Interdisciplinary Psychology:

A Beautiful Day

I began my beautiful day with the objective of, "allowing myself to make mistakes". I didn't really want to plan out my day with the mistakes I would make, since I felt it would limit the exercise.

I often find myself being very self critical about everything that I do. I need to do everything to perfection or it isn't good enough. I feel that I had a great day and let me tell you, I made a lot of mistakes.

EMP Field Trip

My day started off with high expectations; I anticipated having a sense of connectedness not only with other classmates but with myself. I think that sometimes I don't take the opportunity to have new experiences outside of work and school. This field trip was a chance for me to have fun and apply the things I learned and identify them in life. Being able to identify and consequently break out of certain behavior patterns has allowed me some insight into what is important for me.

Three Blessings

Before I started this exercise, I recalled reading about it in Authentic Happiness in which Martin Seligman did this activity with his grandchildren. I thought I would have much the same results waking up feeling happy and ready for the day and I anticipated enjoying this activity.

Overall the exercise went well. I got the results I was expecting except for the first three days (which I will explain in more detail momentarily). I found myself experiencing an elevation in mood, and because I have a love of learning I was looking forward to sharing the experience with others.

Resilience is a core necessity for everyone. Some people are lucky enough to be born with high levels of resilience, but the rest of us have to work and learn to maintain and build our resilience. In order to improve anything, a person needs to know what it is and how it works, people must become intimate with their thoughts. What is done with our thoughts determines whether or not our resilience reserves are depleted or built. Building resilience is “… a mind-set that enables you to seek out new experiences and to view your life as a work in progress.” (pg. 26)

I have always felt things have a way of just working out. Being optimistic lends a hand in maintaining this attitude so I haven’t given much thought about purposefully increasing my happiness. In this first intervention, I have experienced a better mood more often and I find that I have a higher degree of functioning in daily life.

With my first mood increasing activity I decided to analyze an activity I have been doing since October. I have been walking everyday for two miles and doing yoga 3 times a week. I initially started this with the goal of improved health and weight loss. In the past week and a half I have been specifically paying attention to any mental benefits of exercising and seeing if my mood has been lifted at all.