MindCraft Challenges

There are three categories of actions that Folkman and Moskowitz report people using to self-regulate their emotions during periods of severe stress. These are positive reappraisal (focusing on the good and what is happening and finding ways to grow), problem-focused coping (solving attainable goals to reduce distress), and creating positive events in their lives.

Challenge: If you are experiencing severe end-of-semester stress (or high levels of continuing stress in your life for any reason), try these three categories of coping. Were you able to experience more positive emotions? Did that help you handle your stress?

Read More
Three Ways to Cope with High Stress
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00073
Stress triggers intentional use of positive emotions
https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001362
Self-compassion—an additional coping strategy
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-032420-031047

Today, we discussed how intentional activities contribute to happiness. The fit of those intentional activities with your identity is also important. Sonja Lyubomirsky has developed an instrument to help people identify which activities might be a good choice for a person based on their motivations for doing the activity.

Challenge: Take the Person-Activity Fit Diagnostic at https://pathtohappier.com/. The score for each type of activity will appear after you rate each of the five motivations for that activity. The activity or activities with the highest score are good fits for your current motivational profile. Try one of these activities for a week and monitor your happiness and sense of well-being. You can take a broad well-being inventory at https://psytests.org/life/ohien.html to track your well-being if you answer based on the last day or so each time.

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Changing goals and activities promotes happiness
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00002.x
Simple activities increase well-being.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412469809