In the world today, positive psychology is gaining popularity to both the scholars and non-scholars. Essentially, what differentiates positive psychology to other forms of psychology is the fact that it is not abstract. It is something people are pushing for; something that can be actualized. Positive psychology encompasses fostering the psychological well-being of people. This paper narrow the discussion to thankfulness and mindfulness in order to understand how positive psychology can be used to enhance the social well-being. Recently, there has been an extensive research on the behavioral intervention on psychological well-being as a measure. Various mannerisms have a different impact on psychology well-being; however, thankfulness and mindfulness have been sampled for this discussion (Snyder et al, 2010)
The rest of the paper discuss the roles of the two virtues in psychology well-being. In other words, psychological well-being aims at making people rest at a state of happiness. Speaking of psychological well-being, it is also perceived as subjective well-being by psychologists. Ideally, psychological well-being has two distinct facets. One in which people experience emotions that are positive and happy feelings (also known as subjective well-being). However, SWB on its own is not sufficient. It is assumed that at some point of life, one might get tired of having good things in life (boredom), therefore, introducing the other concept of psychological well-being, which is the purposeful well-being. The subjective part of PWB is denoted by the term “Hedonic”, whereas “Eudaimonic denotes the purposeful part of psychological well-being. Eudaimonic well-being entails attributes such as the ability accept oneself, mastery of the environment, fostering positive relationships, personal growth, understanding the purpose of one’s life, and achieving autonomy. On the other hand, hedonic well-being pillars include happiness, subjective well-being, and positive emotions (Branstrom et al, 2010).
Mindfulness and Psychological Well-being
Mindfulness is perceived as an attribute of consciousness that is associated with the promotion of well-being. Mindfulness is a concept of consciousness has received a lot of attention, with its root derived in Buddhist together with other ancient tradition that contemplates a lot of attention and awareness. Today, mindfulness is applied in a number of practices that include tai chi, yoga, and qigong- with most of these practices applying it through mindfulness meditation. In a simplistic perspective, mindfulness entails the state of being attentive to and aware of the ongoing occurrences. Ideally, mindfulness helps individuals remain conscious to present reality. The art of mindfulness can be induced through training. The concept of awareness and attentiveness distinguishes consciousness from other mental processes such as cognition, motives, and emotions that aid an individual to operate effectively. Sometimes people may fail to be mindful where there is the absence of attentiveness and awareness. The resultant situation of consciousness is therefore mindlessness. Empirically, mindfulness is found to foster metacognitive awareness of a person, while minimizing rumination through the elimination of extreme cognitive activities and boosts attentional ability via gains in the working memory. In return, these cognitive gains enhance emotion-regulation strategies.
One of the most significant benefits of mindfulness at enhancing psychological well-being is through reduction of rumination. Practically, most yoga trainers encourage people to practice intensive mindfulness meditation for not less than 10 days with the aim of reducing rumination. This explains why meditation groups have registered a significant reduction in rumination as compared to control groups. According to Sheldon (2001), mindfulness curbs the effects of depression and rumination. Seligman (2014) acknowledges the potential of mindfulness meditation in boosting the capacity of working memory.
Additionally, mindfulness assists in the alleviation of stress. According to Davidson et al (2012), a meta-analysis of 39 studies on mindfulness stress management and reduction therapy, the research concludes that this form of therapy helps in altering the affective and the cognitive processes that culminate to various clinical issues. Furthermore, the research holds that mindfulness meditation simultaneously elevates positive affect while diminishing anxiety and negative effect. Farb et al 2010 carry out a research on a group of people that was to undertake mindfulness meditation after watching sad movies for eight weeks. In this research, it was realized that the participant (mindfulness group) had attained a significantly reduced anxiety, depression, and somatic distress as opposed to their counterparts in the control groups. The research denotes that following the therapy, these individuals (mindfulness group) exhibited less neural reactivity as compared to those in the control group when exposed to sad films. In other words, Williams (2010) research aims at deriving the concept that mindfulness meditation can be applied as a tool to influence the emotional control strategies, enabling people to experience selective emotion, with different brain processing of emotions.
