Positive Psychology Exercises: Self Compassion Letter & Your Daily Holiday

Positive psychology exercises are science-based interventions that help to increase psychological well-being (more at: positivepsychologytoolkit.com...)
Want to put positive psychology into practice? Why wait? Just watch the video, follow the simple instructions and start doing the exercises by yourself or with friends.
You can find more positive psychology exercises here: positivepsychologyprogram.com...
Or in our Positive Psychology Practitioner's Toolkit: positivepsychologyprogram.com...
Transcript of the video:
Positive psychology is a scientific field and like any scientific field, it’s findings only become really valuable when put into practice.
That is why we thought we’d bring you 2 different practical positive psychology tools that you can use in your life straight way. So let’s get down to positive business, shall we?
Ever heard of self-compassion? Simply put, self-compassion means that you treat yourself with care and concern when confronted with your own mistakes, failures and shortcomings. It has 3 different components: self-kindness, a sense of common humanity, and mindfulness.
This specific exercise is called “A letter of self-compassion” and you’re gonna start with choosing an aspect of yourself that you dislike and criticize. It may be appearance, career, relationships, health, etc.
Write in detail about how this perceived inadequacy makes you feel. What thoughts, images, emotions, or stories come up when you think about it?
Next, imagine someone who is unconditionally loving, accepting, and supportive. This friend sees your strengths and opportunities for growth, including the negative aspects about you. The friend accepts and forgives, embracing you kindly just as you are.
Now write a letter to yourself from the perspective of this kind friend. What does he or she say to you? How does this friend encourage and support you in taking steps to change? Let the words flow and don’t stress about structure or phrasing.
After fully drafting the letter, put it aside for fifteen minutes. Then return to the letter and reread it. Let the words sink in. Feel the encouragement, support, compassion, and acceptance. Review the letter whenever you are feeling down about this aspect and remember that accepting yourself is the first step to change.
Now before you grab your pen and paper, let’s go on a daily holiday, shall we? Are you living life in the fast lane? Do you feel like you lack time to actively savour and appreciate the experiences in your life? Then this exercise is for you.
Research has shown that, rather than their intensity, the frequency of positive emotions and feelings is a stronger predictor of our overall level of happiness. Meaning that it’s more effective to increase the number of positive experiences, than it is to intensify them. This exercise does just that. It’s called “taking a daily vacation”. You’re gonna choose a different vacation every day. For example, going for a walk, chatting with a friend, having a hot bath, watching the sunrise while sipping on a mug tea. The only limit is your imagination. Just choose something you enjoy doing.
Before you actually start, remember, Your Daily Vacation is a time to relax. So set aside your worries and fears for a while.
During the daily vacation, try to be present and experience what is happening. Notice the sensations. How are you feeling? What positive emotions are you experiencing? Take a mental note of them. After your daily vacation remember to plan ahead for the next day; what will tomorrow’s daily vacation be? Feel free to look forward to it.
Everyday, before you go to bed, take at least five minutes to remember the positive emotions that you savored during the day, and on the weekend take 10 to 15 minutes to look at all the positive emotions of the past 7 days. How did you feel this week compared to other weeks? Are there any differences? How do you feel right now?
Can you imagine how life would be if you did this everyday?
Much like love, you can see happiness as a verb. So if you put some effort into it, you may find yourself enjoying the ride as much as the destination.
Time to put it into practice!
If you liked these exercises, then you’re going to absolutely love our Positive Psychology Practitioner’s Toolkit with more than 100 goodies like these. Thanks for watching and see you next time!

[@kathryn.gardner.counseling]

Thanks for the tips and encouragement! 😄

[@ToDoListDotMom]

This is brilliant - self-care and self-compassion in a nutshell.

[@Positivepsychologyprogram101]

Thank you so much Tracey! Be sure to take one of those daily holidays today. You deserve it ;-)

[@penelopeevans4417]

LOVE This! Would feel complete for me in a focus on gratefulness particularly on the daily holiday!

[@agmaxwell6476]

Writing a letter about self and then another from a friend's perspective is a good idea to have a compassionate view and to think of happiness as a verb helps us to be actively engaged instead of pursuing happiness which implies we do not have it.

[@Positivepsychologyprogram101]

Exactly AG, exactly. You said it in that last part of your sentence.

[@Grace-zl5zv]

VERY POSITIVE AND REALLY GOT ALOT OUT OF THIS AND WILL BE DOING THE LETTER EXERCISE WHICH I KNOW IS VERY MOVING

[@GrupoMotiva]

Positive psychology in Costa Rica! Bring it

[@Positivepsychologyprogram101]

Alright Eduardo - put it on the map over there!

