. He ended his talk by announcing the Educator’s discount of 90%, allowing educators to sign up on Headspace.com for $1 a month.

Author with Jessica Finkelstein
courtesy of SoaringWords.org

SOARING into Strength in the Classroom

I was delighted to co-present two talks during the afternoon break-out sessions with my esteemed colleague, Jessica Finkelstein, the After-school Advisor and Health PE teacher at Millennium High School in New York City.

Our first talk illustrated Soaringwords’ pay-it-forward positive educational interventions using expressive arts projects (writing, artwork, movement and song) that have been shared with more than 100,000 students in classrooms and schools throughout North America and dozens on other countries. Students experience a shift when they discover that doing something kind and simple for an ill classmate or a child who is in the hospital can actually have a transformative impact on his/her own well-being. It makes the teachers feel pretty amazing as well! The second talk shared Best Practices for Educators, Parents, and School communities when a child is ill or dies. Specifically, we talked about the Ten Things to Never Say to a Student Who is Ill or to a Child who is Grieving.

Please contact SoaringWords.org to learn more about sharing these resources with your school community.
 

 
More of Angela Duckworth’s Character Lab videos:

Expert Practice from Character Lab on Vimeo.

Character Lab Playbooks from Character Lab on Vimeo.

The rest of the playbooks

Other Resources

Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Scribner.

Headspace (2018). Scientific rigor.

Inspire picture and wall chart from the official IPEN photographs.
Other photos used courtesy of Soaringwords.org

August 2, 2018 0 comment
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Forgiveness: The Fountain of Youth?
AllForgivenessHealth

Forgiveness: The Fountain of Youth?

written by Kathi Norman

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” The World Health Organization (WHO)

Forgiveness is sorely misunderstood and complex.

Forgiveness is a process of replacing the negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors one might hold toward the transgressor with more positive, prosocial responses while still holding the transgressor accountable.

Forgiveness, according to Gandhi
Click to read words.

Forgiveness is not a pardon or excuse. It does not mean forgetting, denying, or condoning. One does not need to reconcile or have a relationship with the transgressor. Forgiveness is not for the transgressor; it is for the transgressed.

Unforgiveness involves the nurturing of anger, hostility, resentment, and fear.

The practice of forgiveness has been found to improve health outcomes because it helps to reduce physiological responses to stress. Other factors that affect the forgiveness-health connection are the presence of social support, relationship quality, and religious inferences. Let’s review the research that explores the effects of forgiveness on the autonomic nervous system, cardiovascular disease, the immune system, chronic pain, autoimmune disorders, anxiety and depression, HIV, and longevity.

This article is about why to forgive, not how to forgive. For ideas about ways to forgive, consult articles on that topic on this site.

Stress Hormones and Immune Function

Impact of chronic flight or flight

Have you ever felt your heart pound, muscles tense and your breath rapid when experiencing a stressful event? Then you have experienced the “fight or flight” reaction. While the stress response is critical in running from a predator, it becomes pathogenic when sustained. Many westernized diseases occur or are worsened by the condition of toxic unremitting stress over time.

Stress is unavoidable. How we manage this state makes a difference in physical health and psychological well-being. Stress changes one’s physiology, behaviors, and genetics. Chronic unremitting stress is lethal like a gun or knife. Left unchecked, stress may even begin to change one’s genetic components that leads to pathology at the same time the disease becomes irreversible and inheritable by one’s offspring.

Chronic activation of the stress response is maladaptive because it increases the risk for certain diseases by suppressing functions such as tissue repair, sleep, bone strength maintenance, and immunity. Sustained levels of cortisol can cause the hippocampus (the part of the brain responsible for integration of memory) to shrink. Accurately perceiving stressors and sources of coping is important to reduce this physiological response, and individual differences in temperament and personality are factors in understanding the stress response in humans.

Forgiveness has been found, when practiced, to calm down the stress response. The consequence of being forgiving is that one experiences less stress, depression, anxiety, and hostility as well as more satisfaction with life.

Anxiety and Depression

Forgiveness therapy helps to reduce anger, anxiety, and depression. Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental disorders in the United States. As many as one half of those diagnosed with depression have an associated diagnosis of anxiety. Rumination, or repetitive unhealthy contemplation, is linked to depression, anxiety, mixed anxiety/depression disorders, behavior disorders, and substance abuse. Rumination has been found to keep the transgressed in the loop of unforgiveness. For those who achieve forgiveness, restorative hope and self-esteem improve anxiety and depression.

 

Chronic pain and fibromyalgia

Forgiveness is currently being assessed with growing interest as an essential tool in coping with chronic pain. Current research in forgiveness therapy involved with chronic pain involves affective, behavioral, motivational, and cognitive components. With interpersonal and social stressors having a unique and powerful contribution to chronic pain, forgiveness has been found to be a useful and productive response.

