**6. Positive psychology for practitioner well-being**

Health practitioners can personally and professionally use the PERMA model for well-being by intentionally having experiences designed to elicit positive feelings and engagement—becoming immersed in health behavior activities and worthwhile pursuits to the point where one has that sense of flow. They can especially be mindful of developing strong connections by doing healthy activities together, such as healthy cooking with family and friends and walking together in groups, increasing positivity resonance and work-life balance. They can find personal meaning in pursuing healthy behaviors to build their own vitality to serve as role models for patients, teach students, and boost their capacity to achieve meaningful life goals. Lastly, setting health behavior goals and achieving them through small steps to ensure success can lead to a sense of accomplishment, which boosts a sense of well-being.

Health professionals can apply positive psychology techniques both at home and at work. Opportunities throughout the workday arise for contributing to a culture of well-being in the healthcare workplace. For example, the health team can maintain a gratitude jar—a positive and invigorating practice. Gratitude notes from coworkers are collected throughout the week, and at the end of the week, the team reads through them. Such practices, not only bonds the team, but also can boost positive emotions for greater work engagement.

Health professionals can intentionally look for opportunities throughout the workday to get into flow, while doing medical procedures, for example, to complement the flow they find outside of work when involved with hobbies. Seeking positive interactions with coworkers and patients throughout the day is also essential, adding to the well-being benefits—positivity resonance—of relationships with family and friends.

In addition, being mindful of what they find meaningful at work and how their work aligns with their values further can contribute as a well-being promoter. However, health professionals need to avoid overemphasizing work as their main source of meaning, which may lead to overwork and burnout. Hence, finding meaning outside of the work brings greater work-life balance. Setting short-term goals throughout the workday and achieving them, as well as advancing toward exciting professional long-term goals can help prevent burnout. Taking a class to learn a new professional skill or taking skills-based examinations to advance one's career brings that healthy sense of accomplishment when achieving one's goals. Such positive activities can have short and long-term positive effects on well-being and happiness [49–51]. Practicing core healthy lifestyle modifications with positive activities is key to medical practitioners' well-being, enable modeling of positive health for patients, coworkers, and students.

### **7. Future research**

Much of the research cited here comes from positive psychology and mental health behavioral health settings. Translational research in healthcare settings can test the feasibility and impact on patients' health outcomes and provide satisfaction of positive psychology approaches conducted in these settings. Cross-discipline research with positive psychology researchers and medical practitioners will advance the necessary translational research.

Medical practitioners can partner with research societies and local universities, attend conferences to learn more about research gaps, and consult published metaanalyses about the current scope of positive psychology research and evidence to date. Practitioners can contribute by helping to conduct small tests of feasibility for making changes in their practices that harness positive psychology. Testing various practice redesign frameworks that support positive psychology interventions serves an essential step before committing to larger-scale translational research that study health outcomes. While the evidence base is being built for positive psychology integration into healthcare practice, practitioners can apply the techniques summarized in this chapter and build leading-edge research-informed practices that promote positive health.

Examples of translational research questions that need to be addressed include: What specific positive psychology interventions can influence which mental and physical health conditions? What positive psychology interventions work best for mental and physical health outcomes in different populations? What is the feasibility and acceptability of clinical positive psychology to patients and other health professionals in non-mental health/behavioral health settings? Do these positive psychology strategies impact outcomes in real-world healthcare settings improve quality of life and boost health behaviors? Can these positive psychology strategies be implemented into medical practice? In meaningful effective and efficient ways?

### **8. Resources**

Credible positive psychology resources are available on the websites of academic institutions with positive psychology centers, such as the University of Pennsylvania. Useful digital apps include those that leverage positive psychology for stress management, track current life stressors, measure progress toward happiness, and provide how-to audio and guides. Health coaches, articles, weekly assignments grounded in kind of behavioral techniques, identification of character and personality strengths, and tracking of positive habits and social interactions are just a few of the everexpanding offerings. A key criterion for choosing resources is verifying the apps and websites are offered by credible, science-based teams. Check out the "about" section to learn the background of the teams.

Writings by key thought leaders in the field of positive psychology provide another useful resource to advance one's knowledge, skills, and clinical practice for positive health. Look for the extensive work on flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Angela Duckworth leads the thinking and research on personality traits and success. Sonia Lyubomirsky focuses her research on happiness practices, including gratitude practice. Ed Diener is one of the most cited positive psychology researchers in wellbeing and flourishing assessments. Barbara Fredrickson has spearheaded the work on positive emotions, positivity resonance, the broaden and build theory, and the upward spiral theory—theories that frame how positive emotions broaden thinking and influence behavior change. Martin Seligman, considered the founder of positive psychology, has written widely on flourishing and PERMA and coined the term positive health, as we have defined in this chapter.

Academic and professional organizations serve as essential resources for building research, services, and education in positive psychology and health. A few of these institutions include the University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Center, the Stanford University Center for Altruism Research and Education, the Yale University's Center for Emotional Intelligence, the Benson Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, Stanford University's Center for Compassion Cultivation Training, and the University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Center and Master's in Applied Positive Psychology. The extensive work at the Harvard Center for Health and Happiness conducts cutting-edge research on a variety of topics in positive psychology and health and well-being.

Healthcare programs that integrate positive psychology into health promotion and treatment lead the transformation of care to emphasize this well-being element. Examples are the Veterans Health administration's Whole Health for Life program, Stanford University's WELL for Life program, Kaiser Permanente Medical group's Thrive campaign program, and the Massachusetts General Hospital's cardiac psychiatry program that offer positive psychology interventions for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.

Scientific publications serve as the core resource for the growing evidence base behind positive psychology and happiness research and health and well-being. Key journals in this subject area include the *Journal of Positive Psychology, Journal of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing,* and the *Journal of Happiness Studies*.

Community-based programs, such as Australia's Act-Belong-Commit, which promotes individual and community action and the Action for Happiness movement support and bring people together to engage in activities for happiness and well-being. These programs, along with educational organizations, such as the Global Positive Health Institute, facilitate the adoption and practical application of the expanding scientific and application resources.
