Week 30: Part 1 Positive Psychology & Resilience

Positive psychology focuses on analysing the ‘goods’ of the human nature and what brings long-lasting satisfaction, which is a step forward from the perception of ‘pathogenic’ psychology of the public. Whilst many faiths and religions have tackled this question for thousands of years, positive psychology makes a scientific scope of the picture and surprising (or unsurprisingly), many of the findings echoed with religious teachings such as ‘love one another’ and ‘be a good Samaritan’.

We researched some of the positive psychology interventions: Letter of thanks, Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) and Mindfulness. We agreed as pharmacists that we do have a role to play in promoting mental wellbeing. However, some interventions are perhaps more appropriate to encourage whilst in a caring role than others. I have previously participated in a Mindfulness course in school and saw it was a good technique to help anxious people such as myself. I have seen leaflets of Mindfulness classes in my hometown and I would definitely consider putting these leaflets in my pharmacy when I manage one in the future. Letter of thanks and RAK might seem a little awkward to be reinforced by pharmacists and it is partly due to the cultural barriers. I think us Britons are more subtle than our siblings across the atlantics and this is something to be mindful of when we design local interventions to promote mental wellbeing in this country.