The Hope Generator - Positivity Matters | Hope to Flourish | H.A.P.P.Y. L.I.F.E.

www.PositivityMatters.org

The Hope Generator: How to build a good life with H.A.P.P.Y. L.I.F.E.

Disclaimer: The Hope Generator is not therapy. While we may discuss therapeutic practices that have been shown to be effective at increasing positive mental wellbeing in nonclinical populations like behavioral activation (BA) planning and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), the Hope Generator is not intended to treat mental illness. The Hope Generator is not a substitute for professional healthcare.

Purpose: Our primary purpose is to flourish and to help others to flourish.

Membership: Membership is open to anyone who has experienced languishing and has a desire to flourish. There are no dues or fees for membership.

Meetings: All are welcome!

Small-Group Format:

What went well lately?
Describe a time when you experienced _______ when you felt most alive?
What is a goal you’d like to work on?

Three questions are passed around the circle over the course of an hour. The final question is “What is a goal you would like to work on?” The first question is “The first question is ‘What went well lately?’ The final question is ‘What is a goal you would like to work on?’ If you were here last week/month and set a goal, the hope is that you will share about your recent goal pursuits when you respond to the question, ‘What went well lately?’

If you are are new or do not wish to share about your recent goal pursuits, other ways to respond to the question, What went well lately?’ might include:

• A recent time when you felt joyful/happy/grateful.
• A recent interesting experience.
• A recent experience that connected you with one of the H.A.P.P.Y. L.I.F.E. goods.

The H.A.P.P.Y. L.I.F.E. goods:

• {H}ealth – mental and physical.
• {A}esthetic experience – natural and created beauty.
• {P}lay – the pursuit and enactment of the interesting.
• {P}leasure – liking.
• {Y}es-saying – What values do we say yes to?
• {L}ife – web of life.
• {I}nformation – knowledge/know-how.
• {F}riendship – good social health.
• {E}ngagement – absorption/flow.

Before the final question goes around, there is a call for a volunteer to bring next weeks 2nd question. Whoever volunteers may count this as their goal. The volunteer will share for two minutes or so on a topic of their choosing that relates to human flourishing. They also bring a question like, ‘Describe a time when you experienced _______ when you felt most alive?’ to pass around the circle. Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com) is a good resource to explore the wellbeing literature from.

Further guidelines:

• If you are new to The Hope Generator, please consider choosing your first goals to be about discovering your top strengths (www.viacharacter.org – free) and developing a ranked list of your core values. We make this suggestion because each strength and value can become a source from which an infinite number of meaningful goals can be generated.
• Also, please consider incorporating some form of benevolence into your core values: kindness, love, altruism, generosity, prosocial behavior, self-compassion, charity, generativity, etc.

• Our hope is that a majority of goals that people set will be benevolently
• If your goals include intentional harm to self or others, you will need to find a different peer support group.

We believe that there are three primary elements of deep friendship that can be summarized by imagining such friends describing the core dynamics of their friendship. We imagine that they would say something like:

• We enjoy each other’s company.
• We are there for each other.
• We bring out the best in each other.

The first dynamic revolves around playfulness, the second around compassion, and the third around generativity. These dynamics can then inform the benevolence we engage in and point toward various flavors of generosity:

• Playful acts of kindness.
• Compassionate acts of kindness.
• Generative acts of kindness.

Each element of The Hope Generator is grounded in wellbeing science:

Strengths – Character Strengths and Well-Being/Happiness
Values – The Power of Affirming Your Values
Conversation – Conversation quantity and quality are related to well-being
Gratitude – Gratitude Really Is Good for You. Here’s What the Science Shows.
Wellbeing Practices – Happiness can be learnt, but you have to work at it
Hope – The science of hope: More than wishful thinking

Where to go:

Constellation Studios at 2055 O St, Lincoln, NE 68510 on Sunday’s from 1:30-2:30pm. We regroup for open ended conversation about human flourishing at the Telegraph Mill at 330 S 21st St., Lincoln, NE 68510 from 2:30-3:30pm. We also host a Hope to Flourish chapter in Second Life, a free virtual forum, on 1st Saturdays of the month from 8am-9am Central at this virtual location.

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