One Question That Will Make Us More Resilient Against Coronavirus
What made you happy today? I asked this simple question to myself every day. And tried to find simple answers.
During this Covid-19 pandemic, I felt the need to share my story hoping it might help others to overcome hard situations these days and become more resilient against the virus and psychological and physical effects of it. I was having some hard times when I joined the ‘Positive Psychology’ specialization program from Pennsylvania University. Here I would like to share some of the results of scientific studies from that program and my experiences implementing those learnings into my life.
I’m living in the Silicon Vally -tech epicenter of the world- and at the same time the place where hosts the worst stress and burnout epidemic. In my life here working with startups and Fortune 500 companies like Google, eBay, I often found myself in a situation where I didn’t want to accomplish any task or I didn’t find pleasure in doing anything.
The biggest learning for me at the program was how repeating one question is changing people’s behaviors to positive. This simple question helped me every day to think about “What am I thankful for in life?” resulting in a more thoughtful and positive life. When I started asking this question to myself, I suddenly realized that everything became more clear to me. I found a life-work balance, started spending more time with the people I care and I felt the energy to work better and productive. This motivated me to focus more deeply on projects that matter in the world.
If you are searching for happiness, hard to find that way
According to Harvard Business School 2009 research, there is some correlation between happiness and income in basic needs, but we almost %100 overestimate the effect of money on happiness. It seems if we look for happiness we will not be able to find it, we just need to realize the small good things happening in our environment to be happy first.
Research evidence shows that for complete health; physical, mental, and social well-beings are interconnected: “A happy, engaged, and fulfilling psychological and social life is not just a consequence of good health, it is what leads people to live a healthy and long life.”
15% longer lifespan with Positive Psychology
According to a 2019 study, the people who think positively live 11–15% longer lifespan. And also those people have 50–70 percent greater odds of reaching the age of 85 or older in comparison to less optimistic groups.
Below are three recommended resources on Positive Psychology and resilience skills:
https://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_the_new_era_of_positive_psychology?language=en
