This blog shares some of my key reflections from the European Conference on Positive Psychology, held in Innsbruck in July 2024.
I shared some initial thoughts via some Three Good Things (3GT) posts on LinkedIn here, here and here. But I also wanted to outline some slower-time reflections. Of course, it's going to take me plenty more time to work out how I want to incorporate some of these themes into my work, and / or future research. But hopefully writing this blog will be a useful first step to gathering my thoughts.
In short, it was a brilliant experience: 1200 participants; a beautiful location; great keynotes, presentations and workshops, hosted by positive psychology's greatest brains; and the chance to meet and spend time with people from around the world, including the fabbest funnest alumni from my Masters’ course.
The theme of the conference was 'it's you, it's me, it's us' - putting a lens on positive psychology beyond the individual. We all operate within and across systems (families, teams, organisations, communities) and so we need to take a more systemic view. I managed to attend 15 sessions, and still couldn't avoid FOMO as there were usually equally interesting-sounding alternatives happening at the same time.
So, here are some reflections, and the key questions they posed for me, from a few of the most impactful sessions I experienced. In no particular order:
Holli-Anne Passmore: Nature and Meaning in Life
Holli-Anne described how, throughout history, humans have turned to nature when searching for meaning in life, and how it remains a brilliant source of meaning today. Her work to review empirical studies and theoretical literature has identified that connecting with nature helps us find coherence (making sense of the world, e.g. through the seasons), significance (feeling like we matter), and purpose (having goals for our life). The lecture hall we were in for this session had cool skylights in the roof, through which we could see the peaks of some of the many mountains that surround Innsbruck, and the clouds moving around them. The combination of this and topic meant it was hard not to feel inspired, and maybe a little overawed, listening to Holli-Anne speak about the power of nature.
Some questions I left with:
How can I spend more time in nature today? (I’m writing this indoors, albeit with a brilliant view into a patch of woodland next to our house)
What can I do to better protect the natural environment, so it can continue to be a source of meaning for the future?
How can I bring nature into my conversations with clients about meaningfulness? Or even better, bring them into nature for our conversations?
Corey Keyes: Positive Psychology is a Means, So What’s Your End?
This was a real highlight of the week. I’m not sure any of the hundreds of people in the audience left feeling unmoved. And if they did, they probably need to check their vital signs! Corey is a bit of a legend in the positive psychology field; it was brilliant to hear him speak, not least because of his way of telling stories – you could have heard a pin drop at points.
In discussion with one of the conference chairs, Marta Bassi, he gave a really personal account of mental health including the phenomenon of ‘languishing’, a term he coined in the early 2000s but which only really gained mainstream attention during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He described how languishing feels: “invisible… a vacuum… a sort of dying”. The good news is that languishing can be an alarm clock, a wake-up call to make the changes needed to not just protect against mental ill-health, but to create mental good health. And how to get out of languishing? His answer, meaningfulness: “nothing in nature lives only for itself”, which was a lovely call-back to Holli-Anne’s session earlier the day. He also had a two-word response to the organisational / societal / economic systems that keep failing us as humans, but for whatever reason, we keep going back to: FUCK YOU! (To a big cheer from the room).
Some questions:
If languishing and loneliness follow similar curves over time (highest at the start of adult life, and at the end), is one driving the other – and if so, which?
What does ‘languishing’ mean in the context of my work helping people to craft meaningful careers, particularly those at the mid-point of life?
Are any bits of my work unintentionally supporting the systems that are keeping us stuck? (I’m thinking about wellbeing sessions in organisations, for example. I’ve never been one for making wellbeing at work about yoga and free fruit – but it’s so hard to get organisations to make the real change that’s actually needed to reduce stress for their people).
Andrew Soren: Meaningful Work Paradox: Strategies for Sustainable Wellbeing
Joining this session was a no-brainer: it’s right up my street in terms of my research interests, and I’m a big fan of Andrew’s Meaningful Work Matters podcast. (In fact, I’d listened to three episodes on the journey to Innsbruck). And it didn’t disappoint. As expected, there was some great content about the dark sides of meaningful work and how organisations profit from it. But there was also a really helpful emphasis on the need for work to be both meaningful and decent: i.e., to offer us sufficient freedom, security, dignity and equity. As someone who thinks, writes and talks a lot about meaningful work, it was a really helpful reminder to get out of the meaningfulness rabbit hole a bit (or at least, broaden the rabbit hole!).
How can we create organisations that enable meaningful work, whilst also protecting against the exploitation of it?
How can I bring focus to the decency of work, as well as the meaningfulness of it, when I’m supporting individuals and organisations?
If we experience work to be both meaningful and decent, do the ‘dark sides’ reduce or disappear?
