We tell you what steps you can take at your company to improve the health of your workers.
Studies show that it can affect physical health. (Photo: iStock)
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
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:
It can also reduce:
“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:
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.
You can consult the tool here to evaluate your organization.