Imagine how inspiring it would be to gather with 1300 people across the world devoted to studying what enables individual and societies to thrive. That is exactly what happened in Montreal this weekend at the International Positive Psychology Association’s 5th World Congress #WCPP17. Not only inspiring but provocative. For a micro-experience of the conversation this weekend, consider these ideas/questions offered by global luminaries in the field.
Martin Seligman: @MartinEPSeligma
- Might depression be cured with neurological intervention in the next ten years?
- What if knowing the past and present are nowhere near as important as your mindset for the future in terms of well-being? (Homo Prospectus)
- What if relationships are as good for you as smoking 2.5 packs of cigarettes are bad for you?
- What if people are more likely to hang out with people who they see expressing gratitude?
- What if love was the fuel to great performance at work?
- What if the rate of acceleration in the first ten years of science of character strengths continues for the next ten years?
Sonia Lyubomirsky @slyubomirsky
- What if happiness is the result of a deliberate choice?
- What is the surest route to personal happiness is making someone else happy?
- What if a milkshake is only bad for us because we think it is?
- What is more powerful: compassion or mindfulness training?
- What if understanding your emotions requires body awareness?
- What if our mindsets have an impact on success within challenging conversations?
- What if empathy is on the decline but we can overcome the limits of empathy?
- What if Eudaemonic and Hedonic happiness have different effects on our brains?
- What if hope protects against threats to our biology?
- What if you could have a 24 item instrument to identify your character strengths?
- What if character was all about caring, inquisitiveness and self-control?
- Can you improve well-being without human involvement?
- How much change can take place in student well being in just 21 weeks?
- What if Donald Trump, the Kardashians and the rest of us all shared one thing – that we seek to leave a mark?
- What if we understood that finding meaning is actually hard work?
- What if only a minority portion of our genetics accounts for our capacity for well being?
- What if there are as many roads to happiness as there are people?