Michael Ungar: Resilience – Tools for Positive Development in Stressed Environments
Ooof, another spine-tingling moment. It was a huge privilege to hear Michael tell some of his stories from supporting young people experiencing significant trauma. “Resilience is often seen as ‘surfing the waves’: but it’s so much easier to learn to surf when you’ve got a surfboard, a lifeguard, a surfing coach”, and – I’d add – just the right amount of waves. Just like Cinderella, for resilience we need resources (our Fairy Godmother): external resources and internal resources, and as many as possible of each. Plus, he brought another systemic lens: we should stop encouraging people to ‘bounce back’, and start encouraging organisations/systems to stop doing the things that cause us to fall in the first place.
What am I doing to build up the internal and external resources for resilience, for myself, for those I love and for my clients?
How can I bring more of a organisational and systemic lens to conversations about resilience?
In particular, how I can do that with individuals who are experiencing difficult times, in a way that is still empowering to them on an individual level?
Jeanne Nakamura: Prosocial Commitment, Flow, and the limits of Attention
This was a really thought-provoking session, exploring the relationship between prosocial behaviours (helping others), flow (that experience of being fully absorbed in something), and the level of attention we pay to stuff, given the ever-increasing demands on our time. Flow is a topic I’ve been really interested in, but never looked into very much beyond reading Csikszentmihalyi’s seminal book on the topic. Whilst there’s been plenty of studies into experiences of flow during creative and sporting activities, there’s been relatively little into flow whilst being prosocial. Jeanne, who worked with Csikszentmihalyi, also introduced something called ‘vital engagement’, when flow and meaningfulness converge.
When am I experiencing flow, in my work, and wider life?
How can I better help my clients to experience vital engagement (meaningfulness and flow) in their work?
Andreas Kraft: Our Hopes, our Fears, our Future
In this keynote, Andreas shared an overview of cross-cultural and transdisciplinary research into hope and the future. As well as sharing fascinating data about the sources and benefits of hope, he posed a killer question about how we perceive the future: Do we see the future as something that’s coming towards us? Or is it something we’re moving toward? The first implies reactivity, an absence of control, and individualism (protecting ourselves from a tsunami of change, whether positive or negative). The latter implies proactivity, choice, and collectivism (we can decide how we move forward, together). And the latter approach feels a whole lot more compelling. It’s in our hands: we need to start asking ourselves, “How should the future look like?”, rather than the more-defeatist “How will the future look like?”
How should the future look like? (And at all levels: for me, my family, my work, my clients, organisations, society, the planet)
How can we focus on building a positive compelling future, and not just mitigate / reduce the risks of a negative bleak future? (Again, at all levels.)
Sue Langley and Michaela Brohm-Badry: The Neuroscience of Wellbeing and Thought
Whilst these were two separate sessions, I though I’d write them up together as they built on each other so well. Sue’s session was an interactive fly-through of the neuroscience of wellbeing: the structure and function of the brain, how it uses neurotransmitters and hormones as fuel, and how it can help – or hinder – us making healthy choices. She also talked about the brain-gut connection, and the increasing awareness of the microbiome’s link to a whole range of physical and psychological conditions.
Michaela’s session was equally engaging, with incredible real-life footage of neuroplasticity (our neural connections changing as we learn and develop). Even more fascinating was the footage of how this is negatively impacted by stress: our dendrites (the bits that receive the electrical impulses) literally shrivel up. Michaela also gave a fascinating account of how what we think about, we bring about: through affirmations, repetition, and patience over time, we can change our reality by changing what we’re focus our attention upon.
How can I keep my brain well fuelled, through experiencing and savouring more positive emotions, as well as through good food, sleep, exercise? (I didn’t really role model this during the conference: Austrian conference food is a bit beige and stodgy, and having four hours sleep after the mountain-top dinner-dance didn’t help me concentrate the next day… But there was a lot of joy and laughter!!
I’m certain I’ve had a whole bunch of new neuronal connections as a result of participating in this conference: how can I make sure I’m making the most of them, and keep adding to them?
Coaching clients can often think that affirmations are a bit “woo” (and I’ll admit I’ve thought the same). How can I bring some robust neuroscience into my work, to help more people benefit?
Well, this blog is already longer than I’d intended, and I’ve no doubt I could keep writing for several more pages. (Vital engagement in action!). I hope it’s been an interesting overview of some of my key takeaways. And if it’s sparked a question for you, even better.
Positive psychology isn’t a happy-clappy branch of psychology. It’s an important, and scientific, understanding of how we might live and work - and what it means to be human. Plus, as the theme of this conference sought to emphasise, it’s also not just about us as individuals: it’s you, it’s me, it’s us. We’re all connected, and we need to work together.
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