Positive psychology focuses on optimal human functioning and thriving. Martin Seligman founded the field to study happiness and normal lives, not just mental illness. Two approaches to happiness are savoring, consciously attending to pleasure, and flow, fully immersing in an activity. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi extensively researched flow and defined its characteristics. Work can induce flow more than leisure, paradoxically. Savoring involves mindfully appreciating positive experiences through sharing, memory building, and other techniques to enhance well-being.

1. Positive Psychology II – The Sequel
Peter Gowers
IT Supervisor, and
amateur positive
psychology student

2. Positive
Psychology recap
 “Scientific Study of optimal human functioning that aims
to discover and promote the factors that allow
individuals and communities to thrive” Martin Seligman,
founder of PP
 Reaction to Normal Psychology
 Positive Psychology looks to help people nurture talent
and improve normal lives
 A very large collection of loosely coupled positive
constructs.
 Data Driven – large Studies
 Happiness - Paradox of rising Expectations
Martin Seligman

3. Economic growth and happiness. American's average buying
power has almost tripled since the 1950s, while reported happiness
has remained almost unchanged. (Happiness data from National
Opinion Research Center General Social Survey; income data from
Historical Statistics of the United States and Economic Indicators.)
Source: Scholarpedia.org

4. Today - 2 Very different approaches
to Happiness
 Savouring - Awareness of pleasure and of
the deliberate conscious attention to the
experience of pleasure.
 Flow – When does time stop for you?
Doing something you never want to end?

5. First a Challenge
 A leading Positive Psychologist
 101 books on Amazon.
 One of Bill Clintons favourite authors
 Professor at the University of Chicago
 One very obvious question
Just how do you pronounce
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi?
The easy answer is to call him Mike the flow guy
'cheek-sent-me-high'

6. Some Quotes by Mike
“For too Long psychology had been focused almost
exclusively on the shadows of human existence”
“A joyful life is an individual creation that can’t be copied
from a recipe”
“People who learn to control inner experience will be able
to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as
any of us can come to being happy.”
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

7. Flow
 Do you ever feel one of the following:
– “In the zone”, “on the ball”, “in the groove”
– “In the moment”
– A difficult task becomes effortless
– Time seems to pass very quickly
– You faced a big challenge but actually enjoyed the
task
Flow is the state in which people are so involved in
an activity, that nothing else seems to matter; the
experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it
even at great cost, for the shear sake of doing it.

8. Where does the idea of flow come
from?
 Concept developed after investigating artists, athletes,
musicians, chess players and surgeons for what they
enjoyed and valued
– What are you alive for?
 Data
– Interviews and Questionnaires
– Experience sampling method
 Pagers for a week
 Randomly, what are you thinking, doing and feeling?
 Hundreds of thousands of people across the world
 People who had more flow reported being happier
 Strong documented correlation to performance
enhancement and motivation
 Thought to build Psychological Capital/Growth

9. Characteristics of Flow inducing
situations
1. Chance of Completing the task
2. Ability to Concentrate
3. Clear Goals
4. Feedback provided immediately
5. Effortless – intrinsically motivating
6. Sense of Control over actions
7. Concern for self disappears
8. Hours pass in minutes
It’s not that you need all of them to be in flow, but
one or more is present in the observed states

10. High Challenge and High Skill
TV
Driving
Eating
New task
Favourite
Activity
Chores
Learning
Hassles
Work
?

11. Work
“It does not seem to be true that work
necessarily needs to be unpleasant. It may
always have to be hard, or at least harder
than doing nothing at all. But there is ample
evidence that work can be enjoyable, and
that indeed, it is often the most enjoyable
part of life.”
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

12. The Paradox of Work and Leisure
 Work reports 54% flow vs Leisure at 18%
 People describe some of their most positive
experiences doing their job
 People report low moods during Leisure
time
 And Yet:
– They say they would prefer not to be working
and want more leisure time
– Maybe we need to improve our leisure and
think more about our perception of work

13. “Wherever the goal is to
increase the quality of life, flow
can point the way.”

