An Investigation Into Positive Psychology Interventions

INTRODUCTION The morning of November 22nd 2001 was a moment of crystalline clarity in the researcher’s life; she awoke at her friend’s house in England and announced that she was going to become a yoga instructor; she had not yet attended her first class. Today she is in her 15th year of a steady, regular yoga practice and she is an instructor. The researcher intends to use the initial years of this successful transition of change and transformation to illustrate the journey of change over an extended period; she will use this experience to explore character strengths as summarised by VIA-Survey and a Myers-Briggs type personality assessment. The researcher will contrast theories of change represented in psychology disciplines alongside†¦show more content†¦Nonetheless the early decision making processes are universal to the human condition. Within the psychotherapeutic frame work of processes these are summarised as consciousness raising, social liberation, emotional arous al, self-revaluation, commitment, rewards and helping relationships, these aspects will be examined in relation to the researcher’s process of transformation. The researcher discovered that two aspects were not applicable to her methodology, these were countering and environmental control. Lyubomirsky (2007) has endeavoured to create a framework of how to create sustainable happiness through intentional activity, she suggests that circumstances account for only 10% of our happiness and that there is a 40% range of possibility that is open to enhancement towards flourishing rather than merely being mentally healthy. The researcher will look into this by contrasting Lyubomirsky’s ideas on the body and soul connection with her own experience. In 1949 Campbell introduced the concept of the hero’s journey in his book ‘The hero with a thousand faces’ which emerged from his studies of comparative mythologies. He asserted that we think in story and that our stories have patterns that evolve over time. Our journey through life towards or as an expression of authenticity spirals and revisits itself over time; Campbell stated that these are in fact expressions of universal and eternal themes. Events and experiences of our lives reshape our story of what