Interdisciplinary Psychology:

Positive Psychology

Forgiveness – Activity 6

Lisa Wilson

            Forgiveness, this is a hard activity for me to do…there is only one person, that comes to mind, who has hurt me and betrayed me in a way that I can not forgive or forget.  I have thought about this activity for days and have put off writing about it because of what is involved.  Bottom line for me is …I am just not ready to forgive her.  I don’t think I can just say, “Okay, I have to get this activity done, so here goes…”  It is not that simple for me.  I will, however, hang on to the paper and when I am ready to forgive this person I will do as the activity says.      

Positive Psychology

Field Trip to EMP

Lisa Wilson

            I had such a great time in Seattle and exploring EMP.  I had the pleasure of my daughter’s company during this field trip which made the day even more enjoyable.  When I think about concepts that we have learned this quarter, positive emotions and positive communities stood out for me on this day. 

Positive Psychology

Activity 4 “A Beautiful Day”

Lisa Wilson

            In order to complete my activity for a beautiful day by today, I had to do it during the week which was not my preference because I would like to have started my day off by sleeping in and not having to go to work.  However, with that being said, I decided to have a positive attitude and make it work.  I started off by dressing in something pretty for work.  Generally I wear pants to work but on this day I thought I would begin my “beautiful day” by wearing something more feminine and beautiful, so I put on a skirt.  It worked.  I felt good and looked forward to my day at the office. 

Lisa Wilson

            The Resilience Factor reminded me of a few years ago when I lost weight.  I had a lot of stress in my personal life and I began to run and I lost 30 pounds.  At 5’02” that was a lot of weight, but to get to my point; people commented on my achievement and how losing weight was something they also wanted to do but didn’t want to run or didn’t have time.  The excuses for not doing it were numerous.  It is the same with the book.  If a person truly wants to make a change in their life then this book will help them.  I believe this because as I read the book I had “aha” moments.  One such moment was in the section on page 66, You Are What You Think.  The very last paragraph on that page states, “In fact, it is not the events that happen to us that cause our feelings and behaviors – it is our thoughts or, as we’ll call them, Beliefs (B’s) about the events that drive how we feel and what we do.”  After reading that particular sentence a couple of times, I thought back to situations where I did exactly that…I let my thoughts about these particular situations take over.  The ticker-tape was the same in each of these situations which caused me great misery.  I can see that now. 

Activity 3:  “Three Blessings”

Positive Psychology

Lisa Wilson

            I enjoyed doing this activity.  Usually I think about all that I am grateful for on my drive into work.  It relaxes me and makes me appreciate my life.  In the evenings as I am going to bed, I generally think of all that has happened during the day and most, of course, is the negative things that played out.  So when I started this activity it was nice going to bed thinking about what I am grateful for instead of what went wrong.  I found myself more relaxed as I prepared for bed and I seemed to fall asleep faster once I got into bed.  I did as the exercised stated by naming my positive event, then visualizing it, and finally saying the name over and over in my head.  This was all good but I must confess that I rarely dreamt about my positive event.  The majority of the mornings I awoke remembering my dreams but there were some mornings that I couldn’t even remember putting my head down on the pillow.  However, I did wake up many mornings in a good mood, well rested and ready to start my day.