Jerald Forster and Jennifer Rose developed the Strengths-focused Identity Practice with this ideal in mind: that you may have feelings of wellbeing during the precious time you have to be alive. Bringing together our backgrounds in psychology and yoga respectively, we developed this practice to help you increase your experience of positivity.
The basic practice is just 2 steps. Once you learn it, you can practice internally throughout the day. You can use the practice to transform feeling states in the present moment. In the long term, you can articulate an identity around your most positive feelings and the strengths that contributed to your experience of them. The SfI-Practice can transform your sense of yourself and your relationships with others.
The greatest obstacle to positivity has been studied and written about extensively. It is a normal part of human psychology to have a bias for negativity. That means that negative experiences often get more of our attention. Negative feedback seems more important. There are a host of additional impacts of this bias. Most of us are influenced by this bias unless we actively counter it. What is “normal” is not necessarily optimal.
When you use the SfI-Practice to counter the negativity bias you will begin to notice:
–feelings of self-acceptance and being comfortable with who you are
–feelings of self-confidence
–increased resiliency in the face of disappointment
–decreased defensiveness
–being less prone to feeling guilty
–a sense that you are doing the best you can
–feelings of optimism, gratitude, and possibility.
Video: A Mirror Metaphor
To learn more about cultivating a strengths-focused perspective, watch the video below. The video uses the metaphor of looking in a mirror to demonstrate the purpose of the Strengths-focused Identity Practice. When you look in a mirror is your purpose to see your best qualities or is to correct perceived flaws? We want you to focus on the positive.