Quiz 6 Flashcards
To Flourish, one must:
- Be within an optimal range of positive growth, generatively, and resilience
- Must have engagement, meaning, and purpose in life
Languishing
Feeling hollow or empty
- Higher amount of depression
- Social impairment
- decreased immune function
Positivity Ratio
Can determine if one is flourishing or languishing
- Losado ratio
Flourishing provides
Greater creativity, increase in intuition, less likely to belittle others because of self-esteem, improved physical health (reduced inflammation, less physical pain, lower cortisol/stress response)
Broaden and build theory
Positive emotions broaden one’s awareness and encourage novel, varied, and exploratory thoughts
Flow
a state of concentration so focused that is amounts to absolute absorption in an activity
Characteristics of flow
strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, at the peak of their abilities
Happiness does not depend on ____. Happiness depends on____
outside events, inner harmony
Optimal experience
where we feel a sense of exhilaration, a deep sense of enjoyment that is long cherished, does not come through passive, receptive, relaxing times
Best moments usually occur when___
a persons body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile
in the long run, optimal experiences….
add up to a sense of mastery or a sense of participation in determining the content of life
Changing the content of consciousness
a person can make himself happy, or miserable, regardless of what is actually happening “outside”, just by changing the contents of consciousness
Phenomenology of enjoyment
- we confront tasks we have a change of completing
- We must be able to concentrate on what we are doing
- the task has clear goals
- the task provides immediate feedback
- one acts with deep, but effortless involvement, that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life
- one exercises a sense of control over their actions
- concern for the self disappears, yet, paradoxically, the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over
- the sense of duration of time is altered
Universal and distinctive features of optimal experience in flow
activity becomes spontaneous, almost automatic. Loss of an awareness of self as separate from the actions they are performing
Clear goals
Unless a person learns to set goals and to recognize and gauge feedback in their activities, he will not enjoy them
A person must develop a strong sense of what he intends to do or negotiate goals and rules during the activity
What makes feedback valuable
the symbolic message it contains: that I have succeeded in my goal
The sense of control in flow
Lacking the sense of worry about losing control that is typical in many situations of normal life. When a person becomes dependent on the ability to control an enjoyable activity then he loses the ultimate control:
The ultimate control
the freedom to determine the content of consciousness
The loss of self-consciousness in flow
To forget temporarily who we are seems to be very enjoyable. In this lies the chance to expand the concept of who we are. Loss of self consciousness can lead to self-transcendence
The transformation of time in flow
time no longer seems to pass the way it ordinarily does. During the experience, time seems to stand still.
Three components on how we make sense of our role in life
cognitive, motivational, emotional
Lacking in meaning of life =
cognitive dissonance
Making sense of life…
- Goal-directed behavior
- transcendence
- self-worth
- perception of our existence
Dark night of the soul?
- Very difficult or even traumatic situations test who we are and whether we are where we are supposed to be.
In the Tao…
opposing forces allow for balance and have a natural dependence on each other
Should you always be happy
No. It is unrealistic to always be happy. Striving to constantly be happy creates unrealistic expectations. Society sets the expectations of what is supposed to make you happy and this limits your ability to decide your own path