Team Psychology versus Team Medicine, score 1:0

Currently, I am involved in running a mindfulness & stress reduction workshop in the world of medicine. Around that a few interesting dialogues ensued regarding the way we think, teach and learn, and I have gained a few insights that I'd like to share. Oh, also the soccer world cup is on, so...

Medicine, much like psychology over the better part of last century, was very much enamoured with looking for flaws, looking for symptoms, stuff that wasn't working right and then fixing it. In doing so, the goal was to get a person back to normal functioning (however that may be defined). So, if normal were a horizontal line, psychology and medicine are largely concerned with what lies below that line. These specialities deal with disease or shall I say dis-ease.

Over the last 20+ years a bunch a psychologists started looking at what happens above the line, in other words what makes people thrive, excel, and rise above the norm. They decided that what makes human experience extraordinary or über-normal is just as important to understand, research, teach and support. Hence, positive psychology was born. A science concerned with what enables people to be at-ease, to flourish and be in the flow. Interestingly when your focus starts to shift from what is broken to what is working, from your shortcomings to your strengths, then strange things start to happen. Things begin to shift. Your spectrum of options starts to open up, you start seeing solutions where before there where only problems. You become more creative and flexible. Becoming aware of, and deliberately seeking out positive emotions breeds more positivity. Think going to see a funny movie as opposed to a drama, doing things that make you laugh, smile, be merry. Looking for the good moments throughout your day and relishing those. Deliberately putting yourself in the path of fun is actually a very worthwhile thing to do for your health. The cultivation of positive emotions not only breeds more positive emotions but also buffers against the negative ones (yes including stress, physiological stress response and subsequently disease). Now if this all sounds too simplistic, or simply too good to be true, rest assured that this is scientifically proven. There is evidence for this, even using physiological measures of stress (check out Barbara Fredrickson's work and her Broaden & Build Theory).

Sadly, Western medicine is a bit slow to catch on. So yes, 1:0 for Psychology! Luckily, however, there are services popping up in health care that take a more holistic view of providing care. It no longer is only about fixing things, but also about ensuring optimal wellbeing on top of the fixing of dis-ease. The focus is on enabling people to be as much at-ease as possible whatever their story. And of course, that makes sense. If something is malfunctioning it needs fixing. In addition though why would you not do your utmost to ensure that all other systems are in place to optimise overall well-being, sleep, nutrition, exercise, a mind at ease, emotional & social support, spiritual wellbeing and self-care & compassion.

And here lies the thought I really want to drive home. Why wait until you have dis-ease to start using these powerful tools? We all could use a bit more self-care, self-compassion and cultivation of the positive in our lives. So, I invite you to take a pen & paper and spend the next five minutes writing down what those tools are that help you thrive? And how and when you intend to use them?

Serious Woo - addressing elephants in the room

There's an elephant in the room!

Mental health issues occur quite often in the general population. Depending on the source around 1 in 5 people will have to deal with a mental health issue sometime in their life. So, it is very likely that any one of us will come across this sooner or later, either in someone we know or in ourselves. And it is a given that a number of people in the workplace will be dealing with mental health issues.

Therefore, it is helpful to gain an understanding about mental health issues, be able to better recognise when someone is suffering from a mental health issue, and know how to respond and support the person in getting qualified help. Knowing what to do in theory, and doing it in the heat of the moment, are two quite different things. Therefore, it is extremely useful to participate in an experiential learning course, where participants get the opportunity to practice communication around addressing elephants in the room, before they might have to do so in real-life.

I would like to shout out to the wonderful people at Serious Woo - many of whom I know and can personally recommend - for offering this course in the workplace and corporate space. The course is run by Serious Woo involving professional role-play actors and knowledgeable, highly experienced psychotherapists and facilitators for an engaging experience. For further inquiry and to book a course please contact Serious Woo at:

http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/214c7e_4b356f0b0d794a17bb9168abe619d2a2.pdf

or

www.seriouswoo.com.au 

The gratitude jar

Hello, and happy New Year! I hope everyone has had enjoyable holidays and is ready for what 2018 will bring.

A friend shared an idea on FB and I really like it, so I will share it with you.

1. Take a nice empty jar (if all else fails a recycled pickle glass will do). I'll take the jar my godson made me (see above) and remember how good the homemade jam tasted.
2. Write something good that happened on a piece of paper once every week (designate a favourite weekday such as Friday - there is a reason it's called TGIF, no?) and pop it in the jar.
3. Then at the end of the year you can read all the little notes and have something positive to remember 2018 by!

Et voilà, one simple jar and you've wrapped a few important positive psychology concepts all into one (gratitude, pleasure, savouring, reminiscing, appreciation of beauty - well, if it isn't the old pickle jar, anyway).

Finding your purpose

Finding one's purpose and acting on it, I believe, is one of the most important quests in life. It is correlated with happiness, resilience and wellbeing. People may have more than one purpose depending on the context. And, I suspect our purpose may change, at least slightly, throughout our life.

Finding my purpose certainly was, and still is an iterative process. Generally, I thought it was 'helping people', which no doubt led to my studying medicine half a lifetime ago. Over the years, I've realised I needed to slightly refine my purpose. Currently, I would define it as 'helping people help themselves'. My belief is that every one of us is essentially equipped with everything we need to help - and to an extent even to heal - ourselves. This may sound somewhat fantastical, however, I think there is something rather comforting in believing that people are, and can become empowered and enabled to act on their own behalf; for the benefit of their mind, body and spirit. The beauty of coaching is that the client is supported in (re-) discovering that agency, or in psychological terms the 'self-efficacy', to be able to improve their own situation and align their effort with what deeply matters to them.

Enough about me. So, where does that leave you and your purpose? Lucky you, if you know what it is and you are living accordingly. For those who have not figured this out yet, positive psychology researchers (Todd Kashdan and colleagues) have identified three main avenues to find purpose: 

1. Proactive - This means you actively choose to search for, find and engage with your purpose. This can include self-reflection or enlisting a professional to help you with this process.
2. Reactive - Something happens in your life that kicks you out of a deep sleep, forces your eyes open and makes you take a good hard look at yourself. This often can be a loss of some sort, for example your health, freedom, relationship or job. It may also be a positive event such as becoming a parent.
3. Social learning - Observing and learning how others live their lives. It might include admiring someone for how they act and wanting to emulate that, or having a role model to aspire to.

And yes, sometimes it will be a combination of the above. If you still find this somewhat daunting, or you decide you want to engage with your purpose now, what are you waiting for? Get the support you need, and get to work!