Nuggets from The Positive Psychology in Practice Conference in Utrecht 24-25 October 2019

When I return from a conference, I like to pull out the key nuggets of learning. Here are some from my two days in Utrecht last week.

·     1 in 6 professionals are suffering from elements of burnout. Happiness is made up of Connections, Actions and Recharge. It could be the lack of one or more of these contributes to burnout.

·     With other people we laugh 30x more often than when we are our own.

·     Patrick Van Hees

·     1/3 of medics burnout

·      Salmaan Sana

·     The behaviour of people says something about them, not you

·     Top three positive emotions – comfortable, satisfied, energised

·     Top three negative emotions- frustrated, stressed, anxious

·     Titia Niehorster

·     The brain perceives negative self-judgement as a form of threat, and the brain doesn’t distinguish real from imagined.

·      Toni Jarlstrom

·     Of every 20 people not going into work for mental ill health reasons, only 1 tells the truth

·     In the UK there is a suicide every 2 hours

·     Gratitude, Connection, Awe, Vulnerability and Authenticity all impact on wellbeing

·      Vikki Barnes

·     In coaching you get client / coach attunement through synchronicity of body movement. Synchronicity at a non-verbal level impacts on client levels of safety. While the client has the capacity to influence how the coach shows up. This attunement happens as a subconscious level.

·     Tunde’s research in the area is really interesting

·     Tunde Erdos

·     Happiness is an inside job

·     Compassion is the giving part of empathy

·     Dr Randall Birnberg

·     We are 500% more productive when we are in flow. We are 340% more effective at problem solving when we are in flow. Knowledge workers are the most likely to experience flow.

·     In flow, the prefrontal cortex shuts down inessential functions to focus, inner our self- consciousness: the inner critic is silenced

·      Donna Churchman

·     The pillars of happiness: Pleasure (the hedonistic layer), Purpose (the durable meaning pillar), Getting Results, Flow and Relationships

·      Dr Ron de Jong

·     The RAW model of flourishing – Resilience, Achievement, Wellbeing

·     Miriam Akhtar

·     Children laugh 300x a day, adults 15.

·      Bente Adriaens

·     Six factor model of wellbeing: personal growth, purpose in life, environmental mastery, autonomy, positive relationship with others, self-acceptance.

·     Moving from a Doer to a Leader involves including delegation, vision, asking for help, sel- awareness, thinking with Doing in your leadership circle of time and activity.

·      Odile Carru

·     If we numb ourselves against ‘difficult’ emotions then we numb all emotional responsiveness, we can’t be selective

Nathalie Marcinkowski