What is Positive Psychology, and Why Do We Use It?

But, we can build in components of Positive Psychology that help us build resilience and teach our brains to see the good. This framework draws on the incredible resilience and overarching goodness of humankind.

When we consider Positive Psychology within the scope of alcohol use, in many ways, this framework is helpful as a preventative measure. When we build resilience, satisfaction, and contentment in life, we’re less likely to need to numb out with things like booze, aren’t we? Yet even if we’re already coming from a place of struggle and difficulty, we can build on tools from Positive Psychology to create a foundation for the rest of our alcohol-free journey. When we focus on cultivating resilience, that heals past wounds and prevents against future wounds.

We’ll dive into specific tools and theories within Positive Psychology over the next few days, but until then, let’s utilize one of the most simple practices found in Seligmen’s framework: gratitude. Can you spend five minutes today writing down every single you’re grateful for, no matter how small? Making a daily practice of this can be incredibly powerful—Positive Psychology slowly begins to rewire the way our brains perceive the world. And there’s a whole lot of good out there, isn’t there?