Pleasure... Flow... and Meaning..!

For a while now I have been meaning to write a post about Positive Psychology 101. And even though I know what positive psychology is essentially, I was stumped when I had to define it. Then the other day I came across a tweet which lead to an article about positive psychology and the Olympics and the definition the writer used was so elegant I just had to quote her.

The first two paragraphs of her article had me nodding my head like one of those nodding bulldog car toys. Nowadays, there is a lot of talk about positivity, positive thinking and just being happy/positive etc. It is really easy to get confused and assume they are all mean the same thing so I was very glad when right away the writer, Louisa Jewell distinguished between positive thinking i.e. “the secret” and other similar notions and positive psychology. And as I said earlier it is the most elegant definition I have heard till date.

So “positive psychology is the scientific study of psychological well-being" as opposed to the traditional psychological model of mental illness. Additionally, it is important to “note the emphasis on ‘scientific’ which means it is based in science and empirical research" and it is therefore separate from other fluffy feel good notions. It is also not the same thing as positive thinking, or being positive and smiley all the time.

That said, I have included a TED Talks video by Martin Seligman, largely considered the father of positive psychology to further expatiate on the topic.

I hope this clarifies things, in any case there would most likely be a follow up post to this.

P's and Q's #2

Again, another one of my favourites from this year. I particularly like this quote because it relates so dearly to me. You see, I love to sleep and therefore spend most of my free time sleeping! This quote is plastered on my laptop screen to remind me I need to stay awake to make my dreams come true.

P's and Q's #1

This is one of my favourite quotes I have come across this year. It's so simple yet so profound and really makes you think.. Certainly worthy to have as my first proverb/quote on here. 

Enjoy!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it superman??

No it's not superman, no it's not a bird,  it's just a plane.

Happy viewing..!

Recap on my photoshop drama

Just a quick recap on my "photoshop drama", following on from this my first two posts on this blog after back to back "photoshopping" I took a long two week break to calm my nerves and return to sanity. It was one of the best things I ever did. I came back more positive and with more realisltic expectations for my blog.

Firstly, I realised that I really couldn't possibly put all the things I wanted on any one blog- it would be too much and would completely distract the reader from the content with is basically the most impotant bit. Secondly, to be honest my photoshop/css/html skills are really not that great (right now, but watch this space) anyway to carry out all my mind's wish. So I decided to call a truce with myself and to create a functioning blog that I could work with and actually start "blogging" and if in a couple of months I felt like a change then I could always have a blog make over. Hopefully by then my photoshop/css/html skills will a lot more than they are now and it would be less of a headache to redo things.

So far so good, I made my header and background (curtsey of Summer Driggs's kits) and managed to put them in the right places-whew! I am still tinkering around with little things but am pacing myself and focusing on what really matter for now- the content. 

This blog is just in it's infancy, and I am not really sure what it's going to look like at the end but I like the direction its flowing right now and for a novice that just came into this less than a month ago, i've done a pretty good job- I think. I like what I see (yep! everything you see on here now has been created by me, not bad for a newbie right?)  and am proud to call this my blog -yaay!.

and here's to better things in the future...

It's my birthday today!!

It's my birthday today!! Yaaaayyy me!! So today I am officially an adult great! and unfortunately I would have to start acting like one too, boo! Just joking but now i am kinda on "the wrong side of 20..well almost.

The reason for it all

I should have got round to this sooner, but better late than never although never late is better. The sole reason I started this blog was to chart my progress to chartership. I am an Occupational Psychologist in training (just about to start my msc) and as the title suggests, I intend to become chartered. Nonetheless, this blog is not intended to be topical and be about just occupational psychology, although there will be a large chunk of occupational psychology related content on here particularly relating to chartership - my no 1 pursuit right now but I have other pursuits and as it’s a (semi) personal blog they will show up in one form or another. I make no apologies for that.

Before I started this blog I looked around for blogs on occupational psychology and didn't really find much, particularly on the chartership process. It’s almost as if the process is shrouded in secrecy and only those actually involved in the process are in the know. As a research junkie (thanks to google!), I love to plan and research things I am interested in. So once I decided I wanted to be an occupational psychologist I wanted to know the process to become chartered and what exactly happened during the supervision period and how that logbook thingy went about.

This was exactly the bit that I couldn’t find, apart from the information available on the BPS website there was nothing else really. No personal accounts from people actually going through the supervision/logbook process to provide an insight into what it was really really like so I decided well? Why not start my own blog since I am somewhat on the route to chartership myself and that ladies and gentlemen, is the reason for this blog - to document exactly what goes on in the chartership process from my own experience.

Now, to manage your expectation, this blog is not designed to be your typical run of the mill blog that discusses relevant issues/news in occupational psychology and gives my take on things-no! There are plenty of that already. If you are looking for a dinner table conversation starter this blog is probably not it. This blog is more of a private diary, journal if you will about my own personal journey to chartership; the challenges/triumphs I may face, sharing my passions and trying to reach out to like minded "trainees" going through the same thing. Already there is a lot of generic information about occupational psychology, how to get into the field, the chartership process etc so I don’t feel it necessary to cover that again, if needed I could signpost you to the relevant information but this blog will not be about that. You can find My Occupation Psychology Factsheet here.

I hope this clarifies things and provides anyone interested with enough information to stick around and enjoy the journey with me.

See you on the other side