Growing Bliss

Yesterday, in my workshop on Positive Psychology and mental wellbeing, someone asked me how I got interested in Positive Psychology. One of the reasons was this book by Martin Seligman. I read it as a new mom back in 2008 and although the exercises are meant for a bit older kids than newborn babies😄, I applied them to myself and built my parenting philosophy around them. (And started to read everything I could get my hands on around Positive Psychology and eventually enrolled in MSc study on the topic).

Optimism is a funny thing, we can be born with it, but we can also learn to be more optimistic. There is dispositional optimism, explanatory optimism and yes also unrealistic optimism.

Optimism seems to have several benefits for physical and mental wellbeing, such as it may help individuals with having a better mental, cardiovascular or even respiratory health. Optimism has also been suggested to be one of the drivers of greater resilience.

Positive Psychology offers great tools to start building the habit of optimism, such as gratefulness and Best Possible Self.

And as for that newborn, now 15-year old. He recently completed the VIA charcater strenghts survey for youth and his top strenght - you guessed it - is optimism🤩

So the holiday season is officially over and it’s time to get back to work!

🔍 What's your key focus for the new year?

If this new year is all about a new career then you should register for the Career Change Summit starting next week hosted by Dina.

I'll be speaking and sharing insights on Career changes made for passion, purpose and practicality

Come join me and 17 other speakers who will help you make this year your best yet.
It’s taking place 16 - 19 Jan and it’s free. Link to register in comments.

After 13 years of practicing meditation, I can now also call myself a meditation and mindfulness teacher! Although meditation is not the "cure-for-all" you sometimes see people advertise, the various techniques and understanding what mindfulness really is, can be a useful addition to your mental wellbeing skills. If you struggle to quiet your mind and would like to learn more, I'm happy to help you further with your meditation practice.

School of Positive Transformation

I received this challenge to share 8 facts about me from . I have not been very active in social media lately due to studying and working, so this was a nice nudge to get more active.

1. I am fluent in 3 languages: Finnish, Dutch and English and can manage in 5 other languages (Portuguese, Spanish, French, German and Swedish).

2. My childhood dream profession was an archaeologist.

3. Prior to finding my passion in Positive Psychology I have worked in several industries including timber, shoes, conferences and energy.

4. I once asked a Dutch prince (a real Royal😉) what his last name was.

5. I like to recharge myself like a true introvert, alone in the nature.

6. I am about to graduate as a Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher.

7. My family calls me ‘the knitting-machine’ as I supply them all with knitted woollen socks.

8. I need at least 2 cups of coffee in the morning to get going.

"How can we help? " This was a question posed by fellow Positive Psychologists a few weeks ago. How can we help people who are sick and tired of the pandemic situation? Research suggests that reflecting and writing about our experiences is good for our well-being, especially if it includes finding benefits in the situation. Inspired by the question and the research I created a Workbook helping you to write your own story of the pandemic. You can download the workbook here:
English: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CdslGfSZ1CSYQsHsDw4PRVCpBAOqRGmb/view?usp=sharing
Suomeksi: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13gcCRUt1ZXlgVPEnWaNtz44xeSw1bYlV/view?usp=sharing