What is Positive Medicine™?
Positive Psychology uses scientific research to study what is right, rather than what is wrong, with people. Positive Medicine builds on the decades of research from Positive Psychology to improve care for patients and healthcare providers.
Founded in the late 1990s by esteemed psychologist Martin Seligman, positive psychology uses scientific research to study what is right, rather than what is wrong, with people. Unlike the self-help movement, positive psychology is concerned with testing, evidence and measurement with the expectation that the research will lead to the application of practical interventions to help individuals and organizations thrive.
What do people who are happy, healthy and successful do differently that can be helpful to the rest of us? How do some people grow through adversity? What attitudes and feelings lead to greater success? How can we design our perfect day using systems and habits? Positive psychology, also called the science of happiness, offers us answers to these questions.
Many physicians have worked hard to reach the next stage in their careers only to find the final destination somewhat unfulfilling. They often have the mindset that “I’ll be happy when…I finish medical school or match in my top residency or complete my fellowship or make a lot of money.” Unfortunately for many, all of these milestones offer only temporary spikes in happiness and leaves us feeling empty and searching for something more; more meaning, more joy, and more satisfaction.
While what we do for a living is important, what we do with our lives is the ultimate measure of a satisfying and meaningful life. How do we approach setbacks? What are the best ways to identify and pursue new rewarding goals? What behaviors can we choose each day to become more calm, thankful, and happy? How do we stop floating through life getting what we want and start wanting what we have? If you have asked yourself any of these questions then the Positive Medicine Program may be the answer for you.
Physicians are Masters in Delayed Gratification
What Can Positive MEDICINE do for you?
Many physicians that I know are very successful in their careers but often feel as if they are sleepwalking through life. They have stopped learning. They have been doing the same things the same way for quite some time. Their current careers no longer provide stimulation, meaning or passion. Some may be experiencing a challenging transition in their lives such as a divorce, layoff or a career change. Others are pursuing a significant goal related to their health, finances or personal relationships. Whatever your situation, the Positive Medicine Program can help you to find the type of work you were meant to do.
Stuck in your career and ready for a change? What do you do at work that doesn’t feel like work? What would you do in life even if you were not paid? What are your unique strengths? What type of work can ONLY you do? The Positive Medicine Program can help you to find answers to these and other questions in order to clearly define how you should spend your professional life. This program can help you to navigate career transitions; set and achieve career goals that are right for you; and learn how to live with less anxiety and frustration, and with greater happiness, optimism and success!
The Positive Medicine Program helps you identify and build on your strengths in a very focused way. Enabling physicians to identify their strengths, develop the range of strengths they have, and utilize them for maximum effectiveness is a goal of this program. Individuals who know and nurture their strengths are shown to be have higher levels of quality, productivity and resilience. They also report greater life satisfaction.
Helping people shift focus from what is wrong to what is right. Our brains are wired to focus on the negative aspects of our lives. We respond to threats quicker than we respond to pleasures. The Positive Medicine Program will help shift your attention to appreciate the many aspects of your life that are going well. This mindset shift can be transformative for many physicians.
Program Outline
The Positive Medicine™ Program is built on scientifically validated principles of positive psychology research and incorporates key concepts from business, philosophy, neuroscience, and organizational leadership.
The concepts taught in this program will be explored through personalized sessions, interactive exercises and take-home strategies that have been proven to increase lasting well-being. Physicians will leave each session prepared for meaningful change. They will receive a scientific understanding of flourishing, and a toolkit of evidence-based positive psychology interventions that will enhance their professional and personal lives. This program measures improvement in various domains of well-being including scientifically validated personal assessments, physiologic markers such as heart rate variability (HRV), and inflammatory measures of stress.
Below is a sample of some concepts reviewed in each session. Depending upon individual assessments and goals, different topics may be emphasized over others.
What is Positive Medicine™?
