Flow Coaching Institute is mainly based on the science of positive psychology and the Flow Model. When we first started Flow Coaching Institute we wanted to make sure that everything that we taught was backed by science and is something tangible that makes sense to not just our students but their potential clients as well.
The science of positive psychology is something we practiced on our own before we even started Flow Coaching Institute. We know for a fact that using the principles of positive psychology will greatly allow you to recognize your full potential in all areas of your life. The fact that it is rooted in positivity will transform you into a much happier person by the end of it.
What is Positive Psychology?
Positive psychology was introduced in 1998 by the founder’s Dr. Martin Selgiman and Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi. There has been a lot of back and forth going around in describing just what Positive Psychology is and the best way to explain it as well as the most commonly accepted definition is:
“Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living” (Peterson, 2008).
This means that it is a scientific approach to studying human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. And we also then focus on their strengths instead of their weaknesses. To build good things in life rather than “fixing” the bad. The main focuses of positive psychology are centered around positive experiences, traits, and also positive thoughts and mindsets. Things like self-esteem, confidence, hope, gratitude, and compassion are all main ideas of positive psychology.
The foundational study surrounding positive psychology was published in 2000 with Dr. Martin Seligman and the “founding father” of flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It is seen that after this, there has been a much bigger calling surrounding the focus on positivity in life.
FLOW Coaching and The Science of Positive Psychology
When it came to merging the science of positive psychology and the Flow Methodology, we decided to focus on three main pillars. They are:
Contentment with the past
- Acceptance and surrendering to your past will allow you to be a lot more content in the future.
- A lot of us stay stuck in the past and forget that there is a life that we need to live right now. This is why the science of positive psychology wants to you accept and be content with your past.
- Take its learnings and implement it for your future and forget about it.
- Take the good parts, the parts where it taught you something, and then move on.
- Your past will always be a part of you but it should hold you back.
Happiness and fulfillment in the present
- Living in the now is also extremely important, if you keep looking to the past or constantly waiting for the future because you were taught to believe that everything solves itself when you are older, you are only kidding yourself.
- Know that in the present you have all the power in the world to become anything you want to be.
Grounded optimism for the future
- Thinking ahead to the future is always awesome and fun, but it needs to be grounded.
- It needs to come from a place of understanding and hope for the future but not fictitious hope.
- Know that you are in control of your life and that you are the sole driver of this ride called life, but it needs to be grounded.
All ICF Certified coaching programs that are offered in Flow Coaching Insititute instill these three pillars of positive psychology. Which allows all our graduates to go forth into the world to spread happiness.
It also allows these coaches to show their clients the positivity of their futures and to also accept and see their past as a resource to then create their desired reality with grounded optimism.
These pillars are the backbone of all our programs here at Flow Coaching Institute and it has been the main reason why so many students from Flow flourish once they graduate.
Focusing on the good things in life is a given, but with the Flow model, we have structured it in a way that it becomes a grounding exercise. We accept our past, we learn from it and we apply the things we learn from it to better our future.
How To Implement The Science of Positive Psychology
We have often said that the science of positive psychology isn’t that hard to understand, it’s not rocket science, but it is a science regardless. However, implementing it isn’t that hard and can be done by anyone after they have fully understood what it stands for and how we can use it to transform lives.
Creating a happier life is in no one else’s hands but yours, so how do you implement these pillars to create a happier life for yourself? Or rather how do our coaches go ahead and coach their clients with this methodology and see amazing results? Well, the focus mainly on:
Recognizing Positive Traits
- Like mentioned before, the science of positive psychology is rooted in focusing on the positive aspects of life and someone’s personality.
- Focus and recognizing their positive traits emphasizes what makes someone happy and succeed.
Being Able to Recognize Flow in Your Day To Day
- The mundane aspect of life can get to you sometimes, but not every day is an amazing day where you win the lottery or jump out of a plane, it is usually a cycle.
- Understanding that and realizing that you can find that magic spark in just the normal routines will help you have a much better day
We hope that this article has given you a quick and fun insight into what the science of positive psychology is and which parts of that are used in Flow Coaching Institute and that are taught to our amazing students.
Let us know what your thoughts are on the science of positive psychology? We would love to hear from you.