[@humamughal7994]

Thank you for sharing this video with much more into it....i simply liked it the way it has been depicted by pictorial...to get ourselves grounded and stable throughout day...Best of luck with much more ahead present and spread out with well-being, compassion and resilience....

[@atmybest]

Thanks for creating this guys. Look forward to seeing the next one!

[@Positivepsychologyprogram101]

Maybe next week! Feel free to subscribe to our channel :)

[@lindabeitz6062]

Love it!! simple and effective...left me smiling :)

[@Positivepsychologyprogram101]

That's wonderful to hear Linda. I think starting small is important, which is why simple exercises can be such a useful tool in coaching or in a classroom setting for instance.

[@sumathybalaji5252]

Useful video

[@VandadoNascimento]

Very Good! I work self compassion with my clients but i use more times the self compassion meditation. Now, you motivate me to use the letter :). Well done! Loving IT!

[@Positivepsychologyprogram101]

Glad to hear you like the two positive psychology exercises Vanda! Enjoy!

[@coachbillturpin]

Love this!

[@Positivepsychologyprogram101]

And we love you Bill ;-)

[@DAClub-uf3br]

I have never had that kind of friend. My friend would advise me to live like themselves. As for suggestion 2 there is nothing I enjoy doing.

[@howtobehappy1100]

Good job guys :-)

[@tassiaroucha]

Great! Simple and effective. It is going to be very usefull to my clients, thank u!

[@Positivepsychologyprogram101]

That's exactly what we were going for Tassia: to help you in your role as a coach to help your clients. Best of luck and lots of fun!

[@satya-artofselfeducation1863]

Iam ready to demonstrate p.psy

[@fatimamiranda9556]

Very good practice! Thanks

[@Positivepsychologyprogram101]

Thanks a lot for your supper Fatima. Means the world to us all this positive feedback.

[@jemalteshome3467]

i like it very much the pictorial presentation . it is interesting, clear and precise

[@catarinalino5279]

Glad you liked it Jemal ;)

[@hariharsubedi4259]

Quite interesting. It is helpful.

[@Positivepsychologyprogram101]

Glad to hear that Harihar!

[@relivramento]

nice video Seph, congrats!

[@Positivepsychologyprogram101]

The credits really go to Catarina and our new voice actor George, but thanks a lot Vanda!

[@relivramento]

So congrats everybody!!!!

[@TropicalislandRB]

Love the narrative, but the video and the music look and sound manic. I think animations are great but these feels so fast and discordant, it is difficult to feel calm and happy.

[@diegovarela4690]

2:36

[@Mase-gt2ds]

shoutout psych 365

[@sandrasmith992]

the music is annoying.

[@stevebean1234]

WHY ? Seriously.

[@ajmarr5671]

Quick Motivational Procedure that you never heard of involving the management of positive affect. Want to make popcorn taste better? Then eat popcorn while watching an exciting movie. We ‘know’ this non-consciously when we buy the stuff for the latest Tom Cruise movie. The reason? Opioid-dopamine interactions. Opioid and dopamine systems are comprised of clusters of brain cells or ‘nuclei’ in the midbrain that adjoin each other. Opioids cause pleasure or ‘liking’ and are activated in sex, eating, resting, etc., and dopamine systems cause attentive arousal or ‘wanting’ and are activated by the perception or anticipation of novel and positive means-end expectancies, like that Tom Cruise movie. These two systems interact, thus if we do something pleasurable, we get attentive, and if we get attentive our pleasures increase. This also happens when we follow a resting protocol such as mindfulness, and alternate it with the anticipation and performance of meaningful behavior which may be defined by the virtual perception of novel and positive mean-end expectancies (writing your great novel or just making the bed). So just get rested and alternate with doing meaningful behavior, and you will have such ‘flow’ like experiences and find that motivation becomes pleasurable, and thus much easier. More on this on the web site of the distinguished affective neuroscientist Kent Berridge of the University of Michigan who thought much of this stuff up, all of whose research articles are available for download. A more formal explanation based on Berridge’s research (or a neurologically grounded theory of learning) is provided on pp. 5-6, and 44-51 in a little open-source book on the psychology of rest linked below. (‘flow’ discussed on pp.82-87) www.scribd.com/doc/284056765/The-Book-of-Rest-The-Odd-Psychology-of-Doing-Nothing Berridge Lab, University of Michigan sites.lsa.umich.edu/berridge-lab/