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| Paul Pahil The founder of Budapest's Happiness Week 2014 - 2017 |
1.
When did you choose to leave London and to live in Hungary?
I
arrived in the summer of 2004 and decided to set up Hungry 4 Learning
Ltd. I wanted to introduce the scientific practices of ’positive
psychology’. I moved to Budapest because I realized there are many
talented people in the city though there is strong environment of low
resilience and high pessimism.
Pessimistic people are eight times
more likely to become depressed when bad events happen. Over time,
depressed people learn to be helpless and exert little control in
what happens in their lives. Hence I wanted to use positive
psychology interventions to make people more resilient and flourish.
There is a low level of flourishing in the whole region and only 8%
of all Hungarians are actually flourishing. People
who experience flourishing are more creative and productive. People
who are flourishing enjoy better lives and can live up to nine years
longer.
When
more people flourish, society gains through reduced mental illness,
reduced suicidality reduced premature mortality and better
functioning. The
focus of our work is on well-being which directly improves
creativity, health, performance, customer satisfaction and supportive
relationships.
We
can only flourish and mobilise others when the conditions in the
environment are optimal.
The essence for me is to collaborate with
others to create value for our new environments. This was the
inspiration behind creating Budapest’s Happiness Week, which has
run for 3 consecutive years, so everyone interested in developing
their well-being could participate for free. We plan the next
Budapest’s Happiness Week during 10-16th
of September, 2017.
2.
What really is Positive Psychology? It is something fashionable?
Positive
Psychology was developed by world famous psychologists Martin Seligman and Mihály
Csíkszentmihályi in the year of 2000. They
wanted to counter-balance the focus of psychology on pathology or
what’s wrong with people. They do not advocate a simple switch to
focus only on what is right but simply to get back to a balanced
analysis of people and situations.
Positive
psychology has caught the attention of the world as it is an
empirically-based discipline that, for the past two decades, has been
researching and developing techniques for optimal human functioning
for individuals, teams and organisations.
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| Paul Pahil with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi |
The
main focus of positive psychology is for people to flourish and
that the goal of positive psychology is to increase flourishing.
Flourishing rests on five pillars, each of which we value for
its own sake,
not merely as a means to some other end. The five elements are
positive emotions, engagement, supportive relationships, meaning and
the need to achieve. These elements, which we choose for their own
sake in our efforts to flourish, are the rock-bottom fundamentals to
human well-being. What is the good life? It is pleasant, engaged,
meaningful, achieving, and being connected.
3.
Is a difference between Positive Psychology and positive thinking?
Yes, there is a huge difference as positive psychology is a science and
has gained vast amounts of research funding are attractive to
corporate donars who see them as providing a competitive edge. Topics
such as peak performance, resilience, creativity are very attractive
in the field of industry and commerce to gather data about positive
human functioning.
For example according to MihályCsíkszentmihályi’s
leading research the more challenging, flow-inducing activities we
can introduce into our lives, the more creative and motivated we are.
Positive
Psychology does not ignore the negative though it calls upon us to
make a fundamental mind-shift. It knows from recent neuroscience
research that our brains are wired to focus mostly on the negative;
what’s wrong with a situation or people. This made sense in the
vast period of human history when it was critical to notice a wild
animal about to eat you. Whereas in the last 20 years it is not
adaptive to focus largely on the negative as a wild animal is less
likely to eat us and what is instead now required in the workplace
are emotional intelligence and creativity. But our brains have not
yet caught up. So positive psychology as a science can add great
benefit by ensuring people redress the balance and take into account
what is wrong with themselves and their teams but also engage more
productively with themselves and others with what is right with them.
4.
What specific tools does the science of positive psychology offer?
Everyone
motivation is unique and we need to discover what cultivates genuine
and heartfelt positivity for you. Everybody is different when it
comes to the optimal conditions that trigger positive emotions. This
means that your own path to flourishing will be unique. Selecting the
most personalised strategies increases the chances that you will
succeed. For example, expressing gratitude could be effective for you
in decreasing your stress and increasing your self-worth and
strengthening your existing relationships.
We
all have a genetic happiness set point that accounts for 50% of our
happiness, 10% of our happiness comes from our life's circumstances,
like where we live, what car we drive, how much money we make, etc.
The remaining 40% rests in how we choose to be happy everyday (i.e.
our daily activities). These strategies focus on developing and
refining the remaining 40%.
Once
you find one strategy that fits your current position you tend to
find other complementary activities to boost your 40% of your
happiness which is within
your power to change. You can select from activities that best match
your personality, resources, goals and needs. Each of the activities
is presented with empirical evidence of its efficacy and suggestions
for related activities that might also fit.
These activities
represent habits rather than goals, and as such, are something one
could practice most days. For example, savouring the moment is very
different than being in flow. Being engaged in flow is being fully
immersed in the moment, whereas savouring involves stepping out of
the moment to fully appreciate it.
The answer to becoming happier
and flourishing is a diverse matter which may be worth pursuing.
5. I invited you in Bucharest to speak about positive psychology. When are you planning to come?
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