Praise for the book: “Miriam Akhtar introduces a major breakthrough in the treatment of depression.” Dr Chris Johnstone, GP & Psychologist

“My advice is to give this book a go. If I was going to buy one book on positive psychology to treat depression, I’d choose an author who’d been properly trained as a positive psychologist, who knows how to write in an engaging and accessible way, and who understands, first-hand, the challenges of depression. In short, I’d choose Miriam.” Dr Phil Hammond, GP & Comedian

“A wonderful set of ideas and techniques that can help reduce depression and build happiness. They’re simple, engaging, practical and – most importantly – they’re all based on evidence from the latest positive psychology research, so we know they really work.”  Mark Williamson, Director, Action for Happiness

“For many years I have recommended “Mind Over Mood,” to my clinical psychology trainees as the psychological treatment manual of choice. Miriam Akhtar has now written a very credible depression treatment manual, based on the principles of positive psychology. I am sure that this book will go on to become one of the few other classics in this field, along with Beck and Wolpert. Highly recommended!” Dr Jerome Carson, Clinical Psychologist in Independent Practice, London

“The first to apply positive psychology solutions to depression, Miriam’s book is clear, engaging and enlightening. In fact it is so good that despite all my existing knowledge, I borrowed a few tips for myself! I love the summary tables and the first-aid kits – they really bring positive psychology to life.”  Dr Ilona Boniwell, Principal Lecturer and Programme Leader for the first MSc in Applied Positive Psychology in Europe, UEL.

“This book is a joy. Miriam Akhtar clearly demonstrates that positive psychology is both practical and effective. The book will be a vital tool in our work supporting people in recovering their wellbeing.” Amanda Williamson. Director of PHEW (Devon) – Promoting Health and Emotional Wellbeing.

Please support bookshops where you can when buying the book. You can also access the book through Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble and Borders.  I’d love to read about your experiences of using the techniques in the book – please get in touch . There are other ways of mastering the tools which you can read about on this site  – one-to-one coaching, the Happiness Training Plan CD/download or come to one of our Positive Psychology Masterclasses.

12 secrets of being happy from 100 world experts

Having goals, however, does play a key role in your happiness, giving you a sense of purpose in life and a positive direction to aim for. There is plenty of research that shows that your satisfaction with life increases when you achieve your goals. In 2011 Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology, published a new theory of well-being, in which he named accomplishment, or achievement as one of 5 main pathways to happiness. The others are experiencing positive emotions, being engaged with life, having positive relationships and a sense of meaning.

True Grit

One of the most important qualities to help you achieve your goals is to have grit. Not the stuff that stops you falling over on icy mornings but rather the perseverance and passion to follow-through on taking action towards your long-term goals. I often say to coaching clients that ‘life rewards action’. You can think and plan all you like but life will only start to change once you turn a thought into a deed and take some steps towards your goal.

Grit aka hardiness is not a popular concept in the 21^st century where instant gratification and the easy solution are far preferred but being hard-working, tenacious, determined and stubborn in the face of obstacles are the qualities that lead to success. Studies of world-class achievers in fields like chess, music and sports all suggest that it is the many hours spent over many years practising their skill that marks the difference between the good, the great and the elite. It is the hard work, rather than the talent that is the deciding factor in their greatness.

Gritting Your Goals

Here are some of the ways in which you can grit your goals and increase your chances of achieving them in 2012.

Follow Through. This is what really makes the difference to success so get with the programme and when you grow weary, pause to rebuild your energy and then get stuck in again. Break the task down into small steps to encourage yourself to get going again.

Identify Role Models of Grit. Find examples of mental and physical toughness and observe what they do. In my local park, for example, you’ll find military fitness experts. Or read biographies of gritty people like Ellen MacArthur or JK Rowling.

Pursue with Passion & Persistence. Passion gives you the energy to invest in your goal and the edge to keep going in tough times.

