Posts tagged with 'flow'
European positive psychology conference in Copenhagen: arriving, opening speeches & reception (first post)
23rd June 2010
I flew into Copenhagen yesterday afternoon. I have a low key good feeling about the place. Nice. Clean. Small enough not to feel overwhelmed. Friendly. How appropriate that Denmark, the hosts of this "5th European conference on positive psychology", have so often been ranked top in the world on life …
Berlin weekend: approaches to happiness
12th December 2009
Berlin, Saturday morning. We flew in from Edinburgh pretty early yesterday. Direct flight. Easy. Guilt over air travel a little allayed by buying carbon offsets through ClimateCare. We're staying in a Miniloft, one of the really nice set of self-catering apartments designed by Matthew Griffin & Brita Jurgens, an architect …
Recent research: two studies on depression, one on sex, & three on positive psychology
24th September 2009
Here are half a dozen research papers that have recently interested me (all details & abstracts to these studies are given further down this blog posting). The first by Fournier et al is about whether to choose antidepressants or psychotherapy to treat depression. They found that marriage, unemployment and having …
Autogenic training: sixth session
21st September 2009
Here are the handouts, recordings, and reflection/record sheets for the sixth Autogenic training session. There are four overlapping themes to this 'lesson'. Obviously a key issue is the next Autogenic Training step - the focus on the abdominal area. I usually initially get trainees to put a hand or both …
Four aspects model & some associated evidence for relaxation, meditation & imagery
13th September 2009
Relaxation, meditation, mindfulness, hypnosis, imagery and other associated methods form a complex, loosely interlinked field. The "Four aspects of helpful inner focus" model, that I've put together to help me make more sense of this territory, looks like this: For a downloadable copy of this diagram click here. There is …
Autogenic training: third session
17th August 2009
Here are materials for the third session of the Autogenic Training classes that I've taught for many years. Please read the introductory remarks and take time to work through the first and second Autogenic Training exercises before starting on this third Limb Warmth focus. Once working with the Warmth exercises, …
Exeter pre-conference workshop: Ed Watkins on CBT treatment for anxious & depressive rumination
15th July 2009
Exeter. I really like the way that the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) conferences rotate around a whole series of UK university towns. This is the 37th BABCP Annual Conference, and I guess I've been to a dozen or more of them over the years. They tend …
Walking in Glen Affric: emotions, anxiety & risk (third post)
22nd April 2009
Today was huge. I woke early, cold. It had been such a clear, starlit night. My socks, that I'd washed through in the stream and tried to dry a bit yesterday, had frozen solid. So too my walking boots with hard frozen laces. Rub and mould the socks till I …
Ways to happiness and life satisfaction
11th April 2008
On April 9 I wrote "On the fine Authentic Happiness website, Seligman and colleagues discuss three entwining roads to happiness and what they call "the full life". One of these three roads is maximising and appreciating positive emotions - very much the territory of savouring." Do visit the Authentic Happiness …
Savouring, mindfulness & flow
9th April 2008
In a post on 27 January I wrote about "savouring" - the appreciation of positive experiences. Savouring is, as it's name suggests, a sort of running the positive experience around in one's mouth, really tasting, valuing and enjoying it - a bit like slow, careful appreciation of a good wine. …