The Role of Positive Psychology in Overcoming Inner Blocks

An article about positive psychology from the Harvard Mental Health letter came across my desk recently. First offered as a treatment for depression, it appears now, thanks to Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania, to be infecting the general consciousness as a pathway to “dealing with adversity and overcoming challenges.”

This week I am taking a rather jaundiced view of self help strategies since I have had some slips and slides in my own efforts to short circuit visceral cravings and other inner conflicts.

Procrastination sometimes does not give way to the blandishments of one’s inner conscience and ideas that seem powerful on the surface dwindle in impact when the will refuses to act on them.

Positive psychology is at least a comforting antidote to despair and self downing so in that spirit I offer some of its principles. However, be forewarned that reading comforting and inspiring ideas is no substitute for the hard realities of effort and sacrifice called for by many personal change campaigns.

What I have called elsewhere in this site ‘metastrivings’ or thoughts about striving rather than striving itself is a trap. Sometimes I think the whole self help industry exploits this tendency of people to think that reading about change constitutes change itself. We all wish it was this easy.

The tenets of positive psychology relate to building positive emotions, developing strengths and enhancing a sense of meaning. Exercises have been developed that are focused on these three areas. Two online sites that speak to these issues are: www.harvardcppi.org and www.authentichappiness.org.

Since procrastination and social anxiety tend to be perceived as global problems, one way to foster hope in some one is to increase their ability to deal with adversity and overcome challenges. This can be done by reducing the scope of the problem; break it down into component parts that can be tackled one at a time.

According to the newsletter article mentioned (Harvard Mental Health Letter, vol 24, no. 11, May 2008) another way to build hope is to identify skills and coping mechanisms that would enable someone to overcome a particular challenge (like procrastination or shyness) and then provide a way to build on them.

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