The most important aspect I will take away from this class is the idea of Flow and actively engaging in challenging activities that lead to more fulfillment and enjoyment in life. Conventional wisdom leans towards easier activities being more enjoyable and fun, but looking back at my own experiences and seeing the research affirms that this isn't true.

I will try and make everyday a little more positive than the last, looking for opportunities to have enjoyable experiences and see the beauty in the world!

Take away message

A lot of the concepts from class are important to me. Having the knowledge from reading the book and articles provided a little more concrete substance to go along with ideas that are usually floating around in the mind and maybe left un-discussed.To sum it up, my take away is a better ability to communicate (not only to others but also myself) the importance of considering not only what is going wrong with things but an equal, if not more consideration for what is going right.

Take away message

I think that the most important thing that I got from this class is that psychology has a different side, a positive side full of questions to be answered and things to find out. But at the same time, that positive psychology can already help people improve their everyday life by having a more positive approach to things in life. It could be used in therapy and school and pretty much everywhere. I learned that there is not only this negative side of psychology that talks about illnesses and conditions, and what to do to improve it. But there is also this other side, positive psychology, which can help these conditions by taking a different and more positive approach. And even though it is a very new field, I think that it is already really interesting and it has a lot of potential in the future.

I thought the class overall was very good and I really just about everything in it. But I would have to say the most important message was that in psychology not everything has to be where it went wrong or what's wrong it can what went right. And what will make me more positive in everyday life is from the one blog that we read that was 9 things to do when everything else is wrong. It is something that I continue to and would like to do for a long time.

Smiling at the small things.

The most important message I was able to take away from this class was that we need to attempt to do things everyday just for our own well-being and to make ourselves happy. I never realized before how something as small as making my bed in the morning could make me feel so much better throughout my day. For now on I plan to do at least five small things just for myself everyday that I know will make me happy. Through this class I've really learned so much and am so grateful for the class even being offered. This semester has already had so many trials and tribulations that it was really refreshing to have a class that reminds me that everything is okay and that the most important aspect in life is that we strive for happiness and whats most likely more important is that happiness is attainable, even if we don't have a set definition to tell us exactly what this abstract emotion is.

Take Away

The most important thing I learned about was probably goal setting. However, the concept that I believe helped the most was interpersonal relationships. Discussing this in class was really helpful and opened my eyes to things that were obvious, but I had not thought of. This really helped evaluate the way i deal with relationships and things I may need to fix. I think the goal-setting is what will make me more positive in my everyday life. Since we discussed it in class I have been a lot more consistent with my goal of exercise and I believe it helps when I write it down. I am glad I got to see this perspective of psychology and really enjoyed our class and all of the discussion.

Yahoo0!! Message

Even though my primary motivation of taking this class was not a proud one, feel happy and positively motivated as I come to the end of the course. This in itself is a very important message for me. Since I am very new to pschychology I was glad that I started off with Positive pschychology and most of the stuff I took away from this course is very refreshing. I liked the VIA strength test and was surprised to know that there is a lot of research that happens outside of my Computer Science world. Few of the concepts like role of strengths in selection process for jobs, difference in relationships here in the US and in the east and FLOW were enlightening. I am sure that these concepts will influence my decisions and my mood in an indirect way to be positive but the result of to-do-list assignment has made me happy (blogging too) and I motivated myself to do it consistently which has a direct positive influence on me.

The big message

The think I took alot of things away from this class even though it might been seen as things you already know it is nice to be reminded. I was reminded of my strength, not just the ones I thought I had, but also the once that were supplied by the VIA test. I also learned that while I might not be creative in the arts I am creative in my own things. Also I think it was important to talk about goals again at this stage in my college career and revisit and re stress just how important they are. I would say that just realizing all this things will help me to be more successful and overall possibly a more positive person.

Most Important Message

The biggest lesson I took away from this class would be.... well, there's a few. First, Psychology in general needs to focus a little bit more on what people do right. We are amazingly complex and resilient! For example, it's pretty amazing how people can mentally bounce back from really bad situations. Attitudes can always change for the better. That leads to my second take-away: just because you have always had a negative outlook doesn't mean you always have to in the future.. that's encouraging for those who have battled depression and other mental disorders. My last big takeaway was that everyday habit changes can help to change a person's attitude. Exercise, eating healthy, doing enjoyable things, doing things you're good at, those are the simple changes one can make to lead a little more positive life. I know these help me to be a little more happy. For example, I don't like science; I'm not good at it. Therefore, instead of killing myself with a bunch of science classes to achieve my major, I'm planning on changing my major so that I'll be taking more classes that I'm good at!

