Positive Psychology
The “Authentic Happiness” exam has shown that my strength is kindness and generosity, and in the following reflexion paper I will describe how I applied it for 5 days and what feelings and results I had. At day one I decided to start from small actions, so on my way to university a held a door for a total stranger. He nodded as the sign of gratitude. At that moment I had a thought that if you commit a lot of positive actions each day, other people will do something good for you in return. So I decided to keep going. In an hour or two I met my best friend. Usually our communication is quite emotional and each of us shares the events which have happened recently. But that day for some reason my friend was not in the optimistic mood. So I made the decision not to tell him everything which has happened in my life at the beginning of conversation, but to be a good listener and get to know what has happened to him and ask in what way I can help. I felt quite unusual because as a rule I speak quite a lot, but that time I was not. However, at the end of the conversation I felt that my friend is grateful that I gave him an opportunity to be heard. On my way home I went to the supermarket and had two experiences of being kind to people. First I helped an elderly lady to pick several products she needed as she has left her glasses at home and had a problem doing it herself. Then when I was paying for my purchases, I smiled at the saleslady and told her a warm “thank you” when she gave me the change and the receipt. She smiled back, and I made the conclusion that people do not always smile at people performing some services and do not often thank them for their work, however, such people also want to receive the gratitude. On day two I met my neighbour who was looking as if he has caught a cold. I knew that he lives alone, so I suggested him to go to the pharmacy for him and to walk his dog, as anyway I had some free time in the morning. He thanked me warmly and said that if I need any help in the future, he will help me with pleasure. On my way to the university the bus was quite crowded, but I managed to find a free seat. On the next stop a pregnant woman came in, so I suggested her to have a seat. She looked very pleased and said “thank you”. When I went out of the bus, I saw a girl who has dropped her bag and was collecting coins and other small things which fell to the ground. I helped her to collect them and felt very pleased, as I imagined myself …