Face Up to the Test. Shirking a challenge is the very opposite of grit so shed your comfort zone and show people that it can be done even if they say it can’t. You develop grit by taking on challenges that stretch you.

Don’t Allow Criticism or Failure to Define You. Learn the lesson from the negative stuff and adjust what you do so that you bounce back and find another route to your goal. Treat failure as feedback and don’t take it personally.

If Then…

One of the best ways of setting yourself up for success is to create ‘implementation intentions’ for your goals. These are ‘if then’ strategies which help to keep you on track and can be used to motivate yourself. So say your goal is to ask for a promotion, your ‘if-then’ strategy might be ‘if I see the boss, then I’ll ask him if I can make an appointment to talk.’ Or say you’re trying to give up chocolate your ‘if-then’ strategy might be ‘if I have a craving for chocolate, then I’ll go for a walk around the block instead.’

A final tip to making your goals happen is to externalise them by writing them down or telling other people what you want to achieve. One of my intentions for 2012 is to develop my social media presence. You can find me on Twitter at @pospsychologist or on Facebook by liking Positive Psychology Masterclass.

Recommended Reading – Creating Your Best Life by Caroline Adams Miller & Dr Michael Frisch.

Miriam Akhtar (www.positivepsychologytraining.co.uk) is one of the first positive psychologists in Britain with a licence to help you feel good, function well and flourish. She practises in Bristol and is the Happy City Initiative’s chief ‘Health & Wellbeing’ correspondent. Her new book ‘Positive Psychology for Overcoming Depression: Self-help Strategies for Happiness, Inner Strength & Well-being’ is published on Feb 2^nd.

You can also read this article at Bristol 247

The New Seekers were definitely onto something in the seventies, for over the past year I’ve been forming the belief that singing in a choir might be one of the best positive psychology interventions around.

The Positive Power of Singing Together

A year ago I joined a local gospel choir to put ‘sunshine into the soul’ during the long winter months, and it’s undoubtedly been one of the most powerful interventions that I’ve ever experimented with. Every time we sing in harmony I can sense the presence of a bunch of positive emotions feeding into my positivity ratio, and it seems I’m not the only one.

A friend who lectures in health psychology describes choir singing as his mental health maintenance program. Two of my coaching clients, coaches themselves, are members of choirs while others are taking singing lessons (nothing to do with me!) When Bridget Grenville-Cleave and I co-facilitate Positive Psychology Masterclasses, Bridget arrives on day 1 powered up from her Wednesday evening dose of choral singing, and I come in on day 2 boosted by my Thursday night fix. Bridget has written previously about the benefits of singing for well-being.

Choir Renaissance

In the UK, choirs are experiencing somewhat of a renaissance. Choirmaster Gareth Malone has featured in a series of moving TV reality shows where he forms choirs from unlikely populations: hard-to-reach teenage boys dispelling the myth that ‘boys don’t sing’ and recently with lonesome military wives whose husbands are away fighting in Afghanistan. There are rock choirs sprouting up across the nation singing a mix of pop, rock, soul, and gospel just for the sheer pleasure of it. There’s even a film in pre-production charting the rock choir phenomenon made by the same people who were behind Calendar Girls, and we haven’t even mentioned the sensation that is Glee.

Wearing my positive psychology hat I can see many a way in which choir singing produces well-being. If we consider the five evidence-based steps to happiness recommended by the UK’s Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Well-being, each of the five is amply fulfilled by singing in a choir.

Connect. The choir is a route into a community, a family in itself which gives you that sense of belonging, so vital for well-being especially in the individualist society that we inhabit in the West. It’s also social with choir members engaged in the common goal of engaging and entertaining an audience.

Be Active. Being a choir member is an active form of recreation which outstrips passive leisure activities such as watching TV in its benefits for well-being. There’s the potential for flow if the level of challenge is a notch higher than your skill in the area. It also delivers an extremely good workout to your lungs and diaphragm!

