"Modo liceat vivere, est spes.   While there's life, there's hope. "


Posts tagged with 'goals'

Recent research: six studies on positive psychology, goals, relationships, caregiving, mindfulness & nature

27th August 2009

Here are half a dozen studies that one could loosely put under the broad umbrella of positive psychology. Zorba the Greek said "Take what you want and pay for it, says God." and Niemiec et al's study, on the effects of achieving different kinds of goal, supports this statement (for …

Autogenic training: fourth session

24th August 2009

For the fourth Autogenic Training class, I introduce a number of new practices and ideas. These include the next stage in the basic Autogenic Training sequence (pulse & general calmness), beginning to work on application during daily life (1st differential exercise), and a focus on the "Nourishing positive states" aspect …

Goal renewal boosts wellbeing: second post

23rd August 2009

I wrote a week ago about assessing one's wellbeing level. It makes sense to do this before exploring how much the following goal renewal suggestions boost your sense of wellbeing and associated life satisfaction. How might we renew our goals? Obviously there are many options here. One effective one is …

Goal renewal boosts wellbeing: first post

16th August 2009

Here's a method that's exceptionally likely to both boost our overall level of wellbeing and move us towards the goals we feel our most important in our lives. It will take a bit of effort and commitment - so don't fall into the trap highlighted by Thomas Edison's comment: "Opportunity …

Writing - positive pasts & best futures

9th August 2009

If you would like a printable handout of this blog post click here. There is lots of research - approaching two hundred studies - on the physical and mental benefits of writing about emotional upheavals in our lives. Professor Jamie Pennebaker gives further details of this approach on his excellent …

Recent research: six articles on wellbeing – meaning in life, reappraisal, positive emotions, and neighbourliness

23rd July 2009

Here are six research articles (see below for abstracts and links) loosely falling into the overall area of wellbeing. Boyle, Barnes et al report on the association between purpose in life and mortality in older people. They found that greater purpose in life was associated with considerably reduced mortality even …

Recent research: six papers relevant to psychotherapy

28th May 2009

Here are six studies relevant to improving psychotherapy outcomes. Brewin et al report on using imagery-based interventions to help people with depressioin. Lydiard et al highlight the importance of sleep-related disturbances as a treatment target in PTSD. McCrady and colleagues show that working with couples rather than just individuals seems …

Implementation intentions & reaching our goals more successfully (second post)

15th March 2009

I wrote a post yesterday introducing some of the ideas and research on implementation intentions. Today I extend this in more practical how-to-do-it directions: when to use implementation intentions? Implementation intentions help us reach our goals more successfully. The companion handout "Implementation intentions background ... " gives introductory information about …

Implementation intentions & reaching our goals more successfully (first post)

14th March 2009

what are implementation intentions? "Goal intentions" involve aiming for some desired future outcome. They are of the form "I intend to attain goal X". Unfortunately we know only too well that making such intentions does not necessarily mean that we will reach our goals. As the old saying goes "There's …

Recent research: four papers from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

5th February 2009

I routinely scan quite a few journals every month. Sometimes it's disappointing and there's nothing in the issue of a particular journal that interests me much. Sometimes a particular journal contains a bunch of stimulating articles. January's edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology was a good find. …