Karen Jones

Interventions 1 and 2

Positive Psychology

            Lifting my mood was easy, I have had a hectic schedule and was in need of a serious mood lifting activity. I decided to spend time with my fiancé. We live together, but with our schedules we really needed the time to just hang out and get out of the house. We went out to lunch and walked around downtown, walking to the water, having coffee, just focusing on the here and now. It was wonderful. I am big on planning my days out, and just strolling along relaxing was much needed. My mood was lifted, I felt rejuvenated.

            The next mood lifting activity I chose was to spend time with two of my close friends. We all have busy schedules, and two years ago determined that we needed to start planning a weeknight to hang out about every two weeks. We call it “BBB” Jennifer coined the term, which stands for “beer, bitching, and bullshit”. We just get together, have dinner and chat it up about everything. We sort out each others problems, and have some laughs. This is a big time stress reliever and morale booster for each of us.

Now for the hard part: limiting my rumination. Right now I am in school mode and time management is key. I am constantly arranging what needs to get done in my head and moving on the next task bam-bam-bam. I decide to take a hot bath and leisure read before going to bed. It was hard at first because my mind was going in circles “what will the next day bring”, “remember this remember that”, et cetera. Once I got into what I was reading I reached the “lovely flow” state, got into bed and slept like a baby. This is something that I would normally do when my schedule is not so hectic to wind down; the funny thing is that I really need this kind of chill time to balance out my schedule.

            Reducing my physiological arousal I undertook in the form of meditation. I chose meditation because of the body scan exercise we have been doing on the mornings of class. I really like the body scan exercise but find myself antsy and my coffee begins to kick in and then I have a tough time listening to the narrators voice and following through with the exercise. I went to a Buddhist temple on the east side that my fiancé goes to and sat and tried to mediate. It was a rocky start, but once I started focusing on my breathing and using a few techniques I learned in a yoga class a few years ago, I felt good and my mind was more rested.

            What I really learned from the above interventions was to stop and re-access what is going on around me, how I am part of it, and to just be sometimes, because even with a busy schedule we all need a little peace, tranquility, and fun.

A really good friend gave me as a Christmas present a gift certificate to Kiva which I had not redeemed. What is Kiva? “Kiva lets you lend to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world-empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty” (www.kiva.org [1]). I logged on tried and to decide who to lend to (which takes some time) and lent money to a woman in Uganda who is a farmer of matooke (a banana used for cooking). This felt wonderful!!! I have never done anything like that before and it definitely lit a spark. Kiva will send me updates about the woman I loaned the money too, and I basically get to watch her farming business grow. Now I love getting shiny things as much as anybody for Christmas but this gift really embodied the spirit of Christmas-giving to others. Honestly this was the most fulfilling gift I have ever received. This was a true everybody wins situation. In contrast to spending $25.00 on a night out, this was far more fulfilling and long lasting. I receive emails about the woman’s progress, and it always makes me feel good when I think about it. It is much better than saying to myself “Yeah, that restaurant was good” and that being the end of the story.