Moreover, mindfulness meditation is linked to boosting the capacity of working memory. According to Jha et al (2010), a research conducted in a military base for eight weeks to weigh the influence of meditation on the working memory, researchers found positive results with a military officer who participated displaying an increased working memory as opposed to their counterparts who never participated. This condition was reported to have been accompanied by a rising positive affect and an inverse improvement in negative affect (Davidson et al, 2012).
The focus is another benefit reaped from mindfulness meditations. Ideally, researchers have found out that mindfulness therapy, enhances attentiveness that in return fosters the brain power to avoid distractions from information paths. Moore " Malinowski (2009) adds that there is a correlation between mindfulness (and self-reported) meditation and cognitive elasticity and attentional functioning.
Furthermore, mindfulness therapy helps individuals lessen their emotional reactivity. Meditators are found to be very calm people with less aggressiveness. Realistically, these consciousness concepts achieve this through forged forgetfulness (mindlessness) of trivial aggressors and stress factors. This ability to manage emotional reactivity is exhibited by the Federal Bureau Investigation agents. Most of their training is based on enhancing their cognitive flexibility. Ideally, the end result of controlled emotional reactivity fosters the agility to make informed decisions among the agents. Other ways in which mindfulness meditation fosters psychological well-being involve raising cognitive flexibility and creating relationship satisfaction. The ability to respond well to s partner’s stress and emotional issues positions a person well when it comes to handling relationship matters. Otherwise, mindfulness meditation is perpetrated self-insight, intuition, and many more mental processes around the central neural region.
Research shows that meditation therapists and trainees reap a number of other benefits that may directly or indirectly have an impact on the PWB. Such include counseling skills, reduced stress and anxiety, elevated empathy, compassion, and typically a good social life (Schonert-Reichl, 2010).
Thankfulness and Psychological Well-being
People normally express gratitude depending on the level of efficacy. Ideally, thankfulness is an expression of gratitude. Gratification triggers light moods to the grateful person and the receptor. This explains why thankfulness, as a concept of positive psychology underlies more of subjective well-being. A meta-analysis of studies on thankfulness shows that it has the potential to elevate positive emotions while heightening relationship satisfaction just like mindfulness meditation. Moreover, display of gratitude fosters resilience when it comes to the stressing phase of life. However, Wood (2010), considers gratitude to a challenge since it is not always natural. Perhaps some people have very high expectations thus find it hard to express gratitude over low efficacy. The researcher has found several strategies that can help individuals have thankfulness. Firstly, there is an emphasis on “counting on blessings”. Some people fail to express gratitude and be happy for comparing their achievement to their counterparts who have made greater achievements. In case these people had mindfulness meditation with the intention to motivate the realization of self-insight, it would be easier to appreciate the few milestones made in their self-actualization process. Another strategy to foster thankfulness is mental subtraction. A common phrase goes “you don’t know the value of what you have till you lose it”. Therapists use this idea to encourage clients to imagine how life would be in the absence of some inherent factors (resources, people, or feelings) in their lives. This way, most people are likely to develop a habit to be thankful for trivial achievements. Sometimes pride inhibits the expression of gratitude. Pride induces high expectations to people thus making them suffer distress when the results of various undertaking fail to meet the targeted results. Ideally, gratitude is two-pronged.
Firstly, it is experienced with the acknowledgment of positivity in an individual’s life and to the efforts, the giver puts into the efficacy. Following this acknowledgment, thankfulness involves cognition of the external sources of goodness that underlie oneself.
Conclusion
In summary, positive psychology plays a significant role in fostering PWB among individuals. Ideally, mindfulness and thankfulness are inherent concepts that derive positivity that is characterized by features endowed in the two facets of positive psychology. Mindfulness, however, requires more time to gain mastery as compared to gratitude, which can be easily forged. Most importantly, the two concepts enlightens learners that happiness is not necessarily an expression positivity, because of other issues that are discussed above.
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