Happiness Bank in Estonia

People in Estonia will have an opportunity to come up with creative ideas to help each other in these difficult economic times. People all across the country will be participating in a forum, brainstorming ideas, and selecting best practice ideas to implement. The format for this forum is similar in structure to Appreciative Inquiry. Perhaps they can add to it appreciative interviews? Here's wishing the people of Estonia all the best with this venture called the "happiness bank".



Here is the press story about what they are doing in Estonia.

Agence France-Presse - 2/28/2009 8:16 PM GMT"Estonians plan virtual 'happiness bank' to fight recessionIn times of economic woe, Estonians are banking on ideas to lift their spirits above the gloom and doom of recession with an online "happiness bank" and forums on better governance."The main aim of the project... is to use modern technology to create a 'democracy machine' that will help increase understanding among people, bring the state closer to citizens and force people to become actively involved in improving their lives instead of passively hoping that someone else will do it," Estonian Internet entrepreneur Rainer Nolvak, one of the main organizers of the project, told AFP.In the virtual "happiness bank", people will be able to earn virtual money on their accounts by doing good deeds for those in need. Organisers hope it will give people the idea that doing good is as valuable as earning money."We think that especially when the entire world is facing recession we need a lot of thinking also at the grass-roots level to figure what we all can do to fight recession and make life better," Nolvak added.Organisers hope that as many as 100,000 Estonians in the tiny 1.3-million-strong Baltic EU state will attend 400-1000 public 'brain-storming' forums across Estonia on better governance that will also be streamed live via the net on May 1.Registration for the project is currently underway."The topics of the forums will tackle the most important problems at both local and national level. All forum group heads must select the topics from our website www.minueesti.ee (my Estonia) by April 20, 2009," Anneli Ohvril, head of the Communications Team for the "Let's do it - let's think" project, told AFP."The forum participants will select best practice ideas that they will then start to implement," Ohvril says.Organisers expect to get at least one thousand ideas for best practices that can be applied in everyday life. Later in December, people will be asked to vote on all the local and national best ideas to select the ones they like most."

For the full story see: news.sg.msn.com/oddities/article.aspx?cp-documentid=2659875

Humorous Definition of Optimism

For all those who feel that just looking at the positive doesn't solve problems, (as in Appreciative Inquiry), notice it's the optimist who hopes the ambulance will get there quickly.
Nevertheless, a good laugh is a great way to just feel good!

Positive Psychology Conference Video

The full online video of the Positive Psychology Symposium is now available for $25.00. Contact Claremont Graduate University: www.cgu.edu/positivepsych.
I have started watching the presentations, some of them several times over, to get the full benefit of the great research and information.
The purpose of this burgeoning new field, is to create well researched and proven tools, techniques and processes that can create positive change for individuals and organizations.

I look forward to writing more about these specific tools, techniques and processes in future posts and I welcome comments and guest posts.

Positive Psychology Conference

Last week, on Jan. 24th, 2009 over 600 people convened at The Claremont Graduate University for a day long conference called: Applying the Science of Postive Psycholgy to Improve Society. At this conference top scholars in Positive Psychology and Positive Organizational Psychology as well as related fields such as Appreciative Inquiry, met to present their studies and research in Positive Psychology as applied to such areas as: education, work, social responsibilty, social entrepreneurship, adult development and more.


Positive Psychology is not just about happiness. In fact Edward Diener from the University of Illinois, cautioned the audience about trying to attain too much happiness, or as the Dalai Lama put it "stupid happiness". Positive Psychology has a broader scope of studying the good, positive and generative factors in individuals and organizations. Some of the character strengths and traits, emotions and thought processes that these psychologists are studying are: optimism, creativity and flow, resilience, grit, character, reduction of stress, love, forgiveness, gratefulness and many others.

Although positive psychology seems oriented towards personal development, the goal of this conference was to expand from the personal and develop the positive aspects of society that enable it to flourish.

For more information, this is the post from CGU to enable anyone to experience for themselves this conference.

SPREAD THE WORD - ONLINE VIDEO AVAILABLE!If you have colleagues who have been wondering what all the excitement was about (or if you'd simply like to revisit the experience yourself), we have posted the initial 45 minutes of the conference online for free at www.cgu.edu/positivepsych.

The entire conference will be available for download within the next week, so keep your eyes on the site for details! Plans are also underway for an interactive workshop based on this event; we will share news about that workshop with the email lists above, and will post the news on www.cgu.edu/positivepsych .

Check out the next installment of "Positive New Directions" where we review some of specific and practical ways to enhance well-being, that were presented at the conference.

Welcome to Positive New Directions

Hi, I am Lalia Helmer.
Welcome to my blog "Positive New Directions" where I will be sharing the latest ideas from the fields of Positive Psychology, Appreciative Inquiry and the Strengths Movement. I hope to show you how to use the wealth of knowledge coming from these fields, by using concrete and practical strategies for facilitating positive change in business and organizations, and creating positive new directions in your personal and work life .
I hope you will enjoy my ideas and will find them of benefit to you and I welcome your comments and additional thoughts on these topics.