Take Notice. There is much to savor in choir singing – the blend of voices, the joy of singing as a group, and the elevation it generates. It is a transcendent experience both for the singers and audience. One of the most striking incidents for me was when we sang to prisoners in the local jail. The inmates arrived withdrawn or sporting an abundance of ‘attitude’ but by the end they were visibly different – more open, gentler, and friendlier.

Keep Learning. Learning new things builds confidence, and it is immensely satisfying to learn something new just for the sake of it and for fun rather than for work. If you have Love of Learning as one of your top VIA strengths then you need no further persuasion! There’s also a sense of progress. I can now hold a note for twice as long as I could this time last year. My lung capacity has expanded!

Give. Here is a great way of contributing to community well-being. A choir is social contagion in action, infecting others with a positive mood. I’ve witnessed many a time how a choir elevates a crowd, putting a Duchenne smile onto faces. If you have Curiosity amongst your strengths, then this is also a way into new social groups. We sing at neighborhood events, charity fundraisers, weddings, birthday parties, music festivals, prisons, even at the zoo.

Singing as a Hive Activity

A key ingredient of the joy of choir-singing is that it involves others. Being socially active is one of the characteristics of very happy people. When Jonathan Haidt began writing The Happiness Hypothesis he believed that happiness came from within, but by the end he’d changed his mind to believe that happiness comes from the between: the relationship between yourself and others, your work, and beyond yourself.

In his new book, Haidt outlines the hive hypothesis, which describes humans as hive creatures, aping the ultra-social behavior of bees. Our groupish minds help us to cohere and co-operate. Under the right conditions we enter a mindset of “one for all, all for one,” in which we’re working for the good of the group and not just for our personal advancement. We have the ability to transcend self-interest and lose ourselves, temporarily and ecstatically, in something larger than ourselves. Choir singing is one of the ways in which to flick this hive switch.

So here’s an idea for a choir-based well-being intervention to send out positive ripples across a community. Stage a flash-mob, an apparently spontaneous but premeditated gathering in a public space, where people burst into song springing a surprise on those around them. Choirs have flash-mobbed around the world in shopping centers, railway stations, and airports. There are plenty of examples to inspire on Youtube.

If by any chance you’re near Bristol on Saturday 10th December, come and join us for the Renewal Choir’s Christmas concert, appropriately named Joy to the World. The clue is in the title!

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience.. New York: Harper Perennial.

Diener, E. & Seligman, M.E.P. (2002). Very happy people. Psychological Science, 13(1), 81-84.

Haidt, J. (2006). The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. New York: Basic Books.

New Economics Foundation (2008). Five Ways to Well-being: The Evidence.

So what is it about singing in a choir that makes it such a tonic for these uncertain times? The research shows that singing in harmony with others is good for both mental and physical well-being, reducing stress levels and increasing happiness. Singing in unison can help people recover from depression and overcome grief. Wearing my positive psychology hat I can see many a way in which choir singing raises the bar (pun intended) on your happiness. Of the five-recommended ways to well-being, all of them are fulfilled by singing in a choir.

1. Connect. When it comes to happiness there is no doubt that other people matter. We need to connect with others for our well-being. One of the characteristics of very happy people is that they have active social lives. Joining a choir is a great way to connect with others in your community. It gives you a sense of belonging, which is vital for well-being especially in the individualist era we live in.

2. Be Active. Being a member of a choir is an active form of leisure which far outstrips passive recreational activities such as watching TV in its benefits for your mental health. It also delivers a work-out for your lungs!

3. Take Notice.There is much to savour in a choir – appreciating the blend of voices, the banter and laughter, the sense of community, working as a group towards a common goal.

4. Keep Learning.Learning new things builds confidence and it’s really satisfying to learn something new just for the sake of it, for fun rather than for work. You also get a sense of progress – I can now hold a note for twice as long as I could this time last year. My lung capacity has expanded!

5. Give. The joy of singing is that it’s infectious with the positive mood spreading from the choir to everyone around. It’s a great way of putting a smile on people’s faces and impacting positively on the collective mood.