If fibromyalgia (FM) symptoms could be associated with anger, resentment, and stress related to childhood abuse and neglect, then reducing anger and stress and forgiving a perpetrator might result in diminishing the influence on the neurophysiological process of FM. Forgiveness practice in women with FM and childhood abuse or neglect improved overall FM health and decreased anger.

Not a great blood pressure reading

Blood Pressure

Forgiveness can produce valuable effects directly by reducing the allostatic load (the amount of energy for recovery of wear and tear on the body) associated with betrayal and conflict, and indirectly through lowering perceived stress. Lower blood pressure and high blood pressure recovery were found to be associated with higher levels of forgiveness.

Sustained stress over long periods can cause damage to the heart and blood vessels through the elevation of blood pressure. If unforgiveness is prolonged, wear and tear to the heart and blood vessels can lead to permanent damage and disability. Loss of vision, kidney failure, and heart failure are downstream results of chronic untreated hypertension.

Coronary Artery Disease

Coronary Artery Disease and Vascular Resistance

Perfusion, or the distribution of blood to the heart muscle, is reduced when recalling anger. This increases the risk of coronary heart disease with the likelihood of a poorer prognosis for those with heart disease. Failure to forgive unconditionally has an influence on one’s mortality. One possible antidote to attenuate the cardiotoxic effects of anger is through cultivating forgiveness. Forgiveness has been found to be associated with lower total cholesterol and higher HDL-to-LDL ratios, both indicators of cardiac health.

HIV

HIV/AIDS is a communicable disease that affects the autoimmune system, compromising health and many aspects of life for the person afflicted. HIV research aims at improving quality of life and managing chronic illness. The practice of forgiveness may be one way to improve quality of life in HIV positive persons. Research and theory on psychoneuroimmunology and HIV suggests that biological, psychological, and behavioral aspects interact in complex ways to influence quantifiable disease progression. HIV research demonstrates that a slower rate of disease progression, measured as preserved CD 4 count (a type of white blood cell that moves through the blood to find and destroy bacteria, viruses, and other invading germs) and lower viral load (the measurement of amount of virus in a system) in those with a positive view of God as benevolent and forgiving.

Self-administered Salve

Conclusion:

Personal differences, daily frustrations, hurts, and injustices we experience throughout our lives can impose deep wounds in our bodies and minds. Forgiveness can serve as a powerful, self-administered salve. If one does not forgive, it is like handing the transgressor the skeleton key to the door of one’s life. Forgiveness might not prevent the pain of the past, but it can reduce suffering in the future.  
 

 
References

Norman, K. (2017). Forgiveness: How it manifests in our health, well-being and longevity. MAPP capstone, University of Pennsylvania.

Friedberg, J. P., Suchday, S., & Shelov, D. V. (2007). The impact of forgiveness on cardiovascular reactivity and recovery. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 65, 87-94.

Greening, S. G., & Mitchell, D. G. (2015, September 10). A network of amygdala connections predict individual differences in trait anxiety. Human Brain Mapping, 36, 4819-4830. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.22952

Ironson, G., Stuetzle, R., Ironson, D., Balbin, E., Kremer, H., George, A., … Fletcher, M. A. (2011). View of God as benevolent and forgiving or punishing and judgement predicts HIV disease progression. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 34, 414-425. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10865-011-9314-z

Lee, Y., & Enright, R. D. (2014). A forgiveness intervention for women with fibromyalgia who were abused in childhood: A pilot study. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 3, 203-217. https://doi.org/10.1037/scp0000025

Martin, L. A., Vosvick, M., & Riggs, S. A. (2011). Attachment, forgiveness, and physical health quality of life in HIV + adults. AIDS Care, 24, 1333-1340. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540121.2011.648598

May, R. W., Sanchez-Gonzalez, M. A., Hawkins, K. A., Batchelor, W. B., & Fincham, F. D. (2014). Effect of anger and trait forgiveness on cardiovascular risk in young adult females. The American Journal of Cardiology, 114, 47-52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2014.04.007

McCullough, M. E., Orsulak, P., Brandon, A., & Akers, L. (2007). Rumination, fear, and cortisol: An in vivo study of interpersonal transgressions. Health Psychology, 26, 126-132. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.26.1.126

Offenbacher, M., Dezutter, J., Vallejo, M. A., & Toussaint, L. L. (2015). The role of forgiveness in chronic pain and fibromyalgia. In L. L. Toussaint, E. L. Worthington, Jr, & D. R. Williams (Eds.), Forgiveness and Health: Scientific Evidence and Theories Relating Forgiveness to Better Health (pp. 123-138). New York, NY: Springer Science.

Randall, M. (2013). The physiology of stress: Cortisol and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science.

Reed, G. L., & Enright, R. D. (2006). The effects of forgiveness therapy on depression, anxiety, and post traumatic stress for women after spousal emotional abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 920-929. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.74.5.920

Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). The physiology and pathophysiology of unhappiness. In E. L. Worthington Jr. (Ed.), Handbook of Forgiveness (pp. 273-303). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group.

