Today we continue with the second part (the first part can be enjoyed here) of our interview with Sue Langley – founder of the Langley Group and Academic Director of the Langley Group Institute – leaders in the Positive Psychology field.

Tadej: So, tell us a bit more about positive psychology.
Sue: Positive psychology is the scientific study of human flourishing, whether individuals, teams, or organizations. What it means in real life is how do I put as many tools in my toolkit as possible to flourish even through adversity?

And I think that’s where people misunderstand positive psychology. They think it’s about how we can be happy all the time. And it isn’t. It’s about, let me make sure I’ve got as many tools in my toolkit as possible. So, when adversity hits, I’ve got the tools at my disposal, and of course, you don’t need those tools on the good days. It’s all going smoothly. It’s wonderful. On bad days, you need to remind yourself about your sense of meaning or contribution. On your bad days, you need to draw on your strengths to go, ‘Come on, we can do this.’ On bad days, we need to remind ourselves of what we are grateful for. How do I flourish? How do I regularly have high levels of well-being, even if adversity hits? And that’s what I love about it.
The toolkit that helps us on rainy days

Sue: Positive psychology studies individuals, teams, or organizations at their best and says: What can we learn from this? And what if we did this regularly? How would it help us? And that’s the thing that I love, going back to the inspiration is many messages I get from people that have either done our Diploma or our leadership programs. They message me when they love life and are in difficulty.

… Interview in Navdihni me/Inspire me, issued by Insights, družba za odkrivanje in razvoj potencialov d.o.o., written by Tadej Peric & Natalie Cvikl Postružnik at https://navdihni.me/positive-psychology-gives-us-strength-in-difficult-times/

VIR: Insights