April e-news

Dr Suzy Green & Associates

Welcome back! I'm feeling pretty positive about Positive Psychology at the moment having spent last weekend at the First Australian Positive Psychology & Well-Being Conference held at the University of Sydney. It was one of the best "academic" conferences I have ever been to. In fact, one of my colleagues said he had "fallen in love with psychology again"! The topics included "Mindfulness, Health & Happiness" by Dr Craig Hassed, "Positive Psychology Goes to School" by Dr Toni Noble and "Is it possible to become happier and, if so, how?" presented by International Keynote Speaker, Professor Ken Sheldon. Participants came from many different backgrounds and it was good to see some of you there! There truly is so much interest in Positive Psychology and its appeal is very much due to its focus on practical applications at the individual, community, organisational and societal levels. Of course, my personal aim is to bring the research from Positive Psychology to you without you having to attend every conference or trawl through those exciting scientific journals!

SPECIAL NOTE: If you are keen to learn more about Positive Psychology and immerse yourself in it, then consider booking in for my "Positive Psychology in Everyday Life" workshop this Saturday. I won't be running it again until September and it usually is booked out! The Centre for Continuing Education at Sydney University have informed me there are still some spots available if you're quick. The cost of the course is very reasonable and the feedback I've had is very positive (pardon the pun!). So, if you've nothing scheduled in this Saturday, it would be great to see you there! http://www.cce.usyd.edu.au/cce/course.

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY: Would you like to be involved in the development of a new self-awareness measure as part of a study being undertaken by Despina Sfakinos, a PhD student in the Coaching Psychology Unit at the University of Sydney? Your responses would be completely anonymous and confidential and would only take about 20-30 minutes. If you would like to partake, all you need to do is go to the following link and answer the questions:
http://www.psych.usyd.edu.au/Surveys/limesurvey/index.php?sid=14375&lang=en
Please email Despina for further details regarding the study (despinas@psych.usyd.edu.au), which has been approved by the Ethics Committee at the University of Sydney. Please note that your personal details including email address have not been and, will not be, disclosed to anybody for the above exercise.

Last month I spoke about lovingkindness and forgiveness. I'm hoping you've had plenty of opportunities to "spread the love" this month and have identified at least one person whom you can practice letting go of a grudge. Don't forget "life's too short to quarrel"!

Month 4 - 2008 - Emotional Intelligence - Part 1 - Perceiving Emotions

"Emotional Intelligence" or "EI" has become a hot topic and one very much embraced by the Positive Psychology movement. It gained popularity primarily through Daniel Goleman's book of the same name in 1995. However, even before the publication of this book, there were a number of scientific researchers who had been reviewing and researching the construct of EI. Two of the major contributors to the scientific study of Emotional Intelligence are John Mayer and Peter Salovey. They define EI as "an ability to recognise the meanings of emotions and their relationships and to reason and problem-solve on the basis of them".

The Mayer and Salovey EI Model involves four abilities:

1) Perceiving Emotions
2) Using Emotions
3) Understanding Emotions
4) Managing Emotions

Over the next four months I will review each ability, in detail, with the aim of enhancing your overall emotional intelligence. If you'd like to take the MSCEIT (the EI assessment tool developed by Mayer, Salovey & Caruso), and to obtain a rating of your current EI contact me for further details.

This Month's Action Plan - "What's up?"

The ability to "perceive emotions" involves a number of skills that include accurately identifying how you feel and how others feel; expressing emotion; sensing emotion in art and music and reading between the lines. One of the key success factors here is being able to detect real versus fake emotions. Having accurate emotional awareness helps us to understand ourselves and others better. However sometimes people are "hard to read" and people do differ in their ability to express various emotions. Someone high on this ability is able to identify "fake" emotions whereas someone low may accept people at "face value" which could lead to incorrect conclusions.

Some suggestions for enhancing this ability include:

Increase your emotional self-awareness
Check in with your "emotional state" at various intervals throughout the day". Ask yourself "How am I feeling" and practice naming the emotion. Perhaps use an "Emotion Diary" eg. for the next week spend some time reflecting on your emotional state. Firstly reflect on the emotions themselves. Did you feel anger, sadness, fear, joy, gratitude etc? How strong was the emotion? How long did it last? For strong and long-lasting emotions, identify the situation/trigger event to that emotion ie an argument etc. Then identify any thoughts that might have created the emotion ie "He shouldn't have done that!". Be mindful of the powerful connection between your thinking and your emotional state - beware the ANTS!

Be Mindful of Emotional Expression
Reflect on whether your verbal and non-verbal messages are congruent? Do you wear a "Duchenne Smile" ie. a fake smile? Are you saying "one thing" but communicating "another"?

Be Mindful of Other's Emotions
Commit to enhancing your mindfulness here. Look out for changes in facial expression pitch, rhythm, tone of voice and posture that indicate a shift in emotional state. Hone your skills!

Practice Makes Perfect!
Practice "active listening" ie. reflecting back the content of the message and most importantly, the emotion that was communicated in the message.

Next Month…I'll be continuing my discussion on how emotional intelligence can be utilised to create a more contented and flourishing life.

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving
... and that's your own self

Aldous Huxley

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