Interdisciplinary Psychology:

Reader Response

An Introduction to Positive Psychology by William C. Compton

I find it ironic this book is called An Introduction to Positive Psychology because it seems more like a primer on research to date.  It is almost a meta-analysis of positive psychology.  That being said, I really enjoyed how well Compton summarizes myriad studies on positive psychology, going back to long before the term “positive psychology” even existed.  I was particularly impressed by his ability to briefly summarize the work of Csikszentmihalyi, Jung, Adler and Maslow.  No small task with any of these psychologists, especially not with Jung.  This book provides a true wealth of knowledge, particularly as a leaping point to further investigations into any particular research study or area of focus.  The references alone are worth the price of the book.

I didn't focus on one project for one two-hour period of time.  Instead I engaged in several activities that all told probably added to more like three or four hours.  I don't really like to talk that much about acts of kindness done for others, because I never want to come from an ego place in helping others. I guess it's okay to do it to make yourself feel better, but I find my reasons are usually different than trying to make myself feel better.

What I realized through this process is that I fairly routinely engage in acts of philanthropy and activism in order to help others.  I do this because I feel it is my duty as a human being.  The writer Alice Walkers says activism is the rent she pays for living on Planet Earth.  I agree with her.  But this is just one aspect of gemeinschafsegefuhl to me.  The other aspect is more difficult, and that is my ongoing work around training my mind to be altruistic.  For this, I recite a Buddhist prayer.  I either do this aloud while using my prayer beads so that I say the prayer 108 or 216 times (depending on if I go once or twice around my mala).  I also recite my prayers when I'm stopped in traffic, or waiting in lines.  I will often recite them silently at night while falling asleep.  The prayer is: May all sentient beings be happy and endowed with the causes of happiness.  May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.  This prayer is also referred to as the four immeasurables.  My goal is to recite the prayer 100 times a day, but I don't always meet that goal. 

I had resistance to this activity, until I realized I was already doing this activity!  Duh.  I was starting to get really anxious about my big work load for school last week, so rather than worry about everything I had to do (ruminate), I bought a weekly calendar and wrote out all my assignments, and the homework I needed to do each week.  Once I did this, I realized my work load isn't as bad and scary as I was imaginging it to be.

For lifting my mood, I visited with a friend and went for a hike in the woods.  It would have been easy for me to not make time for these activities, but I realized they are important and both made me feel really good and more focused on my tasks at hand.  I even had some spiritual insights during my hike, which was a nice bonus.  I thought about how important air is, and how there is only one body of air around the planet.  We are all breathing the same air.  I thought about how I was breathing the same air I breathed when I was at 17,000 feet in Tibet last summer.  This made me feel really good, because it reminded me that we are all interconnected.