Positive Psychology
In 2006 and 2008 I was a section leader at Harvard University for Tal Ben-Shahar’s lecture course Psychology 1504: Positive Psychology. I have also studied Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, earning a masters degree in 2007.
For me, positive psychology offers a way of using western language and thinking to express what I understand of yoga philosophy. The major distinction I see between the two disciplines is that Positive Psychology is descriptive and yoga philosophy is prescriptive. Positive Psychology describes various avenues which lead one to experience optimal states of well-being. Various psychologists and philosophers have studied the effects of cultivating character strengths, deliberately aligning one’s life with one’s values, cultivating an optimistic explanatory style, and developing self-efficacy or resilience. Yoga, by contrast, prescribes behaviors and practices all of which still the mind. According to yoga philosophy, the avenues described above are effective to the extent that they contribute towards this ultimate aim, which brings about well-being.
My particular understanding is that a positive psychology is best expressed when we experience appropriate affect for the moment, which is not based on past conditioning but by the parameters of the situation we find ourselves in. We are, then, less stuck, less self-referential. Having a positive psychology requires the ability to be present to what is happening while it is happening without resistance, and it is my firm belief that our physiology determines the extent to which this is possible. For this reason, I favor a body-based approach and understand yoga to be the essential technique for cultivating a positive psychology.
