Don’t Freak Out on Friday the 13th: Stay Positive
It’s Friday the 13th for the second time in 2012. With one more Friday the 13th coming in July, for some superstitious people this is a scary time—but stay positive. Check out this TED talk from APS Fellow and Charter Member Martin Seligman, a leader in the field of Positive Psychology. Seligman runs the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
APS Fellow David Myers of Hope College agrees. He says people are much happier than we think they are.
And the good news is, we’re not born afraid of things – so maybe we can learn to overcome these fears. If we can learn to be afraid of spiders and snakes – which actually could harm humans – we probably also learned to fear a day that’s gotten a bad reputation, but really is just another day in the month.
Elizabeth Phelps, also an APS Fellow, of New York University has some tips on why we fear and how to ease fears out of our lives.
More references and materials on Positive Psychology.
Seligman, M., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55 (1), 5-14 DOI: 10.1037//0003-066X.55.1.5
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