Shapiro, J. (2005). Visual thinking strategies: A new role for art in medical education. Family Medicine, 37, 250-252.

Temoshok, L. R., & Wald, R. L. (2005). Forgiveness and health in persons living with HIV/AIDS. In E. L. Worthington, Jr (Ed.), Handbook of Forgiveness (pp. 335-348). New York, NY: Routledge.

Waltman, M. A., Rusell, D. C., Coyle, C. T., Enright, R. D., Holter, A. C., & Swoboda, C. M. (2008). The effects of a forgiveness intervention on patients with coronary artery disease. Psychology & Health, 24, 11-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08870440801975127

Photo Credit: Flickr via Compfight with Creative Commons licenses
Forgivess according to Gandhi courtesy of symphony of love
Chronic stress courtesy of Duncan Rawlinson – Duncan.co – @thelastminute
Pain collage courtesy of sbpoet
Blood pressure reading courtesy of stevendepolo
Heart disease courtesy of gandhiji40
Salve courtesy of Vaping360

May 22, 2018 7 comments
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Healthy and Resilient Organizations
AllBusinessHealthPositive Organizational ScholarshipTaking Action

Healthy and Resilient Organizations

written by Rosalinda Ballesteros Valdes

I recently came across the HEalthy and Resilient Organizations (HERO) model created by the research team led by Dr. Marisa Salanova in Valencia Spain. Created in 1999, this model was originally used to study work-related stress, the burnout phenomenon, and the effects of outplacement in workers during economic crisis. Subsequently all the negative parts of the work-related health spectrum transformed into a model to provide organization members with the psychological resources to be not only resilient in facing economic crises, but also to look at economic cycles and market challenges as moments of growth and opportunity for organizations.

Sprouting in the desert:
thriving in adverse times

One advantage that this research group has is that the European Union regulates occupational health so that companies need to allocate resources to health initiatives. For many years companies believed that the obligation had to be fulfilled, but that it was costly to company revenues. Now, years later, the HERO model is transforming organizational health into organizational positive psychosocial growth. Research by this team shows that happy and healthy employees create wealth for the organization.

The model has three aspects:

  • Resources that employees create
  • Resources that the organization provides
  • Community relations

“Healthy employees and teams have positive psychological resources with which to feel good and positive at work.” ~ Marisa Salanova and colleagues

HERO Model
(Click to see larger image)


Model Terms

In terms of employee resources, the model proposes that self-efficacy is the most important tool that people need to have.

In terms of resources that the organization should provide, the model provides a series of measurements of the quantity and complexity of tasks that are required of people within the organization.

In terms of the community, the foundation of the model is that organizations that are HEROes not only outperform other types of organizations, but also have better community relationships and social responsibility programs.

Model in Action

In addition to self-efficacy, the HERO model also proposes that emotional intelligence and being able to generate positive emotions are important resources that employees create. As people live longer lives, organizational psychologists should also look at how generations interact in the workspace and re-examine retirement from the viewpoint of what is healthy for the employee and for the organization.

The Puzzle of Customer Service

The model refers to organizational resources in terms of the systemic organization of tasks that a job comprises: the number of tasks, the cognitive complexity, and the emotional complexity of tasks within the job description. It is not the same to handle customer service with customers full of complaints and problems to solve as it is to handle customer service for companies with high customer satisfaction. One of the interventions that the model proposes is to help employees change their mindsets towards challenging tasks. The model also suggests that each job be designed to have a certain amount of emotionally challenging work and then have recovery processes or moments. The model has been applied, for example, to hospital employees to reduce the amount of emotional dissonance related to patient care.

HERO organizations are financially healthy and stable. Because the psychosocial capital exists, they are better equipped to deal with the volatile economic times that are our everyday reality.
 

 
References

Ballesteros Valdes, R. (2015). An intervention model to create a strong sense of meaning and life purpose in high school students. MAPP capstone, University of Pennsylvania.

Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 191-215.

Salanova, M. (2009). Psicología de la salud ocupacional (No. 159.9: 331). Síntesis. Preface, Table of Contents, Introduction.

Salanova, M., Llorens, S., Cifre, E. & Martinez, I. M. (2012). We Need a Hero! Towards a Validation of the Healthy & Resilient Organization (HERO) Model. Group & Organization Management, 37 (6), 785-822. DOI: 10.1177/1059601112470405.

Salanova, M., Llorens, S., Acosta, H., & Torrente, P. (2013). Positive interventions in positive organizations / Intervenciones Positivas en Organizaciones Positivas. Terapia Psicológica, 31(1). DOI: 10.4067/S0718-48082013000100010.

Photo Credit: Flickr via Compfight with Creative Commons licenses
Flowers in the desert courtesh of philipbouchard
Customer Service courtesy of jeffdjevdet

HERO Model image in Salanova et al (2013). Adapted from Salanova et al (2012).

May 14, 2018 3 comments
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