- The absence of burnout does not equal the presence of well-being
- We want to flourish not just function
- What does it mean to flourish? How can we be our most resilient, vital selves?
- Physicians need positive psychology: the scientific study of what makes life worth living
- What is wrong with the “medical model,” and how do we reconcile these values with the latest science in positive psychology?
- A roadmap for clinician well-being: REVAMP™ (relationships, engagement, vitality, accomplishment, meaning, positive emotions)
- Positive Interventions: putting the science to work in our own lives
Hedonic Adaptation: What we should have learned in medical school!
- Physicians are masters in delayed gratification: cultivation of the “I’ll be happy when” mindset
- We adapt to all positive and constant things in our lives: we are wired to take our jobs, our house, and even our family for granted.
- What we pay attention to becomes our reality
- Learn how to pay attention to the good, and the good will appreciate
- Set up a gratitude practice in less than 3 minutes per day
- Practice negative visualization on your commute home from work
Other People Matter: Positive Relationships with Colleagues, Patients, Loved Ones, & The Self
- The absence of burnout does not equal the presence of well-being
- We want to flourish not just function
- Relationships are the single most important source of well-being and life satisfaction
- Medicine is a deeply relational profession
- How can we maximize the quality of connections with our colleagues, patients, and families?
- How can we be optimally present with others through good and bad times?How can we embrace self-compassion and improve our own critical self-talk?
Cultivating Peek Experiences on Demand: Character strengths & flow
- Attention is the new currency
- Heart Rate Variability (HRV): independent prognostic indicator of all-cause mortality
- Brain MRI changes and the field of Health Neuroscience
- Deep work and cultivation of attention capital
- Physiologic measures of mindfulness practice
- Workflow, Quality and Fatigue: Stay in the Physician Zone!
- What is meditation and how do we do it?
Mindfulness, Meditation and Workflow
- Attention is the new currency
- Heart Rate Variability (HRV): independent prognostic indicator of all-cause mortality
- Brain MRI changes and the field of Health Neuroscience
- Deep work and cultivation of attention capital
- Physiologic measures of mindfulness practice
- Workflow, Quality and Fatigue: Stay in the Physician Zone!
- What is meditation and how do we do it?
Be Your Most Vital: Rest, zest, & the placebo effect
- Explore the power of mind-body integration
- Physical activity can maximize mood & cognition
- We are what we eat! Reconceptualizing our relationship to food
- Understand the brain-gut connection
- Maximize sleep quality to improve daily functioning
- Harness the power of the placebo effect in daily life
Positive Accomplishment: Success as a non-zero sum game
- The science of grit & deliberate practice
- Wisdom from the airline industry
- Improving our chances at win-win outcomes
- Celebrating & learning from successes
- Setting goals to maximize success and meaning
Financial Freedom for Physicians!
- Money & Happiness: Experiences NOT possessions
- A path to real estate investing
- What is the true measure of wealth?
- Convert active income into passive income
- Create systems to automate your finances
- Effective spending habits to optimize your well-being
- Landlord & full-time doc: It’s easier than you think!
Mattering: Exploring meaning in life, purpose, & Values
- What are we meant to do here on this planet?
- What are our dreams?
- Beyond a ‘happy’ life, what does it look like to pursue a life of meaning?
- How to live intentionally by the values that matter most
- How to embrace values and strengths in daily work
Positive Emotions, Optimism & Resilience
- Positive emotions open our minds and our worlds
- Landlord & full-time doc: It’s easier than you think!
- Learn how to savor, and enhance positive experiences that happen every day
- Bounce forward and thrive through adversity
- Bring out the best in yourself, your loved ones, your patients
Plan to Flourish: Putting it all together!
- What makes up a great day?
- Essentialism and the 80/20 rule
- Priorities, core habits and constraints to create lasting change
- The most effective positive psychology interventions for busy physicians
- Develop and implement a customized plan to flourish in as little as 15 minutes per day!
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