1. Simplifying and Well-Being.
Abstention as a Positive Intervention
European Conference on Positive Psychology 2014
Hein Zegers, Wander van der Vaart, Peter Derkx
UvH University Utrecht
www.essencing.com
preliminary results June 2014 © essencing.com

2. Positive Interventions
• Gratitude Diary (daily/weekly)
• Volunteering
• Exercising (min. 3x a week)
• Optimism
• Forgiveness
• Savoring
• Gratitude visit
• Mindfulness exercises (daily)
• Random Acts of Kindness (daily)
• Etc... preliminary results June 2014 © essencing.com
Seligman et al. (2005)

3. Possible Side Effects

4. Abstention as a Positive Intervention?
preliminary results June 2014 © essencing.com

5. Simplifying
in Time
Simplifying
in Space
preliminary results June 2014 © essencing.com

6. www.essencing.com
preliminary results June 2014 © essencing.com

7. preliminary results June 2014 © essencing.com

8. preliminary results June 2014 © essencing.com

10. preliminary results June 2014 © essencing.com

11. preliminary results June 2014 © essencing.com

12. Qualitative Questions
• When simplifying your life, you 've probably changed/left
out parts of your former life. Which parts have you
changed/left out?
• Which of these changes/omissions are you MOST satisfied
with? Please explain.
• Which of these changes/omissions are you LEAST satisfied
with? Please explain.
• Has simplifying changed your life quality? If so, how would
you explain this?
preliminary results June 2014 © essencing.com

13. First Data Analysis & Results
oral presentation
preliminary results June 2014 © essencing.com

14. Discussion

15. World’s first multilingual research
on this topic
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