The Renewal Choir are hosting a Xmas celebration, aptly-titled Joy to the World at the Colston Hall on December 10th. I’ll be rocking it up in the alto section.

Renewal choir – www.renewalchoir.org Colston Hall box office – 0117 922 3686

Savour the Flavour of Positive Experience I’ve been savouring the apples given to me by friends who’ve had bumper harvests in their gardens this year. The savouring has taken as many forms as there are apples – marvelling at the abundance of this year’s crop, relishing all the shades of red and green, grateful for the generosity of my friends in sharing their fruit, luxuriating in happy childhood memories of baking, basking in the warm smells coming from the oven as I make eco-friendly crumbles (appreciating the lack of food miles), and best of all feasting on all these delicious treats! Marvelling, relishing, appreciating, luxuriating and basking are all types of savouring.

Savouring is a key technique in the psychology of enjoyment. It’s about getting the full flavour of a positive experience, so that you have a greater awareness of what’s good and a richer appreciation for whatever you’re savouring. This is a tool you can use to develop your capacity for joy, contentment and other positive emotions. You may wonder why anyone would need to know how to savour? Well the brain has a nasty little trick that it plays. We’re programmed to notice what’s wrong before we notice what’s right, to spot the fly in the ointment, the wonky hem on the wedding dress, the spelling mistake in the inspiring article and the dirty windows in the dream house. Savouring is a way of overcoming this ‘negativity bias’ so that you can fully appreciate the positive aspects of any experience.

You can savour something physical like a great cup of coffee or psychological like a time of peace and calm. You can savour across time – bask in a happy memory, savour the moment or relish the anticipation of something good coming up. Whatever you’re savouring there are four steps that can deepen the pleasure of the positive experience.

Slow down
Stretch out the experience
Apply your full attention & use all your senses
Reflect on the source of the enjoyment

Yes, this is about the metaphorical slowing down to smell the roses, which can be quite a challenge in this fast-paced era we’re living in. Taking the time too to give the savouring your full attention rather than multi-tasking with a hundred other things on the go like checking your messages (to all you smartphone addicts). Engage with the experience and use all your senses – take in the apple’s beautiful colours, notice its light fragrance, the change in texture as you take the first bite and relish the explosion of taste on your tongue. One of my clients followed these steps but had an unfortunate incident during her first attempt at conscious savouring. She went to the local park, stood amongst the trees admiring the lovely colours of the leaves, inhaled deeply expecting the delightful scent of nature but ended up smelling some not-so-fragrant doggy doo-doo! At least she got a good laugh out of it, accessing positive emotions via an unexpected route.

Reflecting on the source of enjoyment is something to watch out for as this is about adding to the pleasure rather than analysing it. So if you’re savouring the apple, you might reflect on memories of toffee apples, cider, harvest supper, apple-bobbing at Halloween etc. Engage totally in the experience and keep your head out of it to avoid the paralysis of analysis.

We all have a dominant sense, which will give you a route into conscious savouring to help cultivate those positive emotions. Here are some thoughts to get you started on savouring with the senses.

Savour the sight of… nature, sunrise & sunset, the colours of the seasons, pebbles on the beach, a beautiful work of art, the interplay of colours in mosaics and stained glass, houses with pastel-painted fronts…

Savour the sound of… music, the sea, rainfall, birdsong, bells, laughter, a language such as Italian…

Savour the smell of… flowers, grass after the rain, soap, perfumes, suntan oil, scented candles, essential oils, baking…

Savour the feel of… fresh bedlinen, walking barefoot, a massage, a pet’s fur, cool marble tiles, sun on your skin …

Savour the taste of…  well my list would include raspberries, chocolate, Earl Grey tea, pad thai, Sauvignon Blanc, a Saturday night thali, a Sunday roast, what about yours?

One final tip if you want to double up on the benefits of savouring is to share the experience with someone and get the joy bouncing back and forth between you.