MOST IMPORTANT MESSAGE!! : D

I think there were actually three things that I learned that I think are very important. First of all, I thought it was very important to know that we can, to some extent, make ourselves happier by doing things like writing letters to people we are upset at or by making a list of small things to do and cross them off. Knowing that I have some control over how I feel and how my days go makes me feel better like my level of self-efficacy is definately higher than I thought it was. The second thing we learned in this class that I found important and encouraging is that we can improve our creativity to a certain extent. I have always considered myself one of the least creative people to ever walk this planet but after a few activities and inspirations I feel like creativity is something I can practice instead of just being bummed that I wasn't born with it. The final thing I find important is our discussion about flow. I feel that knowing that if we challenge ourselves in activities we are skilled in we will experience flow which is self-motivating and self-rewarding at the same time. Knowing all of these things gives me a sence of control over my life and makes me feel very good about being able to overcome obstacles, accomplish goals and have a more positive attitude and outlook overall. :D

Take Away Message

This class helped change my perspective on the different elements of psychology and behavior. The different traits people possess and how they utilize them or could utilize them better. Although a lot of the topics seemed pretty obvious, such as happiness, relationships, and creativity, it was still interesting to understand those topics from a more scientific angle. The concept of flow and engagement are also very interesting and made me think a lot about doing what I am good at more efficiently. The thing that will make my life more positive everyday is seeing the world from a different viewpoint and realizing the uniqueness of everything that happens.

The Take Away Message

We've definitely covered a lot of material in these past weeks and I can't say there is just ONE message that I can take away. I've enjoyed learning everything we talked about it and interpreting it to fit into a broader spectrum. Because all of it applies to life (and life is a pretty big deal). The lecture and readings have helped me answer some of my own personal questions. For example, the topic of happiness helped answer some questions about meaningness and well being. Like that 80% of subjective well being is pre-determined.
This class has opened my eyes to many many more resources that are not just applicable to psychology research. I also like knowing that there is an area of psychology that is devoted to the "positive" side of it.
I think that just by learning and now knowing all of this new material has made me more positive in my every day life. I feel that there are so many classes that people learn in to memorize and then there are those that you can carry on afterward. This class is definitely one of those that I can carry on the material to help facilitate an even more positive lifestyle.

Water drops up close

http://www.youtube.com/watch#playnext=1&playnext_from=TL&videos=M4PjqsFGUhE&v=1UZTj4pfpUk

I love water! not just drinking it, but also the chemistry behind it and all that good stuff. I love that someone else was interested enough it its properties to look at it like this. Water taste good and looks good. Looking at something that is really easy to take for granted in a thoughtful, artistic way. cool.

http://www.colorado.net/photos/location/KEY1643_0911.jpg

http://www.colorado.net/photos/location/KEY1643_0911.jpg
This is a picture of one of the slopes in Keystone,CO and is absolutely beautiful. This place is incredible. Fresh air, clear skies (for the most part) amazing slopes, gorgeous cabins. I actually got to stay at the base of one of the mountains and the slope was about 3 minutes away from our condo and I have never been happier in my life. There is nothing like going down the mountain, full speed with the sun shinning on you and the fresh powder flying behind you. I think this is amazing because there is nothing in the world like the beauty found on top of the mountain, away from the civilization and polution and stress and worry. You can lose yourself on any one of the slopes and just sit and enjoy the view, free of worries and cares. This is my opinion is the very definition of "creative", not only is God so amazing and creative that he made these mountains and the snow to cover them but the people that thought of skiing and resorts to enjoy God's creation. There are very few things that can beat creativity that brings pleasure, serenity and a sense of awe to millions.

Creative

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBH97ma9YiI

I picked a music video that I have always loved for it's creativity. The music video that the link is for is Karma Police by Radiohead. I have always admired Radioheads creativity in not only their lyrics but also in their music video. What I really enjoyed about Karma Police's video is all of the points of view that the video offers.