Positive psychology isn’t about seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. “Essentially, it’s about knowing how to help people to function better in the face of adversity,” explained Claudio Ibañez, founder and president of the Chilean Society of Positive Psychology.

When speaking at the Wellbeing 360 conference, organized by TecMilenio from Tec de Monterrey, the specialist said that studies on the relationship between illnesses and mental stress have been carried out since the 90s.

“It’s well-known that there are psychological components to the origin, development, and prognosis of more than 50% of traditional medical problems. Psychological factors don’t cause illnesses, but they do facilitate their occurrence,” said Ibañez.

Read more: The bad habits causing most health problems

Positive psychology and how to put it into practice

Throughout the last year, positive psychologists have been working during the Covid-19 pandemic to explain which tools will allow individuals to flourish.

Some of these are: wellbeing, strength of character, the search for meaning, coping better with stress, resilience, post-traumatic growth, self-determination theory, positive resonance, passion, and distance education.

Ibáñez pointed out that, according to research, positive psychology can impact health in the following ways:

• Strengthening the immune system
• Providing a buffer against activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
• Decreasing heart rate, blood pressure, and the concentration of adrenaline and noradrenaline in the blood
• Being associated with healthier behaviors
• Contributing to better sleep patterns and higher quality sleep

It can also reduce:

• Deaths from any cause
• Cardiovascular illnesses
• Strokes
• Viral infections
• Physical disability
• Sleep disorders
• Cognitive impairment
• Dementia
• Alzheimer’s

Positive Psychology and Covid-19

What can we do to strengthen positive psychological functioning during the pandemic?

“First, the latest issue of the Lancet recommends that conventional mental health strategies should be complemented with strategies promoting wellness,” Ibáñez shared.

He then said that we should promote positive psychological functioning through actions such as:

• Being grateful
• Generosity
• Building meaning and significance
• Forgiving others
• Mindfulness
• Expressing positive emotions
• Decatastrophizing
• Maintaining social connections
• Doing physical activity

How can you evaluate whether these measures are helping your organization?

All these practices can be applied to work teams, which have been some of the groups most affected by the pandemic.

In addition, their emotions can be monitored using the method created by Rodrigo Ponce Díaz, Director of Eugenio Garza Laguera PrepaTec in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.

The method can be applied to any organization and consists of twenty-five emotions divided into four quadrants.

The yellow quadrant encompasses pleasant emotions and high energy: happiness, joy, euphoria

Green, low-energy pleasant ones: relaxation, calm, gratitude

Blue, low-energy disagreeable ones: sadness, hopelessness

Red, high-energy disagreeable ones: anger

Rodrigo Ponce Díaz’s emotional monitoring of online work teams during the pandemic. (Photo: Courtesy of Rodrigo Ponce Díaz)

The method is based on the RULER approach used by Marc Brackett at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.

• Recognizing emotions
• Understanding
• Labeling
• Expressing
• Regulating

You can consult the tool here to evaluate your organization.