14. Increasing the chance of Flow
–Use Signature Strengths
–Select Tasks for Intrinsic Motivation
–Develop Skills in a challenging activity
–Create Flow experiences
–Watch less TV

15. Savouring
“Savouring is the capacity to attend to,
appreciate, and enhance the positive
experiences in one’s life.”
(Bryant, 2007)
 A state when we’re aware of pleasure with
conscious attention to experience, almost
the opposite of flow.

16. How do we cope?
 Faced with a negative event we can cope by:
– Active problem solving
– Social Support
– Cognitive Reappraisal
– Formal Help Seeking
– Prayer
– Wishful thinking
– Escape/Avoidance
 But how do we cope with a positive event?
– The process, not the outcome
– Normal coping will not maximise the benefit
– Coping is about moderating the quality of negative
experiences, Savouring is about moderating the
quality of positive experiences

17. Balloon Ride
(Bertrand Piccard’s diary entry written on the final evening
of his record breaking trip around the world in a hot air
balloon, 1999, p. 44).

18. Savouring
An example of savouring
“During the last night, I savour once more the intimate
relationship we have established with our planet.
Shivering in the pilot’s seat, I have the feeling I have left
the capsule to fly under the stars that have swallowed
our balloon. I feel so privileged that I want to enjoy every
second of this air world. During our three weeks of flight,
protected by our high-tech cocoon, we have flown over
millions of people suffering on this earth… why are we so
lucky?... very shortly after daybreak, [our balloon] will
land in the Egyptian sand, Brian and I will be lifted away
from the desert by helicopter, and we will immediately
need to find words to satisfy the public’s curiosity. But
right now, muffled in my down jacket, I let the cold bite of
the night remind me that I have not yet landed, that I am
still living one of the most beautiful moments of my life.
The only way I can make this instant last will be to share
it with others…”
(Bertrand Piccard’s diary entry written on the final evening of his record
breaking trip around the world in a hot air balloon, 1999, p. 44).

19. Ways of Savouring
 Sharing with Others
 Memory Building
 Self Congratulation
 Sensory Perceptual
Sharpening
 Comparing
 Absorption
 Behavioural
Expression
 Temporal Awareness
 Counting Blessings
 Kill Joy Thinking
Just some words
Emotions such as Happiness, Joy, Elation, Delight, Satisfaction,
Meaning, Fulfilment, Rapture, Pleasure, Gratitude and Bliss

20. 4 types of Savouring

21. Exercise - Holiday
 Did you have a holiday in the last year?
 Last Month?
 What made it more enjoyable?
 Did anyone have a holiday today?
 The Daily vacation Exercise
– Every day, plan and participate in something you find
enjoyable for 20 minutes
– Before starting the vacation set aside worries
– During the vacation, notice and explicitly acknowledge
pleasure. Label things, build a memory
– At the end of each day, reflect, plan tomorrow and
anticipate
– At the end of the week, recall all 7.

23. Savouring
 Three temporal forms of savouring:
– Anticipation
– Being in the moment
– Reminiscing
 Why savouring?
– Research has demonstrated that individuals
who habitually savour have greater life
satisfaction, are more optimistic and less
depressed than individuals who do not
habitually savour.

24. Increase Savouring
 Social Support
 Writing
 Downward Hedonic Contrast
 Humour
 Spirituality and Religion
 Awareness of the fleetingness of existence.

25. And Finally
 Prolong the Experience
 Intensify the Experience
 Shift Gears to Savouring
 And don’t forget your flow

26. Any Questions?
(Difficult ones very much welcome)
Thank You!

27. References
 Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience - Paperback (11 Aug
2006) by Fred B. Bryant and Joseph Veroff
 Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (P.S.) by Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi (Paperback - 1 Jul 2008)
 Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life
(MasterMinds) by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Paperback - 16 Mar 1998)
 A Primer in Positive Psychology by Christopher Peterson (Paperback -
17 Aug 2006)
 Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness and Human Strengths
(Paperback) by Alan Carr Routledge; 1 edition (4 Dec 2003) ISBN-13:
978-1583919910
 Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realise
Your Potential for Lasting Fulfilment (Paperback) by Martin E.P.
Seligman Nicholas Brealey Publishing (6 Mar 2003) ISBN-13: 978-
1857883299
 http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow.html
 http://positivepsychology.org.uk/